Page 7 of Healing the Leonid Doctor's Heart
“It must work, don’t you think? It must not matter?” Kaylie whispered, switching on her team of goats.
Abigail switched on the tiny Knights in turn, three robotic Leonids and three Leopardines. She wondered if other planets showed different characters? “What works?”
“Being with someone different than you. Jax’s wife was a Leonid Queen. That’s how he’s related to Rupex. Brother-in-laws. Rupex, Ardol, Talos, and Kamau have human wives. That’s gotta mean it can work.”
“If you’re willing to put in enough effort, you can make almost anything work. Even with someone eleven years older than you. And furry.” Abigail put the Knights on the board.
“I hope so. I think Marcus is totally into you.” Kaylie took her controller, and the tiny goats started rampaging around the board, trying to outmaneuver the miniature Felids who were supposed to capture them before they could get to the other side of the board and destroy the Knights’ gardens.
“He’s just a good man. Good friend. He’s supposed to look after me. I was his patient. But Jaxson...” Abigail took up her controller and set her red Knight after the red goat, one eye on the sneaky blue and green animals trying to take advantage of her distraction. “Jaxson has no reason to shepherd youeverywhere, to make sure he sits next to you at every other meal, or to keep offering to show you things he thinks you’ll like on the media viewer. He likes you.”
“He’s been married. He’s been in the military. Now he’s got nieces and nephews on this ship he’s raising, a whole team to look after...”
“My point exactly. He’s wildly responsible.” Abigail made a sudden turn and swept the yellow goat off the board. “He can handle you.”
“Sneaky!” Kaylie laughed and gasped. “Maybe you’re right.”
“It wouldn’t hurt to see if he’d like to get a little cup of tea with you before bed? After this game? Or maybe he’d like to teach you a new game? I’m sure there’s something on the media viewer you haven’t played yet.”
“I don’t want to leave you. We usually spend the evenings together.”
“No. Go on. Do something spontaneous.”I might just join you.
MARCUS’ HEART BUCKEDlike a razorback near an electrified fence when he saw the appointment request.
Abigail Martin, medical consultation. Follow-up? No.
The woman of his dreams—literally, she kept popping up in them—needed his attention. Medical attention.
I can’t do this.
Ihaveto do this. She trusts me.
I can ask Skyla to do this.
No, damn it, it’s Skyla’s rotation off.
Dax stuck his head in. “Abigail has an appointment before lunch, and she’s here early, just waiting outside the med bay. Should I let her in?”
Curse and bless the fluffy-haired human Knight. What else were they doing? “Might as well. Go check on Wendy and the baby, all right?”
“She wants to go back to her quarters.”
“Not yet. Tell her six more hours and it’ll be the full day—and remind her she can’t walk to A-Deck. Talos has to push her in the chair.”
“Got it, Doc.”
And that was that. No time to compose himself or read her notes; she was just—there, smelling like raw fear and adrenaline.
His predatory instincts sent a flood of saliva into his mouth. He’d promised Kaya a proper chase through the jungles one day, on the extended honeymoon they never got to take.
He forced his mind away from that thought and looked at his patient. “Are you okay?” Not professional. Too bad. He’d treated Rupex and Layla with a bedside manner that bordered on a parent scolding his teenage cubs to get their lives in order.
“Okay? Physically, I think so. Well, maybe. I think I’m an idiot, but... I have an idea. You remember what you told me last night at dinner? There are lots of families who want help, but they need a healthy Queen? Or a human Queen who could be their surrogate?”
His heart kept doing acrobatics. The little trapeze artist inside of him was flipping faster now. “Yes, I recall.”
“Am I too old? Would I get turned down? I turned forty-five a few weeks before I was kidnapped and sent here.” Abigail stood by the examining table, but didn’t get on it.
