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Amos slurped down the last of his coffee and said, “So, you called thisina moment to think “Yeah, kind of”

Nao”

“I think we get married,” he said with a wink at Naoal”

“Wait,” she said The look on her face was more horrified than Holden would have hoped

“No, no, that’s sort of a joke,” Holden said “But only sort of See, I was thinking about my parents They formed their initial collective partnership because of the farm They were all friends, they wanted to buy the property in Montana, and so they h to afford it It wasn’t sexual Father Toale Fathers Joseph and Anton and Mothers Elise and Sophie were already a polyamorous civil unit Father Di Tamara They formed a civil union to own the property jointly They wouldn’t have been able to afford it if they were all paying taxes for separate kids, so they had roup”

“Earth,” Alex said, “is a weird freakin’ place”

“Eight parents to a baby ain’t exactly common,” Amos said

“But it makes a lot of economic sense with the baby tax,” Holden said “So it’s not unheard of, either”

“What about peoplethe tax?” Alex asked

“It’s tougher to get aith than you think,” Holden said “Unless you never go to a doctor or only use black markets”

Amos and Naomi shared a quick look that Holden pretended not to see

“Okay,” Holden continued “Forget babies for aIf we plan to stick together, let’s al We can draft up incorporation papers with one of the independent outer planets stations, like Ceres or Europa, and become joint owners of this enterprise”

“What,” Naomi said, “does our little company do?”

“Exactly,” Holden said in triuain

“No, I ,” Holden continued “Who are we? What do ant to do? Because when this contract with Prax is over, the bank account will be well padded, we’ll own a high-tech warship, and we’ll be free to do whatever we daot half a hard-on”

“I know, right?” Holden replied with a grin

Prax stopped erator He turned and looked at them with the careful movements of someone who feared he’d be asked to leave if anyone noticed him Holden moved over to him and put an arm around his shoulder “Our friend Prax here can’t be the only guy who needs to hire a ship like this, right?”

“We’re faster andup,” Alex said with a nod