Page 84 of Anyone But the Superstar

Even more annoying than his smile is the effect it appears to have on Anne – all the tension between her brows, tension that’s been there all night, vanishes.

‘Yes.’ Smiling back, she lowers Mike to the floor. ‘If you don’t know how to handle him.’

Even not looking at me, the dig lands.

‘Hey there.’ Vance pulls up his pant legs and squats down to Mike’s level.

Anne’s grip on the leash whitens when Vance reaches out to pet him, sighing in relief when Mike melts into Vance’s hand, purring.

Then, as if embracing the formality of his tuxedo, Mike leads everyone inside, sashaying into the foyer with his nose up, tailcurled.

‘What a sweet guy.’ Vance follows, fascinated. ‘I bet he’s a great emotional support animal when he isn’t running away.’

It takes me a minute to realize he’s talking to me, because Mike is supposed to bemyemotional support animal. ‘He can be.’

‘Yeah.’ Park chuckles. ‘Not at all the alien menace he looks like on the NBL’s pool footage.’ He holds up a thumb drive. ‘Which I brought, by the way.’

My smile feels more feral than Mike Hunt. ‘Great.’

Twenty minutes after everyone witnessed Mike Hunt’s skinny-dip in NASA’s foremost state-of-the-art micro-gravity training pool, played out on Vance and Rose’s big screen TV, the star of the show is cuddled like a baby in Park In-Su’s arms.

‘Jules is going to be sad she missed Mike,’ Trish says, eating her second piece of pie on the couch next to Park. ‘She’s become quite the animal lover since she adopted Cookie.’

Mike purrs against Park’s chest like the fly-by-night playboy he is.

Anne, next to Park, breaks her astronaut-infatuated trance. ‘Cookie?’

Trish nods. ‘Her pet cow.’

‘Then there’s her dog, Rocket,’ Rose adds, facing the fan Vance moved to the side table next to her. ‘I call him Red for short.’

Holt, beer in hand, rolls his eyes. He seems to be one of the only people here not enamored with the hairless beast. ‘I don’t regret our cow or dog, but I do question my sanity over our goatevery morning when I wake up to it bleating before the damn rooster crows.’

I frown at Holt. ‘Our?’

‘You didn’t know?’ Vance asks. ‘Holt is married to Julie Starr.’

‘And ourotherbrother—’ Rose gestures between herself and Holt ‘—is married to Dr Jackie Darling Lee.’

Anne goes still.

Rose shrugs. ‘It seems the Wests have a kink for astronauts.’

‘Wow.’ Amanda nods, looking impressed. ‘That’s one astronomical kink.’

Trish snorts. ‘Good one.’

‘Is she coming?’ Anne asks, her voice at half volume.

‘Who?’ Vance asks.

‘Dr Jackie Darling Lee.’ Anne clears her throat. ‘Is she coming tonight?’

‘Sadly—’ Rose tilts her face back into the fan’s airstream ‘—Jackie is nerding out tonight at an interactive virtual reality thing.’

‘Did you want to meet Jackie?’ Trish asks, catching Anne’s disappointment.

‘Oh, um, yes.’ Her face flushes. ‘I’m a big fan of Dr Lee’s.’