Dad had to go and ruin it, though. Before T’raat reached me, he thundered between us and brandished his butcher knife. “Stop right there! You’re not getting your alien hands on my daughter!”
I cringed. “Aw, Dad! He’s not hurting anything. He just wanted to pet her.”
“That’s probably not the only thing he wants to pet,” Dad snarled.
“Jesus, Dad. You’re being ridiculous.” I stomped around him, dodging his outstretched arm as he tried to stop me. “The poor guy just crashed. We should take him inside and make sure he’s not hurt or something.”
“Leigh Ann! Did you forget what these things did to your Aunt Ann? They almost killed her!”
“Not this one,” I said, irritated with Dad’s apparent xenophobia and bigotry. So a Xalanite hurt his sister, Ann—so what? It wasn’t this Xalanite.
Tossing my blonde ponytail over my shoulder, I jogged up to meet T’raat. Taylor Hoof, having apparently decided that the grass was plenty green enough right where she stood, didn’t follow me. She just pulled up some blades with her teeth and started chewing.
“Sorry about my dad. He’s a little overprotective.”
T’raat nodded solemnly. “Yes. A father should protect his young.”
I put my hands on my hips and scowled at him. “I’m not that young! I’m an adult, I’ll have you know. Twenty-two next week.”
The purple man paused. Blinked. Grinned. “Old enough for mating, yes?”
That wasn’t quite what I was getting at, but technically correct. “Uh …”
“Don’t you dare!” Dad had caught up with us. “Leigh Ann, I swear, if you encourage this—this—thing…”
“Dad! He’s a person for fuck’s sake. Calm down.”
He grabbed my arm and pulled me back from T’raat. “If you continue to talk to me like that, missy, you’ll be grounded, adult or not.”
I yanked my arm free and scowled at Dad. “Well, you’re being unreasonable. Thismanis in trouble, and we should be helpinghim.” I waved at the smoking spaceship. “He just crashed here, and you’re too busy hating him for something someone else did to even bother asking if he’s okay. What if he’s hurt? We should be taking him to the farmhouse and finding that out, not yelling at the poor guy. You haven’t even introduced yourself to him. Just running up with a knife like he was some kind of criminal.”
Dad harrumphed and crossed his burly arms over his chest, resting them on his beer gut. If it wasn’t for his pudgy belly, he might have made a more imposing figure, but juxtaposed next to T’raat, who didn’t have an ounce of fat that I could see, it just made Dad look more like a grumpy old curmudgeon. I doubted T’raat could be dissuaded from anything by Dad’s stance, though the butcher knife still in his hand might still be enough of a threat to the newcomer.
After a few tense moments, Dad sniffed and rubbed the tip of his nose with the back of his hand. “I’m Harrison. Harrison Hall. Are you … Did you get hurt in the crash or anything?”
T’raat grinned again, his scaled cheeks dimpling. “I am unharmed, but many thanks for the inquiry.”
I stammered a response as I started to drip sweat. “N-no problem.” I fanned myself with my hand. Was the temperature rising, or was it just me? Wisconsin fall weather certainly wasn’t usually this warm, and I hadn’t seen anything on the news about a heat wave coming through.
The alien’s gaze burned into me. “Are you unwell?” he asked as I panted and huffed.
“I’m just … a little … dizzy.”
A frown marred T’raat’s perfect face. “Perhaps we should get you to this farmhouse, if that is where injured humans go,” he said. He turned to Dad. “If she is not well enough to walk, I can carry her, Harrison.”
The warring expressions on Dad’s face would have been humorous if I hadn’t been about to pass out. The proximity toT’raat had my head spinning, due in no small part, I’m sure, to the intensity of his inspection of me. Every second his eyes were on me I felt myself fading more, and I cursed myself for being such a weenie. Why couldn’t I just breathe?
“Here,” T’raat said, his voice suddenly soft. He scooped me into his arms before Dad could object. “Direct me to the farmhouse. I will take you there.”
Oh, be still my heart!
An alarm beeped somewhere on T’raat, and he blinked in confusion. After shifting my weight in his arms to check a device on his wrist, realization crossed his features. The gills on the side of his neck flared a couple of times as he breathed deeply. “Oh! It is my fuel exhaust. There is a contaminant leaking. As the smallest of us, you are most affected by the fumes.” He turned to Dad. “We must vacate the area before she is further overcome. Please, lead me to the farmhouse.”
That seemed to cinch it for Dad. He might be pissed, but he would never intentionally let me come to harm by keeping T’raat from getting me to safety. He grunted and gave a small nod, and I rested my dizzy head against T’raat’s broad shoulder as he carried me to the house.
Mom would have had a conniption fit if she’d seen me in the arms of an alien man after a loud crash out in the field. Dad was probably glad Mom hadn’t lived to see this; she had been even more protective of me than Dad, if that was at all possible. Dad at least gave me some leeway in my freedoms after Mom died, like he felt guilty for me losing her so young.
Once he let T’raat inside with me, Dad directed him up the stairs to my bedroom. T’raat laid me gently down on the bed and brushed his scaled fingertips over my forehead, careful not to scratch me with his claws.
