“That’s what families do.” Mason looked away. The emotions between them would be lopsided for a time, but one day they wouldn’t be.
“Where will we go from here?” Morgan asked, breaking the tension of the moment.
“I reckon we need to decide together.” Mason crossed his arms. “Right?”
The boy was letting Max know he wanted to stay a family. It was good news. No, it was great news. Although he had no way of supporting them, they’d be together.
“Right. I need to talk to the captain about it.”
“I hope she lets us stay. I like it here.” Morgan slipped her hand into Max’s.
“Me, too.” He glanced at the twins and saw his new family. “Do you trust me to make the right decision for us?”
They both nodded and Max’s heart twisted. A month earlier, he couldn’t have imagined how different his life would be. How he’d take care of these two was still a mystery, considering he could hardly take care of himself. No more days and nights of figuring things out as he went. Now he’d have to plan and lead by example.
Damn, that was going to be hard.
“We’ll figure it out, Max. Don’t worry.” Morgan patted his arm, and he was reminded again of the idea she was a Sensitive. He’d have to work doubly hard to protect her from those who’d use her gifts for their own gain.
“You two shouldn’t be on the bridge.” Remy’s voice held no censure, but she was right. There were too many things the teenagers could get into. Especially Filch and Pilfer.
Morgan and Mason turned to look at Max, and he gestured to the hatch. “Get a move on. Go find something to do that’s not destructive and doesn’t involve finding ways to make Foley fart.”
“You take away all the fun,” Mason grumbled while his sister giggled, but they left as ordered.
The air on the bridge changed in an instant, almost crackling as Max stared at Remy and she stared right back. They’d been through so much together, shared some of the deepest, ugliest secrets, and at the end of it all, they were back on the Steel Coyote.
Hell, she’d fought his father. She’d freed him from his past irrevocably and completely. And he loved her, irrevocably and completely.
Now what?
“We’re ready to leave. The cargo has been offloaded and my gr— Ms. Rasmussen paid what Cooper owed us.” Remy held up a shiny new tablet. “We can transfer the money now. She did it without a chip. Not sure how she gets around the system, but she does.”
“Does it bother you to call her your grandmother?” Max peered at her, waiting for the telltale twitch in her jaw. He’d seen it when the word grandmother had almost passed her lips.
She turned away from him and stared out the window of the bridge. “It doesn’t bother me, but it doesn’t feel right.”
“Yet.”
A smile played around her mouth. “Yet.”
“It’s intimidating to be the granddaughter of such a force. I think I’m scared of you now.” He teased her, trying to shake off the cloud that had invaded the ship. She’d kept her distance from him, but he didn’t think it was because of him. No, she’d isolated herself perhaps to work through everything she’d learned and what she planned to do about it.
“Fuck you, Max.” Her words, again, had no force. It was as if the fight within her had been muffled.
He got to his feet and approached her. She shifted her stance, folding her arms, shutting him out.
“Don’t turn away from me.” If he let her pull away from him, she might not come back, no matter what they had done or been through together.
Silence.
He stood in front of her, blocking her view. She scowled at him. “You plan on bullying me into talking?”
“No. I’m just being charmingly annoying.” He waited until he saw the crack in her facade, then he pulled her into his arms.
She was stiff at first, but then she wrapped her arms around him. “Damn right you’re annoying.”
“The twins want to stay on board.”
“What about you?” Her voice was carefully neutral.
“I go where you go.”
There. He’d said it. And meant it.
She sighed. “This ship is falling apart. We barely have enough water to sustain three of us.”
“Foley fixed the water purifier. Besides, you have twenty thousand credits—”
“Minus all the money for fuel and supplies.”
He smiled. “Seventeen thousand credits. You can overhaul this bucket of bolts.”
She leaned back and raised one brow. “Did you insult my ship?”
“She’s old, but she’s got good bones. We can make her shiny.” He kissed her forehead and breathed in her scent. She’d become so important to him; he couldn’t imagine a life without her in the navigator seat and him in the pilot’s seat.
“Are you sure you want to stay on board? With me?” In her eyes, he saw hope.
“As long as you’ll have me.” He wanted to stay forever, but he was enough of a realist to know things in the quadrant changed every day. That included the Steel Coyote, no matter who Remy’s grandmother was.
“It could be dangerous to be in my company, especially if I’m a Rasmussen.” Her gaze hadn’t changed, but he heard a change in her voice. She expected him to distance himself.
“Are you kidding? My father was the biggest slaver in the quadrant, and you’re worried about it being dangerous around you?” He snorted.
She nodded. “I suppose that’s true. Should I be worried?”
He grinned. “Never.”
“Then I suppose we’ll all stay on board, fix up this old girl, and figure out what to do with the rest of our lives.” She pressed her cheek against his. “Just don’t buy me any more nighties. I’ll never hear the end of it from Katie.”
