Page 8 of Married to the Alien Mountain Man (Cowboy Colony Mail-Order Brides #5)

8

OAKEN

W ith Nali wanting to walk half the time, and be carried the other half, it took me much longer to reach home than I’d hoped. With every step I took, I fretted that she wouldn’t be there waiting for me. As if she’d never been real at all.

I did not see her outside when I returned, which only seemed to confirm that she had left. Perhaps she’d gone with the warden to his station, deciding she’d rather leave this world, and her ship, than marry me.

But the warden’s slicer was still here. And that gave me cause to hope.

I got Nali safely settled in her enclosure, then hurried to my own home. I found the building empty. On my way out, however, voices snatched at my ears.

Several people were now exiting Magnolia and Garrek’s new cabin. Magnolia, Tasha, Warden Tenn, and Jaya moved together as a group.

But I only watched Jaya. I remained very still, the grass swaying around my boots as she walked with the others. Perhaps she sensed my attention on her, because her head jerked up. Her eyes snagged on mine. And she froze. Just like I had.

By the empire, but she was pretty. I had never been an artist, but in that moment, I wished that I could have somehow rendered her this way. Standing in the swaying grass, illuminated by summer sunshine. So that I could have her, if only in the sketched-out colour of a memory, for longer than two weeks.

A stupid notion, really.

It was very likely that I was a fool.

It was also very likely that there was not a thing I could do about it.

“Oaken! Good,” Warden Tenn said, noticing me ahead. “Come here. Jaya has something to tell you.”

The warden’s command, coupled with Jaya’s name, pushed my body into motion. Despite the persistent limp, my long legs made short work of the distance between us.

“I’ll just cut right to it,” Jaya said when I reached them. She appeared to steady herself with a sharp intake of breath, then rapidly plunged forward. “Oaken, I’ve decided to take you up on your offer. My ship means everything to me. So if the only way to save her is to be your wife – in a technical sense – for the next two weeks, then so be it.”

She swallowed, then lowered her eyes. “I’m sorry for the hammer. And I’m sorry if I seemed ungrateful earlier. I know that marrying you is the only way I’ll be allowed to stay here. And I also know that you didn’t have to make the offer that you did. Frankly, I’d be completely fucked without you right now. So, thank you.”

“What… What changed?” I asked. Had I always had such a hoarse voice? It sounded frayed and strange to my own ears.

“I spent some time talking to Magnolia,” Jaya said, tipping her head at Garrek’s wife.

“I was singing your praises, of course,” Magnolia said, giving me her gap-toothed smile. “I told her how you saved my life. Told her how, if I’d met you before Garrek, well…”

“Don’t let Garrek hear you say that,” Warden Tenn said, casting a furtive look around to make sure my cousin hadn’t heard.

“Garrek and Killian are in one of the far fields working on some new fencing,” Magnolia said, waving away the warden’s concern. “And he knows I love him. But he also knows that Oaken is a total gem. He’d be the first to say so. He literally said that Oaken was probably the only man on this planet who deserved me. So, Jaya, you’ll be well taken care of while you’re here. And I’ll be glad to have another girl stick around for a bit once Tasha is gone!”

“Oh, well, thank you,” Jaya said. “But I plan to live in my ship while I’m here.”

“Your ship?” I asked, my brows climbing. “Way out in the mountains where it landed? Alone?”

“Well, sure,” Jaya said, the sides of her mouth tipping down. “Why not? It’s where I’ve lived for more than two decades. I haven’t slept anywhere besides my ship since… I can’t even remember, to be honest.”

“Lots of genka in the mountains,” Warden Tenn grunted.

“And worse,” I muttered, my insides churning with worry.

“Even more reason for me to be with my ship,” Jaya countered. “I need to keep an eye on things. I’ll close up the doors, of course.”

“Well, you two can sort this all out later,” Warden Tenn said. “But for now, we should be getting the wedding underway.”

Wedding. My wedding.

Where I would marry my wife.

My body forgot that this was all fake. Heat rushed through my veins. My head felt like it might float right off of my neck. My skin hummed with nervous energy, and my tail squeezed its belt hook with bruising enthusiasm.

“Where do you want to do it?” Tasha was asking Jaya.

“Yes, where?” I asked, staring intently at her. Even if this was the ceremony to mark what would only be a temporary marriage, I still wanted Jaya to be happy with it.

“Oh, anywhere is fine.” She moved her slender brown shoulders up and down. “Outside, I guess.”

Outside. Outside was good. Outside was perfect.

“Do you want anything to wear?” Magnolia asked. “I don’t really have a wedding dress anymore, but I could try to see if there’s something…”

“Oh, no. That won’t be necessary,” Jaya answered quickly.

She would not have a proper wedding outfit. There would not be time to make her one. But perhaps I could fetch something else.

“Hold on!” I said, taking off at a run. Warden Tenn tried to call me back, but I was already gone, careening to the edge of my property, my foot on fire. I thought I’d seen some here before…

There!

There was only one in bloom. A bright, frilly yellow flower with petals as soft as a newborn bracku’s coat. I crouched down carefully beside it, then sliced the flower’s stem with my claws, severing the thing. Carefully, I carried it back to the group.

“Where the blazes did you just run off to?” Warden Tenn asked.

“Sorry,” I wheezed. My lungs, which had been so weak in early childhood, had improved markedly since my arrival on Zabria Prinar One, but they still acted up a bit every once in a while. It didn’t help that my heart was currently slamming itself against my ribs with wild abandon at the prospect of marrying Jaya in just a few moments’ time. “I went… Went to get this.”

I held up the yellow flower. Jaya’s eyes widened.

“Oh, that’s lovely, Oaken,” Magnolia cooed.

“I know… know it is not enough,” I gasped. “It should be a… a bucket. A wedding bucket. But I didn’t want to put this little flower… in a bucket.”

“A bouquet,” Tasha quietly corrected. “A wedding bouquet is a bunch of flowers, all bound together for a bride to carry down the aisle.”

“Oh. I… Sorry,” I said again, only realizing now how woefully inadequate a single flower was. “I suppose I… I did not understand that part of the book.”

“Book?” Jaya asked.

“It’s a sort of collection of essays,” Tasha explained to Jaya. “Information about human history, biology, culture, and various wedding rituals. I wrote it to help the Zabrians prepare for the arrival of their future brides.” Tasha sent me a kind smile. “I’ll look at reworking the section on wedding bouquets. So it’s more clear.”

“And don’t worry,” Magnolia said with a smile of her own. “Tasha is working on a version for the human ladies. It’ll be all about the Zabrian guys.”

“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.