7. Willow

SEVEN

Willow

I woke up in bed to the smell of fresh coffee, and I was already smiling. Lorna may talk a mile a minute, and she may have missed her calling in life as a police detective, or possibly an inquisitor from days of old, but the woman knew how to look after her guests.

Getting up, I swayed a little, fatigue still clinging to me, unwilling to let go. Once I was feeling steadier, I went to the bathroom, made sure I didn’t look too bad, and then eagerly went to find Lorna and breakfast downstairs.

“Morning!” She beamed at me as I rounded the partition that separated the hallway from the kitchen and dining area. “You look tired still. Do you want a tray to go back to bed?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “Noel, Willow needs to go back to bed.”

“Noel!” My voice was sharper than I intended, and he paused mid-rise from his chair. “I do not need to go back to bed. You have done far more than you ever should have needed to,” I told him with a smile, and I watched as his eyes flicked between me and his wife, gauging who he should listen to. “I’m okay,” I assured them both. “I’m going to have breakfast, and then I am going to go to my shop, and then”—I cut off Lorna’s protests—“I am going to go home and sleep in my own house tonight.”

Lorna looked crestfallen. Noel looked nonplussed, but he did resume his seat and took a drink of his coffee.

“But you don’t have to leave,” she told me. I watched her pour the batter into the pan, and I pulled the bowl of fruit she had already prepared towards me. Taking a seat opposite Noel, I started to eat.

“I do need to leave, although I will miss how incredibly well I’ve been looked after.” Lorna looked at me, her expression still one of disappointment. “Lorna, you have been amazing. You both have.” I turned to look at Noel, who raised his cup in acknowledgment. “But I need to go home. I stay here much longer, and your boys will need to share a room, as I’ll have moved in.” I hoped the light teasing softened her mood. “Honestly, I’m not joking, I want to stay here and be pampered! Leaving is for your sake, trust me.”

She did laugh at that, and I felt the small knot of anxiety lessen.

“It’s nice to have someone to get up for,” Lorna admitted softly, and I saw Noel’s head dip to hide his frown. “Noel’s usually away before I rise, so there’s no one to cook for.”

“You’re losing work because of me?” I asked him, feeling guilty all over again.

“Not at all,” he assured me. He stood and carried his plate and cup to the sink, where his wife hovered. Kissing the top of her head, she leaned into him a little. “Sometimes I work further out, but I was on a job in town, not been a problem to help you out.”

“I will pay for your time, you know that, right?”

“You will not,” he said firmly, squeezing his wife, who had been about to protest for him. “This nasty business of yours, I just worry if it happens to Lorna when I’m not here. No, I’ll be closer to home until this mess is sorted and you’re fixed.” He opened the fridge and pulled out his lunchbox. “I’ll do your house first, then be at the store this afternoon, okay?”

“Okay, thank you.” I decided to discuss money with him when his overzealous wife wasn’t listening. Noel was a businessman, he’d see sense.

Lorna busied herself in the kitchen, serving me breakfast, and then she tidied up, always refusing any help. I knew she was happy having someone to look after, and it made me feel sad. I already knew I would never charge her for another art class again. I just hoped she’d accept my decision when I told her.

Maybe that was something I should also discuss with Noel. Food for thought.

Ready for work and dressed in jeans, a sweater, and my padded jacket, I shoved my feet into my boots at the front door of Lorna’s house. She was a “boots off in the house” homeowner, and I respected her wishes.

“And you’re sure you don’t want me to come?” she asked, hovering at the door.

“I am sure I want you to go to Zumba and have fun.” Reaching out, I took her hand. “You have been amazing, and you don’t know how grateful I am for a friend like you, and I mean that. ”

She blushed with embarrassment at the praise, but she squeezed my hand tightly. “You’re welcome, honey. I’ll see you later,” she told me, and anticipating my protest, she shook her head. “No, I know you won’t eat if I don’t come and bring lunch.” She looked me over. “You really do look healthier with me feeding you for the last few days, you know. I think we’ll have to discuss this with your doctor, Willow.”

The “mom” look was back, and I had to admit, I didn’t hate it. Suppressing a smile, I looked at her as I scrunched my nose up, already opening the door. “Maybe,” I acknowledged. “Maybe you take better care of me than I do myself. But…I won’t admit I said it!”

Laughing, I ran out the front door, hurrying down the path as she shouted after me that she had a recording device at the front door for her boys sneaking in, so she had it all on tape. I laughed louder and she waved at me as she yelled she’d see me later.

I was still giggling at her use of “tape” as I walked to work. Who said “tape” anymore? She was so funny. With my head in the clouds, a feat I placed firmly at Lorna’s door because of how much she had cared for me the last few days, I didn’t see the man rounding the corner who I walked into until it was too late.

