Rosemary

 

 

“So what’s this kid of yours going to look like?” Rosemary slumped down onto the sofa next to Hazel. A Sangrin soap opera played on the screen embedded in the wall while Hazel knitted.

“Watch it. Don’t bump my skein or it’ll get tangled.”

Rosemary adjusted the skein of cornflower blue yarn and admired the softness. “What are you making?”

“Well, this was going to be a baby blanket, but now it’s an apology scarf for my sister. Think she’ll like it?”

“She likes how soft it is. Thank you.”

Hazel nodded. The fabric draped across her lap. “Are stupidly long scarves still in fashion?”

“Yes, and wide enough to fold over your head like a shawl.”

“I might as well knit you a blanket, then, and I don’t know what he’ll look like. Mostly human.”

“Mostly?”

“They tell me that the Mahdfel tend to look like their mothers and some human women on the ship have already had their babies. One lady, Carrie, has the sweetest baby boy. He’s all smiles and looks a lot like her, right down to the red hair and freckles. He smells so good.” Hazel paused, the knitting needles slipping from her hands. “I got baby fever pretty bad, huh?”

“The worst case I’ve ever seen,” Rosemary confirmed. When Michael was born, Hazel had obviously fallen in love with her nephew, but she never gushed about how good he smelled. For the record, as a baby, he smelled amazing.

“Then there’s the warlord’s wife, Mercy. She’s nice, but the warlord is a bit scary.”

Rosemary nodded. She found all the Mahdfel a bit scary. A week of close contact had softened the edge of that fear, but just the title warlord sounded frightening. The Mahdfel leader wasn’t a general or a president or minister, but a lord of war.

Lorran, with his jokes and easygoing nature, didn’t correspond with that idea, nor did Seeran and the devotion he lavished on Hazel. Supposedly, the Mahdfel were cruel, short-tempered, prone to violent outbursts, unreasonable, and more brawn than brains. At least, so the anti-alien folks back on Earth would have her believe.

She had always believed it, a tiny bit. She never met a Mahdfel before so it was easy to believe all the bad press and let those ideas fester in an ugly part of her heart.

Yet she liked the Rhew family, even Mene. She felt safe and comfortable with them.

This vacation had changed her preconceived notions of the Mahdfel. 

“They have twins. Very sweet. Almost a year old. They look human, but they have these itty-bitty horns.”

“And how do they smell?”

“Amazing.” Hazel sighed deeply. “Don’t laugh at me.”

“I’m not,” she said, barely keeping a straight face.

“Do you ever think about having another?”

“Nope.” Being a single mom was tough enough; she didn’t need to add a baby to the mix. Michael was the love of her life. No questions about it. She knew she could love another kid as fiercely and completely. Her love was not a limited resource, after all. But exhaustion overwhelmed her just at the thought of midnight feedings and diaper changes. The first time around, all she had was basically a sperm donor with zero interest in his kid. At least she had Hazel to help. She couldn’t do all that on her own. “Maybe if I find the right guy. Someday.”

Hazel patted her belly. “The baby fever is contagious you know. Watch out.”

She’d need a partner first next time, not just someone to knock her up. An actual partner to be a parent. She hadn’t found that person yet.

Briefly, her mind slipped back to Lorran explaining that compatibility often ran in families. She wasn’t his mate, but she might be Mene’s. The purple meanie wouldn’t be the worst choice in the world. Universe. Whatever.

It didn’t matter. She wasn’t in the market for a boyfriend.

A shirtless horned purple man flashed on the screen, grabbing her attention. “What are you even watching?”

“Endless Hope and Suffering. I love it.”

Rosemary followed the action for a few minutes. Basically, it was people giving dramatic looks into a camera while being very, very attractive. “So this is some sort of soap opera?”

“Yes. That’s Doctor Ro—”

“Shirtless dude is a doctor?”

“He’s having a secret affair with that nurse, but she’s from the past. He doesn’t know that yet, but the other doctor, the one with the scar, he suspects that she’s the nurse who went missing twenty years ago. They used to be married. Or they were, before she traveled through time.”

“That’s stupid. Of course, they’re still married.”

“Well, he thought she died, so he remarried,” Hazel said.

“Wait, the guy with the scar used to be married to the time traveling nurse? And he hasn’t said anything?”

“No, shirtless guy used to be married to the time-traveling nurse. He thought she died. He remarried. Now he’s cheating on his second wife with his not-dead-time-traveling first wife.” Hazel hummed, clearly enthralled with the convoluted story.

“But he doesn’t know she’s the first wife?”

“Not yet. She keeps trying to tell him, but they get interrupted.”

“That is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Now stop talking, I want to watch this.”