Gray Card

by Cassandra Chandler

  Her heart is in the stars…and he’s the man who can take her there.

  Evelyn Chambers is a nerdgirl and damned proud of it. Always the odd girl out, she’s found a home in academia, channeling her fantastical imagination and love for the stars into getting a PhD in astronomy. And at last it seems those stars have aligned to send her a match.

  Vacationing foreigner Adam Smith gets her, from her field of study to her offbeat sense of humor. He’s also drop-dead gorgeous—and woefully ignorant of the world of science fiction, which she’s only too happy to remedy.

  Adam knows more about the stars than he dares reveal. As commander of a starship for the Coalition of Planets, he’s been there.

  With his shore leave over, it’s time to return to the coldness of space—unless he takes Evelyn up on her offer of marriage. But he doesn’t want a green card. He wants Evelyn, and he’ll do whatever it takes to stay at her side. But if she discovers his secrets, he has to hope she’ll believe aliens—and his love for her—are real.

  Warning: Contains terrible puns, intergalactic nerd-love, and plenty of probing.

  Gray Card

  Cassandra Chandler

  Dedication

  For A.E. Ash—nerdgirl extraordinaire.

  Chapter One

  Two things were working at ruining Evelyn’s day. First, she was wearing a dress to try to get Adam—the love of her life—to see her as something other than a friend. Second, Adam was having an argument with some jackass.

  With irritating sweat trickling down her spine from the relentless summer heat and Adam so obviously upset, she wondered if now was the best time to try to make the leap. She watched him as she debated the wisdom of her decision.

  Evelyn had never seen Adam’s dark eyebrows furrowed over his perfectly straight nose. She’d never seen his gorgeous eyes—one the blue of the waters off Oahu and the other as green as the immaculate grass in the park behind him—narrowed in anger.

  The skin over his jaw held its usual light coat of stubble. She could still clearly see the taut masseter muscle flexing within his cheek. Even his face was toned.

  What was she thinking? Blonde-from-a-bottle, too small up top, too big at the hips, her narrow face accented by huge horn-rimmed glasses…

  Wait—superheroes sometimes wore big glasses to put people off-guard and conceal their strength. She wore them to remind herself that she was strong too.

  Evelyn wasn’t going to let herself be cowed by her measurements or society’s standards. She was going to go for it. Eventually. As soon as she could get herself to move.

  The man Adam had been talking to sauntered off, hands in the pockets of his dark suit. He would probably have a heat stroke any minute, but looked as though he hadn’t a care in the world. Unlike Adam.

  Adam had his hands on his hips, feet braced far apart as he stared at the sky. His muscular legs couldn’t be hidden by the khaki cargo shorts he always wore and his jade green T-shirt seemed barely able to keep itself together over the joy of embracing his broad chest.

  Reining in her libido, Evelyn wiped her damp palms on her dress to dry them off, then slid her glasses farther up her nose. Now was not the time to push the envelope. She could tell him how she felt later. From the looks of it, right now Adam needed a friend. She would be that friend.

  She only wished she was in her normal clothes. Jeans and one of the T-shirts she’d made for her gaming group during her undergrad studies would be much more comfortable. She’d been wearing something similar when she first met Adam, plus a sign around her neck that said, “Help! I’m an alien stranded on this primitive planet!” It was her standard costume when she went to comic book conventions.

  Adam had actually been concerned when he approached her, and not because he thought she was nuts—like most people. It didn’t take long for her to figure out he wasn’t local with all the weird idiosyncrasies in his use of English. Until today, she actually had never seen him speak with anyone else aside from ordering food at a restaurant. Time to find out how she could help.

  The sidewalk baked her feet through her sandals as she approached him. “I’d ask if everything is all right, but it obviously isn’t.”

  Adam closed his eyes and took one last deep breath. “I’ve had better days.”

  “You don’t look like you’re up for a bunch of personal questions, so I just have one. Do you want to talk about it?”

  “Not really.” He finally looked at her, apparently not registering her dress at all. “I thought we were meeting at your place.”

  “I know you spend your mornings here. And a lot of afternoons and evenings. I thought I would surprise you. Surprise!”

  Evelyn waved her hands in the air briefly. The faintest hint of a smile fluttered across Adam’s lips. She decided to build on that.

  “Do you want me to go kick that guy’s ass? Because I will. I mean he’s tall and all, but he’s kind of skinny. I think I can take him. Especially if I hide somewhere and pop out at him.”

  “I have to go.” Adam’s light voice was barely audible.

  “Go where? The bathroom? Was it the experimental burritos I made last night? Because I told you not to eat so many.”

  “Evelyn, I have to go home.”

  “What, like…home home?”

  Evelyn’s stomach clenched around the freezer waffles she’d had for breakfast. Adam had never mentioned having to go back to whatever country he was from. He always said he wanted to focus on the moment and enjoy the time he had. She couldn’t believe that time was up.

  “When?”

  “Three days.”

