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Though startled, I didn’t move when she whacked me on the shoulder.
“I’m a disgusting mess right now. Look at me!” She pointed at her puffy eyes and wiped her nose with her sleeve. “My life is falling apart, and I need you to just…” She flailed her hands around her head as if she didn’t know what to do with them, and I leaned back a little in case my head became the target.
“Can you please, for the love of all that’s holy, listen to my words and hear what I have to say?”
She focused on me with such intensity that I feared breathing might set her off.
When she had taken enough time to establish she had all my attention, she leaned in closer and cupped both of my cheeks. “There isn’t an unworthy bone in your entire body. You meet all my needs.” Then her smile brightened. “Though I may require hearing protection in a few years so I don’t go deaf early.”
All the air left my lungs, and I closed my eyes. I let it sink in.
She playfully tapped under my closed eye. “Open up. Are you okay in there?”
When I opened my eyes, honesty radiated from her face. I felt starstruck.
“I know it will take time for you to believe me because you’re you, but, JayJay, you’re one of the best men. You’re probably the best man I’ve ever had the privilege of calling friend.”
A female who might overlook all of my shortcomings was a rare gem. But friend didn’t sit right with me. Friends must act differently on Earth.
“Plus, I would never intentionally ruin a Rock Dweller’s chance to find their life companion. I’d rather be sick for the rest of my life than rob someone of love. JayJay, I’m so sorry. If I’d known—” She gulped. “—I never would’ve…”
Her eyes swirled with an anxiousness I hated. It created pools at their rims.
Although I needed her to know I loved her as more than a friend, I didn’t want to scare her away. “I love having you near. This is more than just a treatment to me.”
“JayJay…” She swallowed, her thumb sweeping over my forehead ridge just as a sharp knock rattled the door.
“Hang on.” Ginger rushed a pair of pants to me, her eyes locked on my rigid coil as I shuffled into them like an invalid, unable to stand on my own.
“If you keep looking at my coil like that, it won’t be going down anytime soon.” Her intense focus made me feel I had a chance at winning her over, pushing past friendship.
Ginger’s cheeks pinked as she rushed to let in our guests, then sat at her sewing machine, fiddling with the gear she was working on.
Sisip’s tawny ears twitched and triangulated as her piercing gaze scanned me. On her heels were Saluda and D’unter. Talland proud, they stood decked out in protective gear, Ginger’s trademark attention to detail stamped all over them.
Although unpolished and the original brown of the mantu hide, she’d added protective features customized for each species. D’unter’s new headgear, similar to the one D’Rasma had been trying on when I first woke, dangled from a clip on his belt. Saluda wore a tunic exposing the Drack’s arm scales, but the neck rose high and split, covering the thinner skin behind his ears and under his throat. They’d been transformed into warriors.
“Nice to have you back with us. Excellent work devising a plan to kill one of those evil creatures,” Sisip said.
With Ginger away from me, all my aches and pains returned. I needed everyone out so I could attend to her. Hill should’ve given us more time. Yet the need to reassure the team kept me in check.
“I can’t take the credit for that. D’irk uses the same tactic to hunt mantu. I only adapted it.”
D’unter and Saluda crowded in, piling the food they’d brought on top of a chair, and my stomach growled. They shifted on restless feet, waiting for Sisip’s update, eager to talk.
“Mayor Yurst has informed me Devile arrived last moon and is spending an enjoyable rotation recuperating from his long flight at the mayor’s poolside.” Her sarcastic delivery made it clear how she felt about that plan. “Both Yurst and Devile will arrive at command central at first sun. I’m sending an armed guard.” Her snort shivered down her long whiskers. “Well, a couple of scouts, anyway.” She eyed the hide rolled behind me for support while I shoveled mantu sandwiches into my mouth. “Will you be ready?”
“Yes.” I nodded.
“Absolutely not.” Ginger dropped the lunal rings she was working over long sticks and shook her finger at me, then Sisip.
Saluda and D’unter laughed so hard they covered their mouths.
I tipped my chin to Sisip, ignoring Ginger’s attempt to cast me as a youngling. “I’m much stronger this rotation. I will walk a bit and then rest. You can count on me.”
Ginger huffed. “Idiotic gorilla.” Her lips pressed into a thin line, and she stormed over to the chair by her workstation, throwing around bits of pelts and cutting through a thick mantu hide. Her shears snapped with much more force than necessary.
“I’ll have Hill notify you when they arrive.” Sisip cupped my shoulder and squeezed before she left our small cave.
