Mama and the Alien Warrior (Treasured By The Alien #1) - Honey Phillips Page 0,67
else was killed.”
“As am I.” He grunted.
“What’s wrong? Did I hurt you?”
“No, my flower. Lucie kicked me.” He sighed. “So much for being alone in bed.”
“It will happen one day.”
“Will it?” His voice sounded tired and sad, and she had to fight back the lump in her own throat. “I don’t want to lose you, Abigail.”
“I don’t want to lose you either, but what are we going to do? Lucie needs a home, an education, a future. And the other girls need me too.”
“I know. And I have my crew to consider.”
There was nothing else to be said. All she could do was wrap herself around him and hope that their remaining time together would last as long as possible.
The next morning, everyone seemed equally depressed despite Hrebec’s success in reclaiming the ship. Hrebec fed Tiana before disappearing on some mysterious errand, which upset Lucie. Abby wasn’t thrilled about it either, even though she knew he didn’t owe her an explanation. Elaina and Jedan seemed unusually strained and tense with each other, while Cassie had wrapped herself in her old surly attitude. TeShawna snapped at Mekoi to the point where he bowed gravely and left.
When the girl immediately burst into tears, Abby led her into the bedroom. “What's the matter, TeShawna?”
“Nothing,” she said defiantly, then her face crumpled again when Abby simply looked at her. “It’s just…” Abby waited patiently for her to continue. “It’s just that yesterday, when Amber had her baby, Mekoi was so wonderful. Calm and patient and… smart as a whip, you know?”
“Yes, he’s a good doctor.”
“And… and I want that. I wanna be a doctor,” she burst out at last.
“TeShawna, that’s wonderful. I think you’d make a great doctor.”
“Yeah, right,” she sneered. “I ain’t nothing but a girl from the streets. I don’t even have my GED.”
“You were working on it. You’re very close.”
TeShawna didn’t respond and Abby didn’t push the issue. She suspected that there was more behind the girl’s outburst than career dreams.
“Mekoi thought I could do it too,” TeShawna said finally. “He was talking about the training I would need and how he could help me with Vanessa and with studying. We forgot.”
“Forgot?”
“Forgot that he wouldn’t be with me—with us.” Dark eyes filled with tears again. “I don’t wanna leave him.”
Abby’s heart ached. “Don’t you want to go home?”
TeShawna scoffed. “What home? Staying with you’s the only home that ever meant anything to me. Do we have to go back?”
“You don’t think you’d be better off back on Earth than living in an alien spaceship?” She tried for a light tone, but the words rang hollow in her own ears. Wouldn’t she rather be with Hrebec than back on Earth?
“No,” TeShawna said baldly. She pursed her lips and a hint of her usual brashness appeared. “Maybe I’ll decide to stay.”
The words echoed in Abby’s head. “You would really do that?”
“I don’t know. I don’t wanna be the only human, but… I don’t wanna leave Mekoi either.”
“Don’t decide just yet, okay? Let me talk to Hrebec.”
“Yeah, all right.” Her defiant lower lip trembled. “Mekoi probably don’t want me now, anyway.”
“I sincerely doubt that. Why don’t you go find him? I’ll watch Vanessa.”
“I don’t like chasing after no man.”
Abby patted her hand. “In this case, I think you owe him an apology, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I reckon.” A smile brightened her face for the first time that day. “I do like to kiss and make up.”
“Well, go on then,” Abby said with a laugh.
After that conversation, she wasn’t really surprised when Elaina sought her out a short time later. She was much more direct than TeShawna had been.
“Jedan wants us to stay with him—and I want to stay,” she said.
“What are the two of you going to do? Live on the ship? Bring up the babies there?”
“Maybe. At least for a while. But Jedan was thinkin’ of settling down somewhere. Maybe buyin’ a farm.”
“A farm?”
“Yeah. What’s wrong with that?” Elaina’s lips twisted into a reminiscent smile. “I started off on one. It wasn’t until times got hard and we had to sell and move to the city that things got bad with my dad. He wasn’t happy anymore. That’s when he started drinking.”
“Aren’t you concerned about being the only human out here?”
“Nah, not as long as I have Jedan, Mikie, and Ginger.” She hesitated. “I do worry about the kids some, but it will be all they ever know, so I think they’ll be fine.”