Page 26 of Married to the Alien Mountain Man

There was nothing incorrect about what Magnolia had just said. Nothing at all.

I wasn’t his real wife. That hadn’t been a real wedding.

His real wedding, with the wife he would love for the rest of his life, would come after I was long gone.

But for some reason, this wasn’t as comforting a notion as it should have been.

It didn’t seem to comfort Killian, either.

“I cannot believe I was not at the wedding!” he moaned, throwing himself into a nearby chair, apparently no longer worried that I was going to shank his beloved Magnolia with a kitchen paring knife. “I should have been the tablet holder!”

“That was his job at our wedding,” Magnolia explained to me before speaking to Killian once more. “Well, the warden was here for the wedding in person, sweet pea. He and Tasha left after the ceremony. So we didn’t actually need a tablet holder this time…”

Killian groaned and sprawled dramatically against the back of his chair, clearly far too depressed to continue engaging his core enough to sit up.

I felt bad this weird little guy was sad about missing our wedding, as fake as it might have been. I knew next to nothing about entertaining or comforting children, but there had to be something I could do to make him feel better…

Lala, like she so often was, was already one step ahead of me. She wriggled her way out of my pocket, crawled down my leg, then settled on the floor near Killian’s feet.

“I have images of the wedding,” she said. At the unexpected sound of her voice, Killian leaped right out of the chair. He landed in a clumsy crouch on the ground, leaning down to stare at Lala.

“What is that?” he asked, his eyes huge in his face. Using the tip of his tail, he went to give Lala an experimental poke, but she batted his tail away with one of her spindles.

“That’s my first mate,” I told him. “She’s kind of a part of the ship, but also kind of not.”

“That makes no sense,” he said imperiously.

“I was not designed to make sense to Zabrian children,” Lala retorted, her somewhat sharp words cushioned by the smooth, friendly tone her voice had been programmed with. “I was, however, designed with the capability to capture images. If you would like to see them, I suggest you quiet down and pay attention.”

“Damn,” Magnolia whispered when Killian actually hunkered down and shut up.

“I know,” I whispered back. “She even tellsmewhat to do. That bossy bot was basically the only thing that got me through the death of my aunty.”

Lala had extensive information about human psychology programmed into her files. She knew about grief, and in her own way, she kind of understood it. She had been Aunt Anjali’s before she’d been mine.

But she’d never let me succumb to my grief. She’d needled me endlessly until I showered, ate, and generally became a functioning person again.

Magnolia watched me with questioning eyes, as if she wanted to hear more about Lala and my aunty. But the curved surface of Lala’s back was glowing now, pulling my attention to the screen lit up with the image of Oaken and me kissing.

My skin felt feverish as I took in the kiss scene from this new angle. We looked like…

We looked like a real couple, locked in a real embrace. Oaken’s big body was sealed to mine, his hands possessively capturing my jaw and my hip. And my head was tipped back for him, as if I was desperate to submit to his touch, his kiss.

Gulp.

“I’m not sure this is appropriate for children,” I stammered, my heart beating far too hard. “Lala, go to the next picture!”

Instantly, the picture changed. I had shifted. My torso was now twisted towards Lala, my face pulled into an unflattering grimace as I scowled into the camera.

But Oaken…

He was still staring at me. While I’d been distracted by Lala’s camera, berating her to cut it out, he’d just been looking at me the entire time.

“I thought you said this was not a real wedding,” Killian said, glaring up at Magnolia and me.

“What are you talking about, sweet pea?” Magnolia asked.

Killian jumped to his feet and pointed an accusing little finger down at Lala’s back.

---