He blushed slightly when she kissed him, and he wondered at it. He wasn't always this awkward around women--maybe it had less to do with her pregnancy or her gender, and more to do with just not being ready for civilization again after a solid month of getting pounded by an army of invaders that made all his and his men's senses revert back to the stone age. Cadeyrn aside, the nonstop violence had more or less turned him into a cave man and he just couldn't comprehend standing in a pregnant woman's kitchen while she cooked Ramen and asked of her sister's strange new husband. The pregnancy and the gender thing only added on top of *that*, until, like now, he was reduced to a gibbering mess. These worlds just weren't supposed to collide, were they?
"I-I've never actually met him," and Tom thought that was very strange, that *he*, the older brother and the outsider in that closely-knit pack of pen pals should know more about Dorothea's love life than her own sister. But then, they'd obviously not had contact either, and he could more than understand that. "He's a member of the French Armed Forces... a captain, I believe. They've... known each other for some time now, I've heard. They met after Thea was kidnapped and taken to Brazil. She'd escaped and had been walking for days when she found him..." He decided not to use the terms Max had used, to describe what, exactly, Cadeyrn had been doing to the farmer's daughter (not that Max would know), and went on, "Cadeyrn decided to keep Thea company on her travels, and eventually, it became a relationship. I'm not sure where, exactly, Cadeyrn got Persimmon--that's her name--but I know he purchased her from a bad man in some sort of exchange. It wasn't like that, however, Cadeyrn just couldn't stand to see her abused... so she's more Cadeyrn's daughter now than Thea's, but I guess since Cadeyrn and Thea are married now, maybe not. They were just married very recently, Cadeyrn said that he had these silly notions he was going to leave her for a French slut, and... well, he corrected her. Then he married her, so she'd be protected if anything happened to him. I believe Cadeyrn might take Thea to France to escape the trouble that's growing in South America--Brazil is surrounded by enemy forces, and Thea may be in danger. But it's still up in the air. She'll probably go out there anyway someday--to France, I mean--because Cadeyrn's family is from there. He's French Welsh or something like that. Cadeyrn and I exchange emails, we get along well... he hates my brother, but that's to be expected, I guess..."
He took a deep breath, wary of the babbling. Then he added, "That's pretty much all I know. I met them after I found my brother last month--or the month before last? I can't remember now. Time gets distorted in all the fighting... but a lot has happened since then. Did you know him, my brother I mean? Max? He's going to Africa, and Tristan lives in Canada now. Everyone's been fleeing the country, except us..."
Tom played with his noodles, staring at the bowl. He wondered if she would leave as well. He was determined to ask her too--Georgia, hell, the entire east coast was getting much too dangerous to stay. If she refused, he'd have to take her back with him, because there was no telling if the Russians would keep away from Ackennestock. And there was also no way he was going to mail Thea and tell her that her sister was killed in enemy crossfire. But they'd cross that road once they got to it.