Page 12 of The Build Up

Xal chuckles softly as he gently wrestles with Mia.

“Very well. I’ll leave it to you.” Now Tarak is smiling ever so slightly. He’s wearing a deep bluekashkan. His hair is damp, and he smells faintly of sea salt and crisp pine.

Is heteasingme again?

I can’t even tell sometimes.

I turn to Sera. “So, where is this person, exactly, and who is she?”

“Principal Delia Bonsen is the head of Capricornia College. She currently resides in Darwin, in the North State.”

“Oh, lovely. I know Darwin well.” It’s where my dad was born. We used to spend the winter holidays up there, escaping the cold.

I look up at Tarak. “I think I’d like to visit. Have a small break. Show you around. Ami will enjoy swimming in the waterholes. Actually, I think Ineeda break.”

“Hm.” Tarak folds his arms, regarding me for a moment.

Ami reaches out. “I want Daddy.”

“Hm.” Of course, he takes her. It’s funny. When she’s sitting on my lap, she seems so big. When she’s in Daddy’s arms, cradled against his big, powerful body, she looks so small. “ThisDarwin…it’s a place you would enjoy going to?”

“Yes. I think we could mix business and pleasure.”

Tarak tips his head ever so slightly. “Then, we go. For relaxation, and to carry out your recruitment objective. Whatever you wish, myamina.”

Xal lets out a low whistle of surprise. Sometimes, I forget that the other Kordolians aren’t used to seeing this side of Tarak.

My husband doesn’t care, though. He has nothing to hide.

“Darwin in November,” Sera muses. “That could be interesting. That’s when the Wet Season starts, isn’t it?”

“It does get hot.” I glance up at Tarak. “But there are quite a few…pleasantways to escape the heat.”

“You’ll just have to show me, then.” He remains perfectly impassive even as Ami shoves a hand into his cheek for reasons that are logical only in her two-year-old mind.

I’m almost surprised at how quickly he agreed to the whole thing, but he gets like this sometimes. And I suspect he isn’t exactly clueless about Earth’s geography, either.

Tarak always knows a lot more than what he lets on.

He probably knows exactly what he’s getting into.

But he’s doing this for me.

To makemehappy.

It makes me giddy all over again, the way I felt when we’d just met.

As if reading my mind, our baby starts kicking again.

“I can show you,” I murmur, half under my breath, because I know he can hear me.

Get a room, you two,Sera mouths.

Good thing I can lip-read.

I laugh.

The children babble, yell, and chatter. I didn’t realize three little gremlins could be so noisy.

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