Page 10 of Romancing the Clone (Sunrise Cantina #3)
CHAPTER
NINE
Months Later
RUTH-ANN
“You’re not going to tell me what flavor this one is?” I ask Simone as she wraps a cookie in a plas-film napkin and holds it out to me.
Her lips twitch with barely contained amusement. “Nope. It’s a new flavor I’m testing out. I want to know your thoughts.”
Uh oh. I sniff the cookie, my heart fluttering at the way she watches me so eagerly. Her dark eyes are bright with excitement, the wind blowing delicate tendrils of her hair around her face and making her seem even more beautiful than she already is.
I glance over at Pluto. “Is it a trick?”
Pluto just eyes me with disinterest. Classic cat.
For the past few months, my morning routine has changed.
Instead of showing up to Simone’s cart to critique everything, I’ve been coming by to bring her a daily cup of hot night tea and to see how her sales are going.
I’ve been giving her pointers on her baking, and she’s been making adjustments as she works.
Her cookies are a thing of beauty now, perfect little discs with fluffy interiors and just the right amount of crispness to the edges.
The cookie she hands me is lovely, with flecks of green against the dark beige center and browned edges. Sniffing it produces no scent other than honey and a general sort of “cookie” smell, so I take a bite.
And immediately spit it out. The twin flavors of dirt and grass hit my tongue, and I suck down some tea to kill the taste. “Oh my god, that’s awful. Please tell me you haven’t been serving those all day.”
Simone giggles hysterically, clutching her apron to her waist. “You should see your faaaace.”
A prank. Instead of getting mad at it, I laugh and lunge for her, shoving the cookie toward her mouth. “You eat it, then!”
“No! No!” she squeals, scurrying away and trying to bap me with her ever-present tongs.
I cling to her, trying to get her to eat her terrible cookie and laughing, because something about Simone’s delight makes me giddy.
Pluto sees us playing and tries to join in, putting his front paws on me and nearly knocking me to the ground. It only makes Simone laugh harder.
Someone clears their throat nearby.
We both stop in our tracks. Dopekh stands there, a look of judgment on his face. “Ruth-Ann, Kaz told me to come get you. If you’re done, of course.”
My face gets hot. He caught us chasing each other like a pair of kids. They’re never going to shut up about this now. Bad enough that they already tease me about my friendship with Simone as it is. “I’ll be there in a minute.”
Dopekh saunters away, and I inwardly cringe because I know he’s going to tell all the others about what he saw.
The a’ani are great friends but terrible gossips.
I glance over at Simone. She’s biting back another giggle, and I find myself smiling again.
Let them gossip. Right now I feel too good to care.
Pluto puts his paws on my shoe and starts to lick my ankle, as if he’s grooming me.
He does this to me all the time, and Simone thinks he’s treating me like a kitten, which only makes her love it even more.
I push the overly loving carinoux’s head away from my leg and hold the shitty cookie aloft.
“Did you really make a whole batch of these just to prank me?”
She shakes her head, pulling out a small container with a few more cookies inside it. “Just a couple for you specifically.”
I’m touched that she went to so much effort just to see me make a face.
My heart warms and I can’t decide if I want to hug her or just reach over and brush a few tendrils of loose hair from her face.
I do neither, of course. I don’t have the nerve.
Instead, I gesture at the container and push on Pluto’s head again, because he’s still licking.
“Give me the rest. I’m going to mix them in with some of the regular cookies and watch the chaos. What’s in them?”
“Some herb that Skritch told me tastes like dirt to humans. I was curious if he was right.”
“He’s right.” I sniff the cookie and make a face.
Simone’s delight is apparent. “I got you so good. I’m going to have to think up some other heinous flavor combinations and hit you when you least expect it.”
“You assume I’ll be by every day,” I counter.
“Oh, you’ll be by.” She gives me a confident look and hands me the cookie container. “You can’t resist me. Or my pet.”
Her teasing makes me all flustered. It’s like she can read my mind and knows that I had filthy dreams about her last night. That we were snuggled in bed together, and when I reached for her, she kissed me…and kissed me and just kept on kissing me for hours.
First time in a long time I haven’t wanted to wake up.
Pluto gives my leg another wet lick and I squirm away, the moment broken.
A customer strolls up, and Simone turns her focus on her while I sip my tea, waiting for a lull in her business again.
For months now, I’ve been lingering for longer each morning.
I could talk to her for hours a day and never get enough.
The way she thinks is fascinating to me.
She’s crafty, always looking for a new approach to an old problem, and ambitious enough to go after what she wants.
I admire that. I’ve spent so long trying to figure out who and what I am that sometimes I wonder if I’m my own person or just a pale copy of the original Ruth from Earth.
I don’t normally doubt myself too much—Ruthie’s the one eaten up by it—but sometimes I wonder if that’s why I’m not braver.
Because if I was really brave, I’d tell Simone that I think she’s incredible. Better than incredible. Radiant. The best thing on this planet. The person I think about every morning when I wake up and wonder about every night as I go to sleep.
I watch her as she chats with the pretty blonde woman and tosses an extra cookie—the good kind—into her bag. She waves as the woman leaves and then turns back to me. “I can’t keep you. I imagine you need to head on out so you don’t get into trouble.”
“They can wait on me. It’s not like I’m pivotal right now.
” I bend down and rub Pluto’s jowls, since I’m not going to get to see him for several hours.
I want to get all my loving in before he has a chance to miss me.
So I scratch at his ear buds and run my fingers over his neck, getting all the itchy spots while he squirms and pants, loving the affection.
“You’re not pivotal right now? How so?” Simone asks, even as she tidies up her trays, sliding cookies down to the front of the cart so they’re better seen by customers.
I’m doing bookkeeping and menu planning for the cantina, and I’ve already got everything that’s going onto the menu laid out.
Zaemen’s in charge of the food, and I’m going to assist, but until the cantina actually opens, I don’t have a whole heck of a lot to do.
Her question makes it easy for me to pose the next one, though.
“Did you hear we’re opening soon? Next Saturday. ”
Simone pauses. “Are you inviting me?”
“Everyone’s invited.”
“Ah.” There’s a beat that lasts too long, and I wonder if I said something wrong. But she gives me a cheery look, reaching up to adjust the sun-shade. “It should be a fun way to celebrate my birthday.”
“That’s your birthday?”
“If you morph the Risda calendar into a human one, sure. Close enough.” She takes a sip of her tea, humming with approval that it’s already been sweetened for her, just how she likes.
“Happy birthday,” I say lamely, trying not to stare at her lips as they move over the rim of the cup. Don’t be weird, Ruth-Ann. Don’t be weird.
“When’s yours?”
“My what?”
She sets the cup down with a wry look. “Your birthday, silly.”
“Oh, uh…I don’t know.” I suddenly feel flustered. Maybe I’m getting too much sun and hot tea. “You know, maybe I should go.”
“Wait, what do you mean you don’t know your birthday?” Simone asks, her brows furrowing. “Did something happen?”
“Nothing happened.” I manage a tight smile.
“Oookay. Surely one of your sisters?—”
“Don’t ask my sisters about our birthday,” I snap, panicked.
Her eyes go wide.
Shit. I am screwing all of this up. She can’t find out that I’m a clone. It’s not just my secret. I’d be endangering my sisters if someone told on us. We’re already so obvious. Three identical Asian women named Ruth? We might as well fucking put targets on our foreheads.
Neck hot, panic in my belly, I do the only thing I can think of. I turn and walk away.