I grin, glancing over at O’jek in delight as I clutch my tunic against my breasts. “Can you touch me again? Tell me if it’s a boy or a girl?”
“Now that part, I don’t know just yet,” she says. “You’re just going to have to wait and see.”
How exciting. I feel like crying out of sheer relief, and pure joy, but I know it’ll make O’jek upset. I bite the inside of my cheek because he won’t understand happy tears. Instead, I drop my tunic. “Thank you.”
“You can come back as often as you like and I can check on things for you. Happy to do so.” She gestures at my arm. “What about your burn marks?”
I haven’t thought about them in days. I rub my hand over the red, shiny skin on my lower arm. “What about them?”
“Do you want me to try healing them again? Since you’re here?” She tilts her head at me, waiting.
Normally I’d say yes without hesitation. That my need to be beautiful again overrides everything. But…I’ve been burned for months now and O’jek still finds me pretty. He’s never even hesitated or turned away from me. And the healing Veronica is doing now is very minor. The skin feels fine, but it’s still red and slightly too glossy, like all the texture was burned away…which, I suppose, it was. Still, does it require healing? Or am I being selfish? Veronica is a young mother with a big job to do for the tribe and two young children to raise. Do I really need to have her try to fix scars that don’t necessarily need fixing? “It’ll fade over time, right?”
“It should, yes.”
“Then I’m not worried about it.” I smile at her. “Save your energy for babies.”
The look she gives me is relieved. “Thank goodness you said that, because it has been a heck of a day. I’m exhausted and Ashtar has flown out to take supplies to Croatoan, which means he’s probably picking Tia up, too. I could use his hands around here.”
“May I do anything for you, V’ronca?” O’jek asks. “Do you need food? Fuel for your fire?”
“Want to change a diaper?” She wiggles her eyebrows at him.
Before O’jek can answer, I reply on his behalf. “He absolutely does.”
One very dirty diaper and a lecture on how to clean a baby bottom later, O’jek washes his hands a second time while Veronica feeds her younger son and I play with Katamneas to keep him occupied. “I will never get the smell out,” O’jek mutters to me, rubbing his knuckles. “How does so much stink come from such a small bottom?”
I giggle, handing Kata one of his carved dragon toys—no doubt Aehako’s handiwork. “You get used to baby poop after a while. It’ll be different when it’s our baby.”
“Because it will smell less?”
“No, because you won’t care as much because it’ll be our baby.”
“I think I will still care,” he grumbles, wiping his hands on a soft scrap of leather. “But I am excited to meet our baby.”
Beaming, I turn to him and pause, because that is the unmistakable sound of U’dron’s drum. A moment later, I hear Raven’s shell tambourine, and someone starts to clap their hands. “Are they starting our resonance party without us?” I’m a little hurt at the thought. Every time someone resonates, the group throws a small party. It’s a chance to celebrate and share good vibes amongst our small community, so I’m doubly hurt that they’re seeming to have the festivities without us. “You’d think they’d wait for us to arrive.”
“Oh, don’t get the wrong idea,” Veronica calls out from her bed, where she’s lying down to feed Varukhal. “They’re starting a party. Like I said earlier, it’s been a crazy day.”
O’jek and I exchange a look. I’m confused by Veronica’s words. “Did someone else resonate again? Will and Gren, maybe?”
“It was a resonance,” Veronica agrees. “But it wasn’t a repeat.”
“Flor and R’jaal?” I ask her, immediately thrilled for Flor. It’s hard when you feel like the only one that hasn’t resonated, and I know it will make Flor happy. Plus, she and R’jaal have been toying with the idea of a relationship for a while. I know he wants a mate desperately. Both he and I’rec do, and I feel a twinge of pity for I’rec, who is apparently the last male to resonate. “Good for them!”
“Nope,” Veronica says, and her voice is grim. “You’d think that, but keep guessing.”
O’jek’s eyes widen. “F’lor and I’rec?”
“A couple of hours ago,” Veronica agrees, switching her child to her other breast. “And let me tell you, there was a lot of awkwardness between those two once they realized what was happening.”
“Holy cow,” I breathe. I’rec has been waiting for Tia all this time…and I truly thought R’jaal and Flor were destined for each other. Judging by the shocked expression on O’jek’s face, he thought the same. Two people that are meant to be with two other people just resonated…where does that leave the others, I wonder? “This is bad.”