Free Losing Mars (Saving Mars Series-3) by Cidney Swanson Page B

don’t you take me to see that young man of yours?”
    Jessamyn looked at Renard who shrugged innocently. “She knows everything about everyone,” he murmured quietly.
    Jess frowned, but she took Gran to see Pavel, joining him on a series of patient visits. Gran observed, nodded, and chewed her pipe.
    “I believe I’m tired,” she said at last. “Would the two of you take me home?”
    It was nearly time for evening rations by the time Jess and Pavel got Gran settled in her dwelling.
    That night over dinner, Jessamyn was quiet and distant. She couldn’t stop thinking about Kipper. What was she doing here in Yucca shepherding old women around town when Kip might be able to save Mars from making a terrible mistake?
    After evening rations had concluded, Pavel took Jessamyn’s hand in his own.
    “Let’s go outside,” he said softly.
    Jess nodded and the two ascended the stairs together. The heat had died back from midday, and Jessamyn pulled her hair up off her neck to catch at the bit of breeze streaming across the desert floor.
    “You want to go get your captain, don’t you?” said Pavel, his voice matter-of-fact.
    Jessamyn twisted a corner of her shirt round and round her index finger and didn’t answer.
    “Even though no one else thinks it’s smart,” added Pavel. “Am I right?”
    “Is it that obvious to everyone?” asked Jessamyn.
    Pavel shrugged. “Most of them know you as well as or better than I do.”
    A breeze ruffled Jessamyn’s hair and she sighed.
    “There’s next to no chance it’s her, you know,” said Pavel.
    “It’s this feeling I have,” said Jessamyn, dropping the shirt corner so that she could hold her hand over her belly. “Right here. I just feel so sure, somehow. An undocumented worker who happens to have the same first name as my captain?”
    “I don’t think anyone but me suspects you’re planning something,” said Pavel, shifting his hand so that the backs of his fingers met the backs of Jessamyn’s.
    She felt a warm shiver run through her and pressed the back of her hand more closely against his. Whereas her fingers were warm, his skin was cool, comforting.
    “They’re all so sure it’s not your captain that it doesn’t occur to them you might think differently,” said Pavel.
    “It occurred to you, though.”
    Pavel tipped his head up to watch the night sky. “Going after her is what I’d do in your place.”
    Jessamyn twined her fingers through Pavel’s.
    “I’m not used to this,” she said. “Having someone who … gets me.”
    Pavel’s hand tightened around hers. “Me neither.”
    Jessamyn’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Back home, I never had close friends. Not my own age, anyway. I’m not … I don’t know if I know how …” She broke off, uncertain what she was trying to say.
    “It’s okay,” said Pavel. “I get it. Try growing up in the household of the world’s most powerful woman and see how many friends you collect.” His voice was soft, hardly more than a whisper. “Renard’s the closest thing I’ve ever had to a friend my own age, and half the time I’m around him, I’m jealous he might like you or something.”
    “That’s just silly,” said Jess.
    “Well, I notice he’s not the one out here talking to you under the stars.”
    “That’s right,” said Jessamyn as she wound an arm around Pavel’s waist. “Hey, Pavel? I’ve been thinking. You didn’t turn me in, the morning after we first met. Even though you’d seen me blow up a transport. Maybe Kip woke up and she found someone who decided against turning her in as well.”
    Pavel took a moment before responding. “I’m not going to say that couldn’t happen. The idea of life on Mars … it would intoxicate just about anyone I’ve ever met, if they could just believe in it. And your captain’s physician would have the same means of corroborating her story I had. Her blood, oh-two levels, mineralization of her bones, and so on. It could happen. But you know