Alexis: Alien Surrogate Agency #3 by Tasha Black

Author:Tasha Black [Black, Tasha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: 13th Story Press
Published: 2022-08-15T18:30:00+00:00

14

ALEXIS

An hour later, Alexis sat on a soft blanket on the beach, looking out over the ocean.

Just as Oberon had promised, the storm had moved on. The sky was a brilliant blue, and the cerulean water glistened all the way to the horizon.

The rush of the waves merrily crashing into the lava cliffs and the happy chatter of the Center staff made a lovely backdrop.

On the blanket beside her, Tiago was demolishing his lunch, eating as much fruit in a sitting as she would in a week.

“Sorry,” he said suddenly, his mouth full. “I’m used to eating alone.”

“That’s okay,” she told him. “It makes the meal more fun when you eat it with such gusto.”

She didn’t tell him that it also made it easier for her to eat her modest portions when she saw his.

“You were incredible today,” he told her for about the tenth time.

“It was really fun,” she said. “I was surprised. I didn’t think I could be good at that kind of dancing. Not that I am - just, you know, I did it. That’s all. And it was fun.”

“I’m so glad you did,” he said.

“You’re a really good teacher,” she told him. “You’re going to make a great dad.”

She almost hadn’t said that last part. But he was going to make a great dad. She was counting on it, or she wouldn’t be able to go through with any of this.

“Thanks,” he said, his voice suddenly deep with emotion.

“Do you have a lot of family around?” she asked suddenly. “You know, to help out?”

“My parents stay pretty busy with the diner,” he told her. “And I was an only child, so there won’t be any aunts and uncles. I’m planning to hire a live-in nanny.”

She willed herself not to overthink that. A nanny was a luxury few could afford. Any child would be lucky to have a loving, successful father and a full-time nanny attending to their needs when he worked.

“You were an only child?” she asked, latching onto the other thing he had said.

“My parents weren’t able to conceive,” he said, shrugging. “I was adopted. But Maltaffian adoptions are expensive and complicated. They like to say I was enough.”

He was smiling fondly, and she smiled back, glad he had a loving relationship with his parents and that they had been open with him about his origins.

“Did you ever get to know your birth family?” she asked.

“My birth mother left me on the doorstep of the local Intergalactic Council when I was just a few days old,” he said, his smile fading. “When I was a teenager, I told my mom I wanted to find her, and she helped me.”

“Wow,” Alexis said. “She sounds like an amazing mom.”

“She’s the best,” he said. “Anyway, my birth mother had gotten married a year or so after she had me. She had two other kids, not so much younger than me, and she seemed happy and comfortable.”

“How did that make you feel?” Alexis asked carefully.

“Conflicted,” he chuckled. “I had imagined her alone and destitute, missing me, wondering about the life she left behind.

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