handle in his mouth and tears off, zooming into the corn which doesn't look nearly as big when an Irish wolfhound is the measuring stick.
Deek low-sways his tail and affably trots to where Finn’s own bucket sits, and he takes that one since his friend stole his. With a happy look at where we’re standing, he turns and trots after his friend.
All the werewolves and other shifters recover their composure, racing after him and Finn with impressive speed.
We humans are left to traverse the maze in order to reach the barn everyone furry is hunting in. We start off in a group of other non-shifting people, happily getting lost in the corn maze while our werewolves clean out the farmer’s barn of mice and rats.
Hours later, with one very happy farmer, Ginny (who had help from Finn and Deek and others who scared mice into running in front of her) fills her bucket with the most rodents and wins the game.
Helping her win was a weirdly nice thing for the guys to do. For all of the wolves and shifters to do.
She’s proud as heck, her eyes shining with wild excitement when we make it to the barn, bearing her clothes so she can Change back into a human.
Sticking close to her is an enormous maned wolf named Hudson. Ginny looks tiny compared to his lanky form: a shifter with a storybook-red coat, crazy long black legs, a distinctive mane of fur, and a white-tipped tail. He’s a giant Brazilian fox, basically. The mane gives the impression of high-set shoulders though, almost tricking the eye into thinking he has a sloped back. In reality, he’s level as any werewolf, but his legs are practically a mile long.
And Ginny keeps taking surreptitious sniffs of the air, like the bright red male beside her is wearing incredible cologne.
Finn had been delighted when she showed such interest in the scent earlier. He’d identified it as belonging to a Brazilian visitor, and it’s clear Hudson is the scent she noticed, the one that captured her attention over the deliciousness of candy apples.
I want to ask all the questions, and I’m watching them like hawks. To my great interest (and Finn’s and Deek’s and several other shifters in the vicinity), Hudson seems just as keen on Ginny’s smell. He even boldly puts his nose into her ruff, inhales hard enough to stretch his skin so tight it shows the dips between his ribs, and wags his tail.
Interesting.
When everybody Changes back, he asks Ginny what she’s doing next, and when she tells him about the upcoming crash course in performing a car’s oil change, he asks her if she’d mind if he tagged along.
Shyly, she shakes her head.
And when we walk to the garage where the minor medical mechanical procedure will be taking place, Hudson walks so close to Ginny that their shoulders brush, and to my intense interest, she doesn’t shy away. In fact, more than once, she glances up at him where he towers above her, and smiles.
CHAPTER 37
LUCAN
Today was church for me, and to my quiet delight, Susan and her whole brood stayed for the service.
I drag the heel of my hand over my chest, right over my heart, reliving how it made me feel to look up and lock eyes with Susan.
It was awesome.
Now we’re back home. Susan’s home.
“Hey, Deek, did you smell the cookies?” Charlotte asks.
I’m at the top of the stairs, having abandoned my notes for next week’s Bible study because I was being driven insane by the scent of sugary, buttery baked goodness. “Yes.”
Charlotte’s smile is a little too sparkly. Something tells me not to trust it. “Great! Have a seat.”
Narrowing my eyes, I sweep my gaze to the side of her. She’s got her school notebook on the island next to a plate that doesn’t have a crumb on it. There’s also an empty glass set upside-down beside it, clean.
Just… waiting.
I flash her a glance. “This feels oddly like a setup.”
She’s still smiling. “It is. Sit.”
I do.
“Thank you.” She drops a wafer on the plate.
I lean in, peering at it. “What the…”
“It’s chocolate chip,” Charlotte offers.
“Yeah,” I agree. “As in there is a single chocolate chip on it, period.” I pick up the coin-sized disk and scarf it down.
Charlotte takes the glass and fills it with milk, returning it to the side of the plate. She moves around the island so that she’s across from me, and tugs her notebook in front of herself, raising her pen and