Page 83 of Tail, Dark and Handsome: Celestial Mates
“Friends go out on friend dates.”
“Do they? Do they really? I do not believe you.”
“Fine. Ask her questions about herself, and not too personal,” she added, remembering Zero’s intrusive questions from their first meeting. “You know, her favorite show, music, books. Hobbies. Food. Stuff like that.”
“Sounds boring,” he grumbled, sounding much like his father. Then he added, “But I will do as you say.”
They drove in silence. Zero connected his comm unit to the vehicle, and a female soprano boomed through the speakers. He nodded, his tail thumping against the seat, keeping rhythm.
Time was slippery. Somehow in a handful of months, she had thought she loved another man, been betrayed by her friend, cried a lot, then met a man and his son who meant more to her than the stars in the sky. She could have never imagined them in her life, and now she could not imagine her life without them.
Yes, there were problems between her and Winter. He still was not over the death of his first wife, and might never be. Fine. It was less than ideal, but Mari knew that if he could love her even a fraction of the way he loved his son, she’d be happy. He had such an intensity about him that left her breathless.
She saw the care and concern he gave Zero, and she felt the same tenderness in his touch. He sawher. She absolutely believed that, not some pale ghost of a dead wife.
Sitting in the vehicle with Zero, listening to whatever that wailing was, she decided that they would make their little family work.
“You know, humans have a word to describe my relationship to you,” Mari ventured. There was no way around the awkward topic other than ignoring it, but that potentially led to more awkwardness later in the flight, so to speak. Better to get all the awkward over now. “Stepmother. Stepparent.”
Zero said nothing, staring out the window.
“You don’t have to call me that. Marigold works.”
“That is a silly title,” he grumbled.
“You don’t have to use it.”
“But why step? Is it related to stairwells? Or movement? Because my father is moving on to a new mate? That’s gross. Human names make no sense.”
“Um, no. Wait, is that the word that you hear? What your translator is telling you?” Translation chips were a strange piece of technology, translating incoming audio from a variety of common languages and whispering the translation in your brain. Reliable and seamless, they worked so well that people forgot they existed. Right until they planted something strange in your brain.
As a child, Mari had the clunky, in-ear variety because Valerian did not trust a microchip in a developing brain. Mari implanted her translation chip on her eighteenth birthday and never thought about language barriers again.
“Translator? I don’t have a translator,” Zero said.
She almost pulled the vehicle over. “Wait, wait, wait. You’re telling me you learned English. You’re speaking English right now, flawlessly.”
His ears went forward. “You are kind. My human has flaws. It is not a consistent language. Many rules contradict one another.”
Stars. Wow.She had known the kid was smart, but always in a vague, did-well-at-school way. This was big. Real. Tangible.
“When did you learn human, err, English? Because English is what I’m speaking. It’s common on Earth but not the only language.”
“Winter was going to take me to Earth for the operas, so I decided to learn.” He lifted his shoulder, a human gesture he must have picked up from her. “The deal is not big.”
She pressed her lips together to stifle her laugh, because laughing seemed like the wrong response to the otherwise serious conversation. “Well, I’m very impressed because I rely on a translator. And I don’t know why we say step because it’s not related to stairwells or walking.”
He nodded. “I will research it and decide on the best term.”
“So, Clarity—”
“Merry-gold, stop.”
“She seems nice.”
The blush returned, and it was everything to her.
Winter
