Page 20
He nodded. “How long to the kio?”
Sunny checked. “Two minutes.”
“Impressive.”
She smiled. “Go eat, honoured Guardian.”
He laughed and went to sit with Morsek and Arkon. They settled in, and she had their seconds and thirds ready when he returned. He smirked. “No room for changes?”
“I would have heard you complaining. Now, for the part of the day I get paid for.” She smirked.
The next hour went by in a rush as people wanted to know about the thugs, the stall’s survival, and how it was operational. She smiled and replied as Sunny found his groove on the grill. “I overbuild everything when Emgoth isn’t watching.”
They laughed, and breakfast went on, a little slower but still where it needed to be until seven came and the new deliveries needed to be put away. The guardians were still there and helped her with storing everything in its proper place.
Service continued, and folks took the deliveries and lined up to help. The guardians were setting a good example.
At eight in the morning, they got a break, and Cloudy walked out to Hazor and smiled at him. “Thank you for your help today.”
“Thank you for breakfast.”
“What will happen to the thugs?”
“They will have to explain their actions to us and their bosses.” He smiled, leaned down, and touched her chin. The kiss that he bestowed on her made her freeze. “Have a better day, Cloudy, and if you need me, press that signal again.”
She was blinking slowly and licked her lips. “Um, right. So, if someone threatens me?”
“Or if you need me. I am not fussy as to why.” His eyes were the solid black of the deep-sea Vecchin, and his skin was tight across his cheeks. He looked tense.
She swallowed. “Um, yeah. That.” Her fingers moved with her words.
Hazor smiled. He touched her cheek and then turned to Arkon and Morsek. Together, they lifted off and left in their open skimmer. She didn’t know if they could fly and didn’t really want to know.
They had gotten her stall back up and running and helped her haul groceries. The goodwill with them was arriving hard and fast.
Chapter Four
The cleanup from breakfast took a while. Finally, Sunny said, “So what was the wet t-shirt contest thing about?”
“The what?”
“You were wet and outlined faithfully when I got here. The guardians were enjoying the view.”
“I changed.”
“Not soon enough. What happened?”
“Oh, someone pushed the stall into the drink, and I went to go get it back.”
“So you really went for gills?”
“I really did.”
“You really commit.”
“This is my home now. I am not going to keep myself apart from it.” She touched her mouth.
“What’s that about?” Sunny smiled.
