They’d brought the items they’d collected across the galaxies. Jack had the cardboard box under one arm and Madelaine had found a larger backpack to place the remaining packages they’d collected in one place.
Hand in hand, Jack and Madelaine strolled through the convenience store’s sliding doors and headed to the back corner where his eldest brother’s office was. Of course, three of hissix siblings stood right outside Diesel’s office in front of Nova Greene’s desk. How inconvenient.
Cam, Axel and Valene looked like they were having a serious discussion.
Axel saw him first, eyes widening in what looked like sincere relief. It didn’t last. “Where in the space potato farm have you been all this time?” Axel asked, like he was lecturing an errant child who had come home past curfew.
“You were the one who gave him two weeks off in the first place,” Cam said. “By the way, Jack, you need to fill out yards of paperwork for all the time you’ve been gone.” Cam gave Axel a side-eye. “Some people don’t do paperwork, apparently.”
“Hey, it’syourpaperwork,” Axel said. “Besides, I didn’t do any because the last time I filled in, you didn’t like the way I did it and you griped for weeks about having to do it all over when you returned. This time, I decided not to waste my valuable time. I just left it for you to do the way you like best. Enjoy.”
Valene, who took one look at Jack and Madelaine holding hands, grinned and gave them both a double thumbs-up. That made him hope that at least he had his little sister on his side.
Jack had missed his siblings. Part of him was glad to be back home on earth, even though he knew that meant his time with Madelaine might be quickly coming to an end.
Madelaine squeezed his hand, signaling she was anxious to get downstairs to talk to Diesel about the package she was here to retrieve. Jack expected they would have to spend a little time explaining to his eldest brother about what he’d been doing for the last couple of weeks away from Alienn.
“Why is everyone upstairs at the Big Bang Truck Stop anyway?” Jack asked.
Valene said, “Aunt Dixie cornered Diesel in his office. Nova called us to rescue him. We were just hashing out a plan.”
“I’ll do it,” Jack said. “We need to talk to him on a matter of importance anyway.”
“Wait a minute, Jack,” Nova said, a twinkle in her eye. “Aren’t you going to introduce us to your newwife, Madelaine?”
Jack shook his head. “Looks like I don’t need to. Seems you’ve already figured it out.” He tightened his grip on the cardboard box and tugged on Madelaine’s hand. Together, they walked through the doorway where a sign proclaimed this was the office of the Fearless Leader and made their way down the short hall to Diesel’s office.
The door was cracked open and before they got all the way down the hall, Jack could hear Aunt Dixie railing at Diesel about something. This was typical behavior for his aunt, though, and he didn’t worry about it until he heard his name mentioned.
Jack didn’t even knock, he just pushed the door open. His brother sat behind his desk looking miserable. Aunt Dixie stood in front of it, arms in the air, speaking passionately. “—no one has seen him in over two weeks and I think we need to form a search party to find him!”
“Who are you looking for?” Jack asked innocently. Diesel looked incredibly relieved to see him as Jack and Madelaine stepped into the office.
Aunt Dixie let out a squeal the moment he spoke, turning toward him and dropping her arms to her sides. “Where have you been? I haven’t seen you since the bachelor auction. We’ve been worried.” Aunt Dixie’s eyes moved from him to Madelaine and then down to their clasped hands. She sucked in a deep breath. “Did you get married? Is Madelaine your new bride? Have you been on a long honeymoon? Where did you go? I hear Lava Rock World is awesome. Is that where you two went or did you go to Gothic Ice Floe Planet instead?” She glanced down at the box Jack carried. “Say, does that cardboard box have a wedding gift inside? Can I see it?”
Diesel stood up. “It’s time for you to go, Aunt Dixie.”
“I’m not ready yet, Diesel. I have questions that need to be answered.” She opened her mouth as if she was going to launch another barrage of questions, but Diesel slid an arm around her shoulders and basically pushed her out of his office and into the hallway, closing and locking the door.
The three of them heard her outraged tantrum, loudly, from the hallway. Someone, likely either Cam or Axel, led her away from the door until they couldn’t hear her yelling.
“First of all, thank you for rescuing me from Aunt Dixie. Second of all, where in the space potato farm have you been for eighteen days?”
As they’d rehearsed, Madelaine stepped forward and said, “I am the Paladin Courier. I believe you have a package for me.”
Diesel’s expression started at suspicious, morphed into disbelief, stopped briefly at anger and settled on shock. He backed away from her, grabbed the top of his desk with both hands and levered himself around the edge until he plopped into his executive chair. “You’re the Paladin Courier?”
“I am.”
“Did you marry Jack?” Diesel asked.
“Yes. We’re married,” Jack answered for them both. “I’m surprised you didn’t pry that information out of Axel. He saw us at the courthouse right after we tied the knot. Even though I made him swear a blood oath not to reveal it, I figured either you or Aunt Dixie would get it out of him before we returned.”
“Nope. He wouldn’t talk.” Diesel shook his head and seemed to get ahold of himself. He stood up, walked around his desk and went to a bookshelf on the opposite side of the room. “Follow me.”
Diesel pulled out the fifth book from the left at eye level, grabbed what looked like an old trophy on the shelf and pulledon it. Suddenly, the bookcase opened wide to reveal a narrow passage.
“So this is where you’ve been hiding from Aunt Dixie,” Jack said, impressed.
