“From what I gather, yes,” Sal said with a shrug. “There are no females there, and apparently there are lots of boys still waiting for a woman. Like I said, sounds like the Zabrian ladies don’t fancy the rancher life.”
But I did. I loved the rancher life. It wasmy fucking life.
Or had been, until I’d been kicked off of the ranch that had been my home for the past twenty-three years.
But maybe…
“Do they have horses?”
Sal gave me an odd look, probably because of the desperate note that had suddenly entered my voice. I took a sip of water to try to chill myself out a bit, but only ended up gripping the glass so hard my knuckles hurt.
“Yep,” he said, and something inside me sang. “Or the alien equivalent, I guess. Magnolia sent a small text update along with the photo. Said she’s learned to ride.”
“And there are still men waiting for wives?”
Sal nodded. “Apparently there are more single men than married.”
So I could go to this beautiful, bizarre place, and get a house, a ranch, a horse? All I had to do was marry some lonely, horny alien rancher? Considering how slim their pickings were, one of them was bound to accept me even with Baby Girl on board. Pa fell in love with my mama when she was pregnant with another man’s child. Why not one of the seven-foot-something males like the one I’d just seen in the photo?
And unlike my childhood, I planned to be there for Baby Girl’s. No siree, I didn’t plan on up and dying. I was going to be there. To see her grow. To make sure she had the family I didn’t.
Family…
I could really have a family.
Or at the very least, even if there was no big love connection between me and whichever rancher wanted me, I could at least have a home. And not just any home. Aranch. With horses.
For the first time since I’d left home today, I felt a near-violent stab of hope in my chest. Or maybe that was just BabyGirl punching me. She rolled and kicked. Like she was pleased with my idea.
That settled it.
I was going to this Zabria Prinar One.
I was going to find myself an alien rancher.
And come Hell or high water, I was going to marry him.
2
JOLENE
Ispent half the night trying to find an interstellar shuttle service that would take me to Zabria Prinar One. But for some reason, all the legit services kept telling me the same thing: it wasn’t an authorized landing planet for civilian ships or any sort of tourist travel. Basically, it seemed that no one was allowed to just fly on over there. Which made no sense, since obviously the pretty Magnolia in the picture had flown there and landed just fine.
But I’d always been stubborn. And I’d made up my mind.
Which was how I ended up on a fast-but-alarmingly-rickety, unsanctioned shuttle piloted by a skinny, greasy-haired human who referred to himself as Bones. I tried to ask him where the name came from, inquiring if that was a given name or a nickname while very much hoping he wasn’t going to use my bones for anything weird. But he didn’t answer.
Nor did he do anything to my bones, luckily.
What he did do was deliver me to Zabria Prinar One, as paid-for and promised.
Except for the part where he just dropped me in the middle of a random field.
“Um. Excuse me?” I said as he jutted his chin towards the open shuttle door. The Zabrian Prinar One sun was setting, illuminating kilometres of swaying grass and…
Well, not much else.
“Excuse yourself,” Bones replied. “Out you go.”
