The mob froze in shocked silence. Then, everyone around her lowered the bowls, cups and various containers, but didn’t discard them.
“Do you all want to go to jail? This is a public park, for Pete’s sake, not a fraternity house. Stop all of this craziness before someone calls the sheriff.”
As if she’d arranged for it in advance, the thin wail of a siren rose in the distance. It was getting louder. Valene looked toward the skies, issuing a silent plea it wasn’t the sheriff. She’d cheerfully face down a deputy or a rent-a-cop or absolutely anyone other than Skeeter Bite’s chief lawman.
Someone in the crowd yelled, “It’s the cops! I’m outta here!”
Like juvenile delinquents caught standing with dripping cans of spray paint in front of a defaced wall, all around Valene folks dropped the chili bowls, cups and other containers to the ground and raced to their booths. They threw utensils, pots and leftover ingredients into the backs of the pickup trucks, SUVs and trailers that had brought them to the cook-off and made their getaways. In less than two shakes of a lamb’s tail, the better part of the chili-making crowd was racing away, honking at others doing the same thing and exiting the park with as much order as a demolition derby.
That left Valene, Aunt Dixie and Miss Penny to face law enforcement with the few remaining chili-splattered attendees.
Naturally, it had to be the sheriff of Skeeter Bite. Wyatt Campbell.
Wyatt drove in one side of the parking area as the contestants’ vehicles streamed out the opposite end. He turned off his siren, parked and got out of his official vehicle, scowling as road dust swirled in the air around him. He approached the hot zone.
Wyatt glanced around at the remaining bystanders, took in their chili-stained clothing and rueful expressions. Daphne Charlene looked bewildered. The five judges cowered on the makeshift stage. Valene, Aunt Dixie and Miss Penny stood with several other seemingly stunned folks caught in the crossfire while attending what the uninitiated might expect to be a wholesome, family-friendly public event.
“What in tarnation happened here?” he asked. His semi-choked tone told Valene he was probably doing his best to keep a big grin from coming to rest on his gorgeous lips.
She forced herself to meet his eyes. He had no idea she’d about come to the conclusion she’d have to break up with him. Not that anyone but the two of them would know, since she’d worked very hard to keep things on the down low. It was coming time to end their secret relationship. Their sweet, sexy, steaming hot secret relationship.
She was stuck. Although she’d been wracking her brains for months, she hadn’t figured out a way to sidestep the weighty—and completely unfair—rules set by Alpha-Prime or the ones enforced by her own family. Simply put, a permanent bond with Wyatt, a human, was a one-way ticket off Earth. If she couldn’t find a way, and soon, she’d have to give him up. Her heart seized for a beat at the coming loss.
She loved Wyatt. She loved her family. It was an impossible situation, being forced to choose between leaving Earth with the love of her life and staying with her family on the only world she’d ever known. While she hadn’t given up, she was close to being forced to make that very horrible decision.
Wyatt, of course, had no idea his girlfriend was an alien from Alpha-Prime.
Daphne Charlene, who watched Wyatt avidly as soon as his cruiser pulled in, suddenly raced down the steps of the gazebo to fling herself against his chest, wrapping her arms around his neck. She sobbed out a few words, then stopped trying to talk and just cried on him.
He didn’t touch her, at least not at first. Finally, he patted her back awkwardly with one palm, his gaze on Valene.
She returned his stare, knowing hers held a longing component because she was in love with him. She kept herself in check as best she could, resisting the urge to tear the other woman away from him. They were in public, and she couldn’t do anything that might give away the fact they were a couple. An on-again, off-again couple. More on than off because Valene was weak. Every time she tried to leave him or say they needed some space, she was unable to stay away from him. Valene was in love with a human and his name was Sheriff Wyatt Campbell, the operative word beinghuman.
If she continued a romantic relationship with him and they got married, he would have to be told about the aliens that were living in Alienn, Arkansas. Her whole family had come to Earth from another planet a few generations before with the human population none the wiser. Humans on Earth wereneverto know about them or where they came from. No exceptions. None.
First, Wyatt would need to be told about aliens living in plain sight in Alienn, running a huge galactic way station under the Big Bang Truck Stop. Then, he’d have to agree to move with Valene to her home planet of Alpha-Prime. If he didn’t agree, he’d be given a massive dose of drugs to make him forget all he’d learned about them, and her. He’d be released to live his human life, without her or any memory of their relationship.
It was vastly unfair. Valene wanted Wyatt with every breath she took. She hated to see him with a beautiful girl hugged up against him. She had to bite her tongue and think happy thoughts to keep from lowering her head, kicking one foot through the chili laden grass a few times before charging forward to butt the two of them apart, arena-bull style.
Wasn’t it bad enough she was named after motor oil and old gasoline? Did she have to suffer this public humiliation as well? It was a question she asked herself often. Her parents thought her name was beautiful and had no doubts. Valene had plenty of regrets.
Valvoline Ethyl Grey was the name on her birth certificate. Even with that handicap and the additional curse of six older and extremely protective brothers, she’d still managed to find the perfect man to fall in love with.
A man who loved her despite those two very unfortunate truths. A man who had a special endearment he called her when it was just the two of them alone together. A man she would likely not get to keep forever. Because he didn’t know about the most important aspect of her life. She was an alien from another planet. He was a gorgeous earthling and never the twain shall meet.
Even though she wanted him in the worst way. Even if she were willing to move to a planet two galaxies away—and she wasn’t—Wyatt would never go for it. He was part of a large, close-knit family. He’d have to leave the planet without a trace and no one in his big family could ever know where he’d gone or why. He’d simply disappear.
A totally unfair scenario.
Sheriff Wyatt Campbell was flawless in every single way, except for the part about being a human. Not that being human was a problem in general, but Valene couldn’t marry a human and remain on Earth. She had to choose—leave her family and move to another galaxy or give up Wyatt. Stupid rules. And in Valene’s albeit biased judgment, they were really, truly the stupidest rules every conceived by, well, aliens.
Humans were never to know aliens lived in plain sight in Alienn, Arkansas or in the offshoot colony in Nocturne Falls, a small town in Georgia. Never!
Valene had even secretly checked to see if she and Wyatt could move to Georgia and live in peace. Nova, her brother Diesel’s office assistant, had helped her send the inquiry to Alpha-Prime’s Headquarters of Extra-terrestrial Affairs. HETA replied unequivocally a week ago: Denied, never, big-fat-no, don’t even think about it.
Valene was out of ideas. For now.
But how long would Wyatt wait? He’d been pretty patient with what he assumed to be a commitment-phobic girlfriend, but she knew he wanted to marry her. He’d even spoken to her eldest brother about dating her, since their parents were out of town more often than not in recent years. Wyatt thought he was talking to the de facto head of her family, when really he was addressing the Arkansas colony’s Fearless Leader.
