“Hot damn, just what I needed,” he said, taking a swig of the blessed beverage.
“Hot date night?” she asked him with interest.
“Nah,” he told her. “New nanny finally got here.”
“Worse than the last?” Farrsah guessed.
It wasn’t a bad guess, each one seemed to be worse than the one before.
“This one’s different,” he said thoughtfully.
“Hotter?” she suggested, dialing in the thruster settings.
“Better with Bo,” he said firmly, narrowing his eyes and double-checking the thruster settings. His copilot didn’t make mistakes, but protocol was protocol.
“Oh, that does sound different,” Farrsah said, more seriously. “Is she also hot?”
“Why do you ask?”
“No reason,” she said slowly. “You just want to be careful. Especially if she’s good with Bo.”
He merely grunted in agreement, not even trying to argue with her.
She was right, of course. She always was.
She had been right when he’d asked her out a year after his wife died and she turned him down. Their friendship was too important. And he didn’t really care for her that way. She was his best friend. He’d just been looking for comfort.
She had been right when she told him to take the Arkadia run instead of throwing his hat in the ring for even better paid, high-risk flights piloting the Alien Adoption Agency’s shoddy crafts. She reminded him of the two little girls at home who needed him.
And she was right now.
He was attracted to the nanny.
And Bo was the most important thing.
The trouble was that her thoughtful way with Bo seemed to be a part of his attraction.
“You give anymore thought to flying for the ruler?” she asked him, letting him off the hook.
“I’m happy where I am,” he told her noncommittally.
Ulfgard’s new leader had sent his men to talk with Khall a week ago. The ruler liked the idea of hiring a war veteran to fly him. And of course, Khall’s military training would make him an exceptional chauffeur for a VIP.
The local rounds for the leader would mean he wasn’t away a few nights each week. He would be home by the time Minerva was home from school most days, because the leader was committed to hiring an off-hours and weekend pilot to give him respite.
But the Arkadia run was regular, and paid well without requiring a lot of stress. Flying the leader wouldn’t allow him to relax at all. He’d be on high alert anytime he was in the air.
And the truth was that he craved open space.
The leader would likely have him sitting in some cramped waiting room most days, never taking to the sky at all.
“Don’t take too long,” Farrsah advised. “He’s liable to pick someone else while you’re on the fence about it.”
He nodded and frowned. Maybe that would be the best way, to lose the opportunity without having to actually turn it down.
“Ready, Cap?” Farrsah asked.
“Yep, let’s get out of here,” he told her.
“No thinking about the nanny,” she reminded him.
“Nope,” he lied. “Not a single thought.”
And sure enough, after safely getting the vessel past the stratosphere, he found that April was in his head again the moment he had time to relax.
Every time he blinked, he saw her hand on the paintbrush, slowly, deliberately blending those vibrant colors into something that made his daughter happy.