He shifted in the water, placed his hands on her waist, and lifted her to the pool’s edge in one easy motion. She sat there, feet dangling, water streaming off her, and held his gaze. “I need to get back.”
“Of course.” He hid his reluctance to leave well and moved to the edge, but she held out a hand.
“You can stay, Rasker. Keep swimming,” she told him. “I know you want to, and I need a little time. To think.”
“Are you sure?”
She nodded and stood up, retrieving her pullover. “I’m sure.”
He dove and she watched him go, a dark shape moving through the lit water below her. The thought was deflating, even as sheknewthe kiss had to end.
Holly pulled on her boots and picked up the tool bucket. If her movements were a little slow, oh well. It had been an eternity since she’d been kissed like that. So sue her if she was doing things in a bit of a haze.
When he surfaced, at the far end of a pool, she called over to him. “Want me to come back later and pick you up?”
“No need,” he called back. “I’ll walk.”
She nodded once and turned toward the walkway.
Thezigride back to the base of the control tower, where thezigswere stored in a storage room on ground level, was very quieter. Obviously, since there was no one in thezigto talk toexcept herself, and she would have nothing coherent to say to anyone even if shewasn’talone.
Holly’s chest was too full, packed with a mix of giddiness and nerves and unsettled worries in roughly equal proportions. It was not her favorite combination. She had also, she realized, completely confirmed—to herself, at least—that Rasker hadn’t touched the garden. Her gut generally didn’t steer her wrong, but she didn’t look forward to telling Alyce and Mish that it wassomeone elsewho’d damaged the garden.
She needed to return the tools to Sam, but she parked thezigand sat in it for a moment without getting out.
Unless it wasn’t Cody sleeping out there in the woods. How hard would it be to sneak out of a ship that had landed for a power cell recharge, and hide out? Notthathard. They could have a stowaway.
Complete Respite. She hadn’t heard a word from them. No transmissions, no formal correspondence, no follow-up to their original offer. She had taken that as a good sign, or at least a neutral one.
But what if they weren’t just being polite? What if they had a darker plan to get her to sell?
The oven. The garden. Two things, both targeted, both aimed at the parts of Moone’s Landing that people needed to survive and stay. Nothing dramatic or catastrophic. This damage could be attributed to bad luck or deterioration, if you didn’t look too closely.
She got out of thezig.
She had no idea who from Complete Respite would do this—if it evenwasthem. She had no face to put to it, no name, no ship docked at the bay with a corporate emblem. But that wasn’t reassuring. It just meant she hadn’t been looking for the right things.
She lifted the bucket and went inside.
Rasker was right about one thing: she’d need to be vigilant. Because the next thing that went wrong could be more serious than some garden crops or an oven. It could be someone’s life.
Twenty-Eight
Aweek and a half had passed, and Holly was in the lounge. Cupcakes were arranged on the counter beside a full pot of Harry’s mushroom tea blend. She had meant to hold this meeting four days ago, and then three days ago, and then the day before yesterday, and each time something had gotten in the way. A new batch of hotel guests with a finicky landing thruster. Two more days of garden repair with Mish, hauling soil and replanting. A wall panel in unit six that had begun making a sound she could only describe as “unhappy.”
It was morning now, and everyone was here, and the cupcakes were good, and she was going to get through this.
She’d arranged the lounge in the same semicircular configuration as the first meeting. Alyce chose the chair next to Sam, and Sam sat next to Holly. Harry was across from her and was already on his second cupcake. Mish sat on her other side, her hair in its characteristic lopsided bun, with Orba and Sula sitting beside her. This time, Mish’s fourteen children had come along. Apparently, the “happy room” wasn’t going to cut it. They sat in two silent rows at the back of the room, cross-legged on the floor. Tyer sat next to Harry, empty-handed, the cupcakes having presented a problem.
“I’m allergic to…” He’d circled a finger over the plate.
“What?” Harry had interjected, plucking a cupcake for himself as he breezed by. “Fun? Sensory delight?” He took a bite and grinned. “Pity. More for us.”
Tyer had smirked, looked at the pot of mushroom tea with suspicion, and gotten himself a glass of water instead.
Cody lounged in a chair next to Harry, wriggling his bare toes in his sandals, and Luv was here this time, just behind Holly. Luv was a resident, and she was going to be treated as one. The other new addition was Bean. He sat with his rump sharing Holly’s seat and with his front paws on her lap. The dog had decided she was nowhisperson, and he took that responsibility seriously by never leaving her side. Holly wasn’t interested in arguing this, as she had become utterly smitten with him.
He surveyed the room from his throne of Holly’s lap. His white-browed, sober gaze surveyed all with equal parts skepticism and side-eye. No one commented about it. Bean had been an established fixture of Moone’s Landing before Holly, and now he went where Holly went. It was simply the arrangement.
