|
She was aware of someone coming to sit beside her. Seeing the
clad knee nudge her, she immediately knew who it was, and she
had a smile ready for him when she lifted her head.
Ayn caught
the double entendre but chose to ignore the second one. “It’s
going to feel strange not flying through space anymore.”
“Ah, but
think of all the dangers we’ve had to face when we did. The
asteroid belts, the meteor showers, the radioactive nebulae,
the—”
“All right!
All right! You’ve made your point!” She laughed.
But he
continued. “And that’s not mentioning those planets with their
dangerous or poisonous atmospheres we had to work in, or their
gravity that nearly crushed the blood out of your body. I could
go on but I won’t.”
“Thank you.”
“Have you had
dinner yet?”
“I started to
when the captain came on to tell us the news.” She checked over
her shoulder at where she’d been sitting. It was occupied by
others.
“Come on.” He
took her hand and stood, giving her arm a tug. “I’m starving.
Let’s go get something.”
As they made
their way toward the front of the cafeteria where the food
producers were located, she glanced up at him. Once again she
was keenly aware of how small she appeared when she was next to
him, and she wasn’t a tiny woman. Blynn Trainer was one of those
tall, broad-chested men that most women adored being with. The
kind of guy they swooned over and dreamt of. The kind of guy
they’d readily jump into bed with, whether they were married or
not, just to get a taste of what he had stuffed inside his
jumpsuit.
Except Blynn
wasn’t the kind of man who got involved in extramarital affairs.
From what she’d personally witnessed, and what she’d overhead
others say when they spoke of him, he was a loner but dependable
and a damn hard worker. Many of the guys on the crew he led when
they went down-planet to excavate liked him.
Why in the
cosmos he happened to take a liking to her continued to baffle
her.
They got
their food and found a table where they could have a modicum of
privacy while they ate. Ayn glanced at the pot roast he dug into
and chuckled. “Why you get the same thing almost every time you
come to eat continues to astonish me. Or do you only get it when
I’m eating with you? Please tell me you don’t have it for
breakfast, too.”
He lifted
those green eyes at her, a deadpan expression on his face. “Why
don’t you stay over some time and find out?”
She managed
to answer him with a small smile and nothing else. It was an
old… No,
not old. More like…long-standing joke… She
mentally shook her head. No, it wasn’t a joke either.
“Blynn…”
“I know, I
know,” he whispered. “No pressure. I told you I’m willing to
wait.”
She dropped
her gaze to the bowl of soup she was stirring. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.”
He reached out to take her hand and gave it a squeeze. “I
understand. I know you will when you’re ready. I promise you I
can wait, and I will wait for you. However long it takes, I’ll
be here when you’re ready.”
They’d had
this discussion before. He wanted her. She wanted him. But her
past with Doone, the way her husband had abused and mistreated
her, made her freeze whenever Blynn tried to touch her
intimately. It had taken months before he could hold her hand or
kiss her without her becoming petrified with fear. She knew he’d
never hurt her, but her body was too accustomed to going into
survival mode. Its reaction was automatic as her defense
mechanism kicked in. She couldn’t help herself. The ship’s
psychiatrist had told her it would take some time before she
could accept another man in her life. To her immense relief,
Blynn was willing to wait.
“I love you.
You know that, right?” she murmured.
He snorted.
“Yeah, I do. And I don’t get tired of hearing you say it. Makes
the wait worth it.” Giving her hand another squeeze, he let it
go, and they continued on with their meal.
She was
contemplating dessert with the intercom honked, signaling
another message from the bridge. Blynn chuckled. “Damn. We
haven’t had this many notifications since we were almost hit by
that rogue comet.”
They were
both surprised when Tivey’s face filled the screen again.
“Bringing you an update, as promised,” the man informed them.
“After careful consideration, the Council has decided we will
not, I repeat, we will not take residence on Segarius 7 itself.
Instead, we’re going ahead with the formation of the ring, and
establish our world colony in orbit above the planet.”
“For someone
who earlier said we were going to take our time and not be hasty
in our decisions, this sort of takes the wind out of that, don’t
you think?” Blynn muttered.
She shushed
him to concentrate on what the captain had to say next.
“I know
you’re probably asking why we’ve already made that decision,
since we’ve yet to send down any troops to investigate this
world,” Tivey continued, and Ayn tossed Blynn an amused grin.
“It was made for several reasons, the first and most important
one being the fact that we’re going to be doing some serious
drilling and excavating down there. As many of you know,
sometimes the digging can initiate tremors, or worse, landslides
and other seismic activity such as earthquakes. We fear that,
even if we establish drill sites far away from wherever we
establish our colonies, the digging might inevitably cause
untold destruction. Furthermore, with as much ore as this planet
holds, we may need to open up additional drilling sites after
one site has been consumed.”
The man
looked off-screen to check something, then returned his
attention to the front. “We will begin docking procedures at
oh-six-hundred hours.” Tivey grinned. “If you’re still in bed at
that time, don’t worry if you’re jolted during your sleep. We’ll
try to make the transition as smooth as possible, but we can’t
promise there won’t be a few bumps or vibrations.
“The next
time I sign on, it’ll be to announce the formation and
completion of what we’re calling The Earth Ring. Until then,
Tivey out.”
Several
seconds passed when Blynn commented, “Oh-six-hundred, right?”
“That’s what
the man said.”
He turned in
his seat to face her directly. “Ayn, I have a proposal to make.
Just…” He held up a hand to stop her from commenting before he
was ready. “Hear me out before you reply. I know you know I know
what I’m facing when it comes to getting you to trust me. So
I’ve been thinking. A lot. I know I’ve promised to take it slow
and easy, so here’s what I propose our next step to be.”
She stared
into his green depths, almost afraid to breathe. Hoping beyond
hope that he was going to say what she’d been praying to hear
him say.
“Move in with
me, Ayn. Come live with me. You know I have my own cabin. You
can take the bed, and I’ll take the pull-out bed in the front
room.” His smile grew wider, but she detected a nervousness in
him. “Our civilization is getting a fresh start on a whole new
future. I think it’s time we, the two of us, did the same. So,
what do you say, Ayn? Don’t you agree it’s time you moved out of
that cabin you used to share with Doone? A cabin that holds
nothing but bad memories for you, even though you’re sharing it
with Lorraine now? Let her have it and get a new roomie. Shuck
that part of your past, and start a new future with me, okay?”
He searched
her face. She knew he was expecting her to turn him down the
same way she’d turned him down or away on so many other things.
But he was right. She needed a fresh start. She was allowed to
have one. She’d earned it, especially with someone like him.
Sensing she
was about to turn him down again, he added, “Tomorrow morning,
we’ll come have breakfast. While we’re eating, we can watch
these ships move into position…and you can find out if I have
pot roast with my corn flakes.”
That last bit
was enough to tip the scales. She took a deep breath. “You’re
right. It’s time I allowed myself…us…to start a new future. I
accept your terms, Blynn Trainer. When do you want me to move
in?”
He didn’t
reply. Not in words, but in the soft, trembling kiss he gave her
that, for the first time, she neither shied away from, nor cut
short.
In truth, she
found herself wanting more of them, and that acknowledgment
surprised her. |