Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 22109 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 111(@200wpm)___ 88(@250wpm)___ 74(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22109 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 111(@200wpm)___ 88(@250wpm)___ 74(@300wpm)
“Shit. Sorry.” She swipes at her face with one hand, sniffing hard even as the rain pours down around us. Chelsea pulls back, frowning at the box now crushed between us. “And I made you all these cookies and we just squashed them.”
She looks ready to cry again, and I pull her back against my chest, wrapping my arms around her. Comforting her.
“I think you broke me,” she sobs against my chest. “I was up all night. I can’t sleep. I can’t stop thinking about how you’re going to a fucking venom planet full of snakes and how dangerous it’s going to be. How you don’t have anyone to play sticks with or eat lunch with. You won’t even bait your own hook. How the fuck are you going to handle a snake showing up?”
I don’t point out that I could eat lunch with my brother or my friends. Or alone. I’m enjoying her desperate words too much. They’re feeding that part of me that needs to hear her say that she wants me to stay.
“I haven’t slept in two days. My mind won’t shut off.” She buries her face against my wet tunic. “All I know is that I don’t want you to go. And I know that’s terribly selfish of me and I shouldn’t bring it up but here I am, trying to guilt you into staying—”
Guilt me? She thinks I need to be guilted? “Chelsea, it’s all right. I love that you care.”
“—and I just wish you loved me enough to want to stay.” She lifts her head and gives me a defiant look. “So I’m not here to beg. I’m going to send you off with a smile, and if I can’t handle it, that’s my problem. Really, it’s fine.”
Wait, wait, wait.
I put a hand on her shoulder and draw back so I can stare down at her. “What makes you think I don’t love you?”
She gestures at the metal ramp that leads up to the hovering ship where my boss continues to haggle over a handful of credits with the scowling pilot. “The fact that you’re leaving?”
“I didn’t think you wanted me to stay,” I say slowly, dazed. She wants me to stay behind? With her?
“You never asked about the future!”
“I thought you didn’t think about the future! That you were happy in the moment!”
“That was before you broke me! Now I’m a nervous wreck over jungle snakes! Did I mention I haven’t slept in two days?” Her voice raises a hysterical note. “Every time I close my eyes, I see you with a snake landing on you—”
“Chelsea. Chelsea. Chelsea.” I repeat her name, trying to get her attention. My heart feels as if it’s going to fly right out of my chest. “If you want me to stay, then say so.”
She pauses in her tirade and her mouth does that soft, crumpling thing again. “I want you to stay.” She sniffs again. “I want you to stay forever. I know this probably isn’t your dream location, and I’m not your dream girl, but I love you—”
I cup her face in my hands and kiss her soft mouth. Over and over, I kiss her, drowning out her words. Behind us, Jrrru laughs and someone else makes a disgusted noise at our display of affection. I don’t care. She’s mine and she loves me and she wants me to stay. “I am yours,” I tell her. “All you had to do was ask.”
“But your job—”
I shake my head. I don’t care about my job. Not when I can be with her. “Doesn’t matter.”
“Your brother…?”
That makes me pause. I’ve never been apart from my brother. We’ve always been together, two cubs cut from the same cloth. It’s never occurred to me to ask what he’d do if I stayed. All my fantasies were of Chelsea and I’ve given no thought to my loyal brother who’s always been at my side. I turn to look up at Jrrru, my expression full of apology, because I’m going to choose my sweet human over him.
To my surprise, Jrrru already has my pack slung over his shoulder and he’s descending the ramp towards us. “Looks like we’re staying, eh?”
I gaze at my brother, stunned. “You would stay here with me?”
“Of course. We’re family. I wouldn’t leave you behind.” He claps my shoulder and grins down at Chelsea, then grabs my soft gut. “So you’re the female that’s been overfeeding my brother?”
“I love your brother,” she tells him, her chin going up. “And I like feeding him.”
“It shows.” Jrrru slaps my stomach and grins at both of us. “You know praxiians all sleep in the same bed back home, right—”
“No,” I say quickly, pulling Chelsea against me. He’s not wrong, but it’s not a tradition I’m willing to pick up. Not with how possessive I feel over my human. “We haven’t slept in the same bed since we left Praxii and I’m not starting it again now.”