Page 9 of On A Rift’s Edge (Riftworld #2)

K at stuffed an onigiri into his mouth as he walked up to his parent’s house for Sunday dinner. He usually wouldn’t be snacking right before a big meal but given there was an excellent chance he would need to flee before the food was served, he had decided to get something into his stomach.

The Nakamura family lived in an adobe-style house in the south of Tucson.

Like the other single-family homes around it, it had low-water-requiring cacti and succulents making up the bulk of the landscaping, gleaming solar panels on the roof, and an accessory dwelling unit in the back, a nod to urban density regulations.

Kat’s parents loved to talk about renting out the tiny house, which had its own solar panel power source, a cutting-edge composting toilet, and a mini-kitchen with a pizza oven.

That was never going to happen, of course. There was only one person the Nakamuras wanted to rent that little home to, and that was Kat himself.

He adored his parents, he truly did, as well as the rest of his sprawling family composed of aunts, uncles, niblings, and a horde of cousins.

It was only that he needed a little alone time.

Okay, he needed a lot of alone time away from his family, and his apartment in the northern part of Tucson was more convenient for work anyway.

He stepped up to the side door—his parents considered the front door too fancy for family members to use—smiled into the door camera and began counting.

One, two, and…

“I was so worried!” The door was flung open by his father, his buttoned-down shirt and trousers covered by a cooking apron decorated with cats wearing chef hats.

Both of Kat’s parents were what could only be described as feline fanatics.

George Nakamura engulfed him in a bear hug, squeezing so hard Kat had trouble breathing. “Those monsters could have eaten you.”

Kat extricated himself from the embrace with difficulty, slipped his shoes off, and tried to enter the house proper.

It was a difficult task. Sunday dinner meant an open invitation to family members and any friends, dating partners, or even casual acquaintances they might want to bring along.

The house was more crowded than usual, which Kat realized with a sinking feeling was because everyone wanted to question him about the monstertown livestream debacle.

After enduring hugs, kisses, and half a dozen variations of “what were you thinking?” he made his way with mounting anxiety to the kitchen. His mother sat there in her autonomous wheelchair, which she called Fluffy after a long-deceased pet cat. She had a large spoon in one hand and looked furious.

“Katsuo Nakamura!” Winifred “Winkie” Nakamura waved the spoon at him and Fluffy the robotic chair obligingly elevated Kat’s mother’s body to a standing position so she could yell at him more effectively.

She used his full name for dramatic effect.

“Do have any idea how frightened we’ve been?

You promised me you wouldn’t go near those horrible monsters, even at the ranch.

You were inside their alien planet, attacked by an octopus, and then a demonic dog jumped on you. ”

“Mom, that’s not what happened.” Kat’s mouth felt like sandpaper, and his knees were shaky.

His mother might only be a meter and a half in height, but she was an intimidating presence despite her size.

“The monstertown isn’t inside the rift. The riftperson who knocked me down did it to protect me, not hurt me.

Even the pool dunking was only a prank meant for Kaveh’s friend Remi. ”

Remi was a lot more than a friend to Kaveh, but Kat found it difficult to describe his or other people’s romantic partners to his parents.

His sisters had talked to their parents about their lovers or casual hook-ups when they were both single, but Kat was the youngest and at times he wondered if his parents thought he had never had sex.

Well, he’d rather have his parents think he was a virgin than have to talk about his sex life with them.

“Kaveh’s a nice man, Winkie.” His father came into the kitchen carrying a peace offering, the family’s latest rescue cat. “Even if he is an alien dragon.” He pushed the senior feline, a grizzled tabby with half an ear missing, into her arms. “How’s the soup?”

Winkie paused, then used the arm not holding the cat to bring the wooden spoon to her mouth. “Not enough salt.”

Jenny and Naomi, Kat’s two older sisters, popped in and used the distraction to steer Kat away from the confrontation with their mother.

“Our little brother looks like he could use a drink.” Jenny called back over her shoulder as Naomi grabbed Kat’s arm and pulled him into the great room.

As the youngest by several years, Kat was accustomed to being both rescued and bossed around by his sisters. Of the three of them, he was the only one who used his given name.

Jenny, who his parents had named Mei, had simply told people what to call her when she was nine years old, and everyone had obliged.

She flipped her hair back over her shoulder as she took up a position behind the wet bar.

A blonde the last time Kat had seen her, she had changed her hair color to black with pink streaks.

“We all need a drink after this week.” She started to set up a cocktail, and Kat didn’t bother to ask what was in it.

Despite her busy career in advertising and frequent travel adventures with her wife, she had found time to become an amateur mixologist, and her concoctions were always tasty.

And strong. Kat needed that right now.

“I didn’t mean to upset everyone.” Kat accepted the martini glass rimmed in salt and took a sip of a drink that tasted like rosemary and cactus fruit juice.

“People go to the monstertown all the time, and Kaveh lives there now with Remi. Nothing bad happened. I mean, the soccer field was ruined, and I got a little wet, but everything’s fine now. The portal went away.”

How it had appeared was one mystery. Why Lyall had jumped into it when he heard Kat scream was another.

Naomi sighed as Jenny handed her a dirty martini topped with an olive.

