Page 7 of 20% Stud 80% Muffin
Fat chance!
Even if the linen scent of his shirt—freshly laundered by me—still lingered in my nose, I was done with Cameron. He could turn dramatically on one foot all he liked, and all I would say to him was sayonara.
JayJay drummed his fingers on my desktop, refocusing me. “Stop thinking of those dodges you left behind.”
“Dogs, pups, puppies, doggies—all names you can use for Charz and Pika. A Dodge is like a type of hovercraft.”
So far, responding with variations of the unrecognized word had confused us more than helped, but I couldn’t wait to hear JayJay, an eight-foot behemoth with muscles the size of boulders, say, ‘doggies.’
“Here comes our first appointment,” JayJay announced as my wristportpinged.
Ayla Rowtee smoothed a hand over the long dress covering her pregnant belly, then clasped her husband’s hand. They sat angled on a wooden bench, so their wings wouldn’t brush the roughly finished wall.
Her head tilted to the side like an owl, and she opened her short beak to speak. “The previous archbuilder had approved our plans already and was just about to build when he fell from a ladder.”
Mayor Yurst had been tight-lipped when he’d discussed the former archbuilder. “I wondered what happened to him.”
Her husband, Tarik, snapped his wings together tightly. “His wings were bound from the beam he was carrying on his back, and…”
Ayla shuddered and clutched her husband’s hand tighter. “We really need something rather soon.” She pointed a long finger at her belly.
Tarik clacked his beak at his wife, then turned to face me where I sat behind my desk. “You must be under a lot of pressure.” He glanced at the long roll of paper. “We trust you’ve scheduled us according to our arrival date.”
The husband and wife chattered back and forth, her with urgency, him not wanting to offend. It was cute that they thought there was a method to the scheduling madness. According to arrival date wasn’t a bad idea though. I’d have to run that by JayJay.
“Let me sum this up. You’re interested in a dwelling.” JayJay and the rest of the crew had drilled the term ‘dwelling’ into my vocabulary over the last week when I’d drawn one too many blank looks after saying house. Did I find it odd that the translator could translate chandelier perfectly but couldn’t translate house? Yep. But I wasn’t going to complain. It was one hundred percent more effective than charades. “Up high, fairly remote, but where you can see what’s happening around you? Also, time is of the essence.”
Their wings fluttered behind them, their eagerness uncontained as both feathered heads bobbed in agreement. I caught my foreman’s gaze, and JayJay’s grin echoed mine.
“Well, Ayla and Tarik, I have fantastic news.” The bigger my smile grew, the more their feathers quivered. “As the previous archbuilder can no longer use his nearly new dwelling, I’m pleased to offer you the cliff-top aviary to make your own.”
Ayla and Tarik’s heads turned directly toward the aviary like homing beacons. “Thank the goddess Sola,” she muttered. “Archbuilder Geo, you have made us so happy.” Ayla’s face shimmered as tears wet her face.
Tarik wrapped his winged arms around her and stood proudly. “When our first youngling is brought into this world, we would be honored for you to attend the naming ceremony.”
I tipped my chin and stood to shake their hands but stopped at the last minute. Handshakes were not always welcome, and I couldn’t remember the Nacers’ practice at that moment. “It would be my pleasure.”
Ayla and Tarik departed my office before immediately flying to the aviary.
JayJay crouched low beside my desk. “That is a rare offer for a Nacer to make. The value they place on the privacy of their younglings is known throughout the galaxies.”
I pressed a hand to my aching ear. “Were you trying to whisper that?”
“Bish. I can be quiet.” JayJay shrugged.
Quieter than what? A jetliner?
The marker skidded satisfyingly across the paper covering my desk when I struck a line through the Rowtees’ names. I enjoyed the comfort of paper for a visual tally, but I also logged it in the more sophisticated digital system for official record keeping.
“That was an easy one.” I nudged JayJay with my elbow.
Like the static air surrounding Dorothy before the tornado pulled her into the Land of Oz, a frisson of energy pricked the hair on my forearms. A tall, tailed silhouette appeared in the doorway, haloed in sunlight.
Life experience had taught me to pay attention to these moments, because something life-changing always followed, but this was a new level of awareness. Each hair follicle tingled—the nerves beneath lit up by a bone-deep vibration.
“Is this the archbuilder’s?”
The smooth voice raised the frequency of the vibration, honing it until my entire body hummed. Then a strong-jawed male, blue-skinned, with a face trimmed in a multi-hued blue mane, walked into the office. My mind went blank for two seconds before registering that he must be our next appointment.
