‘No. It’s me. Lucas.’ I cringed. ‘My phone broke in the storm. Aster lent me his. I won’t be able to get a new one until Errol brings one over from the mainland.’ I wasn’t sure Kit needed all that information, but he’d gotten it. ‘I miss you. Your voice sounds wonderful.’
I pressed my lips together and held in a groan. I didn’t know if oversharing about my phone predicament or slipping back into weird compliments was worse, but this conversation had kicked off incredibly well.
‘Thank you,’ Kit said, his words soft and warm and perfect. ‘Lucas, are you okay?’
‘I’m more than okay.’ I smiled at the flowers Aster had magicked to life. ‘Werewolves are a thing, then?’
Kit laughed, and I wished I didn’t have to imagine the dimples dipping into his cheeks. ‘Yeah. Surprise.’
I wondered if he was doing jazz hands. Probably not. Other times when I’d walked into Island Books and caught him during a phone call, his free hand was usually tangled in his scarf.
I laid back on the soft ground, closing my eyes against the glare of the sun. ‘Did you use your wolfy powers to find me during the storm?’
I didn’t know if the breath Kit let out was extra loud or easily picked up by my enhanced hearing. I couldn’t smell him since he was too far away, but even the sound seemed sad.
Callum and Aster had told me about my rescue, but they hadn’t been there. My recollections were hazy. For Kit, who had raced out into the storm and transported my almost-lifeless body to safety, there would be a lot more negative emotion tangled up in what had happened that night.
‘Thank you for saving me,’ I blurted out. ‘I’m so glad you found me.’
Another breath, this one steadier. ‘Do you promise not to run off into a storm again?’
I wondered if I was the only one tacking extra words onto the end of that sentence:even if coming home would be super embarrassing.
I didn’t want to talk about the last time I’d left Kit’s cottage. My thoughts swirled around what would have happened if I’d let him kiss me. More and more, as the intense emotions the storm had stirred up passed, I wondered if it would have made everything worse. There was a chance it could have been lovely, but experience suggested it wouldn’t have been. And then Kit and I would have had that to work through, rather than just an embarrassing conversation.
Better to keep things as they were. Kit was brilliant and kind. He was a wonderful friend, and hopefully he would be happy to have the best of friendships with me. We could leave talk of anything else behind.
‘Now I’m a super-wolf, I don’t think it would matter so much if I was surprised by another storm.’ I danced around making promises I might not be able to keep. I needed to retain the option of avoiding him if things ever got horribly awkward again because of things I wasn’t able to give him or if I said anything extra weird and we needed time apart to mutually forget.
‘Have you adjusted okay?’
‘Yeah, it’s fine.’ A teeny bump to my heartbeat told me I wasn’t quite telling the truth. ‘Like, it’s a lot to get my head around. I keep jumping whenever there’s a sound I’m not expecting. And I almost vommed when one of the goats farted last night. And it’s weird to hear heartbeats. And I can smell when Aster is sad. And the river is really loud. And I can remember being in so much pain but it’s all just gone now. Not that I’m not happy to be in less pain, but it’s weird. I keepexpecting my leg to hurt, like there’s an echo of what happened in my brain or something.’
Maybe I wasn’t quite as okay as I kept telling myself. Becoming a new creature I’d always assumed was fictional was a big deal. I’d resented being made to stay in the mountains, but maybe that was what I needed for a while.
‘I cried for a week solid after Callum bit me,’ Kit said.
‘What?’ I sat up and glared at the river, like that would somehow allow me to reach back through time to when Kit was adjusting to being a werewolf so that I could wipe his tears away. ‘I thought you chose this?’
‘I did.’ Rustling filled the line, which I was certain was Kit’s long fingers tangling in his scarf. ‘There were parts I didn’t expect, though. No matter how well Callum and the others tried to prepare me, there’s no way to know what it’s like to become something new until it happens to you.’
I sighed. ‘Yeah. I don’t think anything anyone said could have properly gotten me ready for all of this.’
‘Nothing can prepare you for the enhanced experience of pygmy goat flatulence.’
That startled a laugh out of me. ‘There are no words.’ Grinning, I asked, ‘How has the shop been the last few days?’
Since I’d woken up yesterday, everything had been about my change. Except for the brief moment when Aster revealed he was also not totally human, which didn’t exactly give my brain a break.
I wanted to focus on something normal and good. Something that hadn’t rocked monumentally off its axis.
I laid down and closed my eyes while Kit told me about the strange customers he’d served recently. Louisa’s gran had bought the raciest novels from Hamish’s dragon display and Joshua had picked up a cupcake decorating book so that hecould surprise his twin with his baking skills once he returned to the island.
Kat had attacked Hamish while he’d restocked his display of graphic novels. Kit didn’t see it happen, so could only take Hamish’s word for it. Since the young man had no visible wounds despite the epic battle he was adamant had happened, Kit had agreed that the rest of the day off sounded fair but that he probably didn’t need a rabies jab.
Kit’s voice switched from warm to strained as he talked about the Indie Bookshop Award. The announcement of the shortlist loomed.
‘I didn’t expect to even get longlisted, so I don’t know why I’m nervous about this next stage.’
