CHAPTER 28
“For a second there I was worried about rent, but it”s really nice that Cyden is so generous and is willing to help us pay for it,” Hannah says, sharing her thoughts aloud as we clean out her refrigeration unit.
Earlier, I came across a bowl with something fluffy and sporting patches of light green.
“That might have been a lemon,” Hannah mused.
Then we unearthed a garlic that had sprouted a green shoot atop it. Hannah said sometimes vegetables sprout greens if they spend a season or more in the ‘fridge.’
“How ingenious!” I’d cried. “Your refrigeration unit is an indoor cold frame!”
“Well, not really,” Hannah had corrected. “Mostly we grow science experiments in here, not food.”
There is a surfeit of food that has reached the science experiment stage, but we’ve got nearly all of it cleaned away now. Only the freshest food remains. Hannah swipes a washcloth over an emptied shelf as she says, “I don”t get how that’s going to work with him being an alien here and all—”
“One moment.” I hand her my cat, because Saphkarra was on my lap, half into the fridge as we worked. I stand. “I will be back shortly.” I swiftly wash my hands.
“O-okay,” Hannah stutters, watching me with confusion.
I return swiftly, and reveal my satchel with flourish. When Hannah shows no reaction, not even to move to take it, I untie the lacing that closes the top and spread it open to reveal its contents.
Swinging the fridge door shut with her shoulder, Hannah sets Saphkarra on the counter and rips off her cleaning gloves, her eyes wide. “What is that?”
I glance over at Saphkarra with dismay. “Julie would be very displeased to see that you put—”
Hannah doesn’t spare my pet a glance. Her gaze is locked with disbelief on my satchel. “Julie left, and this is bigger than how your cat ends up on the counters whether we allow her to or not. Jonoh! What is that?!”
“This is the fortune of gemstones and precious metals that I’ve been collecting for you, my mate, my entire lifespan,” I tell her proudly. I motion it at her in an effort to get her to accept it.
Hannah’s voice is very loud. “You’re giving this to me?!”
She sounds so shocked.
“Of course.” My voice remains at my normal volume. I do find I appreciate her excitement though. I press it into her palms. “I would have given it to you sooner, but my human friends insisted that I not win your attentions by enticing you with this collection of rare and precious gems and metals, although that is precisely how we hobs attract a mate on my home planet.”
“They were looking out for you,” Hannah says, staring down at the satchel of gems in her hands, looking so much more serious and troubled than I imagined this gift would bring. Hoped it would bring. “Julie is married to Cyden,” she says.
“Yes,” I confirm.
“When he goes home, she’s going with him.”
“Yes.”
Hannah raises troubled eyes to mine. “Do you want to go home?”
I hesitate.
“Please tell me,” Hannah says. “Wait,” she says before I can finish opening my mouth. “I’m not ordering you, I mean… what does your heart say?”
I partially extend my wings, careful not to brush the island or the stove on either side of me. “I was not made for this world.”
Hannah stares up at me. “That’s an understatement.”
I take her face in my hand. “I would go anywhere you go, Hannah. But if you are willing, my greatest desire is to show you my home planet. To share it with you. For the rest of our lifespans.”
Setting my satchel on the countertop with a thunk, Hannah throws her arms around my midsection. Her face pressed against the upper muscles of my stomach, she declares, “You’re straight out of a dream.”
“I am quite real,” I tell her.
“I know.” Her arms give me a squeeze. “And reality looks a little different than I’ve been dreaming of all my life, but if Julie can roll with it, I can too.” She pulls back enough to look up at me. “Take me to your home, Jonoh.” Her eyes widen. “If you want to, that’s not an order!”
Smiling, I stroke a lock of her mane behind her ear, then slide my hand around the back of her neck. “I know.” If she hadn’t softened it, I still would have been compelled to obey, but I know how she meant her statement. “My hearts are so full of joy to hear you declare this intention.”
Her smile for me is crooked. “I need to pack. And I guess I’d better pack up Julie’s things.”
She pulls away from me, and ties up the bag that holds the discarded food experiments before she moves to the sink and begins washing her hands. As she does, she looks over at her treasure of gems and metals, shaking her head as if in disbelief.
When she dries her hands, she carefully takes up her satchel—and then she holds it out to me, and for the first time, I note the discomfort in her expression. “Here, why don’t you keep this safe?”
At a loss, I accept it back into my hands, and as if she is relieved to be relieved of it, Hannah steps back and begins striding down the hall.
I follow her.
She goes into Julie’s room, to her closet, and draws out cases for transporting clothing and care products. From the doorway of Julie’s room, I watch her begin to pack.
Hannah looks up at me. Her expression clears of preoccupation and she grins. “You can come in. She’s not here to hurt you.”
“And yet stepping into Julie’s territory still makes me utterly nervous,” I admit. But I do step inside. “May I help?”
Hannah glances at Julie’s closet, and jerks her chin, indicating the rows of footwear racks. “You can haul out her shoes. Each high heel needs to be stuffed with socks to keep their shape, then they need to be bagged. Individually. Or she’ll kill us,” she adds.
I nod my understanding and move to do as she suggested.
“How long do we have?” Hannah asks. “Until we leave?”
Carefully emptying Julie’s footwear from the first rack by setting her high heels on her bed, I grimace. “I imagine Inara’s family, the Bone Grinder clan, will be here soon. They had already embarked before I made contact, and they will be traveling with incredible speed. At most, three Earthen months.”
Hannah nods, accepting this. “Okay.” She moves to an upright chest of drawers, pulls open the top drawer, then lifts it, unclasping the drawer from the tracks it was rolling on. She walks the entire drawer to Julie’s bed, and lays it down. “Her socks.”
She walks back to the chest of drawers and draws out the bottom drawer. She begins to lift items out, rolling them up tightly before packing them into the first clothing transportation case.
“Hannah?” I ask softly.
“Yeah?”
“Are you certain that you wish to leave your planet and live on mine?”
She stops rolling the item she’d begun preparing for storage. She sets it back down in Julie’s drawer and moves to me. She waves up at me. “Come here,” she says.
I obediently lean down, making her wince. “I didn’t mean that literally,” she says, uncomfortable.
“I know,” I tell her.
She sighs. Taking my face in her hands, she looks me directly in my eyes. “Jonoh, you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Ever.”
My hearts expand like a s’more.
“I finally know what being loved by a man is,” Hannah goes on, her eyes searching mine, earnest. “I’m not giving you up Jonoh. Even if it means leaving my job, this apartment, my people, my doggone planet. I’m with you. Because you want me,” Hannah says meaningfully.
“I do,” I exhale more than say. I’m overcome.
“You don’t know how rare it is to have a person who truly cares about you enough to want you, come anything,” Hannah says, staring softly into my eyes. Then she jumps, her fingers fluttering against my jaw before she adds quickly, “I mean, I don’t think you realize. You obviously know what you know. I’m not telling you not to know.”
My lips curve, making her body relax. My hands come up and cover hers, bringing them down over my heart. “Although your initial statement compelled me not to know this, I do in fact know how rare a gift this is.” It’s my turn to search her gaze. “How rare a gift you are.”
Hannah blows out a breath. Her hands pull out from under mine, only for her to draw them down my chest, down my torso, to the top of my pants. “Take me to my room so I can jump your bones,” she orders.
And this time, she doesn’t apologize for commanding me. As my wings snap around her and I lift her into my arms, I’m intensely glad to be at her behest. “As you wish, veetling.”