Page 16 of Crush
“Mom,” Ollie objected. “Kinsley and me are fine. Also, I can’t ever be the ghost if you always know where I am.”
She swept him off the exam table, hugging him close. “You are more than fine, you’re the best,” she told him. “And I’ll always want to know where you are.”
“Mom,” he protested again, even as he snuggled into her.
Sil met her worried gaze. “Even a good change can be disruptive,” he murmured. “I’ll keep looking for an answer, but give yourselves some time. That’s what our date to the Luster is meant to be: a chance for us to have fun and get to know each other.”
Kinsley let out a snort that probably should have earned her a remedy from the respiratory distress drawer.
“So can I play with the datpad now or…” Ollie peered up at Adeline with imploring eyes.
With a defeated sigh, she handed over the device.
“We can get you another one,” Sil told her. “So you don’t have to share.”
“Sharing is important,” Ollie said, even as he clutched the datpad to his chest.
Adeline shook her head. “We’ll be fine with this,” she told the orc. “We don’t need to be glued to a screen 24/7 or however long time is out here, not when we have the whole universe ahead of us.”
He nodded back. When Kinsley quickly hopped off the exam table to follow them, Sil cleared his throat—and coming from an orc it was a rather intimidating sound. “Kinsley, do you mind staying for another moment? I want to run one more test on your temporary translator, see if we can get rid of those echoes.”
Kinsley slanted a glance at Adeline and then back at the orc. “Sure,” she drawled slowly, although she sounded anything but sure.
June’s attention bounced between them as well before she followed Adeline and Ollie out of the infirmary. Although she didn’t go far. “Maybe I’ll wait for Kinsley,” she said in a fretful voice. “She seems lonely and sad sometimes.”
Ollie nodded. “Probably because she hears those whispers too, and it says it’s sad and lonely.”
It was everything Adeline could do not to clench him tighter. “Let’s not dwell on whispers, okay? If they talk to you again, we can…” They could what? Was sticking her head in the sand—or out the airlock or whatever—going to fix the problem this time? It hadn’t before. “Let me know if Kinsley or Sil has anything else to say,” Adeline said to June. “Ollie and I are going back to our apartment so he can play on the datpad for a while.”
They went their separate ways, and even in what she knew was the relatively small confines of the ship with many souls aboard, Adeline too felt as lonely as she ever had.
Ollie was more than happy to play on the little computer while she set about exploring the rest of their apartment. It had more storage than it had looked like at first, and various supplies already laid in, which she appreciated. As clever as the universal translators were—when they weren’t generating ghosts out of the ether—she suspected some of the context just didn’t translate, and she was eyeing the labels on the food packaging uncertainly when the door chimed.
“Who is it?” she said just loud enough for the door to hear.
“Crusher Teq requests entry,” the door informed her.
For a moment, she wanted to refuse. Their kiss had been…surprising, and this morning had already had enough uncomfortable surprises that she wasn’t sure she wanted to add anymore. But she couldn’t exactly claim to not be at home; like, where else would she be?
Stifling a sigh—and squelching the little kick of her pulse—she called, “Let him in.”
The door folded aside to reveal the big orc. Even though the ship was sized for his people, his wide shoulders filled the frame. As if he sensed her ambiguity—or maybe felt some of it himself, despite his claim to not have feelings?—he stayed where he was, sort of lounging, his upper shoulder braced against jam and all four arms crossed over his chest.
“I heard you had some trouble,” he rumbled.
Yes, that kiss had bothered her far long than it should have, disrupting her dreams… Heat swept through her. “You mean Ollie.”
When he straightened abruptly, his tensed antennae brushed the top of the door frame. “Is there other trouble?”
“No, no,” she hastened to reassure him, then hesitated. “Other than these food labels. Dare I ask, what are”—she squinted at the package, just in case that would make the universal translator burp up some other explanation—“Nebular Niblettes?”
“They make a lot of nutritionally balanced meals optimized for various carbon-based species like ours, color coded so you can get the right mix.” Pushing away from the door, he sauntered toward her. Passing Oliver in the living room, he greeted the boy who grunted vaguely in reply, more entranced with the alien tech in his hands than with the alien Teq right in front of him.
She’d had the alien Teq in her hands…
Had she really kissed an alien on the first date? She accidentally licked her lower lip, tender where she’d bitten it earlier. They hadn’t evenhada date, for heaven’s sake. Not even a one-night stand, more like a one-particular-moment-in-the-infinity-of-space happen-to-be-standing-next-to-you-so-let’s-kiss half swoon.
Ridiculous.
