Page 60 of Sunastara & the Venusian
While Makenna and I walked out of the stables, I squeezed her hand. “Thank you for your help, darling. You are a lifesaver.”
“Anytime,” she insisted, waving me off with a quick flick of her wrist. But color rose into her cheeks.
Never able to resist capitalizing on a blush, I tilted myhead. “Chan was right,” I said, studying her. “You do have the most magnificent eyes. And he described them perfectly, like liquid amber poured into a bright-blue sea.”
“He…said that?” she asked, her lovely eyes flaring.
I smiled, nodded, and crossed my fingers behind my back that my meddling might actually work this time.
“Do I look okay?”Garran asked. Taking a night off from his customary yellow coveralls, he was devastating in a fitted black suit and a silver mask with a sun on one side and two intersecting half-moons on the other. Behind the mask, a healthy smudge of black eyeliner made his eyes glow a deep, electric purple.
“Stunning.” I kissed my fingers and flung them into the air. “Absolute perfection. Are you ready?”
Rubbing a hand over his freshly shaved chin, he said, “I think so. We have been speaking over our VCs at night, Kasa and I. After her mother goes to sleep.”
“Ooh, do tell,” I encouraged.
His cheeks turned a deep burgundy. Two for two with the blushing today. I gave myself a mental high five.
“She is funny. And we both love the same flowers. When we get back to Argos, I will plant an entire field of tulips on my farm, in a rainbow pattern, just for her. And she is proud.” His eyes softened behind his mask. “She is like you—proud, competent. I like that in a partner.”
Now it was my turn to blush. “Garran, I’m not sure you’ll need my help at all tonight. I think you’ve got this.”
“No,” he said, panicked. “I need you. Please. This is too important. I will mess it up.”
“Fair enough,” I said, raising my hands. “Your wish is my command.”
After a beat, he asked, “Is Freddie coming?”
“I’m on my way to pick him up.” I spread my arms out wide. “How do I look?” When I’d opened my closet this evening, I’d dug it out, hoping it wouldn’t be too wrinkled. It felt risky, sliding back into my favorite little black dress, this time on purpose. But some risks were worth taking.
“Beautiful,” he said. “You look beautiful. Freddie will be pleased.”
I coughed. “What? I’m not wearing it for Fred?—”
Garran’s booming laughter rattled the walls. “You are trying to lie. But you are not good at it.”
“I beg your pardon. I am an excellent liar.”
“I do not think so.” He ducked his chin, lowered his voice. “Can I tell you something?”
When a being as large and earnest as Garran asked a question like that, the only possible response was “of course.”
“You and Freddie are drawn to each other. It’s as obvious as poppies in the snow. And yet you try to hide it. Deny it. Try,poorly, to lie about it. Why?”
My mouth swung open.
He stepped closer, covering my entire shoulder with his big hand. “I have upset you. You look like an infant after dunking day.”
Closing my mouth, I shook my head.
“I did not mean to make you uncomfortable. But you and Freddie,” he continued, his eyes going soft, “there isworthbetween you. Most beings do not know this, but on Argos,worthhas more than one meaning. It can mean the way two bodies fit together. But on a deeper level, it meansthe way two hearts fit together, two lives. You may not see it yet, but you and Freddie, you fit. You haveworth.” He smirked. “And not only in the obvious way.”
24
“Bloody hell,”Freddie gasped after his door slid open.
Raising my black cat mask from my eyes, still a little shaken from my conversation with Garran, I purred, “Well, hello to you too.”
