Page 12 of Tattle Tail
Joseph glanced at his sister, still arguing with their mother.
That he enjoyed living planetside surprised him. He thought for sure that the sedentary nature of staying in one place would bore him to tears. Truthfully, he’d lived a decade on Olympus Station, and it was, well, stationary. He piloted a small vessel for day trips, but returned to the same station and went to sleep in the same bed. On Corra, he didn’t have to worry about exceeding his water limit or upgrading the ventilation filters to remove a stale odor from the air.
On Corra, he had all the air he could breathe, mostly clean, so much water that it fell from the sky, and he didn’t have to share living quarters with his family. For the first time, Joseph had room to sprawl out and privacy.
Well, he had privacy in theory. His sister married a very wealthy and infamous man. Joseph took an instant dislike to Winter Cayne, but his devotion to Marigold won him over. Winter made Mari so damn happy that Joseph had to admit that the alien grump wasn’t that bad of a guy.
Usually.
All that aside, the biggest complication of being in-laws with a reclusive billionaire was the constant media attention. Shortly after Chase Cayne’s arrest for the attempted murder of Marigold, the media outlets went into a frenzy trying to get anything, any scrap of information, on Winter and his new bride. Even distant relations like himself got the D-list celebrity treatment, much to his chagrin.
Marigold hadn’t mentioned the latest headlines, so hopefully, that meant the story had been buried so far down the news feed that no one would discover it.
“I admire your lack of self-consciousness. I’d be too mortified to show my face,” a familiar voice said.
Peaceable sat down at the table, pushing back the pale blue fabric of her wrap. The soft material gathered around her shoulders like a hood. The cold brought color to her cheeks. Like a storybook ice princess, she looked utterly in her element.
“And yet, here you are,” he mumbled into his coffee. Last night had…not been good. He didn’t need Perfect Peaceable to remind him of that.
“Excessive sugar is not good for you and will only exacerbate an overhang.” She held her own steaming cup of something, probably a tea made of organic flower petals. Actually, that sounded exactly like the brews his mother poured down his throat as a kid because he had excessive bile or some such thing.
“I don’t have ahangover,” he said pointedly. No matter what the media reported, he was not drunk last night at the club. He barely had a sip of his drink before his ex made a scene and tossed her cocktail in his face.
She frowned, confused by her mistake. “Is it not the correct word?”
It was petty of him to take so much delight in her mangling words, but he was a petty man. He took a sip to hide his grin and said, “I’m cold, and coffee is hot.”
“I don’t drink coffee for ethical reasons,” Peaceable said. Her tail squirmed behind her, the only hint that she might have a mood other than vague disapproval. “Shipping from Earth takes far too many resources. I can’t support such waste.”
“What about the locally grown stuff?”
“It’s an invasive species.”
Joseph rolled his eyes. “Are you a vegetarian too?”
“Actually, no, but I prefer to eat from ethically sourced local suppliers.”
“How about kave? It’s a Corravian product,” he said and pointed to a stand with a short line. The brew was almost like coffee, the same way a diet soda was almost like the full-sugar version. Still, better than nothing.
“I enjoy my herbal tea, thank you,” Peaceable said, head down and murmuring into her cup.
She glanced up, her eyes a striking gold, then glanced down again. The warm string lights cast a soft glow on her amber complexion. Dark amber hair spilled over her shoulders, and her ears flicked back and forth, listening to the crowd.
Joseph found her attractive. Of course he did—he had eyes. No matter how she irritated him, he could admit that she ticked off the boxes for conventional beauty on any planet. More irritating was the fact that she was nice. Disgustingly so. Nothing got a rise out of her or disturbed her calm, cool exterior. Unflappable, that was the word.
Which made him want to ruffle her feathers all the more.
In the last two years, they ran afoul of each other. Technically coworkers, he ran into her more in social situations than in the employee break room. They seemed to have this pattern. Joseph had an opinion. Peaceable had a differing opinion that somehow had an air of moral superiority and managed to be as bland as space dust at the same time. It was a weird dance that provoked the worst in him.
Speaking of, if he could stop being an ass for half a minute…
“Are you shopping for yourself or family?” he asked, trying this new thing called politeness.
“I am with my mother, but I am looking for a gift for my parents.” Her shoulders slumped in something like defeat as she spoke. “They are the most difficult to purchase a gift for.”
“Difficult because they have everything they need or difficult because they’re picky?” he asked, even though he already suspected the answer.
“Yes,” she said.
