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“You liked it,” Jaxy said, poking her in the side. “Don’t pretend you didn’t like it.”

“Having fun gets boring too quickly,” Ranette muttered.

“Just think how refreshed you are,” Jaxy replied. “How many ideas flowed when you didn’t have to worry about deadlines or delivery dates!”

“I like deadlines,” Ranette said.

Jaxy eyed her.

“Fine,” Ranette said. “It wasn’tawful.It wasalmostenjoyable. Even if that place is weird. I wish Wax hadn’t discovered it. Then maybe we’dhave gone to the Roughs.”

“The Roughs,” Jaxy said. “For ourhoneymoon.”

Ranette shrugged. “You’re the one who likes that dumb restaurant.”

Jaxy rolled her eyes as the car—strangely—didn’t stop at their place. It kept driving.

“Wait,” Ranette said, turning and looking back.

“There’s something you need to see,” Jaxy said.

“This isn’t more ‘fun,’ is it? I’m so full of it by this point, I feel like barfing it all right back out.”

“You aresoromantic,” Jaxy said, taking her arm.

Ranette huffed. Well, she’dbeen careful not to spoil the actual honeymoon with this kind of behavior. She’dbeenniceandenjoyableandperky.

Okay. Not perky. Butnot grouchy.Most of the time. And admittedly, the Southern Continenthadbeen something special. Even if tensions were… well, growing tenser. There was constant talk of closing the borders to Northerners. It seemed that tourism was at an end.

Regardless, they were home now. This wassupposedto be her time to gripe. That was how a relationship worked. Push and Pull. She’dgiven. Now she could take a little. Now she could…

“What thehell?” she asked as the car came to a stop outside her shop. A little place on a small plot of land—which had been expanded somehow to avery largeplace on a small plot of land.

“A wedding gift,” Jaxy said.

“How in the world did you afford this?” Ranette said, throwing the door open and stumbling out.

“I didn’t. It’s not from me.”

Ranette looked back.

“Some nice men showed up,” Jaxy explained, “with a sum from Wayne. After… you know. They said I was supposed to do something nice for you, but—the instructions said clearly—‘Not in a skeevy way.’ He suggested a renovation to the shop.”

Ranette couldn’t help smiling at that. She had been surprised by how much she’dmissed Wayne. Once he had learned—shockingly, peoplecouldlearn—how to not be slime, they’dactually become friends.

Of course, he’dgone out in the most incredible explosion ever. So she hadn’t feltthatbad. If you had to die, then hell, that was the way.

She was still trying to figure out how to get her hands on some of those explosives. The things she could build with something that packed that much of a punch…

“He left a note,” Jaxy said, handing it to her.

Hey,it said. In crayon.These two fellows in suits told me I gotta write this and make decisions about this stuff, just in case. Apparently they thinkmy job is “high risk.” I told them that if they wantedtheirjobs to become high risk, they should try pushin’ me harder to do stupid stuff.

But… I guess, if you’re readin’ this, I’m done and gone. Buried. Maybe burned. Maybe I got eaten. I dunno. Whatever happened, I hope it’s Marasi’s fault, because she’s always tellin’ me I’m gonna getherinto trouble and it would be nice if that hat were on her head instead.

Anyway… I want to say thanks. For not throwin’ the Wayne out with the Wayne, ya know? Enjoy the gift. Build something real awesome.

“Damn,” she said, putting her hands on her hips. “I really do miss that little miscreant.”