“Fake bacon or fake eggs?” Tess held up two boxes for everyone’s inspection.
“What makes it fake?” I asked, looking over the choices.
“Well, I guess I should say reconstituted.” She made her this-is-going-to-be-nasty-but-we’ll-get-through-it face. The expression was par for the course in theEndeavor’s kitchen. “And there’s probably some additional mystery stuff thrown into the mix. Adds protein or something. Puts hair on your chest.” She squinted to read the ingredients on the egg container and then seemed to think better of it and lowered the box.
An image of my kitchen on Albion 5 flashed in my mind, the cupboards and shelves stocked with the fresh food and the healthy eating choices that came so easily with planet-dwelling life. I blinked the picture out of existence. It wasn’t relevant. “I vote for both.”
“Me too,” Merrick murmured, his nose still buried in his tablet.
“Jax?” Tess asked.
“When have I ever said no to either of those things?” Jax’s easy smile was one I’d never seen directed at anyone but Tess. In general, the man redefined the wordtense.
“Both it is.” She poured a small cup of water into a pan, added some brown cubes from both boxes to it, and started mashing it all together. “And toast.”
I didn’t expect Tess to put the bacon and eggs together in one pan, but they probably both tasted more or less the same, and they ended up in the same place anyway, so why the hell not?
Toast was good. We still had fresh bread and butter from the Aisé Resort.
Fiona arrived, looking saucy in a civilian outfit I’d never seen on her before. High heels, tight pants, and a black leather top that laced up the back clung to her slim frame, showing me just how tiny she was without her boxy lab coat. Like a corset, her top had no straps and showed a good amount of cleavage. She’d left her hair down, which had to be the most unusual part in a whole lot of different.
I glanced at Jax. His jaw hung slack. His eyes dipped over her and then snapped back to her face, but Fiona had already turned, her dark hair sliding over her bare shoulders as she reached into the cabinet for the daily orange she always made sure the crew ate.
“What happened to your lab coat, Fi?” Tess asked, adjusting the temperature on the cooking surface from high to medium as the food expanded and began to pop.
“I don’t need it where I’m going this morning,” Fiona answered. She left that hanging in the air and so did Tess.
“And where’s that?” Jax eventually asked, sounding as though he’d swallowed rocks and was trying to cough them back up.
Leaning her hip against the counter, Fiona peeled the orange. The small smile she tried hard to hide told me she knew she was affecting Jax. The question was, didheknow it? Jax was a brick wall in more ways than one.
“Frank’s taking me to a new greenhouse one of his friends is running.”
“You can’t just walk around like that,” Jax said.
Fiona arched her brows at him. “I can’t?”
“It’s…cold here,” Jax grated out.
She shrugged. “I’ll take a jacket. I have one that matches my pants.”
Jax couldn’t help but look at her legs again before dragging his gaze back up. His eyes seemed a little wider than usual, but otherwise, the guy just looked frozen in place and slightly flushed. Fiona watched him coolly, the contrast between her space-pale complexion and nearly black hair more arresting than ever in that surprising outfit. Throw in her vibrant green eyes and petite size, and you got something that was almost ethereal.
“I might end up with some new seeds for theEndeavor,” Fiona said. “Apparently, they’ve had good luck with some classic fruits here lately. And I’m not sure I’ll get anything from that purple clawberry. It kind of took a beating on the climb out of the elevator.”
“Fresh fruit?” Tess’s eyes brightened.
My mouth started to water, but that might’ve been from the smell of trigrain nut bread toasting. I was pretty sure it wasn’t the fake eggs and bacon. “Peaches?” I asked hopefully.
Fiona snorted. “Not likely. Besides, I don’t think I can grow a tree in the cargo hold unless we cart in a whole lot of dirt from somewhere. I’m good, but I’m not a miracle worker. Most of my stuff is hydroponic.”
I grinned, my stomach rumbling. “Worth asking.”
Jax finished preparing the coffee, now visibly ignoring the fact that Fiona was gorgeous and dressed like a goddess who wanted to get a little dirty. Merrick didn’t seem to notice, and I had eyes, but that didn’t mean I was interested. I set aside the news and got up to put our plates on the table.
Fiona doled out the orange, and while I’d set a place for Mwende, who hadn’t shown up yet, Fiona gave the extra part to Merrick. We all stared at that double portion, but only Jax, Tess, and Fiona suddenly got very quiet. I knew from something Tess had said that Fiona always gave the extra part to Shiori. The blind woman hadn’t known she was getting more than the rest of them, and no one ever told her.
Mwende walked into the kitchen with a clipped stride and a no-nonsense attitude. Despite that, for the first time in our presence, she seemed to hesitate.
