Chapter 24
Delmar
“Thank you for coming.” I’m trying to control my smile. Don’t look like a piranha with so many teeth, I can hear my grandmother say.
“Of course. I love the Fourth of July,” Blair says.
“Oh yes. It’s a nice day.” I clear my throat.
The eyes of my students and their parents are all on my back.
Petra even asked me when we were going to mate and have podlets.
For a brief moment, it caught me off-guard—though I know it wasn’t Petra’s question but one she heard from her parents around their supper table.
“It’s the American’s version of Feast of Liberisca, sort of,” Alexei says, moving closer to Blair.
“Ah, yes. I remember that now. I’m not an expert in human culture. Not like Alexei.”
“Nice job with the five years.” A father slaps my back. It takes me a moment to recognize him as a father of one of my former students.
“Hey there, Mr. Mason,” Haakon says, and now I can place an adult standing behind me. He’s Koralli, and his fathers lost their mate a few years before I had their son in my class.
“Haakon, it’s nice to see you.” I pivot, wedging myself between Blair and Haakon’s dad. But his dad doesn’t take being cut off well.
“Sherman Staal,” Haakon’s dad says, pushing his hand out in the human way past me.
“Oh, I’m Blair Portsmouth.” Blair puts her hand in his, and he yanks it up and down like he’s trying to hammer with their hands combined together.
There’s a growl behind me, Clark maybe. In my peripheral, Sterling is closing in. But then so is the rest of my pod, and the Portsmouths.
“Okay, good morning, everyone. Back up,” Annabelle’s voice rings through the auditorium.
“Move away from my aunt,” Nico announces.
Haakon grabs his father’s arm. “The second coming of Poseidon says—”
“It’s fine, Hawk.” He puts his arm around the teenager. “We would like to be able to have a . . .”
“Date?” Alexei helps out, and I’m not the violent one of our pod, but even I want to stab Alexei with a trident.
Sherman straightens his shoulders. “Yes, date.”
“I . . . that is really flattering. I’m not sure how I could . . . I suppose.” Blair looks at the floor, then me, and back at Annabelle.
“I’ll take your information, and we’ll get back to you,” Annabelle says.
“Can you pass a security check, Staal?” Nico glares.
“Retired commander of the Vega,” Sherman says, “I can pass any clearance.”
“The Vega’s been decommissioned for a long time. There’s plenty of time for you to have gone astray.”
“Not me. Not my pod mates, either.” He hugs his son closer.
Sherman wasn’t one of Haakon’s fathers that I dealt with regularly, but the others are good males. That shouldn’t make venom fly through my veins. But it would be a hell of a lot easier if our competition were assholes.
“Nice to meet you, Blair and Portsmouths.” Sherman inclines his head to me and the rest of the Masons as he leaves.
“I’m sorry about—”
“Nothing to be sorry for, Blair,” Clark says.
“Join us for the feast this afternoon?” I ask, holding Blair’s blue eyes.
“Oh, I didn’t know there was a . . . Of course there’s a feast. The holiday is literally called the Feast of Liberisca.” Blair turns to Annabelle.
“We were planning on going to Castor’s parents’,” Holter says.
“Oh, and Kai and the podlet will be there?” Blair asks.
Annabelle nods. “But you should do what you want to do. We can go visit Kai later in the week.”
“I’d like that,” Blair says.
A smile trickles onto my lips when I realize she might be talking about seeing Kai’s child and not coming to the feast with me.
“What time is the feast?” Blair asks.
I’m quick to answer. “The evening meal. But you can come over anytime you like.”
“Ms. Portsmouth,” Sterling growls, “we need to get you moving.”
Sterling’s growl brings me back to reality. There’s a throbbing circle of onlookers around us, podlets and males, lots and lots of males. I’m sure a lot of them are looking just to satisfy their own curiosity and see the famous Portsmouths, but Sterling is right. It’s not safe.
“We’ll bring her over later,” Castor says.
“Would you like to ride home with us?” Forrest asks.
“We’ll bring her over later,” Castor repeats.
“Understood. Until later, Blair.” Forrest kisses both of Blair’s cheeks.
And before the rest of us can do the same, her nephews have spirited her away. Sterling shoves the crowd away as they go.
“We didn’t discuss inviting her over,” Forrest says once the crowd has cleared.
“No, but it’s bloody brilliant,” Zion says. “We should have.”
“Do you think she’ll really come?” Clark asks. “Her nephews didn’t look too pleased.”
“Oh, I didn’t notice.” And I didn’t because I was too busy watching her.
