3. Sarah
SARAH
Monday morning was hectic as usual. Weekend guests checked out early, and our proximity to the airport meant we had a lot of budget conscious travelers who had early flights to catch.
I didn’t mind the business, to be honest. It meant I could get into an easy rhythm as most of the rooms needed doing.
Usually I found myself humming a song or planning a free outing for the kids on my day off.
Today, though, I was thinking about Grammie and what she’d told me.
At first, I was imagining the look on my parents’ and aunt’s faces when they discovered she’d flown the coop to go live it up with her two best friends in a retirement community all the way down in Florida.
That morphed into her cackling about it as she played pickleball with a distinguished looking older gent she met there.
Then suddenly, while I was changing sheets in the next room, I wasn’t here at all.
I was at that long ago Vermont inn, only I owned it, and it was on an alien planet, and I was readying the room for a new guest. Most startling of all, a Dragonii was vacuuming on the other side of the room.
My husband, I realized, and that realization kicked me right out of that fantasy.
Not because it was horrible. Quite the opposite, actually.
I found myself yearning for a partner who would support me and love my kids.
Ugh. My parents and aunt were right about one thing.
I was ready to dip my toes into the pool again.
Not that I was remotely interested in Ward Winkleman.
Still, it couldn’t hurt to at least meet the man, could it?
Maybe I was just being prejudiced against him because of how this dinner thing had come about.
And maybe if I was right and he didn’t pan out, I could take a chance with the Dragonii thing.
During the bus ride home after the party, we’d passed a billboard mentioning the incentive program they had for doctors, lawyers, and hospitality people.
And all one had to do was go down to the Mylos-Dragonii Testing Center and apply, while signing a contract that said if you were single, you understood that if you were mate matched, you were now basically married and had to go join your new mate immediately.
That part scared me a little. Not so much for myself, but the kids.
It would be like, “Hey kids, meet your new dad!” at the snap of a proverbial finger.
When I got home, the landlord had slapped a notice up on our door.
“What’s that about?” Emma asked, moving closer to try to read it.
“It’s a notice that we are to vacate in the next sixty days,” I replied warily.
“Why did they put that up? You paid the rent, right?”
“I’m paying it in two weeks, which will be a couple days late, but before there is fees.
And we’re not behind. Our six month lease runs out in sixty days, and I guess they want to make sure I know they are not extending it and are ensuring I can’t act on the month to month clause.
” I unlocked the door, letting the kids go inside but not before ripping the notice off.
It was the final straw. I couldn’t do this any more.
If I didn’t find a new place that was decent before then, I was going to apply to run a small inn on a Dragonii colony world.
I’d worked as a maid at the motel for four years now and knew the amount of work that went into that sort of operation.
Mine would be on a much smaller scale. As for Ward, well, if he was a nice guy and we hit it off, maybe he’d consider taking the incentive to be a doctor there.
Probably not, but I was not going to pin my children’s futures on getting a forever down the line with some guy.
Especially if we’d end up having to beg to move in with my parents because we became homeless.
Nope. Not happening. Dragonii colony world or bust first!
“What do you guys think about the Dragonii?” I asked suddenly, peering into the crockpot at the smothered pork chops and potatoes and carrots I’d put in there before work this morning.
“Those Dragon-y aliens who signed the new treaty with us and the Mylos? Half the girls at school are crushing on Prince Johree.”
“He’s married to a cowboy,” Caleb said.
“Yes, he is,” I confirmed.
“That doesn’t mean we can’t think he’s hot,” Emma said, and I felt my heart sink at hearing those words. My baby girl was noticing boys and getting celebrity crushes, becoming more grown up by the minute.
“That’s true,” I conceded, deciding to play it cool about the crush thing. “But what I meant was more what do you think about the people moving to their colony worlds and living among them?”
“And marrying them?” Emma countered. “Ohh, Mom, imagine if you applied. We might get a really handsome dad, and we’d have a house and everything. And maybe a farm!”
“That would be so cool,” Caleb shouted. “Maybe he could take me flying like Prince Johree did the cowboy! I saw it on TV! It was when they got married!”
“If you marry a Dragonii, and we move far away, can Sweetie come?’ Lucy’s chin wobbled. “I don’t want to leave Sweetie.”
“They let you take your dogs,” Caleb replied confidently. “The cowboy has one.”
“His name is Jesse. Not ‘the cowboy’,” Emma replied tartly. “He’s handsome too.” She got out the plates for the table. “Are you thinking of applying?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. It was just something someone said, and I wondered what you guys thought about it. In general, I mean.”
“You should do it,” Caleb said emphatically. “We would get a nice house and not have to move again, and a dad who wanted us because he would have applied too and said he wanted kids. Come on, Lucy, let’s go take off our coats.”
“I want a dad,” Lucy said, trailing after him.
Well, shit. I’d opened my mouth and put my big fat foot in it, hadn’t I?
“Here, Mom. Put some on this plate,” Emma said, holding one out to me.
“I’ll make them promise to not tell anybody, because Grandma and Grandpa won’t like it.
But I hear the mean stuff they say to you, and I know Dad decided to forget all about us.
I don’t even call him Dad in my head anymore.
He’s our sperm donor. I think you applying would be a good idea, though. So, if you want to, go for it.”
She held out a second plate, and I filled it, wondering when she had gotten so very mature. Celebrity crushes and boys were one thing, but this? She was a kid and should still be happy go lucky about things like that.
And maybe she could be again, my inner voice whispered. Far away from the poverty here and the snide family remarks and everything else keeping them from being so.
She set the plates down and handed me the other two.
It was no contest, really, was it?
“Get the drinks and silverware and grab the salad out of the fridge,” I told her, already pulling out my phone.
Within moments, I was on the Chicago testing center’s page, applying for a test time.
It was for Thursday, the day after the dinner.
I’d have to swap shifts again with someone or take personal time off, making it sound unavoidable.
“There,” I said. “It’s done.”
Her eyes grew round. “You’re going to do it.”
“I just booked a test for Thursday.”
She squealed, jumping up and down.
“It’ll be the best thing ever, Mom! Just you wait and see.”
Caleb and Lucy came back, having also gone to wash their hands.
She made a zipping motion across her lips, and I smiled.
I was going to call Grammie after they went to bed and tell her.
I knew she’d be ecstatic. Now, I just had to hope to make it to Thursday without freaking out and my parents finding out.