Page 50 of My Orc Contract Husband
How in the world did I get so lucky as to find this female? I stared down at her, in awe. Finally, I managed to choke out a, “We?”
Her smile flashed again. “We,” she confirmed, then stretched up on her toes to kiss me.
And when we parted, I felt that emptiness inside me filling.
I spent my morning out in the yard, planning and designing my workshop. I needed some lumber to start on Sami’s compost bin, so I took a break and headed to the hardware store. Not my first time there, but I really got a kick out of chatting with the owner, Mr. Morrison, about various projects and possibilities.
On the way out, my stomach rumbled, and I ducked into the bakery, the one run by Cairo’s Mate Meli. She was just about as cheerful as Cairo was grumpy, and she always made me smile. In the months I’d lived in the apartment on Main Street, the one Abydos still paid rent on, I’d become addicted to her breakfast pastries.
Turns out that her pastrami paninis were just as good.
While I was finishing up my order, Luxor and Zoe came in, walking their dog. I remembered Lux as a scrawny little kid who’d dragged himself through the veil after us, without permission from the elders. We’d all looked after him in that facility, until the day the scientists had been able to fix his legs, and he’d suddenly become taller than all of us.
Seeing him all grown up, with a Mate and a home and a sense of surety, was amazing.
In fact, Eastshore Isle in general was amazing.
Don’t get me wrong; I loved Bramblewood. It was cozy and hidden, a refuge from the human world when we’d needed one. But now I’d seen how life could be, accepted into a community like Eastshore where we all lived openly and in peace? Where orcs and their Mates found happiness and peace and were building a future together?
I was addicted.
And I kept finding myself thinking aboutmyfuture with Sami.
She’s not your Mate. Try to remember that, idiot.
But she was my wife, and my feelings for her…
Shaking my head, I pulled my truck into Aswan’s driveway, uncertain why I’d come, but knowing I needed to talk to someone.
“T’mak!” he greeted me at the door with a grin. “You’re just in time!”
I was? I followed him into the kitchen, where he was clearly in the middle of something. “Joshy’s in the middle of his afternoon nap, but hopefully the blender won’t disturb him,” he told me as he dropped a big handful of spinach into the device. “Peanut butter, almond milk, chocolate protein powder, a frozen banana…”
“And spinach?” I asked doubtfully as the blender began to grind it all.
“Alotof spinach. More than you think you need. You won’t be able to taste it,” he assured me, but I raised a skeptical brow. “Ready to try?”
“Are you experimenting on me?” I took the offered cup and peered at the concoction. “Have you tried this before?”
“It’s delicious, Tark. Drink your smoothie.”
To my surprise, it was. “You can’t taste the spinach at all!”
“I told you.” Aswan jerked his head toward the living room. “So, did you just stop by because you were hungry?”
In Bramblewood, Aswan had owned his own restaurant, and had taught me how to cook. But I preferred his cooking, and it became a joke between us how often Iwould show up unannounced just in case he’d been preparing something delicious at home.
But now I didn’t answer since I didn’t knowhow. He halted in front of the large picture window that looked out over the backyard, and I followed.
Hannah and her children lived in a two-story house, and my practiced eye could see it had been built this way, rather than converted. When she’d hired Aswan to be the kids’ live-in nanny, it hadn’t been difficult to incorporate an orc into their lives, thanks to the size of the house.
And the size of their hearts.
In the backyard, under the shade of an oak—a live oak, I corrected—Aswan’s new daughter Tova played with Emmy in a sandbox. Both had just started the third grade and were best friends.
“They’ve been complaining about school already,” Aswan admitted, taking another swig of his smoothie. “And fussed when I told them no more TV, but they seem to be having fun out there.”
Sure enough, the two little girls were doing something arcane with a bucket of water in the sand, and a half dozen little plastic horses. Emmy was Sakkara’s daughter, and I smiled to see how well she was fitting in here on Eastshore.