I’m fascinated by her bravery. Being in the school surrounded by mostly males.
Just being willing to stay here. In a place so foreign.
Would I have done the same if the roles were reversed?
I don’t think of myself as a coward. Not at all, but then, I didn’t go into the military like Haakon’s father, or choose a dangerous profession.
Though those who think teaching a room full of eleven-year-old, mostly male podlets is without danger haven’t tried it.
“I have some things to clean up in my classroom before I can leave.” With Blair and the Portsmouths gone, the auditorium has emptied quickly.
I brought my solo this morning, coming alone because of needing to prep for the performance.
“Can I catch a ride with you?” Clark asks.
“It might be a bit.”
“I can work from my tablet.”
“What happened to taking the day off?” Zion raises his eyebrows at Clark.
“I’m taking it off when I get home. I know how to take a day off. Do you?” Clark slaps Zion on the back. “I’ll make sure he doesn’t stay too late.”
“You just don’t want to be there when we tell Rodgers that Delmar invited guests.” Forrest laughs.
“You’ve got me,”Clark says.
I hadn’t thought that part through. True. Rodgers isn’t going to be happy. Not with Forrest . . . “Don’t go making them pull out the fine china—”
“Of course we will.” Forrest stands taller.
“I don’t think Blair’s the make-a-big-fuss-over-me kind of female.”
“Well, she needs to be because I plan to.”
“I––”
“Delmar, it’s no use. Plus, Blair won’t know the difference between everyday things and special occasions. Humans do the same thing too. She won’t think it’s odd,” Alexei says.
“Let’s go, Professor. I’m going to explain in the omada about not needing to help the competition. Dating . . . For being so smart, you can be really dense sometimes.” Zion gives Alexei a little push, and they head out of the auditorium.
“This way,” I say to Clark.
“I know where your classroom is. You haven’t gotten a new one, have you?”
“No, same one.” We make our way through the mostly empty back corridors to my classroom.
Clark sits on one of the small desks. “It’s weird when it’s empty.”
“I kind of like it.”
“Without the podlets making all the racket?”
“No, I like it when they’re here too. Making noise. I like it when it’s empty because I can feel the learning.”
“Learning?” He raises an eyebrow at me and cocks his head in the direction of the classroom that was Anya’s. Out of all of us, I’m the one who has the most reminders of our former mate on a daily basis.
“Learning,” I state. I move around the room, picking up. “I miss her, but I’m healed. Perhaps being more surrounded by her presence, I’ve had time to have closure. I’ve grieved.”
“I’ve grieved,” Clark says.
Now I’m cocking my head at him.
“What? I have.”
I don’t say anything. Just like when I’m waiting for one of the young podlets in my classroom to confess the truth. I give them the space to let the lies fall away.
“More than Sterling.” He crosses his arms over his chest.
“That’s not saying much.” I shove my tablet into my crossbody waterproof bag.
“I suppose you’re right.” Clark runs his hand through his dark blond hair.
“I’m ready to go.” I take a right instead of a left out of my classroom. You can get to the docking dome from either direction, but right takes us by Anya’s old classroom. There’s been three different teachers in there since Anya. To me, it will always be her classroom.
Clark’s quick, even steps falter when we pass her door.
“Do you want to go in?”
He nods. “How can you do it? Be here every day.”
“We haven’t moved homes. We’re still sleeping in the same bed. Still being woken up four times a night when Forrest gets out of bed.”
Clark nods again, and I open the door. “I can look at it without feeling sad. Fuck, the first few years were hard. Time has nothing to do with grief. I’ll always love her.
There’s no but to that. Sure, there are some days I get a zap flinging through me.
I unequivocally know that Anya wouldn’t want us to be sad.
She would want us to be a pod again. Strong, depending on each other, caring for each other.
She’d be mad as swordfish caught in a net that we aren’t kinder to each other. ”
Clark steps into the classroom. “It’s not the same. Her desk was over there, and the study pods were over there.”
“It’s not her room anymore. Tungsten’s a good teacher. The students like him.”
“She was better.”
“The best.”
“You like Blair?” Clark runs his fingertips across the top of a student desk.
“I do. I got the feeling that you do too?”
“I do. I . . .”
“It’s okay to keep living,” I say.
“Of course.” He straightens to his full height and pulls his arms in around himself. “What the hell do you think I’ve been doing?”
“Hiding in work.” I motion for us to leave. Clark’s discomfort with being in Anya’s old room is palatable.
“I don’t.” There’s a small twitch of his brow that tells me that he knows it’s a maybe-I-do. “It’s time for a change.”
“It’s long past time for a change.”