Page 19 of Hooked on the Otter Doctor
“They don’t follow me. It’s fine.” She held her phone up, clearly waiting for us to pose for her.
Tobias looked at me, and I wasn’t sure if he wanted me to cooperate, protest, or possibly toss Helli overboard. Since I didn’t mind someone accepting and enthusiastic of our mating announcing it to their friends, I grabbed Tobias and hugged him from behind again. He laughed and covered his eyes, while Helli took several photos from different angles. I gave her my information so she could send them to me as well.
“You’re ridiculous,” Tobias whispered to me on a laugh.
“I’m proud to call you mate and for everyone to know it.”
He sighed and his eyes seemed full of a heartwarming emotion. Could love be so quick? I believed maybe it could.
CHAPTER 9
TOBIAS
Helli and I had mutinied and brought the boat in around noon, heading home for lunch. Her friends were blowing up her phone over the photos of me and Halaby, so she was even more distracted than usual. I was not going to have her fall overboard again, regardless of the life jacket, so we were done for the day. But also, I wanted to have Halaby over for dinner tonight and that was probably going to require a face-to-face with my parents first.
I’d had one serious relationship and a couple good ones, but they’d all been guys my parents already knew for whatever reason. Meeting them as an official boyfriend hadn’t really been a thing. Having my parents meet Halaby felt like a really big deal, and it took me a minute to realize that was because our relationship was more like an engagement than just dating. I was going to introduce them to my husband.
Having put off saying anything until we were cleaning up from lunch, I cleared my throat and made myself speak before they all scattered. “Um, I’d like to invite someone over for dinner tonight.”
“Okay?” Mamma said, eyeing me.
“He’s important to me,” I explained.
“Oh.” She smiled and gave my arm a squeeze. “I didn’t realize you were seeing anyone.”
“It’s not that Agnarsson boy again, is it?” Pabbi asked. “That kid was trouble.”
I cringed a little. “No, not him. It’s, um…” I glanced at Helli who was holding her phone to her chest with both hands and bouncing on her toes. I had a feeling she was going to show them the photos. “He’s the Norlon who saved Helli. Doctor Halaby Revazi?”
Helli squealed and thrust her phone in front of Mamma’s face, making her flinch back as she blinked at the screen. “Aren’t theyadorabletogether?” Helli said before shoving the phone in Pabbi’s face, too.
Mamma chuckled and took the phone back. “I didn’t realize Norlons dated. I keep seeing them in the news talking about finding their mates, and it always sounds so perma—” She cut herself off and stared at me with wide eyes.
I gulped and nodded. “Yeah, we’re mates, and it’s as intense as we’ve heard.”
“Hold on just a minute,” Pabbi said as he poked at Helli’s phone and his face flushed. “You’re saying this giant otter is the equivalent of your husband?”
“Um, yes?”
Pabbi went from red-faced to pale in an instant. “You’re going to leave Earth?” he asked on a whisper.
“Oh! No!” I grabbed his shoulders, amazed to have caused him so much concern like that. “Pabbi, I’m not going anywhere. We talked. Halaby’s thinking he might livehere.”
Pabbi sighed and grabbed me into a hug, clapping me on the back a few times. His color returned as he nodded and let me go. I knew my father loved me, but seeing him afraid of losing me was powerful stuff.
“Sorry, Pabbi,” I said, even though I was glad to know he cared like that.
He grumbled and waved me off, dropping into his chair at the table.
“Well,” Mamma said, “I’m relieved to hear that, too, but if you get the opportunity to visit Nor, I hope you’ll take it. I’ve heard rumors that they’re going to give us interstellar travel technology, but I doubt we’ll all be able to hop on a spaceship whenever we want to.”
“Oh, that would be so cool,” Helli gushed as her thumbs flew across her phone’s keyboard.
I tried to snatch her phone away, but even without actually looking up from the screen she was too quick. “You better not be live-tweeting this or something.”
“Are you serious? No one does that anymore. You’re so old.”
“Hey.”
