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“I don’t have much done yet, Jaya,” Tasha said. “But I can certainly send you what I have so far.”

“Um. OK. Sure,” Jaya said noncommittally. She did not really seem to want it. Probably because she would not be here long enough to need it.

But at least it appeared that she wanted the flower I’d brought. She stroked her fingertips along the edges of the petals, then lowered her nose to the centre of the bloom, inhaling gently. Her eyes fell shut, the dark fringe of the human hairs called eyelashes fanning along the delicate curves above her cheekbones.

“I would have brought you more,” I said quietly. “If I had found them.”

I wanted to give her enough flowers to make her a proper wedding bucket.

No. Blast. Bucket was not the word that Tasha had used. I grimaced and gestured at the flower as Jaya opened her eyes once more. “If I’d had a few more flowers, I would have made you a proper boo… Booty-cake.”

“A proper… What?” Jaya asked, gaping at me.

“A wedding booty-cake,” I said, more loudly this time, remembering that human ears were not nearly as sensitive as a Zabrian’s. “If I could have, I would have given you a big, beautiful booty-cake.”

“Oaken,please,” Magnolia choked out through a sudden bout of laughter. “You have got to stop saying that!”

I could think of no reason why Magnolia would be laughing about a topic as sacred and important as Jaya’s booty-cake, but apparently, the mirth was catching. Tasha clapped her hand over her mouth, her shoulders shaking, while Warden Tenn merely sighed and cast his eyes skyward.

I would have remained mired in confusion, and maybe even embarrassment, if Jaya hadn’t joined in laughing, too. Unlike the others, she didn’t try to hold it in or hide it. She threw back her head and laughed, forceful and throaty, rich and warm.

And all at once, I was more myself than I had ever been. Because her laugh was an achingly beautiful sound. And that sound was calling me home.

I would happily suffer through a myriad of blunders, commit a thousand and one humiliating mistakes, if I could make her laugh this way.

“Sorry,” Jaya said, wiping at her eyes. “Holy… I haven’t laughed like that in ages.” She swallowed, then cleared her throat. She smoothed her expression into something more serious, but laughter still glinted in her eyes. “Oaken, thank you. I am honoured by this delightful little booty-cake.”

Instead of holding it in her hands, she tucked the stem behind her ear. The petals splayed like a tiny sun at her temple. It was a beautiful thing, but compared to Jaya’s face…

Well, I found there was no contest.

“Shall we?” she said, tipping her head slightly to the side.

“Shall we what?”

She threw up her hands in a resigned sort of gesture, as if she were tossing a dozen vital facets of her life into the air without a hope of controlling where they landed.

“Get married,” she said.

Blood rushed in my ears.

“I am ready,” I replied.

9

JAYA

If hearing Magnolia’s heart-wrenching story about how Oaken had saved her life before selflessly stepping aside so that she could marry his cousin instead of him hadn’t been enough to convince me that Oaken was a good enough man to temporarily marry, the way he fretted and fawned over the quality of my wedding “booty-cake” had sealed the deal.

I was ninety-nine percent sure the guy was a weirdo.

I was one hundred precent sure that he was also a total sweetheart.

I’d listened to everything Magnolia had said with a hot burn at the back of my eyes, picturing Oaken broken-footed and alone in the mountains, trying to reach the bride he’d wanted so badly, only for that bride to have fallen head over heels in love with someone else.

Instead of becoming jaded by the experience, or being turned off of humans entirely, here he was practically throwing himself at me in an attempt to help me. Even though he wouldn’t get a single thing out of it.

He was kind.