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“You have an hour.” Brettin growls at my back. “If you’re not back we come after you.”
“Alright,” I agree. I should be back long before that.
With another round of toe-curling kisses, I step off the ship and into the wall of corn stalks and start walking toward the dim glow of flood lights attached to the farm house.
It’s about ten o’clock and there is a bite in the air that wasn’t there when I was taken. Even more surprising, is all the lights in the house seem to be blazing.
Shit! They haven’t been on this whole time, have they? How the hell am I gonna paythatbill?
I’m still grumbling under my breath when I see a shadow pass by the kitchen window. My blood goes cold. What if I’ve been gone for so long the farm foreclosed and was sold to someone else?
I tell myself Daddy would never let that happen. Unless enough time passed and he may not have had a choice.
A cold sweat breaks out across my sides, and I find myself stumbling up onto the back porch and wrenching the old wooden screen door open.
The kitchen is exactly how I left it. Decorated in vintage coca-cola and smelling like lemongrass. Right down to the hunched figure sitting at my table and staring at me like he’s seen a ghost.
“Daddy?”
A watery grin spreads across his withered face and my father leaps from the table and runs for me, wrapping me in his arms. “I knew you’d be back. I knew it.”
Holding onto him, hearing him sob into my shoulder, has me crying as well.
“Of course, I came back,” I choke, even though I knew I very nearly didn’t. “I never meant to be gone so long. Who harvested?”
Daddy finally lets me go and pulls me over to the table where he pushes me down into one of the chairs.
“Where the hell have you been?” he shouts, holding me out in front of him and eyeing me up and down. “And what in the hell are you wearing?”
I look down at the filmy wrap dress I’ve grown used to wearing. After growing tired of constantly having to take my pants on and off. I found the dresses to be comfortable… and much easier to accommodate my mates appetites.
Shaking those thoughts from my head, I have no idea where to even begin explaining my clothes to my father. Especially since I can probably count on one hand the number of times, I’veeverworn a dress. Usually at my mother’s insistence, back when I was too young to really have a chance to argue with her.
“You up and disappear into thin air formonths, and then just walk in one night like nothing ever happened. Do you have any idea how worried we’ve all been?”
Months. I’ve been gone for months.
“I—I—uh,” my teeth bite down on my lip until tears begin to gather in my eyes. “I never meant to worry anyone.”
Daddy turns on his heel and starts pacing across my small kitchen. One hand pulls his cap off his head and his other hand runs through the thin hairs underneath. “We thought you were murdered. Or maybe trafficked. How many times have I told you, it aint safe for a woman all alone out here.”
I open my mouth to argue with him, just like every other time he’s brought this up. But my voice stays silent because… well, obviously he wasn’t wrong. Although I’m sure aliens from outer space wasn’t what he was worried about.
“So, what happened? Where have you been?” he asks. When he turns back to me there are tears streaming down his weathered cheeks.
Before I realize I’m moving, I’m across the room and I fling my arms around his neck. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” I sob.
We both hold each other and cry for a long time before Daddy finally steps back and pulls himself back together. We sit back down at the table, and he leans back in his chair with a long sigh.
“The whole family came up and helped harvest the crop.” Reaching across the table he squeezes my hand. “It was the farms best yield yet.”
I’ve been making changes since taking over the farm from Daddy, but so far, those changes haven’t made the kind of difference I hoped they would. Until now. Looks like my hard work finally paid off. And I almost missed it.
“Where have you been, Sasha?” My father asks me once more, his voice weary.
“Uh, well… You see, I…” My fingers pick at the red checkered tablecloth as I try to come up with a believable story. Because my straight laced father willneverbelieve I was abducted by aliens. “It’s crazy. I—”
Suddenly Daddy’s head snaps up and his eyes grow wide.
