AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I understand.” He brushed her cheek with a finger. “I should not have asked.”
“No, I’m glad you did. It makes me feel…special.”
“You are special. How many people would help a stranger, let alone an alien from another world? You are one in eight billion, and I am glad I had the chance to?—”
He fell silent, the thought incomplete.
“The chance to what?”
“To get to know you.”
Mere had the distinct impression that wasn’t what he planned to say, but she took his words at face value. She didn’t want to go, but their paths were about to diverge.
“Goodbye, Anders.” She kissed his cheek, letting her lips linger on his smooth skin. “Safe journey.”
“Goodbye, Meretta.”
And he let her go.
15
OUT PAST CURFEW, I SEE
Mere pulled into her driveway with the moon high in the night sky. Aunt Nadine’s head peeked out of the living room curtains, and she smiled. Dammit. A moment later, she strolled out in her bathrobe.
A wide grin crinkled her cheeks. “Well, well, well, young lady. Out past curfew, I see.”
Heat rushed to Mere’s face. Her aunt’s teasing didn’t actually bother her, but getting caught still was embarrassing. And why did she think of it as getting caught? She was a single adult, perfectly capable of having an adult relationship or night out, as the case may be, without her family making a fuss about it. And she had asked before taking the car.
“Your powers of observation are once again second to none, Aunty Nay.”
Nadine cackled. “That’s my girl. Come on in and I’ll pour us a nightcap. Give me the dirty details and I promise not to tell your mother.”
Mere trudged up the steps, but her footfalls were lighter and she almost smiled. Nadine would never say a word about her love life, or previous lack thereof, to her mother or anyone else. She followed her aunt into the kitchen and perched on a chair. Nadine grabbed two mugs, poured a generous measure of tequila into each, and plopped down next to her.
“Well?”
Mere had to giggle. Her octogenarian aunt’s expectant expression could have been on a fifteen-year-old.
“Anders—”
“Ha, I knew it. I knew you weren’t done with that man yet. You have excellent taste.”
“I have to be done with him. He’s leaving.”
Nadine covered Mere’s hand with her own. “Oh, sweetie, I’m sorry. I thought you were a good match. Not only is he sexy as hell—don’t give me that look. I’m old, not dead.”
Mere buried her nose in her mug, trying hard not to laugh. Her love life was no laughing matter, but her aunt’s eternal optimism had her hopeful about many things for the first time in a long while.
“As I was saying, he seems nice, calm, caring. Exactly what you needed after he-who-shall-not-be-named. Wait, he’s leaving? Does this have anything to do with those agents poking their noses where they don’t belong?”
What to tell her aunt? She could tell the whole truth. Nadine might insist she check herself in for a psychiatric evaluation when the dust settled, but she’d go along with it. Maybe a version of the truth.
“They’re looking for Anders. They believe he has a device that belongs to the government.”
“Does it?”
Mere shook her head. “No, it’s his. They keep trying to take it from his family.”
