Page 41 of Champion (The Outlander Book Club… in Space! #6)
"I'm happy for both of you… so much!" I settled back into my chair, casting a pointed glance at Emmy, Agnes, and Pearl. "But seriously, is there something in the water I need to be worried about?"
Agnes snorted, slapping a hand on the table. "No, but you might want to see Hakkar about some birth control—these guys have pretty potent sperm."
"Are any of you taking it?" Not that I held any doubt about alien medical technology, especially after it saved Adtovar.
"I am," Emmy volunteered freely. "Khaion and I want a family, but we want to get the rescue mission off the ground first. There are a lot of abducted humans out there who need us.
Besides, with our extended life spans thanks to the Garoot Healer, my biological clock has moved from like twenty years to seventy. "
"Jutuk and I decided to wait, too," Pearl chimed in. "Space Pearls, the restaurant his sister runs for us, is so successful that Jala and her mate Praxxan want to open more sites on other space stations."
"You're a franchise," Emmy snorted, knowing how much the idea irked a world-class chef like Pearl.
This time, though, Pearl only rolled her eyes and laughed. "Don't you hate it? Honestly, I love coming up with alien-earth fusion recipes and training new chefs. Plus, Jutuk enjoys handling the business side of things with his sister. He's already given most of his navigational duties to Bartuk."
"I've got about another year to go in my studies to get up to speed with alien medical technology." Agnes grinned. While I was still a bit hurt that she'd kept her illness from us, my joy at seeing her healthy and so very happy overshadowed it. "What about you, Willa?"
"Well…." I couldn't keep the grin off my face as I told them about Charick's idea to teach martial arts to the crew of the Bardaga .
Of course, I might be teaching pregnant.
Charick and I certainly hadn't taken any precautions.
Honestly, I hadn't given much thought to procreating—since we were two different species—until his mother mentioned grandchildren.
Even then, I'd wondered if it were a possibility.
I'd need to pay Agnes and Hakkar a visit and get checked out.
But if nature had already taken its course…
. My gaze darted to Charick. As if feeling my eyes on him, my mate glanced up, meeting my gaze.
Our eyes held each other, full of affection.
It wouldn't be the worst thing if I was already pregnant.
Charick's mother would certainly be happy… and so would I.
A tsunami of cheering waved through the room, bringing me out of my daydream in time to spot the small blue Framaddi chef Orzon sweeping in from the kitchen, followed by several Vaktaire males, each carrying a platter of something that smelled amazing.
While the Vaktaire waiters stopped at tables along the way, Orzon made a beeline for us, his white teeth contrasting starkly with his blue skin as he grinned.
"Ladies." He sat the tray in the center of the table with a flourish. "I followed Chef Pearl's recipe to the letter. Please enjoy." With a graceful wave of his hand, he turned on his heel and headed for the kitchen.
I glanced around to find Emmy sniffing the concoction cautiously. "It actually smells pretty good."
Daisy's nostrils flared as she took a whiff. "Doesn't make me want to barf."
"Be nice," Pearl scolded, pulling the tray closer. "I've been giving him lessons."
"Orzon's first attempts at trying to replicate human cooking didn't turn out too well," Clara told me covertly, with a shudder.
"He had a problem with salt," Pearl defended him. "He's getting better."
I peered at the entrée, taking a deep whiff. "It smells good, " I said, taking another whiff. "Kind of like lasagna." My eyes focused on the sauce simmering on top of the concoction. "Blue lasagna?"
Pearl shrugged at my frown. "It is lasagna. Alien tomatoes just happen to be blue."
Using a massive utensil, an amalgamation of spoon, fork, and butter knife, Pearl dished each of us a healthy helping of lasagna.
I stared at my plate, unsure if I could get past the idea of blue tomatoes.
Emmy proved braver, bringing a hefty spoonful to her mouth.
Her eyes widened, and at her issuance of an appreciative moan, the rest of us dug in.
The dish was surprisingly delicious, meaty, and cheesy, with the slightest bit of tartness from the alien tomatoes.
I glanced around the table, grinning at Charick's obvious enjoyment of the dish before letting my gaze touch affectionately on each of my friends.
We looked so different from that moment sitting around the campfire, each of them so young and beautiful and yet, somehow, the same.
