Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 134725 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 539(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134725 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 539(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
Zane fought a smile thinking that the babe Treya complained of might turn out just like the mother.
The ceremony was lovely and then there were “cheers” with Daxx’s wine. Sindy (Strom’s wife) and Elaina opted for pomberry juice as they were both pregnant. Tanya asked that her wine be cut with it and Ollie tried to stop it, going into a panic as pomberry was the same deep purple as the razzleberry juice.
“It’s not razzleberry. That’s pomberry, sweetie pie,” Tanya said to Ollie.
“It won’t hurt you?”
“It won’t,” she still had the sleeping baby in her arms, but she leaned over and dropped a kiss on top of his head.
“Razzleberry fruit almost killed her,” Ollie told everyone.
Elaina asked questions, her infant daughter Hope in her arms and the women sat and talked while Zane moved to the side to speak with Strom.
Daxx and Jetta disappeared for a little while as Daxx had some special surprise for his wife.
Later in the evening, Jetta had put on some music and all the couples danced under the stars.
“I think it’s beautiful here,” Tanya told him.
“It is.”
“I told Jetta I’d try to convince you to let us spend time over here often. They have lots of spare bedrooms.”
“I could look at real estate here, see what’s available.”
“You could?” she gasped.
“Ollie loves it here. Daxx told me Jetta is ready to start a family. It would be fantastic to spend more time with them and for Ollie and whatever cousins he has to grow up together.”
She clapped her hands.
“We can come occasionally. Spend breaks here. And we’ll look at some properties. Come back in a month. Sound good?”
“Sounds great. Next week, Treya wants me and Elaina to come over. She’s having a specialized dressmaker who retired and has come out of retirement come in with a collection. She said she’s got other friends, Phallyxian girls, who were recently married, coming, too.”
Zane made a face of distaste. “Why don’t I simply have the same dressmaker come to our home and give you a showing. Or… you can simply choose the designs you like and have the machine I made for you create them.”
“I can’t do that!” she gasped. “That’s stealing his ideas.”
Zane considered what she said. “That makes sense.”
“And Treya went on and on about how carefully he makes them, that they’re hand sewn and absolutely beautiful.” Tanya shrugged. “Besides, it’s an outing. I think I might like to go. Elaina was interested. And I can meet some other girls in the area.”
“Treya is a bitch, and she’s likely going to get her friends against you and Elaina and turn it into a Phallyx vs. Earth event that winds up making you leave the place in tears.”
“I’d like to give her the benefit of the doubt,” Tanya said, fire in her eyes, as if she was annoyed with Zane.
“Your choice, shortcake.”
She gave a swift nod, looking like she’d been ready to fight with him about it.
Suddenly, Ollie was between them, joining in on the dance by hugging their legs.
Tanya giggled and ruffled his hair.
CHAPTER 33
TANYA
Life with Zane was good. He was a good man. The best I’d ever known. He worked hard. He was incredibly intelligent. He was affectionate and sweet. I couldn’t have dreamt up a man this perfect, and if I had, I never would’ve imagined he’d be mine outside spending a few hours with him inside a romance novel and taking on the role of the heroine.
I was excited about the concept of female companionship in my life. Elaina didn’t live far away. She was busy with her beautiful half-Phallyxian and half-Earthling baby girl, Hope, who was just adorable and sweet, and she’d be even more busy in a few months when her next baby was born, but she and I hit it off and bonded almost instantly. Elaina’s husband Quid was a gorgeous and demonstrative husband who couldn’t seem to keep his hands off his wife.
Treya already knew her and tried to be friendly with both of us at the wedding. At first, Elaina looked suspicious and seemed like she was carrying a grudge (Zane told me that Treya had been rude to not just me but also Jetta and Elaina) but Treya seemed like she was making an effort, so I did my best to play peacemaker. Sindy and Strom were Jetta and Daxx’s neighbors. She was from Earth and they had only been together three days. Sindy was already pregnant with twins and couldn’t take her eyes off Mr. tall, dark and handsome Strom. He looked at her like he could see through her clothes. It was hot watching the way they looked at one another, like they couldn’t wait to be alone again.
And the wedding was fun. It was nice to catch up just a little bit with Jetta, though we didn’t have nearly enough time to get into all the nitty gritty of my marrying Zane and her marrying Daxx. We briefly discussed Lacey being a missing person and Zane gave me a warning look from the sidelines, so I knew he didn’t want me mentioning his brother. Unfortunately, there was some gossip happening because the name “Joran” was mentioned by Strom, talking about ‘some rebel’ that had been seen with a blonde earth girl in another region and Daxx gave Zane a curious look.