“Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you. I didn’t realize it was that late there.” He turned to look at something before returning his attention to the screen. “I can let you go. You need your sleep.”
“No, please stay. I need to hear your voice. To see you.”Be in your arms and feel like everything will be okay.But I knew I couldn’t ask for that. He’d come to visit me a couple of times since learning I was pregnant but not recently. “You have a race coming up soon, don’t you?”
His shy grin washed away his worried appearance. “Yeah, in a week. Ret’s been making us practice at odd hours. He’s paranoid one of the new teams has spies watching us.”
I smirked. “Must be real fun living in the dorms right now.”
Shaking his head, Genj smiled softly. “He would say practice is the only thing keeping me sane, and I have to agree. More than once, he told me to bring you here so I would stop worrying and so you could open a bakery here. I’m sure he’d be your best customer.”
“My new competition would love that.” Though I could be forced to close anyway, if my body didn’t cooperate.
“Wait! There’s another bakery now?”
I sighed, upping the brightness of the lights a bit as I sat on the edge of my bed. “Yeah. Werd’s mate opened a bakery five blocks away.”
“That galactic cobblesnopper!” Genj quickly covered his mouth. “Sorry.”
I giggled a little. I felt the same way, but it made me feel better to hear Genj say it.
“Well…” He crossed his arms but ended up jabbing his thumb into his side. After wincing and shaking out his hand, he had a scowl on his face. “Whatever you need, I will make sure you get it. Whether for you, our baby, your bakery, all you have to do is let me know. Anything.”
I nodded. What I really needed was him, but how could I ask that?
He relaxed, sitting back in his chair. “You had an appointment with the doctor this morning, right? How did that go? How are you and our baby doing?”
“Good.” I couldn’t tell him the truth, didn’t need him worrying any more than he already was. Not with his race coming up. I didn’t want anything to happen to him because he was distracted with concern for me. “Only a few weeks left.”
His grin returned. “And I can’t wait! I already have the time off booked. Ret and Ilam have decided to come home to Orez, too.”
I nodded, hoping everything would go well until then. “I look forward to seeing you in person again.”
“Me, too.” He leaned closer to the screen, his elbows on the desk and chin resting in his palms. “I’m very happy you’re my mate. I still find it hard to believe some days, but I love you so much.”
I held in a sob. “I love you, too.”
Why was this so hard? I wanted to be with him more than anything. So, why did I feel like we’d never fully be together?
Chapter Thirteen
Genj
I’d never been more excited for a race weekend to end. Usually that meant returning to Eurebly for a new round of practices to prepare for the next race. But not this time. After the final race here on Omisu, I was leaving for Orez. I was going to be there when my mate gave birth to our child. The thought brought on a mass of emotions and concerns. Mostly worries about what the future would bring. The only thing I was sure of was I had to be there the moment our child entered the universe. I’d deal with the rest after.
As soon as our shuttle landed on Omisu, I was out the door, ready to settle into our weekend accommodations then prepare for the first qualifying race. I was too anxious to rest.
Someone clutched my shoulder from behind. “Slow down. We have a few hours before we need to be on the course.”
I turned to face my brother, walking backward. “But being there early won’t hurt.” That was his motto when it came to racing, but he enjoyed being fashionably late for everything else.
Ret glared at me. “There’s early, and then there’s annoying. Why don’t you give Utahn a call and give each other some encouragement before we race?”
I sighed, turning around right before the luggage carousal. My knee smacked the metal edge, but it wasn’t enough to stop me from falling onto the belt. I managed to push myself back up without taking an embarrassing ride, but not without some belt burns on my hand, and likely a bruised kneecap. Not the way I wanted to start the weekend.
Ret clutched the back of my shirt. “I will never understand how you’re graceful in the sky but clumsy on land. I hope your child doesn’t inherit your inability to walk.”
Walking.Would I be there when my child learned to walk? Or crawl? Stars, there were many milestones I was going to miss. But what would I do if I left the racing world? As Ret said, I wasn’t good at anything other than flying. I needed to figure out how to be a racer, a father, and a good mate. Unfortunately, after all this time, I had no ideas. What I truly wanted seemed impossible.
I made it to our accommodations without hurting myself and my pride again. As expected, when I called Utahn, he didn’t answer. He’d been so busy at the bakery that he barely had time to rest. Which worried me.
