Alien Architect Needs a Nanny (Alien Nanny Agency 1)

“No one can know if Vallagard is real,” Dyrk said darkly. “You can’t go there unless you’re a dead warrior.”

“I can’t go there,” Mimi said sadly.

Emilia’s heart was breaking, and she didn’t know Mr. Drayven’s wishes well enough to talk to them about their beliefs.

Something fell out of the cupboard she had just stopped rummaging around in, hitting her on the head on its way to the floor.

“You dropped something,” Mimi said.

“Chocolate,” Emilia said in wonder, picking up the packet, which was tucked into a resealing cell.

“That’s not really chocolate,” Mimi said. “We saw the picture on it, but it tastes nasty.”

“This is baking chocolate,” Emilia explained, trying not to smile at the idea of the kids poking around in the kitchen to find something decent to eat. “It just needs sugar and our other ingredients to taste really good.”

Mimi tilted her head, eyeing the chocolate suspiciously.

But Dyrk moved closer, paying close attention.

They gathered up ingredients together and set them on the long counter. Emilia subtly read the nutrition counts on the boxed dinners in the fridge when they retrieved the dairy items they would need.

When the counter was practically covered with powders and bottles and even bags of fresh vegetables, Emilia pulled up her bracelet and entered everything they had.

Several promising recipes popped up. She chose one and fiddled with it a bit to get zucchini and protein powder into it, then projected it onto the disc on the counter.

“I thought only Cook could use that,” Dyrk said to himself.

“The discs in most kitchens are open use,” Emilia explained. “More than one person might enjoy preparing a meal, so it’s better that way.”

Dyrk nodded, a smile on his face.

He likes cooking, she noted to herself. And since he still didn’t seem to be one-hundred percent convinced they could actually make something tasty out of the ingredients, this was very promising.

“This is kind of like a science project,” she told them. “We have our experiment set up, and now we just follow the directions so that we’ll know if our hypothesis is correct.”

“What’s a hy-po-she-this?” Mimi asked.

“An educated guess,” Dyrk said. “Like what you think will happen.”

“Right now, our hypothesis is that the three of us can make mouthwateringly good chocolate cupcakes for dinner,” Emilia said.

“Yes,” Mimi yelled.

Let’s hope it’s correct, Emilia thought to herself.

They got right to work. The kids were mostly helpful, even if Mimi did want to try everything as it was added to the mixture.

Though she wasn’t used to prepping food at such a slow pace, Emilia reminded herself that it wasn’t a race. This was just a low-key way to get to know each other, and it was going well.

The sky outside was fully dark by the time they took a tray of chocolate cupcakes out of the heat box.

“It smells good,” Mimi whispered.

It did smell good. The whole kitchen was warm and fragrant. Not an atmosphere you got from a box of goop.

The kids had already set plates, forks, napkins and cups of milk on the kitchen table. They all walked over proudly, and Emilia set a cupcake on each plate.

“Don’t eat them yet,” she said. “Remember, we made glaze.”