This time he laughed out loud. “Deal. You can sleep naked instead.”
She moved back a step.
“Wait.” He grabbed her hand. “I meant what I said. I love you, Remy. I don’t expect you to—”
She put her hand against his mouth. “That’s enough.” She moved in close, pressing her body against his in all its curvy glory. “I’ve never told anyone I love them. Not even Gunnar. I’m not sure what it is about my life that makes me prickly and want to protect myself from everything.”
His heart slammed into a trot and his mouth went dry. “And now?”
“Now I find myself attached to you. Really, really attached.” She swallowed and trembled in his arms.
“Attached enough to love me?” he whispered against her cheek, hope dancing up and down on his shoulders.
“Damn it, Fletcher.” She sighed, her breath warm against his skin. “I love you.”
He whooped and picked her up, swinging her in a circle that knocked a few things off the console. As the metal tinged and echoed in the chaos, he hugged her close to him. Of all the things he expected to find at the ass end of the universe, it wasn’t the woman who’d own his heart.
“Then I can stay?”
She leaned back and cupped his face. “I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t in that pilot’s seat. Please stay.”
He kissed her, their tongues tangling and rasping. This was everything. It was what he’d been looking for all his life. A family, a woman he loved who loved him back. A home.
Foley poked his head in the hatch. “Are we having coffee or what?”
Max met her gaze and grinned. “Am I invited?”
She smiled back. “Race you.” She ran toward the hatch and Foley squeaked, stumbling out of the way.
Max pounded after her, his heart full and his soul healed.
Remy entered the galley well ahead of Max and hooted in victory. She smiled at Katie and the twins who regarded her with wide eyes. “I won!”
“Big surprise, you crazy woman.” Katie shook her head.
Max’s voice echoed through the passageway. “You got in the way on purpose, you old fucker.”
“Don’t disparage my
character, pretty boy.”
Remy laughed and clapped her hands. “I love this crew.”
Katie’s brows went up. “All of them?”
“All of them.” She bestowed a secret smile to Max and his scowl disappeared. “Let’s have coffee.”
Ten minutes later, they all had coffee in battered tin cups in front of them. Morgan sniffed at it, and Mason gripped the handle. Everyone else watched her expectantly.
Remy held her cup in the air. “To the crew of the Steel Coyote, the best, smartest, and strangest motley group of folks in the quadrant. I wouldn’t want anyone else on my ship. Slainte!”
The toast was met with more hoots and hollers as the tin cups clinked together. They all sat and sipped their coffee. Max moved beside her and pressed his thigh against hers.
“I think I like coffee.”
She chuffed a laugh. “I think that’s the last of it, unless a miracle happens.”
“Thank you.” He spoke volumes with his gaze and she found her eyes pricking. She blinked hard and turned her attention to her own coffee. He wasn’t about to turn her into a foolish woman in front of her crew. That would be for later.
“Here.” Foley shoved a cloth-wrapped object toward Max.
He took the offering with a dubious expression. “What did you do, old man?”
“Fixed your thing is what I did. I got skills.” Foley stuck his chin up in the air.
Max opened the cloth to find the Moral Compass. “Son of a bitch.” He slipped it on his wrist and tapped the screen. Saint appeared just above the light source with his hands by his sides.
“Good day, sir. How may I be of assistance?”
Max’s heart dropped to his knees. It seemed Saint had lost all memories of the last ten years with him. “I, uh, don’t know.”
Foley pointed at him and cackled, slapping the table with his gnarled hand. “I told him it would work!”
“I don’t understand.” Max glanced at Saint and noted the smile on the hologram’s face. “Saint?”
“Hi Max. How have you been?”
“Holy shit. Did you just fuck with me? You have a sense of humor?” Max chuckled, which then turned into bursts of laughter until his gut hurt.
Everyone enjoyed the joke Foley had concocted with Saint. It was a joyful, ridiculous moment with his new family. His gaze met Remy’s and her eyes sparkled with so many good things, he almost hauled her onto his lap and kissed her.
When he finished laughing, he sipped at the coffee. “What are your orders, Captain?” His breath was shaky. “Can we leave this quadrant now? I want to put it at our six and never look back.”
“Abso-fucking-lutely.” She held up her cup. “May we never darken its orbit again. Make this turtle fly.”
He was happy to move on and start their new life together. Everything would be okay.
Morgan had been right. He smiled so hard his face hurt. He and Remy might not be perfect, but they were perfectly matched. And now they were free to live their lives together.
Who knew what kind of trouble they might find next?
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About the Author
Beth Williamson, who also writes as Emma Lang, is an award-winning, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of both historical and contemporary romances.
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