When she had transitioned at eighteen, she had swapped Kenji for a name her parents could accept as traditional.

“Kaveh Salehi isn’t human, and from what the news feeds said about him during that crazy love duel he fought, he doesn’t have to worry about his safety. You do.”

“I always thought that Matchmaker stuff was overblown by those docudramas Mom and Dad watch, but Remi Gatti came close to being killed over it.” Jenny took a slug of a chocolate concoction with four espresso beans floating on the top.

“Everyone knows now that he isn’t fully human himself, but suppose that alien curse had targeted you? ”

Kat covered up by taking another sip of his drink, but he could feel heat creeping up his neck.

The Matchmaker had always been a source of salacious and exaggerated coverage by the news feeds.

After all, it was one thing to know Tucson was near one of the alien Riftworld portals.

It was quite another to be faced with the reality that a mysterious intelligence could compel one of the Riftworld people from there to find and marry whomever the Matchmaker chose for them, even if their match was an ordinary human.

He had thought—and so had Kaveh—the Matchmaker had picked him to marry his mentor and close friend.

That had been horrifying, and Kat still cringed at how badly he had handled the situation.

Especially when he had stormed off when Kaveh tried to figure out if Kat was his intended spouse.

Kat would have been abducted and maybe worse if Lyall hadn’t shown him his true self and protected him.

There it was again. Even with all the family drama, Kat hadn’t made it longer than twenty minutes without obsessing over the hellhound.

It was even worse now, since Lyall had returned but had barely said anything to Kat.

Granted, the startling appearance of a mysterious portal had put a damper on casual conversation.

Now Kat didn’t know whether to go back to the monstertown tomorrow and try to talk to Lyall or play it cool and see if the hellhound reached out to him.

Playing it cool hadn’t worked so well for the past several months.

“Fortunately, the Matchmaker didn’t think I was relationship material.” Kat tried to make a joke of that terrifying possibility. “In lieu of an arranged marriage with a Riftworld person, I’m going to focus on getting out and dating regular people like me.”

Naomi and Jenny exchanged glances. That was never good.

Jenny spoke first. “Kat, you know we love you. But you never want to date people like yourself. You always want to hook up with some bad boy with killer abs and a terrible attitude.”

That was—a little hurtful. Kat’s taste in boyfriends wasn’t that bad.

He opened his mouth to protest, but Naomi jumped in. “I met this nice guy at a work party last week. His name is Paul Cicero. He’s a little older, which I think would be good for you. He dresses well, he’s well spoken, and he’s successful. Let me introduce you to him.”

“Successful as an engineer?” Kat had met a lot of Naomi’s engineer friends. They were perfectly nice, but conversations with them were a little dull. To be honest, downright boring.

“He’s a venture capitalist.” Naomi clearly viewed this as a positive.

Kat, on the other hand, lumped venture capitalists into the same category as supervillains, but with less style and panache.

“Paul came up to me at the event and introduced himself, because he was so taken with the work our company is doing. Your name came up, and when he realized I was your sister he asked about you.”

“Rich and already interested.” Jenny grinned above her espresso martini. “Sounds perfect.”

“What did he want to know?” Kat didn’t like this conversation.

One, it was embarrassing discussing his love life and awful taste in men with his sisters.

Two, the story made him uneasy. That was probably because this venture capitalist guy threw money around at companies and did obscure things with the stock market Kat didn’t understand.

“Come on.” Jenny waved her drink for emphasis. “Moon Star Ranch and everyone associated with it was in the news for weeks. You may have dodged the reporters with Naomi’s help, but your name was all over the feeds.”

Naomi did her best reporter imitation. “Sources close to Katsuo Nakamura, a veterinary assistant to Dr. Kaveh Salehi, say that although he was surprised to find out the well-known vet was actually an alien drakone, he has no concerns and plans to continue working with him at Monster Ranch—I mean Moon Star Ranch.”

“Mom sure has concerns,” Jenny put in. “That video of you being yanked underwater by alien tentacles and then jumped by a hellhound wasn’t good for her blood pressure. She doesn’t want you at the ranch, much less in the monstertown.”

“Anyway,” Naomi said. “With the sort of press coverage you’ve been getting, all sorts of people are interested in you.

But Paul was less focused on the monster stuff and more on how interesting it must be to work with intelligent alien species.

Plus, he’s single and likes men. Well, he’s bi at least.”

Kat sighed. His mother hadn’t wanted him to work anywhere near the rift before, but now she would harp on nothing else. After spending the whole dinner hearing her nag at him about it, he wouldn’t have the energy for a blind date. Plus, he was busy with studying and work.

Those were all valid reasons to say no. Lyall had nothing to do with it.

“I’ll pass on a date with the rich guy in a suit for now but thank you.” Kat knocked back his drink and gave his sisters his best puppy-dog eyes.

It partially worked. Naomi and Jenny exchanged another look, and Jenny threw in a counteroffer. “Come with Naomi and me to the art gallery party tomorrow night. Paul will be there, and you can meet him, but it’s not a date.”

Kat was too tired to argue further. He would say hello to the guy, check out the art, and leave. “Fine, but the two of you have to help me survive dinner. I thought Mom was going to try to bash sense into me with her soup spoon.”