SPACE DOG
Romance on the Go ®
Melissa Hosack
Copyright © 2017
Chapter One
Natalie Inglewood shifted in her seat and tried not to notice the few curious stares sent her way. Here she was, days away from going into space, from going to the moon, and she was eating dinner alone. It might not have been so sad it if wasn’t one of her last meals before her departure. She should be sharing this time with someone special, but, embarrassingly, she had no one. Her parents lived in Vermont, her sister in Phoenix. As for her love life … well, it was pretty nonexistent. After this, it would be all packaged space food. She was having her last real meal and had no one to share it with. No one but her books. Pathetic.
She crinkled her nose at the idea of space food and continued picking at her pasta. The cuisine in space might not be great, but she was not going to complain about a single thing. This was only the third manned moon expedition this millennium. The last had happened in 2023 when the space program jumpstarted again. That was right after the world was presented with evidence that made Earth being alone “out there” unlikely. All of a sudden, space exploration was a priority again. That last mission happened nearly six years ago.
The assignment she’d been given was usually done by a drone. Only problem—the drone got all the way to the moon and malfunctioned. It was a costly glitch that now warranted herself and an engineer to go up and manually fix things.
And speaking of crewmates… She glanced across the crowded restaurant at the man she would be in such close quarters with starting tomorrow. Of course he’d pick the same restaurant. Only he was surrounded by a group of friends while she ate alone. The only small relief was that she was in a shadowed corner so he couldn’t see her depressing solo meal.
There would be no hiding from him tomorrow, though. A standard trip to the moon took roughly three days. Then they would need to locate the malfunctioning drone and attempt to repair it. If they couldn’t, then they would be forced to fix the issues with the camera pod by hand, something they wanted to avoid if it was at all possible. That was bound to take them a few days at best. She was banking on at least a few complications. There always were when robotics was involved. Three days back, and it would be over a week in isolation with the hottest rocket scientist to ever step foot on a spaceship.
She gawked at Rory with barely restrained desire. He was over six feet of sexy. It seemed unfair that a man that good looking should be a genius as well. His light brown, shaggy hair gave the impression that he didn’t give a damn, but the fact that he was a freaking astronaut was proof to the contrary. His eyes were the bluest of blue, and he had a semi-permanent five o’clock shadow that stirred things deep inside of her. Rory Jacobson was hot with a capital H. And she was a book worm with an obsession with the supernatural. How was she going to survive a week alone with him?
Natalie knew exactly how she was going to survive. By hiding her nose in one of those books and pretending he didn’t exist, just like she’d done through all of their training. It was quite pathetic actually.
With a frown at this realization, she downed the rest of her drink in one long swallow. Screw that. Rory was a human being just like anyone else. Just because he was good looking, that didn’t mean she had to act awkwardly around him. They were both professionals. They would need to have a good working relationship, at least for this next week.
Steeling her nerves, she pushed to her feet and marched over to his table before she could rethink her decision. Lifting her chin with false bravado, she stared down at him and cleared her throat. “Rory.”
The instant he looked up at her with those bluest-of-blue eyes, she froze. All of her confidence was washed away in an instant. Dammit! Why did he have to be so damn pretty? “Um ... hi.” Nervously, she pushed her black, wire-framed glasses up higher on her nose and wrung her hands together.
Rory looked up from his beer with a raised brow and an amused smirk on his lips. By his expression, she was fairly certain he might be just a little bit drunk. “Nat … Nat-a-lie!” She winced at the way he stretched her name out to enunciate each syllable. “What can I do ya for?”
Now that she had his attention, she honestly had no idea what to say to him. In fact, she was questioning why she’d come over here at all. He was obviously having a good time and didn’t need to be interrupted by the woman he was forced to spend his time with in a few short hours. “Oh … well…” She bit her lip as she wracked her brain for something intelligent to say to him. She was an astronaut. Why was she having such a hard time at this? “I … I … um…” A thought jumped into her brain, so she ran with it. “I just wanted to let you know that I had a great idea on a modification for our special environmental sample containers. I think it could really make things more convenient for the both of us.”
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she mentally kicked herself. Why in the world was she talking about modifications to sample containers? Why? If he didn’t think she was a snooze fest before, he surely would now. “It will be awesome,” she said lamely.
Rory stared at her, each long moment making her feel more and more mortified. Why couldn’t she have just gone home? Better that than embarrass herself this way. How was she going to face him after this? Shit, what would they talk about in their week together if she just revealed the only thing of interest she had to talk about?
Rory blinked at her as if he was struggling to comprehend what she was telling him. She had a suspicion that had to do with the alcohol consumption. “Oh … cool?”
“Is that a question?” she asked on a squeak.
“Maybe?”
How did she respond to that? Did she even bother responding? Her attempt at human interaction was obviously not going as planned. Perhaps it was just best to make an exit before she embarrassed herself further. “Well, I will see you tomorrow.” With an awkward half wave, she turned and rushed away from his table as if it was on fire. The next time she wanted to attempt socializing outside of her comfort zone, she was going to remind herself of this incident.
****
Rory watched Natalie walk away with his head cocked and an amused expression on his face. That girl was definitely something different. He’d give her that.
“I can’t believe you get to go up into space with a hot lady astronaut,” his best friend, Doug, said with a guffaw. “Do you think you two will hook up while you’re up there?”
Rory shook his head at that question. No. He did not think they’d hook up. He and Natalie were so incredibly different from one another. He was more worried about an awkward silence stretching the entire week.
“Why not?” Doug asked with clear disappointment. “She’s so hot.”
“She’s a little weird.” Weird was an understatement. Natalie always had her nose in some book, usually something on mythology or some type of sci-fi crap. But it wasn’t normal, everyday fiction. She read the kind of books fanatics took seriously, the stuff some people thought was real. And she was always taking notes, scribbling details down and cross referencing. He supposed it kind of made sense. She was an astronaut in a day when aliens were assumed real, so it wasn’t too far of a stretch that she would be an X-Files-minded gal. It always made him nervous, though. “More than a little weird,” he finally admitted.
“So?”
Rory sent him a look of annoyance before snatching up his beer and taking another long swig. For some reason, he didn’t like Doug talking about Natalie that way. It wasn’t as if he had any loyalty to the girl. He barely knew her, other than in a professional manner. But it irked him all the same. “I don’t sleep with co-workers.”
“You don’t sleep with anybody,” Doug grumbled before shoving a fistful of pretzels into his mouth. “You need to get laid.”
Rory shrugged, not enjoying the scrutiny. “I like to keep things simple. A woman would just complicate things right now.”
Doug rolled his eyes and took a sip of his own bottle. “You’re starting to sound like a broken record.”
Leaning back in his seat, Rory purposely turned his back on Natalie’s retreating form. “Yeah, well … I guess I’m just boring or whatever.”
Doug shook his head. “At least we’re in agreement there. You need to have some fun. You could use a complication or two.”
Rory snorted into the neck of his beer bottle as he was taking another drink. “And you could use a few less.” That’s why he and Doug were such good friends. They were opposites in ways that complimented each other. Doug was the wild man who flirted and hooked up with women whenever they went out. Rory was perfectly content to hang back and be the wingman or designated driver. If he had his way, this week in space would be just as uncomplicated. He was planning on a simple and straightforward mission. Was that too much to ask for?