Page 64 of Roping Her Alien Ranchers

23

TAMMY

Aliens under a starry sky… why is this the most romantic thing that’s ever happened to me?

The night stretched above us, its stars scattered in patterns so familiar yet suddenly oh-so strange when viewed alongside three beings who had traveled through them. We sat along the fence line, the four of us perched on newly reinforced posts that Vantor had installed, coffee mugs steaming in the cool night air. It must be around two o’clock now. Early enough we could go to sleep and get decent enough rest, yet it also felt too late for that.

I was wired.

More awake than I’d ever been in my life.

Body humming with energy.

How could I feel so alive with these aliens right now, when I’d never felt that way around other humans?

Titling my head, I gazed upward. For a heartbeat, I wondered if the twinkling stars were trying to tell me a secret, trying to communicate in the same way that the aliens did when tiny bursts of light punctuated the colorful expanses of their real skins. Unfortunately, my human brain couldn’t grasp the meaning behind either bright language. But even beyond the foreign speech of sky, I didn’t comprehend much right now, not with three impossible silhouettes beside me. I looked back down, glancing right then left. None of them were bothering to keep their perfect human guises in check.

Kalith’s lower tentacles were woven into the fence below him, keeping him stable perched atop the barrier. Vantor was using the tip of one tentacle to stir his coffee, frowning down at it and what he called its “pungent scent”. And Cyro was currently tiptoeing four tentacles through the pasture grass, trailing behind a large group of musical katydids.

My body felt warm, heat radiating from my center. It wasn’t the hot coffee mug, or the woolen sweater; it was the company.

Kalith’s hovering lamps spilled emerald, sapphire, and amber glows across us and the landscape. Without warning, they grew more intense, dulling the stars above.

“Can you lower the lights?” I asked as I lifted my mug up for a long, life-affirming sip.

Without answering, Kalith pressed something on a strange watch type device. I hadn’t noticed it before. The suspended lamps did not decrease in brightness, but instead lowered closer to the ground, coming to stop at about the level of the middle fence railing. I laughed. “I mean; I guess that’s technically lower.”

“Did you wish for a different outcome?” Kalith’s tentacle tip hovered over the watch again.

“The brightness. Could you lower that too?”

He nodded, and seconds later the tri-color glowing dimmed.

I took another sip of the hot coffee, letting the rich flavors envelop me as Kalith’s lights cast their enchanting effects over the scene. It was all surreal and made more so by the blend of alien and Earth colors. The katydids’ singing rose in pitch. Beside me, Cyro tried to mimic their sounds, joining into the chorus. It was jarring at first, but he shifted his pitch and volume until his vocalizations melded almost seamlessly with the insects.

This should be incredibly strange.

I should be freaking out still.

But it already felt normal. Like Sunflower Hills had always had three alien ranch hands.

“I’ll have the stables back in order by tomorrow,” Kalith said absentmindedly. “The damage looked worse than it was.”

“Tomorrow?” I breathed out. “That’s amazing.”

“It is simple engineering,” he shrugged, tone humble.

“It’s simply awesome is what it is, Kalith,” I corrected. His skin flushed with happy hues, and he gave me a quick, boyish smile.

Less than twenty-four hours, and a burned-down stable would be useable again. How had I ever survived without three magical aliens at my side?

I had never imagined I’d feel so at ease with anyone, let alone an iridescent group of extraterrestrial beings whose mere presence had turned my life upside down.

When they left me, would they miss it here?

I knew I’d miss them.

More than I was able to admit right now.