  “Three days!” She raised her hands, then slowly lowered them while she let out a deep breath. Bringing her voice to a more conversational volume, she said, “Wow. That’s…soon.”

  “I requested an extension, but it was denied.”

  “Is that what that guy was telling you?”

  “Yes.”

  “I guess this means the Planet of the Apes marathon is off. I can’t see you wanting to spend ten of your remaining hours locked up in my apartment watching movies.”

  “That actually sounds wonderful.”

  Adam looked so sad. She probably mirrored his expression.

  “Maybe we can go for a walk together first?” he asked.

  A walk in the summer heat sounded awful, but being with him, helping him through this and spending every possible second with him overrode any complaints. She tried to smile, but only managed a nod.

  “Sure.”

  They fell in step beside each other, walking close enough that their arms brushed. Adam caught her hand in his and entwined their fingers.

  That was weird. He had always been stand-offish physically, only touching her to catch her if she stumbled on a trail or something.

  What if this whole time he’d felt the same way about her as she did about him? What if she’d wasted moments they could have spent in each other’s arms instead of watching sci-fi movies and eating popcorn on the couch?

  If she looked at him she might start to cry, but she was dying to see his expression. She wouldn’t let him see her cry. This was obviously hard enough on him as it was.

  Evelyn tried to focus on his closeness instead. His hand dwarfed hers, his skin surprisingly smooth, given all his rock climbing and other adventurous pastimes. He had somehow persuaded her to come along on a few of them. She was in the best shape of her life thanks to their walks in this park, and they’d only explored a fraction of it. They wouldn’t map every inch of it after all.

  Her brain practically whirred as she tried to think of some way—any way—that they could have mo
re time together. She wasn’t ready for their relationship to be over. She wasn’t ready for him to leave.

  “You could always put in for another visit, right?”

  “No. Where I’m from, they’re very strict about where citizens can go. I was amazed they let me come here at all.”

  “Sounds like a pretty crappy place.” Evelyn thought she murmured her sentiment quietly enough that he’d miss it, but his hearing was keener than that.

  “I’ve never thought so before.”

  Before now, she finished for him. Not out loud, though.

  “There are reasons behind the laws.” Adam sounded more like he was trying to convince himself than her. “I understand why the limitations are in effect.”

  “Let me guess. You’d rather not explain them to me.” She tried to smirk, to let him know she was joking, but her mouth wouldn’t cooperate. It just kept pouring out smart-alecky comments—as usual.

  “I’d rather enjoy my time as much as possible. And I’d like to spend it with you.”

  Evelyn could set her own schedule since the professor supervising her PhD work was gone for the summer. The research journals she was supposed to be going through were piling up from the time she’d been spending with Adam, but she couldn’t bring herself to care at the moment. Besides, she’d have plenty of time to catch up on them. As soon as Adam left.

  This time, she managed to look up at him and conjure up a full—if fake—smile. “Whatever you want.”

  Chapter Two

  Three days left in paradise. Adam could hardly believe his request for an extension had been denied after his last campaign. Tau Ceti-6 would think twice before launching an attack on neighboring systems.

  Peace was mandatory in the Coalition. Adam’s ship was in the vanguard of the fleet that guaranteed it for the septillions of sentients in the Milky Way.

  Milky Way. The translation session that prepared him with the knowledge and language he needed to blend in where he would be staying on Earth made his mind provide a direct translation of many idioms. He suppressed a laugh at the quaint naming convention.

  They had named the galaxy after spilled milk. He could imagine Evelyn’s jokes at his thoughts if she could hear them. “Better than crying over it. Get it? Spilled milk?”

  Soon, imagining her jokes would be all that was left to him. The thought sent a sharp spike of pain through his chest, surprising him with its intensity. Moons, did he really only have three more days with her?

  Holding her hand wasn’t enough. He needed her closer. She didn’t protest as he pulled her arm around his back. When he clasped her waist, she rested her hand on his hip.

  The years of training for command were barely enough to help him control his body’s reaction. Her touch was like fire—as he’d suspected it would be. Her small frame tucked in next to his perfectly. He couldn’t help but wonder how well they would fit together in other ways.

  Stopping by a small manmade pond near the entrance to the park, he luxuriated in her warmth next to him, the softness of her skin and the firmness of her grip on his side, as if she was trying to keep him with her. The longing that swelled up in him made his chest feel tight, like his heart was filling with a lifetime of memories they could never make together.

  A pair of swans paddled lazily across the still water. The white of their feathers struck a stark contrast to the brilliant green grass on the bank behind them.

  Adam had seen birds from all over the galaxy on his homeworld, Sadr-4. Always in captivity. Even the Proteus—a bird that shed small fireworks of energy and glowed like a star—couldn’t compare to the simple beauty of these swans.

  Earth was unspoiled, untouched by the genetic engineers who peddled their wares at all the ports he had visited. Every person he had met in the Coalition was the product of those geneticists. He was one himself—not that they were eager to claim a faulty model as their work, no matter how successful his military career.

  “Are you okay?”

