“Rasker.”
“One more minute.”
She gave him the minute. She gave him several, actually, because standing in the warm rain with his arms around her and the square shining in the lamplight was not a moment she was in any hurry to end.
Eventually, they walked back to the hotel. The lobby was dim and quiet, Luv having powered down for the night. They dripped water across the floor, which Luv would have opinions about in the morning. Holly carried her shoes in one hand and pushed her wet hair back with the other, marveling at how much she’d changed in these few short months. Standing in the rain at two in the morning for romantic reasons was not an activity she’d ever dreamed of doing when she lived in Nova. Not only because there was no rain in Nova. There was no…well, none ofthis.
They stopped outside her door. The hallway was lit by the soft light of the after-hours lighting setting. Rasker’s hair fell in messy damp strands and the rain had turned his shirt translucent. Holly took it all in.
He kissed her. Slow and warm and tasting of rain. His hand found the small of her back and hers found the front of his shirt. Rain-soaked fabric bunched in her fist, and they stood there in the hallway, unhurried, as if time were a thing that could be convinced to wait.
She wanted to invite him inside. The thought was right there, vivid and certain, and she could feel that he knew it, and he wasleaving the decision to her in a way that made her want him more, not less.
“Goodnight,” she said, against his mouth.
“Goodnight, Holly.”
Neither of them moved. His fingers found hers and their hands laced together. They stayed like that for a long, suspended moment before she pulled away, slowly, their fingers sliding apart.
She let herself in and closed the door.
The living unit was dark except for the soft glow of the dome’s nighttime light through the windows. Luv was silent and still in her corner, attached to her charging port. Bean was on the bed, curled in a tight circle. His eyes popped open at her arrival. He regarded her wet hair and clothes and closed his eyes again.
Holly stripped off her wet things, toweled her hair, and pulled on dry clothes. She climbed into bed, and Bean shifted to press his warm back against her hip. She lay in the dark and listened to the rain, still falling outside, muffled by the walls and the windows she had uncovered weeks ago.
The festival was tomorrow. The square was clean and well-lit. Harry’s teas and her baked goods were stored and ready. Rasker’s NuProd was on stand-by. Mish’s garden and the forest trail had signage in four different languages, and Alyce had planted flowers around Sam’s bench at the overlook. Holly couldn’t recall being so proud of the wonderful, stubborn team of people who’d come together to make this happen.
She thought about Beenan’s message, still sitting unanswered on her wrist comm. Level four. The salary. The safety net. The life she had built over twelve years, waiting for her to come back and put it on like an old suit.
She could not imagine putting it on. She could not imagine leaving this place, these people, this dog, this man who kissedher in the rain and held her hand in a hallway and wanted her to succeed even though it would cost him.
How did I ever consider going back?
Bean sighed and tucked himself even closer.
Holly closed her eyes and let the question go unanswered, because she already knew. She had considered it because she was afraid. And she wasstillafraid. But the fear had changed shape. It was no longer the fear of failing to complete a goal. It was the fear of losing a part of her that she’d only just discovered.
She fell asleep with her dog warm against her side and the rain falling softly over Moone’s Landing, and for the first time in longer than she could remember, she was genuinely happy.
Thirty-Six
Holly pulled a tray of strawberry muffins from the oven and slid them onto the counter to cool. Before she could lift them from their tin, a stunning Lokrian traveler with luminous skin and no eyebrows pointed at the tray and held up three fingers. Holly gingerly handed them over with a warning that they were still hot, accepted thenits, and started mixing the next batch. She watched the female glide from the lounge with every eye fixed on her. Beenan would lose his mind if he knew she was hosting a Lokrian at her little outpost.
The lounge was busier than she had ever seen it. Visitors occupied every table and most of the stools along the bar. Some were travelers who had stopped to recharge their ships, not because they had to, but because they’d heard about the festival and were curious enough to request docking at the spaceport.Thosewere the ones who would never have stopped there otherwise.
Others had come specifically because of Harry’s channel, and those were the ones who had booked rooms in advance at the hotel. Holly could tell the difference: the general travelers who’d stopped out of curiosity, or necessity, looked around with mild interest, while theFrolicking with Fungifollowers (oh, Harrylovedwordplay) arrived with enthusiasm and at least one article of clothing bearing an image of a mycelium in some stage of development. They were easy to spot.
She had been at this for hours. The oven had been running since dawn, and the lounge smelled of butter and warm bread and the faintly sweet steam of Harry’s tea station, which occupied the shelving unit Rasker had built and was doing a brisk business of its own. Two of the eight varieties Harry had stocked had already sold out. Holly wore a flour-dusted apron over the copper tunic she’d bought from The Emporium, and her hair was pulled back and slightly damp from the heat of the kitchen.
A human woman in a battered flight suit approached the counter and studied the offerings. “Did you make all of this?”
“I did.” Holly gestured to the display. “The scones are popular, but the vegetable pies are my personal favorite. The vegetables were grown right here on the station.”
“Yougrowthings here?” The woman looked genuinely surprised. “On a moon?”
“Under the dome. We have gardens, a forest, even fruit trees.” Holly smiled. “There’s a tour, if you’re interested. Mish runs it from the garden gate.”
“I haven’t been on solid ground in three years and two months,” the woman mused, then bought two scones and a pie, and Holly watched her bite into a scone with pure bliss. “Ohmy. You’ve got a customer whenever I’m in the sector,” the woman said around a mouthful.