How many times had we lived this scenario, sitting together and sharing a meal and our lives with each other?
The memory hit me so suddenly that I giggled.
"What is it?" Pearl cocked an eyebrow, suspiciously eyeing my plate.
"The lasagna is great," I reassured her, then added. "It's just… do you know what this reminds me of? All of us sitting together eating lasagna?"
Our glances bounced off each other, faces taking on concentrated frowns as they tried to remember. Agnes was the first to get it.
"Oh my God!" Delightful shock played over her face.
Clara's eyes widened as she found the memory. "DePalma's on Broad Street."
Daisy's laugh was high-pitched and lilting. "The first meeting of the Outlander Tuesday Night Book Club."
"That was a lifetime ago," Pearl snorted. She wasn't wrong.
"We went through three bottles of wine that night arguing over who'd best play Jamie Fraser in a movie version of the book," Emmy recalled.
"Sam Heughan made a damn fine Jamie Fraser, but I still say Henry Cavill might have done it better," Pearl insisted with a grunt.
"Uh-huh," Daisy shook her head so hard the hair flew about her face. "Kit Harrington would have been good, though."
Emmy made a face. "Liam Neeson, even at his age. Can you image him as an elder Jamie?"
"Nope," Agnes held up her hand, signaling all discussion should stop. "Nobody would have done better than Keanu."
"You always vote for Keanu," Pearl grumbled, giving Agnes shoulder a playful smack.
"He's the perfect man," Agnes said as though she were extolling wisdom for the ages.
"You still say that now that you've found yourself a hot Vaktaire?" Emmy crossed her arms, affixing Agnes with a grin and skeptical glare.
"He looks just like Keanu," Agnes sighed, letting her gaze dance happily to where her mate sat, scarfing down lasagna and discussing star charts.
Hakkar looked nothing like Keanu Reeves, but one should not argue with a woman in love. Something Emmy and the rest of my friends seemed to recognize as well.
Pearl laughed. "That night, did anybody, in your wildest imagination, ever dream we'd end up here?"
"When you say here, do you mean in outer space? Or do you mean in outer space, with our twenty-something bodies back and mated to our own alien version of highlanders?" Clara clarified.
"No to both," Emmy hooted.
"Seriously?" I issued Pearl my most playful glare.
"At that first book club meeting, all I could think about was how I'd manage to get all those big-ass books read.
" At the time, I’d been a widow starting a new job, and raising an adolescent boy on my own.
Yet, if that first book club meeting had shown me anything, it was that I wasn't alone…
not at all. These wonderful women had been with me every step of the way, holding my hand and sometimes carrying me when I didn't have the strength to walk on my own.
We might have claimed our Tuesday nights were about the Outlander series, but it had been so much more.
"As I recall," Pearl mused, lips pursing. "You were the first of us to finish reading all the books."
"All but the last one," I agreed, remembering that the last book in the series hadn't been published when we were abducted.
"Yeah, all but the last one," Daisy echoed softly as the realization settled on her as well.
The table grew strangely silent, each of us digesting the fact that we'd never know how the story that meant so much to us would end.
Emmy was the first to break the silence, a frown growing between her brows. "Khaion said they're able to pull stuff from the internet if the ship gets close enough to Earth. Maybe they could find a copy of the last book for us?"
Silence reigned again until broken by Clara's deep sigh.
"You know... it's okay. If we don't know how it ends, it's okay."
"Speak for yourself," Pearl grumbled, but her smile was bright. She always read the last page of a book before the first page… although she’d never admit it.
"Clara's right," I agreed, the rightness of her words settling in my bones. "It's okay not to know the end of the story. The journey is what's important, and we've had over twenty wonderful years of knowing Jamie and Claire Fraser, the family they built, and their love for each other."
"You're right." Emmy reached out and clasped my hand. "The journey, with those we love... that's what matters most."
One by one, each of the women laid a hand over where Emmy's fingers held mine.
I let my gaze stray to my mate. As if feeling my eyes on him, Charick raised his head, his golden gaze holding mine, so filled with love and desire that it made my blood heat.
We might never find out what happened in the last pages of the Outlander saga, but the ending wasn't important. What mattered was each step along the way, the friendships made and cherished, and the love story.
Just like my own.