“I’m happy that you’ve found someone…even if she’s a ‘kind of’ girlfriend. But Meagan…I still can’t get over that. What did her family say when she came out?”
“They weren’t happy, I’ll tell you that,” Ari answered, handing me another box of ornaments. “You’re going to need twice as many ornaments as we’ve got for this tree, you know.”
“Yeah, I can see that. Next year I’ll add those my parents owned. I’ll pick up a few more this weekend, as well. But this is a good start.” I paused, turning to gaze out the window. It was snowing again, very lightly, and the reflection of the tree lights gave the room a warm, fuzzy glow. I closed my eyes for a moment, missing my mother.
We miss you too, a voice whispered, and I jumped. “Did you hear that?”
Ari nodded. “Yes, it sounded like…”
“Like my mother.” I paused and walked out into the center of the room. “Is anybody here?”
A light breeze gusted past me, a puff of air softly shifting my hair. Don’t fret.
“I think my mom’s here,” I said. At that moment, the lights flickered, then burned steady again. I leaned against the wall, staring at the tree. In that one moment, I went from feeling out of place to feeling like I belonged here. As everything slowly settled, I couldn’t help but smile. Even though my parents had crossed over the Veil, they were still here to let me know they were glad I had come home again.
Chapter Six
The next morning, I woke with a smile on my face. My first day of work was ahead of me, the house was decorated, I had a beautiful tree to come home to, and I finally felt like I was settling in. I slipped on a robe and loosely tied it—I slept in the nude—and after slipping my feet into a pair of fluffy slippers, I headed down to the kitchen to fix breakfast. I had no sooner than entered the room when I noticed a movement in the backyard. A dog was racing around. A very large dog that looked suspiciously like a wolf. What the hell?
I set down the espresso filter, cinched my robe tighter, and headed out the kitchen door onto the enclosed back porch, then opened the screen door and cautiously navigated down the snow-covered steps.
“Hey, pooch…you, doggy! What are you doing in my yard?” I frowned, wondering where the dog had come from. He was gorgeous—and now that I got closer, I saw that he was, indeed, a gray wolf. I froze. Was he wild? Was he somebody’s pet?
The wolf was bouncing around after something in the snow and I saw that he was chasing a mouse. Feeling suddenly protective, I yelled again and waded through the ankle-deep snow toward them.
The wolf stopped in his tracks, staring at me.
“You leave that little mouse alone! You don’t look hungry!” And he didn’t. He looked like he was just playing with the mouse.
“Back off, buster.” I was so focused that I hadn’t noticed that I was shivering. The next moment, the wolf cocked his head, staring at me for a moment. Uh oh, I hoped he wasn’t going to head my way next. “Nice doggy, good doggy…just please get out of my yard, Fluffy.”
The wolf let out an odd noise, then bounded back toward the fence, toward Killian’s lawn. He took the fence in one leap and vanished behind the wooden planks that formed the four-foot-high barrier. The mouse gazed up at me, wriggling its nose, then burrowed its way back into the snow and headed toward the tree line.
A little bewildered over what had just gone down and incredibly cold, I turned and headed back inside. My slippers were soaked, and as I closed the door behind me, I glanced down. The ties on my robe had come loose and it was hanging wide open. The wolf and mouse had gotten a glimpse of me in all my naked, jiggling glory—jiggling, thanks to my boobs and thighs. While I was fairly proportioned for my size and had an hourglass figure, there was plenty of me to go around.
“Well, I hope the critters enjoyed seeing my hoo-ha,” I muttered. But the scene kept playing out in my head and I couldn’t help but feel that somehow there was something odd about the wolf. He felt familiar, as though I’d seen him before.
But my thoughts were cut short as I caught sight of the clock.
“Oh hell, I’ll be late!”
I had to get dressed and out the door if I was going to make it to work on time. I dashed upstairs and quickly changed into jeans and a warm tank top, over which I threw a lace overshirt. I buckled a silver belt around my waist and pulled on knee-high leather boots with nonskid soles, and then brushed my hair back into a thick ponytail. My hair was so long and full that if I didn’t pull it back into a ponytail, it would be falling into my face all day long.
I grabbed my purse, made sure I had my wallet, phone, and keys, and headed out front to my car. I was about to unlock the door when I heard a “Hello!” from Killian’s driveway. I turned to see him leaning against his car, snow shovel in hand.
“Hey,” I said, waving.
“Morning,” he said. He was grinning, a light dancing in his eyes, and it struck me once again how handsome he was. “You want me to shovel your walk? I’m about to do mine and I don’t mind.”
I glanced back at the walkway to my house. It was a mess. “Thanks, that would be wonderful.” I paused, remembering what Ari had said about the Winter Cotillion. While I wasn’t ready to ask him to that, I said, “Hey, Killian…the Winter Carnival’s going on this weekend. Most of the town shows up. Would you like…” I froze, suddenly tongue-tied. I’d been married for eighteen years and even though I was glad to be free of Ellison, I had no clue of how to actually ask a man out. But Killian saved me from my shyness.
“I’d love to go with you—if that’s what you were asking,” he said, again flashing me the dancing smile.
“Wonderful! Thanks.”
“Where are you off to so early?” He straightened his shoulders, shaking the snow out of his hair.
“I got that job I interviewed for! I’m headed in to my first day of work. Thanks again, about the carnival and shoveling my walk, I mean. I’ll see you later.” I scrambled into my car, stopping only a moment to text Ari that I had asked Killian to the carnival and that he had said yes. Feeling like forty going on fourteen, I eased into the street and headed for Conjure Ink.
I stopped for coffee and a sausage muffin and still managed to arrive at work at eight sharp, only to find the others already there.
“Am I late?” I asked as I walked in.
“No,” Tad said. “Hank and I were here early, talking to a new client. We’re taking on a case, though I’m not sure what we’ll be able to do about this one. Caitlin arrived just before you did. I’ll be sending you out to do some fieldwork as soon as she finishes her preliminary research, but for the moment why don’t you get yourself situated at your desk.” He pointed to two other doors. “That’s the supply closet and archives room. The other’s the bathroom. Feel free to stock your desk from the supplies. Also, Caitlin will get you set up on your computer with a password and access codes. If you’ll excuse me, I need to make a few calls.” Abruptly, he headed back to his desk.
Caitlin and Hank were discussing something. I felt left out, even though I knew it was just one of those awkward beginnings to any situation where you came in as the outsider and weren’t sure what to do.