LIKE THE FANCY FOLK

Jayne had been sitting in his quarters, assembling and disassembling Vera for hours. He had a lot on his mind. Well, he had one thing on his mind.

River.

He didn’t know what to do about her.

Their courtship had been going on for months.

She was smarter than he was. She was deadlier than he was. She was young enough to be his daughter.

And for the first time in his life, he found himself head over heels in love.

He loved her brain. He loved her deadliness. He loved her youth.

He loved her as much as he did Vera!

Which brought him to what he was thinking about.

He wanted to … well, he wanted to sport with her. Hell, he’d even kiss her. As a matter of fact, he’d kissed her many times. And he liked it. Her lips were full and soft and his brain did amazing things when his lips met hers. Other of his parts liked it too.

He was worried she’d think him an oaf if they did anything more. He was big and hairy and not at all like that fancy brother of hers. He wasn’t sure how fancy people did it but he was pretty sure it bore no resemblance to how he did it.

He wished Inara were onboard. He could ask her maybe.

He looked up and smiled.

“I’ve got it!” He’d ask Kaylee. She and Simon were all over one another these days and she was just a plain old farm girl. She’d know how fancy folk did it!

He put Vera back together and rubbed his hands on his pants and headed for the engine room.

Kaylee was under the engine fiddling with something.

“Kaylee! I gotta talk to ya!” He entered the room with his usual quiet.

She peeped out, grease on her forehead and a scowl on her pretty face. “I’m kinda busy. Trying to make her hold together until Mal can buy her some parts.”

“But this is real important.”

She rolled out and stood up, dusting herself off as she did.

“What’s so all fired important, Jayne?” She was irritated but that didn’t bother him in the least. In fact, everyone was usually irritated with him and