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I grab her, playfully pulling her in for a kiss. "Please, darlin’. Have mercy. I'll get you all the pickles you want."
While we wait in line for food, she checks her phone. Then she sighs, as if aggravated, and puts it away. "What?"
Pearl makes a face. "Aunt Delta."
"Oh yeah? What's she up to now?"
"She told me yesterday that the IRS is threatening a lien on our property for fifty thousand dollars. She also filled in some backstory." She screws her face up. "Apparently my mom and my aunt Glory have already bailed Aunt Delta out before this. She said they were unlikely to do it a third time."
"Bailed her out?"
"Gave her a bunch of money to pay taxes and upkeep on the land. We're talking about thirty or forty thousand dollars. Basically, Aunt Delta told me that she can't afford to keep the property. She just doesn't see it yet."
"Shit." I cringe. But inside, my heart rate picks up.
Delta can't afford the land. That means that I could swoop in and save everything. I'd be a hero.
Especially to Pearl. Suddenly, being her hero feels more important than anything.
And then maybe we could talk about me maintaining some kind of non-custodial relationship with my kid. You know, for my family’s sake. My mom and Sam will go crazy if they find out I had a kid in secret and signed away my parental rights.
It’s one hundred percent that and not at all because I’m starting to grow attached to Pearl and having a hard time imagining my future without her in it…
Twenty-Six
Pearl
River's hands cover my eyes as he walks me slowly and carefully up the sidewalk. "Okay. Two more minutes. Then I'll let you look around."
"This is so ridiculous," I tell him. But I can't repress the giant grin on my face as we step into a blast of cool air.
A rush of excited voices washes over me. I can't quite tell where I am, but it sounds like I'm surrounded by a lot of people. River keeps walking me forward and I strain to listen to the world around me.
A woman yells, "This is awesome!"
I hear an electronic zap zap zap.
A man's voice very close to me says, "Hey, no aliens allowed back here!"
What the what?
"River. Please let me see," I beg him. “You made me wear a blindfold for half an hour. I got all excited when you said I could take it off, but now you are keeping my eyes closed! It’s killing me.”
He chuckles and pulls his hands away.
I am standing in a giant convention center and there are a thousand booths set up. I look left and the booth is selling a variety of laser toys. I look right and there's a booth hawking books about alien abductions and UFOs.
I wheel around to River, startled. "Is this... a space convention?"
River's grin stretches ear to ear.
"It's the Intergalactic Believers Encounters from Aliens. IDEA, for short.”
I launch myself at him, throwing my arms around his neck and squealing.
"I can't believe you actually brought me to a UFO convention!!"
His big hands flatten across my lower back as he holds me close. "Of course. I looked into bringing you to Roswell, but that would require more coordination and planning with a lot of different people. I can't swing something like that without telling you about it."
