“I remember, Appa,” she murmured, bolting down the painful time. To take her father’s mind off their loss, she said, “I can’t believe the cabbie told the newspapers that crazy story. Imagine insisting a rock fromspacehit the first car, causing the accident?” She flexed her tingling fingers, protected by heavy work gloves. “Besides, they didn’t find any evidence, just residue of dust and dirt, all belonging to Earth.”
“He must read a lot of fables.”
Leya laughed, turning back to her chore. The side door to the nursery creaked open, and Saul limped out, making his way to them. “Yo, Eugene,” he rumbled, anglicizingU-Jin, her father’s given name. He was a big man with a hearty smile who shattered his leg in an explosion during his first tour in war-torn Afghanistan several decades ago. “I’ll do the drive tomorrow and finish the last part of the Millen job. Joey’s got some family thing going on.”
No, having a prosthetic leg didn’t slow him down at all.
Her father nodded and rubbed his eyes.
“Appa, go on home. I’ll finish up here.”
He lowered his hand. “You coming home tomorrow?”
“Nah, I’m going to the annual garden show in Toronto. Who knows, I might go play tourist afterwards now that Hana’s back,” she deadpanned.
Her father shook his head, catching onto her teasing. “You both come, I’ll make your favoritejjigae.”
Man, he sure knew how to get them to visit. Yep, mention their favorite stew. Still… “I’m dog-tired and working tomorrow, Appa. But save some and bring me lunch on Monday.”
“No. If you wantjjigae, then come home.”
Smiling at her crafty parent, Leya watched him shuffle away.
She heaved another bag onto the truck bed as an engine started in the front parking lot, then faded as her father drove off.
“It’s the weekend, lass,” Saul rasped in his gravelly voice, leaning against the truck and rubbing his bad knee. “You’re young. Go have some fun. Find a young man, paint the town red.”
She choked out a laugh and then winced at the ache in her face, her thoughts rushing to the last guy she’d been with.
As gorgeous ashe—Aerén was—ugh, just no. The guy was off his rocker, rolled with gangs, and killed without remorse.
“No time for that, Saul. You should go home. I’ll be finished here shortly—”
The buzzer for the office chimed, and the light on the outside wall blinked, alerting them to someone at the front door.
“I’ll go see who it is, then head off.” He limped away.
Leya pivoted to the truck. Find a guy? Unless one walked into here and asked her out, yeah, she didn’t see that happening.
Man, she was sore, tired, and longed for a hot, soothing bath, then food and sleep. As soon as she was done here, she’d do just that.
Blowing away the strands of hair sticking to her face, Leya glanced up as twilight stole what remained of the pale blue sky…the color almost likehishair.
Jeez. Thinking abouthimwas even more stress-inducing.
She frowned. Now that her terror and anger from the encounter had waned, and fear wasn’t consuming her, his words drummed in her head.
They would have killed you or any humans who stumbled upon them.
What did he mean by that?
Were those men on some kind of drug, and was that the reason for the red eyes? God knew they sounded demented enough and seemed to be on an all-time high…
Wait, she was sure the bodies had disappeared in a wink…but with her hurting head, it could’ve been her mind playing tricks. Dead bodies didn’t simply vanish.
“Last load of saplings, Leya,” Embry, the second-year horticulture student who worked part-time at the garden center, called out, stopping near the truck with the trolley.
“Oh, good.” Leya hopped onto the truck bed and grabbed the compost bags she’d already dropped there, stacking them neatly. She wiped her face on her arm again and groaned at the throbbing in her cheekbone.
