Page 71 of Married to the Alien Mountain Man

“I don’t want to leave you,” he said, white expanding in his eyes.

“I promise I’ll still be here when you get back.”

Exhaustion was pulling me down like the gravity of a word much bigger than this one. I couldn’t have gone back out there with him right now even if I’d tried. Besides, I couldn’t ride a shuldu on my own. I’d be no help to him trying to recover the bracku and survey the property’s damage.

“Lie down,” Oaken said softly as he stood. When I didn’t do it right away, he grasped my shoulders and pushed me onto the mattress.

He took off my boots.

He tucked me in.

And then, he left.

I wasn’t alone, though. Lala crawled around under the blanket, emerging to sit on the pillow directly in front of my nose.

“Any luck connecting with the ship yet?” I asked.

It was a good thing I didn’t get my hopes up, because she quietly answered, “No.”

“So, where does this leave us, Lala?” I tried to sound neutral, like I wasn’t absolutely terrified to lose her, too. “You’re programmed to look out for the pilot of theLavariya. I’m not sure I qualify anymore. Will you…” My voice cracked painfully. “Will you still stay with me?”

She’d been my most constant companion. The one who’d gotten me through my aunty’s death. More than two decades flying together.

I hadn’t been with anyone as long as I’d been with her.

She didn’t answer for a moment, as if she were sifting through protocols and programs to form her answer. I tried not to hold my breath.

Finally, as if coming to a decision, she scuttled close enough to touch a spindle to my cheek.

“The rest of theLavariyamay be gone,” she said at length. “But I remain. And you are still my pilot.”

I took her in my hands, clutched her to my chest, and sobbed.

* * *

I slept so deeply,and so dreamlessly, that it was almost like I’d died in the tornado. For a few silent hours, I ceased to exist.

When I woke up, weak, watery sunlight was shyly making its way in through the window. It looked like it was late afternoon out there. The sky was clearing.

And so was my head.

I didn’t feel so powerfully overwhelmed as I had before falling asleep. There was still grief – I knew there likely always would be – but there was also a modicum of my usual energy coming back to me. Today had been a true disaster.

But we’d made it through.

And now there was work to do.

I didn’t bother trying to comb my hair yet. I simply tied it into a messy ponytail at the back of my head, scraped my bangs over to one side, and put my boots back on.

“I’ll certainly have my work cut out for me in here,” I said to Lala in the kitchen as she crawled up my side to settle on my shoulder.

But before I did any clean-up inside the house, I wanted to see if Oaken was back. And I also wanted to check in on Magnolia, Garrek, and Killian.

I didn’t see Oaken anywhere outside. And even though my eyes looked for her without my brain telling them to, I didn’t see theLavariya, either. Putting my hands on my hips, I let out a low whistle. Swaths of fencing on Oaken’s property had been flattened, or ripped out of the ground entirely.

Movement flickered in the distance. A streaking shape of teal and grey.

Killian. I grinned, thrilled to see that little chaos bean racing towards me.

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