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BA’SH
Ba’sh paced the center hall of the palace, feeling like a child on Hearth Day morning.
He normally tried to free himself up for a few minutes when the kids were walking in the door from school. It was about the only time Jax would sometimes spill how his day had gone.
But today was different. He’d spent half the day in strategy sessions with his advisors and everyone agreed that he should visit Pirn for a listening tour.
He felt an immense satisfaction at having a possible solution to the troubles that plagued the project. But he found that he was even more excited to tell Yasmine everything.
Ba’sh had even mentioned the possibility of bringing the kids on his visit to Pirn, in part so that she could come along and see her advice in action. His publicity chief had been very fond of the idea, saying it would make him more approachable to the families there.
He thought back to yesterday, seeing Yasmine standing here in the hall with her potted plant, looking like a lost orphan.
In a thousand rotations, he never would have imagined the young Terran would offer him a new way of looking at a political catastrophe within twenty-four hours of her arrival.
He wondered why she had chosen to work as a nanny, and made a note to himself to take a look at her file. It would be interesting to learn more about her education and career.
Or you could just ask her.
Maybe that would be the less creepy approach. There was nothing wrong with a man sitting down for a meal with the woman who cared for his children, to get to know her better.
There is if you want to kiss her.
He squelched that thought as quickly as he could. He was a man in his prime on a planet without many women of his own age. Of course he wanted to kiss her. Like every other mature male, he was slowly growing desperate for a female’s touch. If he was being honest, he wanted to do a lot more than kiss.
Though he had dismissed the idea of a marriage just to satisfy his political position, the girl had him rethinking. If he was a married man, he wouldn’t be entertaining thoughts like these. Maybe it would be best to try to find a needle in a haystack of a mate and marry her quickly in order to stop himself from making a mistake in a moment of weakness.
He’d just fired off a quick message to his publicity chief to let him know he had something to discuss later when the front doors flew opened and Pia came bursting in, followed by Jax and Yasmine.
The security detail was behind them. Both men gave Ba’sh a salute before heading into the break area to give the family some privacy.
“How was your day?” Ba’sh managed to ask as Pia launched herself at him.
“It was great,” Pia squealed as he spun her around.
“Oh yeah,” he said. “Why?”
“We went to play group, and then we ate lunch, and then we went to the park, and then we went to get Jax,” Pia listed. “And Yasmine is funny.”
Ba’sh glanced over at Yasmine, who was smiling at Pia.
“How about you, Jax?” Ba’sh asked hopefully.
But Jax only shrugged, his circlet peeking out from under his shaggy hair, reminding Ba’sh that he couldn’t connect with his son’s feelings in the way he craved.
The circlets were meant to make the rest of the world more comfortable. They had the secondary advantage of making it easier for Ba’sh to concentrate without so many thoughts and emotions crowding his head.
But moments like these could be pure torture. Jax was used to the circlet now. And as a broody teen, he didn’t want his dad in his head anyway. But it was so at odds with the way Ba’sh had grown up, surrounded by people just like him, where thoughts and feelings were as open and natural as breathing. He felt a pang of guilt that his kids would never know that feeling. But he’d come here to make a better life for all of them, and that meant assimilating to a new culture.
Ba’sh was just going to have to keep reaching out to him the hard way, without short cuts.
“Well, I had a great day today,” he told them. “I can’t wait to tell you about it.”
“I’ll just let you have some family time, then,” Yasmine said quietly. “Please buzz my comms when you need to get back to work.”
“No,” he said too quickly. “I mean, stay. Please. You’re the one who most needs to hear about this.”
“Wow, okay,” she said, looking pleased.
