Page 6 of Swept By The Alien Pirate Prince

“Oh, just checking,” I joked along with her.

Sometimes you just had to lighten the mood with a little bit of comic relief.

“It just seems like when it rains it pours.” Carmela sighed.

“I don’t understand.”

“Well,” Carmela explained, speaking with her hands. “I just mean, like, when one thing bad happens, it usually sets off a sequence ofotherbad things happening.”

“Amada hasn’t done us any favors in that department,” I admitted.

“We wouldn’t be out here trying to flee from the Imperialists if she hadn’t been in the picture.” Carmela’s tone was grave.

“I’m responsible for missing that.” My jaw tightened in anger — anger directed at only myself.

I stared out the window, but I felt the heat of Carmela’s gaze on me.

“You can’t blame yourself.”

I turned my head in her direction. “Whoisto blame, then?”

“We all missed the signs.”

“I should have seen them coming from a mile away. I was accustomed to what it looked like, and I failed.”

I ignored them to keep the peace.

“Everyone had blinders on.”

“That cost us in the end.” I sighed again.

“We can’t let the past taint our future. We have to try to move on and stay alive. We are survivors, and a doped up engineer isn’t going to stand in our way.” There was a hopeful ring to Carmela’s tone now. She always tried to lift me up. She was so optimistic about everything. She made everything feel sunnier, especially in my life.

My jaw tightened. “She’ll never navigate one of my ships again, I can tell you that much.”

Carmela’s chuckle tinkled through the air. “That’s probably a good idea.”

I held her gaze. “I couldn’t get through any of this without you.”

Carmela’s eyes twinkled. She cupped her tiny hand over my large one. Her skin was milky in color. “Lucky foryou, you don’t have to.”

“I will never be able to explain to you how much your support means to me,” I told her.

“You tell me,” Carmela’s features were painted with tranquilness, “all the time, in your words and actions.”

“That makes me feel a little better.”

“You are doing a better job at being commander than you give yourself credit for,” Carmela praised.

“That’s because I have the best lover in the world to stand behind me.”

Carmela squeezed my hand. “You can always count on me. That will never change.”

“Thank God. It was so different with Amada.”

“And difficult, I can imagine.”

“It was.”

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