“Ow! Sorry,” I added as I looked up at him and took a step back. I thought Cannon was big; this guy was huge.

“You should watch where you’re going.”

Looking between him and the corner, I pointed. “It’s a blind corner. This is as much your fault as mine.”

He was white, with dirty blond hair, a full beard, and hard hazel eyes. “Watch where you’re going in the future,” he grunted and resumed walking.

“Jerk,” I muttered under my breath as he walked away, my breath hitching when he turned swiftly to scowl at me. With my head down, I hurried on my way to work. I didn’t think they got bigger than Cannon, but that guy would definitely give him a run for his money.

On Main Street, my steps had slowed so much I was making hardly any progress. He was big and powerful, with really good hearing. Or maybe he hadn’t heard my name-calling, but I thought he did. Which meant he was a shifter.

Or I was overexcitable and thought everyone was a shifter now. Or was everyone a shifter now?

Opening the store, I didn’t bother turning over the “closed” sign. Noel and his guys weren’t finished yet, and until they were, there was no point opening. The insurance also sent someone out to inspect, and we had documented everything, so now all I had to do was wait. While I waited, I could draw.

The scene was one I had been reliving for the last few nights. Caleb lay on his back, his eyes on the sky above him, wearing nothing but jeans. His feet were bare, his abs on display, his hair disheveled around his head as he fixed the sky with an impenetrable stare.

The first time I saw the log cabin, I thought I was drawing a scene from his past, but the second time I saw him there, I just knew it was now . Like right now.

My finger traced the line of his body laid flat out against the cold ground. Loneliness emanated from the page, and I wished I could reach in and grab him and pull him out to me and have him here at my side .

I missed his grumpy ass. Did he miss me?

“Stupid, Willow,” I scolded myself. “He couldn’t wait to get away from you, so how would he miss you?” Even though I knew I was right, I still wanted to take hold of his hand and tell him we would find the answers together.

The knock on the door caused me to jump. Looking up through the window, I saw two familiar faces. Hurrying over to the door, I opened it for Royce and Doc. “You’re here so soon?”

Royce walked in, surveying the damage, Doc following closely behind, and I locked the door behind them.

“Place looks almost like new,” Royce complimented me, already walking to my easel. Noel had fixed them first at the request of his wife. “When was this?” he asked, his eyes on Caleb.

“The last few nights,” I answered honestly. “This is the first time I have drawn since the break-in. There’s no others for you to worry about.”

Royce peered at the sketch. “Why does he have mini tornadoes around him?” He exchanged a look with Doc. “Weather’s still good on the peaks.”

Joining them, we all stared at my sketch. “I don’t think it’s weather,” I told them slowly. “I don’t know what it is, but I don’t think it’s weather-related.”

“Looks spooky,” Doc said finally. “What do you think it means?” he asked me.

“I wish I knew.”

“You ready for your physical?” Doc changed the subject, and I saw Royce roll his eyes.

“Today?” I wanted to tell him no, that Lorna had some insights, but how could I explain my human friend’s insights to my doctor?

Doc looked around my empty, almost fully repaired store. “Got anything else you need to be doing?”

“Rude,” I murmured, walking to the back of the store.

I heard them both chuckle, and I remembered the man from this morning. “I have a question, and it’s going to sound…stupid…but if I ask, will you promise not to ridicule me?”

Royce lost his smile a little. “We would never make fun of you for wanting to know about us,” he chided gently.

I felt guilty again. I was definitely winning on the “thinking bad thoughts of your peers” day.

“I walked into a guy today. But he was big, bigger than Cannon.” When neither of them looked impressed, I carried on. “He was rude, and as I walked away, I called him a jerk.”

“I thought you said he was rude?” Doc teased.

“I said it so low he could never have heard me if he was…well, you know.”

“Human?” Royce supplied, and I nodded. “Describe him.”

I did as I was told, and Doc must have thought that me agitated and fully invested in my topic with Royce was the best time to examine me. I didn’t protest as I got poked and prodded, still discussing details with Royce.

He asked for details no one would notice or even know they had noticed. The one on the smell of his aftershave caused me the most consternation until I concluded he must not have been wearing any. That answer wasn’t supposed to make them react like they did.

“I’m going for a walk around town,” Royce told Doc. “No one gets in, okay? ”

“Roger,” Doc confirmed as he fiddled with an ear thermometer.

“I have friends coming to work on the store,” I told Doc.

“That’s fine. He means the ones you don’t know.”

Right. God, how was this my life? “Should I be worried?”

Doc looked up at me as he placed a cover over the ear prod. “Are you?”