  This wasn’t the time for darkness. Evelyn was at his side, her warmth pushing away his memories of cold space. Holding her close, her velvet voice at his ear, he felt a shiver pass through him. He was far from okay. But he smiled and nodded, looking out over the water.

  “It’s beautiful here. I’m going to miss it,” he said.

  “Don’t they have parks where you’re from?”

  “Not like this.” Adam felt her gaze on him and shrugged. “To say they’ve gone a little crazy urbanizing everything would be more than an understatement.”

  “Blech. Overdevelopment. It’s almost as bad as underdevelopment. I still don’t get how you spend so much time camping and stuff.”

  “You seem to be taking to it well. We’ve spent much time together in the wilds.”

  “You know my rule. I have to be able to reach a modern bathroom within ten minutes. That’s hardly what I’d call the wilds.”

  Adam laughed and the tightness in his chest loosened a bit. “I suppose you have a point.”

  “You didn’t have to spend so much time with me.” Her voice was low and tight—strain showing through. “You could have been outdoors even more. That is why you came here, right? For the nature?”

  “I wouldn’t change a thing.” He pulled her closer against his side. “You look lovely, by the way.”

  “Oh, please.”

  He let his gaze roam over her, drinking everything in. Her hair was walnut brown, but she colored it a pale gold. It was gathered up on the back of her head as usual and held in place with a clip. The rich brown of her eyes reminded him of fertile soil. They were keen and expressive, even behind her glasses.

  She was blushing. The paleness of her skin couldn’t hide the pink tinge coloring her cheeks and rising up from the low-cut bodice of her pale yellow sun-dress. Her shoulders were bare except for the thinnest of straps holding the garment up.

  Much of her back was open to the air. Adam wondered how she had managed to put sunscreen on, knowing how quickly she burned. A surge of jealousy coursed through him as he imagined someone else—anyone else—touching her skin.

  “Let’s move to the shade.”

  “Okay.”

  He led her to a bench near the main path that wound deeper into the park. Ancient oaks stretched their limbs above, sheltering them in cool shadow. He sat next to her—as close as he could. Damn, he was losing control.

  Visiting Earth had been his reward for thoroughly defeating Tau Ceti. The Admiral hadn’t been pleased with Adam’s unorthodox request to visit a planet designated as a preservation site, but with it being time for Adam to decide whether to re-enlist, she’d been inclined to comply. Anything to keep Adam at the head of the fleet.

  Sitting next to Evelyn with a warm breeze flowing over them, Adam realized they never should have granted his request. Sadr-4—his entire civilization—had intellectualized their existence to the point that bodies were seen as little more than vessels for their minds. Vessels that were to be modified and crafted to fit the needs of society—or the whims of the parents, if they had enough resources.

  The society itself was full of distractions. Technology keeping their attention occupied and Coalition regulated cocktails balancing their emotional states. No one seemed to notice that there was anything beyond supplements, technology and genetically crafted skills.

  Adam’s parents had ordered the political package. They expected him to become a leader, sitting safely in Sadr-4’s capital and ordering people around from a desk while they watched on in admiration and enjoyed the status his position would bring them.

  “See that man? He’s from our DNA.”

  Well, at least the ability to command had come through.

  Everything else had gone wrong. Instead of the color his parents had settled on, he had one green eye, like his mother, and one blue eye, like his father. That was the first sign that the ge
neticists had lost control.

  Adam was much taller than his parents wanted. He towered over most citizens, intimidating rather than inspiring. He lacked the graceful limbs and angular features as well, and his sheer size… There were some ships where he could barely fit through the mechanical tunnels.

  He hated to use the word, but he was a glitch.

  His parents received a full refund and Adam was transferred from the civilian pod where he had been born to one that specialized in raising children for the Coalition’s military. From what he’d seen of other citizens, he was better off with the firm but comparatively kind people who reared him—most of whom had similar origins.

  Coalition citizens didn’t know just how often the reproduction process glitched. The military was primarily composed of unwanted results—people who couldn’t quite fit in with societal expectations.

  But Adam fit in on Earth. He loved it here. He wanted to keep breathing air that was processed by trees instead of re-circulators. He longed for the deep laughter brought on by embracing the ridiculous dichotomies of life, and for this—holding someone dear to him close at his side. He had three more days to get his fill, and then he would never be able to return.

  “We should get married,” Evelyn said.

  “What?”

  “We should get married.”

  “That’s not something to joke about.”

  “I’m not joking.” She turned to face him, eyes bright and wide. She sat up straighter and leaned toward him with a broad grin on her face. “If we get married, you can stay here as long as you want.”

  He had a vague understanding of the various laws on her planet about people from different countries marrying, but she couldn’t possibly fathom what she would be getting herself into. “I appreciate the offer, but—”

  “You’re not interested. I get it. My mistake.”

  She sat back—eyes shuttering, smile gone—and started to turn away. Adam couldn’t stop himself from reaching out and gently caressing her cheek, bringing her gaze back to him. The thought of marrying her, of living with her on Earth for the rest of his days… It was tempting.