Chapter Eight

Hale

I'd done everything I could think of to clear my head of the notion of downloading that app and seeing if we had a chance to find a partner, a wife, a mate if said woman was a shifter. All three of us were humans, but we'd encountered shifters in our vet practice over the years. Some came in their animal forms needing care, and we never turned down anyone.

I opened the door to my cabin after taking a long walk through our patch of forest. Even my night walk didn't clear my head like it usually did.

The day had been packed with patients, both scheduled and walk-ins. We'd also hosted an event where people could bring in their dogs and cats for low-cost vaccinations. We were aware of the cost of keeping your pet healthy but also wanted to make sure there was a way for everyone to have disease-free pets. We tried to help the community by having these low-cost days a few times a year, but they were always hectic, and often people would come from other counties and towns to participate.

My body was exhausted, but my mind wouldn't shut up.

I turned on a podcast and busied myself with dinner. The weather outside was turning chilly, and so, soup was in order. Soup and fresh bread were good balms for an overthinking mind and a tired body.

While my sausage and butternut squash soup simmered on the stove and the scent of baking garlic cheddar biscuits filled my cabin, I showered and changed into some sweats and plopped myself in front of the fireplace. It wasn't quite cold enough to start the fire, but I craved the comfort of the ambiance it created.

As the podcast ended, I reached for my phone and was going to move to the next episode when I thought again of Eugene's situation. My loneliness and the hunger for someone to share my life with grew as the months passed. I was still young. There was plenty of time to get married—that's what my parents said.

Instead of going to the next episode and listening to the stories of others, I found myself doing an internet search for the app Eugene talked about the day before. It was easy to find, of course. The website looked professional and the app downloaded in seconds.

Reading through the testimonials, I began to believe there might be a chance for me to find someone here, but even more than that, I thought about my friends. They were my best friends. We'd never had a fight and treated each other more like brothers. I'd always felt like I'd had a connection to them our whole lives even though it had only been years.

We shared a piece of land. We shared a veterinary practice.

It would be a whole other thing to share a wife, but we would make it work. I was sure of it. They hadn't jumped up and down at the idea when I told them about Eugene, but if we found someone, the right someone, my gut told me they would never push her away because they had to share. Besides, between the three of us, with our hectic schedules and time away from home, the woman would be with one of us all the time rather than our having three wives who were alone and not having their needs met.

The timer on the oven plucked me from my thoughts of a polygamous relationship. I sat down to a hearty bowl of soup and biscuits and, this time, I didn't push the thoughts away.

What would it hurt to sign up and let the app do its job? If it found someone for me or us, then that would be fantastic. We would deal with the issue once it happened. And if there were no matches—if our person wasn't on the app, then we lost nothing by trying.

Because what we were doing right now wasn't working. The random visits to the bar in town only gave us a chance to have a beer and see the same faces. New people came into town every once in a while, but they were often there for a reason—to visit a sick relative or for a vacation at one of the Airbnbs. They weren't interested in living in a place like this, which was why they only visited and never stayed. I hadn't been a monk all these years, but I'd never met someone I thought I could fall in love with.

I took my time eating dinner and cleaning up, but more and more, I made my resolve.

Tonight, I would sign up for the app and take the chance of finding our wife or partner. Hell, whatever the woman wanted to be called, that's what we would call her.

I signed up, but not only myself, all of us. If we were going to find a wife then she needed to know that we were a package deal. We would figure out the details later.

I went to bed that night feeling simultaneously hopeful and guilty. Idris and Lachlan didn't know that while they slept or carried out their night that I'd potentially reached out to find us a wife.

Perhaps we'd get lucky and find our someone like Eugene had.