Mitch sighed , looking mildly chagrined. “You’re right, I probably won’t.”
“And you don’t really want to either,” I asserted.
“Damn it, I hate how you’re right.”
“Daddy is always right,” Neal said solemnly, and the pilot chuckled once more.
“I’m just going to do my final pre-flight checks,” he said, escaping to his console. We sat there in silence while he did those and got clearance to take off.
“What would you like to watch?” the pilot asked.
“Lilo and Stitch,” the three of us chorused.
“But the TV show,” Neal added.
My kunnarskyn sent me a message alert. I read it, a wide grin spreading across my face.
“They found Jason Ito,” I told Mitch. “He was hiding out in a cellar whose door was hidden under a large carpet.”
“Wow! So he’s been arrested?”
I nodded. “Klora says he is ‘singing like a canary’. I hope he sounds better than Linda Takahashi did.”
Mitchell giggled. “He’s not really singing a song. That means he’s confessing and telling everything he knows.”
“Ah. I hope it provides closure for the Takahashi brothers and leads us to finding their uncle.”
“I hope they didn’t kill him.”
I hoped so too but knew that was likely a futile wish.
“I should arrange a day to hang out with Amy and Darla so I can dish about the weddings,” Mitch mused. “They are not going to believe it. Goodness knows I hardly do.” He fingered the turtle on his necklace as he spoke, the bracelet on his arm and ring on his finger glinting as the shuttle lights caught them.
“I can hardly believe I found my mate and got to marry him three times. We are mates so much there will never be an undoing.”
“You can’t undo one anyway,” the pilot called out.
“Haha, he’s got you there,” Mitch chortled.
“Shh, I can’t hear,” Neal complained.
Five minutes later, he was sound asleep anyway so Mitch and I asked for the vid to stop playing and to show us the view outside while listening to soft music. We flew home in companionable silence, my hand in his, though Mitch gave me a fond but exasperated look as I reached for it.
“This is going to make planning our first anniversary hard, you know.”
“We didn’t go to every island,” I observed.
His mouth fell open.”Do not even think about marrying me all over again on the rest of those islands.”
I just smiled, not making any such promises. I had an entire year to figure out where and when and what to gift him. He’d forgive me, I knew that for certain. He liked to pretend it was too much, but he treasured every moment and gesture. I wanted to give him many months where he knew he was being adored. He’s had enough harsh words and derision in his life before me, and I was determined he’d never have even a single instance of such ever again.
Our ship loomed before me and to my puzzlement, I saw I had a message from Lila McKay, one of the social workers assigned to work with Mylos families wishing to adopt children. I tapped it to respond, but saw it merely asked me to give her a call at nine in the morning her time. That would be eleven in the morning ship’s time, so I set a reminder. My heart seized, wondering what she wanted.
“Honey, what’s wrong?”
“A social worker just asked me to call them in the morning.”
Panic crossed his features as the shuttle entered the landing bay. “They can’t take Neal back, can they?” he asked me in a soft urgent tone, glancing at our young.
