Page 8 of Paradise

Garrett would have been courting disaster otherwise. “Yeah, I called him first. He and Claudia are putting something together for us. Something small.”

Robbie quirked a smile. “Have you seen Claudia in event-planning mode? Small isn’t really her thing.”

“She’ll restrain herself for us; she promised.”

“If you say so.” Robbie was quiet for a second. “I thought you should know that there are some Drifter ships in orbit right now. We haven’t seen much of the folks down in the city, they’re mostly keeping to themselves, but they’ll probably still be here when you guys arrive. You might want to let Jonah know, just in case.” Robbie knew some of the background info about Jonah and Cody’s split from their Drifter clan; not the gory details, but apparently enough to concern him.

“I’ll let him know,” Garrett said. “Thank you.”

“Gare …” Robbie started blushing, but he pushed through his embarrassment to get the words out. “You know we’re happy for you, right?”

Garrett grinned devilishly and batted his eyelashes at Robbie. “Oh, darling. I know I’m inspirational to you in so many ways. My happiness is your happiness, my tears of joy moisten the verdant fields of your soul—”

“Oh, shut up and go pack your trousseau, princess.”

“I love it when you order me around,” Garrett purred.

This time Robbie was the one to hang up, but Garrett was still smiling as he shut down the holoscreen. He looked around the living room and sighed. He should start packing, he really should; they were leaving in two days, and a lot of that would be spent getting Cody ready, but the house … it was too quiet. Kind of lonely, actually. And Cody was in the hospital, after all.

Screw it. Packing could wait.

Chapter five

Jonah

Pandora City’s hospital was probably the nicest building in the entire colony. Of course, it was the building that got the most use, and so setting it up to be a comfortable, efficient place was a reasonable expectation, but it wasn’t just nice there: it wasposh. There were private suites for families, decorated with beautiful but resilient furniture, a playground for children, a small theater that played a new holo every day and took requests when there wasn’t a waiting line, and a dedicated health worker for every new case that came in. Even simple, routine visits like updating Cody’s vaccinations warranted the red-carpet treatment.

Dr. Reynaud checked the sleeping boy’s temperature and smiled over at Jonah. “Still a slight fever, but it’s gone down a degree in the last hour. I think he’ll be back to his normal self by morning.”

“Hyper and noisy?” Jonah joked, but honestly, that was how he preferred his kid, not this quiet, listless version thatwhimpered with discomfort as he dozed. Jonah stroked his fingers carefully through Cody’s damp curls, his go-to gesture for comfort.

“Just like a little kid should be,” Dr. Reynaud agreed. “I’ve talked with the chief medical officer on the governor’s staff on Paradise, by the way, and made sure he’ll have all the necessary technology and medications on hand that Cody might need. I’m still sending doubles of some pills with you, though, just in case.”

Jonah looked up at her in surprise. Before he could ask, though, she said, “Garrett asked me to make sure everything was in place before you left, just in case something needed to be ordered on their side.”

“Thorough of him,” Jonah commented, thinking that it was something he should have remembered to take care of himself. Then again, one of the benefits of having a partner—afiancé, his subconscious teased him,fiancé, fiancé, whispering it like it was something secret and special and rare—was that he didn’thaveto take care of everything by himself. Garrett was good at planning, and Jonah was more than happy to cede over a lot of the details of their trip, mostly concerning himself with getting Cody ready and squaring things at work.

He tried not to think too hard about what they were getting ready for or the people they were going to go see. Garrett’s family. The most important people in his life, behind Jonah and Cody, and part of a social circle that Jonah knew very little about.

Not that he hadn’t talked with all of the major players more than once. Jonah was comfortable with them over a com, but heading into their turf with nothing to recommend him except Garrett’s sometimes-baffling regard and their admittedly incredible kid was a little daunting.

“Mr. Helms?”

Jonah jerked his head up. “I’m sorry?”

“I said, I’ll be back in another two hours, all right?” Dr. Reynaud repeated. “Cody should sleep through the night, and I recommend you get some rest yourself. There’s a bed in the adjoining room there.” She gestured toward a smoky glass door. “You don’t want to be too tired to deal with him when he wakes up.”

“Right. Thanks.”

Dr. Reynaud smiled one more time and turned toward the door. Jonah was ready for silence to descend again, leaving him with his swirling thoughts, but instead, he heard a soft exclamation. He looked up and saw Dr. Reynaud almost run into Garrett in the hallway right outside the room. “Dr. Caractacus! I didn’t think you’d be by this evening.”

“I didn’t either, but happily, I was wrong,” Garrett said, his voice low and rich, none of its expressiveness lost despite being quiet for Cody’s sake. “How are you, Rickie?”

Didn’t it just figure that he knew the staff well enough to call them by their first names when Jonah was still struggling to remember all of the pilots on the colony’s roster? “Fine.” Dr. Reynaud—Rickie—grinned. “Cody’s sleeping better now; he should be a hundred percent by tomorrow morning.”

“That’s great.” A few more polite words and Garrett was in the suite, silently closing the door behind himself. He came over, and Jonah stood up to meet him, pulling him into a tight hug.

“I thought you were gonna pack tonight,” he murmured into Garrett’s hair, savoring the warmth of his strong arms across Jonah’s too-cool skin.

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