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Face said, “Four hours? What am I doing awake? I’ll see you two tomorrow.” He strode from the room.

The two of them sat in silence for a few moments. Then Kell said, “That was a pretty good idea. About Shiner being the last Talon in the weird way Myn was thinking.”

“Thanks.”

“Another insight? Like the other day and the ambush those pirates set up for me?”

“Something like that.”

“I bet it’s the Force. I bet you can only use it when you’re not thinking about it.”

“Oh, that’s great. That’s just what I need. How would you like to be the best pilot in the galaxy, but only when you’re outside a cockpit?”

He snorted.

“Was it true what he said?” Her voice was unusually gentle. “About Janson and your father?”

“Yes.” Kell reached out for the deep wellspring of hatred he’d carried for Janson all these years, but it was still gone. Mostly gone. “Every day, I wish it hadn’t happened. But Janson had reason.” He shook his head, trying to dispel the mood of gloom those memories always invoked. “Was it true what you said? About giving up that whole attitude of ‘I might die tomorrow, probably shouldn’t make any plans’?”

She took a while to answer. “Yes, I meant it.”

“Um.”

“Um? That doesn’t mean anything.”

“You remember a while back, when I told you I loved you, and you told me it was just a puddle on the floor, and then you put my face into that puddle?”

She looked at him as if to gauge his mood. Seeing that he wasn’t mad, she managed a sympathetic smile. “Of course I remember.”

“Well, I have something to tell you. After I realized you were right, I decided that it was enough to be your friend.”

“Good.”

“Then I fell in love with you again.”

Her expression became one of dismay and exasperation, “Oh, Kell—”

“No, bear with me, just for a minute.”

“It’s just the same words again.”

“Same words … different Kell. This time I know what I’m talking about.”

“Of course you do. So. Set Honesty to On?”

“Honesty to On.”

“How much time did you spend thinking about me today?”

“Every chance I got. Every chance I had when Commander Antilles and Janson weren’t working me.”

“Ah, but in how many of those little fantasies of yours was I wearing any clothes?”

He snorted in amusement. “Lots of them. Most of them.” The words, the truth, came easily to him. “I saw us together in quiet times. When the war with the last bits of the Empire was over and we could argue and be confused about what to do next. Deciding things together. I saw myself presenting you to my family … and saw them making a place in their lives and hearts for you.” He saw distress in her expression but pressed on anyway. “I saw a hundred ways for our lives together to be, and the only thing that made me sad was that we couldn’t explore all of them.”

He sighed. “But now, like the galaxy’s worst general, I’ve told you my objective—I’m going to win your heart. I just don’t know how I’m going to do it, you being forewarned and all—”

She lunged at him. Her tackle took him off the end of the sofa. Suddenly she was atop him on the floor, her arms around his neck, embracing him but glaring furiously.

He rubbed the back of his head where it had hit the deck. “Ow.”

“Shut up.” She kissed him.

That went on a while and felt better than a three-day bender on Churban brandy—even better, for the rising heat and excitement he felt were something no brandy could ever simulate. In spite of his confusion, he remembered to wrap her up in his arms so she couldn’t escape when she regained her senses.

Finally she broke the kiss and returned to glaring at him.

“Well, that wasn’t bad,” he said. “But I thought you didn’t feel the way I did.”

“Of course you did. But then, you’re a giant adolescent with no sense. A big shaved Wookiee with no grasp of human emotions.”

“Granted. But how long have you wanted me?”

Her expression went from angry to plaintive in an instant. “Since I met you.”

“What? Then why didn’t you—”

“Because you were in love with that other Tyria, the one who doesn’t