“Yes?”

“It’s normal.” He stuck the thermometer in my ear. “How have you been feeling?”

I heard the machine beep to indicate it was done. “I’ve been okay, considering.” I thought about Lorna. “I’ve been staying with a friend. She was a student here. An older lady, got two sons, they’re in college, so she’s missed looking after people.” I gestured to the shop. “Her husband’s been doing the work here actually.”

Doc nodded as he looked around. “Handy friends.”

“Yeah, um, Lorna, that’s her, she said this morning that I look better for staying with her, and being well…looked after?” I saw him studying me, and I looked away as I continued. “She thinks I look healthier.”

“Your symptoms?” Doc asked me, taking out a small notebook. “I have here a pattern of sorts that I’ve been observing.” He gave me a quick smile. “It’s a bad habit of mine, I do it a lot. So, here, I have your sleep patterns, your feelings of fatigue, listlessness. Eating habits. Your temperature from the few days you were with the pack.”

“Oh my God, how long were you observing me?”

“When you were in the bunker, a couple of times before, you know. Normal stuff. ”

We held each other’s gaze, mine inquisitive, his looking dodgier by the second. “Caleb?” I guessed. “He took notes for you?”

“He’s very observant,” Doc mumbled, flipping his pages back and forth. “His observations were quite informative.”

“I bet they were,” I snarled as I started to pace. “What else did he observe ?”

“Just things that he asked me that he should look out for. Your illness isn’t one a shifter would come across before. Being told someone suffers from constant fatigue , it’s the exact opposite of a being that is continuously energized and active . You’re the polar opposite of a shifter. He had no idea what he was looking for. You were unconscious for days, he needed guidance and told me he had already had a doctor consult, and he needed more. He had your notebook, but he didn’t understand your code.”

“He could have asked.”

“You were unconscious.”

“Then he should have waited for permission.”

Doc tilted his head as he studied me. “Are you really that upset he went out of his way to care for you?”

“Well, when he just up and walks away, yes, I am. Because I don’t believe he cared.”

Doc nodded. “So your feelings are hurt.”

“Yes, he hurt my feelings! He walked away and left me with a wolf pack who could have locked me in a bunker and never let me out!”

Doc laughed. Right in my face. It was as sudden as it was genuinely amused. “I thought we’d been nothing but hospitable,” he said with a smile as he tidied his small pouch of medical equipment up. He then drew out a syringe and a vial. “May I?”

“Can I say no?” I was already rolling up the arm of my sweater.

“You could.” He wrapped a blood pressure cuff around my arm. “But why would you bother?”

Meaning he would take it anyway. Comforting. To be honest, I didn’t mind. I actually found Doc a very proficient healthcare provider. I wondered if he had any job satisfaction with a pack of wolves who rarely got sick as his caseload.

“What’s the average age of a shifter?” I asked while he found a vein and got ready to pierce my skin.

“They stop aging, unlike humans, once they reach maturity.” Doc was distracted, my vein proving to be more elusive than he would like, so he didn’t see my look of surprise.

“He’s immortal?” I’d gained a range of several octaves higher than was normal.

“What? Who? Immortal? What?” Doc blinked up at me, the first drop of blood hitting the vial. “No one is immortal, that’s ridiculous. Though the shaman is over two hundred years old, so I would say he may feel that way sometimes.”

“Two hundred…” I was shaking my head, and Doc was grinning at me again. I wished I wasn’t such a source of amusement. “You’re pulling my leg. I know he’s old, but eighties at the most. Maybe ninety.”

“Two hundred plus.” He pressed a cotton ball against my skin. “They hit maturity, and they slow down getting older.”

“Wolves live to like thirteen.”

Doc raised his eyebrows as he waited for me to get where I was going. When I said nothing else, he hid his smile. “You’re looking at animals. Shifters have the Goddess Luna’s magic in them.”

“What age are you?” I demanded, refusing the Band-Aid and rolling my sleeve down. “Fifty?”

“Ouch.” He rubbed his jaw as he mock glared at me. “Thirty-eight human years.”

“That’s insane. And also really, really unfair.”

He patted my knee in sympathy. “So now you know why I observe, why I told Caleb to take these notes.” Straightening, Doc looked at his notebook. “I have to admit, I think your friend Lorna may have a case; you’re healthier with her than you are alone.”

I looked away and fought the familiar feeling of irritation. “I do look after myself. I don’t need a keeper.”

“I know, and you are very conscious of being healthy,” he agreed. “But let’s not write off the power of being cared for.”

The door got knocked and Doc crossed the room to open it for Royce. The bigger man walked in and looked at me grimly.

“We have more shifters in this town than we need.”