Page 34 of Earth-Bound

“You’re such an idiot, Broadmire. Of course I want you there. I want to live with you.”

“In your house?”

“Yes, I want to live with you in our house.” Randall grinned, looking as though he could hardly contain the joy he felt. “Although… we might need to fix it up a bit.”

Broadmire grunted again. Poor man. He was overwhelmed.

Joe began to sidle away. “I’ll, hmm, just go and water the plants.”

Randall grabbed his mate’s hand. “We’ll come with you. We want to look at our house and see what needs to be fixed. Come on, Terrund, I want your opinion.”

I shot him a grateful look for giving me an excuse to trail along after them and spend time with my mate while he worked. If I had my way, I’d spend all day with him after this.

Chapter 16: Joe

Iwould have had to face him sooner or later. It was just that, with all the different emotions swirling inside me, and a vivid memory of coming in my pants last night, I was hoping to delay it for a while longer.

I’d actually been hoping to sneak into the house to tend the plants inside. Only when I drew nearer, I’d seen the three of them on the hilltop by the tree, Terrund looking unfairly beautiful in the morning light and Randall and Broadmire having some kind of moment.

Randall had seen me, though. It was sweet of him to include me and it made me feel that I was one of them when I knew I wasn’t. I was just the gardener.

It didn’t stop me going over and, when Randall asked me to help him check out the house, I agreed. I liked spending time with him and I needed to go in and water the plants anyway and Terrund was there, with his bright green eyes fixed on me, making me want to beg. I’m not even sure what I wanted to beg for, only that I’d want everything he gave me.

We walked into the house together and it was actually cute, to see Randall go into raptures about it. To me, it wasbasically just a lump of bricks. I wasn’t interested in houses. Wouldn’t live in one if they paid me. But Randall seemed to think it was something special. He kept going on about how old it was and how well-built it was.

Other than some general weathering, it was structurally sound. The roof needed to be repaired and the windows replaced, but most of the rest of it was just cosmetic.

I left him telling Broadmire how they’d spend their evenings sitting in the large lounge with the evening sun streaming in through the window and went upstairs. I wanted to check on my babies.

To my dismay, they were wilting.

“Hey there, darlin’, what are you doing that for? Don’t you like it here in the sunlight? See, look at all this light you can get. No need to sulk now, is there?”

The bilberry cactus I was talking to straightened, almost imperceptibly, but I was convinced that it became stronger and more determined to grow.

Behind me, Terrund suddenly spoke, making me jump. I glanced at the plants guiltily, hoping – even though I knew it was futile – that he hadn’t heard me talking to a cactus.

“Are these the ones that aren’t growing?”

“Hmm, yes, they are. They’re still healthy but they’re… not doing as well as they should.”

In fact, since I kept swapping them in and out, they still looked quite healthy but they were wilting and sagging and turning a little crinkly at the edges. They hadn’t had time to wither and die yet but they’d gone down-hill fast.

“Let me take a look.”

Terrund walked over and stood by my side, looking down at the plants. His shoulder almost brushed against mine and I realised we were practically the same height.

“They don’t feel- I mean, they don’tlookquite right, do they?”

I shook my head. “Maybe it’s something that blows in through the window? Hopefully that will stop as soon as Broadmire gets these window panes replaced.”

Terrund was studying the nearest pot, touching his finger to the soil as though testing it like bath water.

“It’s in exactly the right conditions. I don’t know why it’s struggling.”

He sounded properly put out that he didn’t know. It was… kind of hot, actually. Look at my fantasy man, all hot and bothered that a plant is wilting a bit.

I probably had a serious illness or something because excitement surged through me, making my body tingle with awareness of our close proximity.

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