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His eyes moved to the window. Both suns were already setting. He must have lost track of time again, like he often did when he was in the zone with a challenging job.
“I’m at work,” he said, trying to project a calm he didn’t feel.
“Oh, Ra’as,” she sighed. “Dinner is on the table, and two children are waiting for their father.”
“Don’t wait for me,” he told her. “Just let them eat. You too. I’ll be a little longer.”
“Have you found a new nanny for them?” she asked. “You know I love them, but I can’t keep taking time off. My employees at the clinic have been working overtime for a week now.”
“I’m doing my best, Ma,” he told her. “Can you reduce the hours at the clinic for a little while?”
“I know you don’t have pets,” his mother said sternly. “But if you did, you would know that the only emergency veterinary clinic on Ulfgard needs to be open all night.”
He sighed and felt a pang of guilt. He understood being passionate about work. Hell, he had probably inherited his own passion from Lynnit Drayven. It wasn’t right to make his mother drop her whole life to be there for the kids.
“It’s not only that, Ra’as,” his mother added gently. “You don’t just need a nanny. You need some sort of work-life balance. The kids need you around.”
Sometimes he doubted that. He loved his kids, but his stress about work made him tense and unpleasant. He would never have said it out loud, but he secretly assumed they preferred being with his tough-as-nails but fun-loving mother, or a nanny who had nothing else to worry about but amusing them.
“I know, Ma,” he said.
“It’s bad enough they don’t have a mother,” she added softly.
And there was the pain he had never been able to fully shake - hidden away under layers of distraction, but still raw when the light hit it. Myza had understood and accepted him just as he was. And now she was gone.
Maybe she was a warrior hero, looking down on them from the hallowed halls of Vallagard, but he would have given anything to have her back, regular and real, running their lives in her gentle way.
“Tst,” his mother hissed suddenly. “Get out of there.”
“Don’t use dog training sounds, Mom,” he said, smiling with amusement. “They’re kids, not pets.”
“Then why is Mimi eating her dinner under the table with no utensils?” his mother retorted. “Mimi, come out from under there right now.”
Ra’as laughed. Mimi was small and adorable, but she was a spitfire.
“Just come home,” his mother sighed. But he could hear the smile in her voice.
“I’ll be there very soon,” he promised.
His mother clicked off and he lifted his bracelet to get in touch with the Alien Nanny Agency again, only to find that he already had a comm from them.
Excellent news. Miss Emilia Robbins will be arriving soon, flight plan to follow. Miss Robbins has just received the agency’s highest award for customer service satisfaction. She is excited to meet the children.
Ra’as’s eyebrows went up. It sounded like the agency was sending their best nanny.
The last one had clearly been inexperienced and frightened. And they had tried to tell him they were short staffed, something about the nannies and a lotto pool.
But here they were, sending someone exceptional.
It all went to show that it paid to make a fuss sometimes. Little as he liked throwing around his weight as a famous architect, his call to the owner, Marv Anyx, had clearly paid off, and his children would benefit.
“Emilia Robbins,” he whispered to himself.
It was an old-fashioned name. He tried to create an image of Miss Robbins in his mind. She would be ancient, stout, stern, and reliable. She probably had one of those enormous carpet bags, like the nannies in the holo-films.
The thought of it clicked into place in his head and he imagined the structure of his life floating in the hologram like one of his buildings - elegant and just-right, now that this new element had been introduced.
Everything was coming together.
