Page 32 of Hired for Research
“Do you want to sit and watch for a bit, or keep looking?”
One shoulder raised and dropped as she watched the men running from one end of the court to the other. He’d always found it fascinating that despite all that had changed throughout humanity’s existence, many of the organized sports persisted more or less the same as they’d begun.
“We can watch for a bit, though I can’t say I know the rules of the game. It seems very… physical.”
Jett snorted as he watched an alpha with skin darker than his plow into another with bright red hair, knocking the redhead flat and stealing the ball.
“Well, the point is to get the ball through your team’s hoop as many times as possible, while preventing the other team from doing the same. In a regulation game there are more rules, but out here, it’s pretty much a free-for-all.”
He saw her wince when another pair of alphas went down in a heap. Neither could keep hold of the ball, and their teammates chased after it, leaving them to untangle and right themselves. Eden tried to be inclusive, especially of the few betas willing to take a chance on living there, but he’d yet to see a beta willing to play with or against a team of alphas. Their naturally smaller size left them at risk of injury with the rough way alphas were used to playing. It was one of the few ways they’d been allowed to let off steam in the Camps and work out the physical aggression that could build up.
Jett showed Evelyn to a bench between the track and the court where they could watch the game but weren’t in the way. Once they were settled she pulled out her sandwich, reminding him he still carried his.
They ate their meal, Evelyn interjecting questions when something happened she didn’t understand. Like when play stopped and the players lined up on each side of the basket to allow one player to shoot the ball. He’d never been much into sports, but he explained as best he could.
Once they finished their sandwiches she seemed restless, so he suggested they move on. There were more people on some of the other courts, and others running on the track or using the equipment, but none of that gave her the opportunity to observe alphas interacting since they were mostly in singles or pairs.
Wracking his brain, he tried to come up with other areas where people might gather on a Sunday evening, but Eden hadn’t reached the point where every night was busy like some cities.
“We could try the gym,” he suggested, but Evelyn’s lip curled, and she shot him a reproachful look.
“No thank you. I’m not sure my dinner would taste as good coming back up.”
He chuckled, shaking his head as she fake gagged.
“Is it the thought of exercise, or the smell?”
Brow cocked, her lips pressed into a thin line.
“I don’t have a problem with exercise, but I do have a problem with the smell that emanates from places where lots of people gather to sweat together.”
He nodded, conceding the point. No matter how much neutralizer the gyms used, he had the same issue with the smell of so many layers of sweat mixed with despair.
“Okay then, we could try a grocery store?”
He felt a little silly making the suggestion, but he was out of ideas. They only had an hour or two of daylight left, and there just weren’t that many places people would be the day before most of them had to return to work.
Evelyn’s smile assured him the idea wasn’t as ridiculous as he thought.
“That could work.”
He pointed them toward the store closest to the hotel. They had to backtrack a little down the trail beside the river before turning off onto another branch that would bring them back to the main streets. They were passing the playground that had been recently installed now that Eden had a growing population of children when Evelyn slowed.
There was a couple with a toddler at the swings, but there was also three alphas watching over four littles scrambling around the equipment. It took a moment before he recognized them since he wasn’t used to seeing his Commander out of uniform.
Evelyn seemed enthralled by the children chasing each other around, but she visibly tensed the moment the biggest boy pushed one of the girls who started crying. Her gaze darted to the males who moved forward, her already pale skin losing what little color it had at their stern expressions.
Jett’s hand clamped on her shoulder the second she lifted a foot to intercede. He could see the need to protect written all over her face and he knew it was natural, but her stepping in would create a problem where there wasn’t one.
Her gaze swung up to him and he gave a shake of his head. Her lips popped open and he could feel the way she heaved for breath.
“But—”
He shook his head again, gesturing for her to look at what was happening.
“It’s okay. Just watch.”
Austin, mated to the woman who’d begun and designed Eden, was kneeling in front of his son, speaking earnestly, but too low for them to hear. Jett’s commander was also on his knees, wiping tears from his daughter Sophia’s cheeks and speaking to her. The man he was pretty sure was a coworker of Austin’s stood holding the hands of the other two children, watching as the two fathers handled the situation that had happened between their children.
