“He’s very sneaky,” Bruno said, meeting Gil and sweeping the boy up into his arms to squeeze him. “You terrified me, Gil. I didn’t know where you went.”
Gil looked surreptitiously at Clarice. “There was a LOUD NOISE. I got scared.”
“Oh, a car backfired,” Clarice said. “I just about jumped out of my skin.”
Gil looked at her suspiciously. “Can you DO that?”
“Do what?” Clarice looked confused.
“Jump out of your SKIN!”
“It’s a metaphor,” Clarice said. “That’s… ah… just a thing people say.”
“No one can jump out of their skin,” Bruno said firmly, trying to get control of the situation and his nerves. He was close enough to tell that this woman wasn’t a shifter, and he couldn’t risk their secrets. “Thank you for bringing him back. Gil, you can’t just go around climbing into people’s cars.”
“I DIDN’T!” Gil protested.
Poor Clarice looked even more bewildered. “He must have,” she said uncertainly.
“Of course he did,” Bruno said.
“I DIDN’T!!” Gil repeated, looking hurt.
Bruno tried to give him a significant look, but Gil was too mad about not being believed to notice.
“I WAS?—!”
“WE HAVE TO GO,” Bruno said even more loudly. “Thank you very much, Miss Clarice. It was nice to meet you. Say thank you, Gil.”
“I ONLY?—!”
Bruno herded him away. “Cars have to get past now,” he said pointedly.
Clarice looked guilty. “Oh goodness, I’m right in the middle of everything.” She waved at the cars waiting behind her in the road and slipped back into the driver’s seat of her car to pull away.
Bruno irrationally wanted to chase her down, but Gil was preparing for a first-class tantrum, and Bruno wasn’t sure what he would do with Clarice if he caught her.
“You must be hungry after your adventure,” he said, hauling Gil over the berm of snow onto the sidewalk. “How about a hot dog for dinner?”
Gil looked at him suspiciously, clearly consideringwhether it was worth pitching a fit instead. “I like hot dogs,” he agreed. “BUT I DIDN’T GET IN HER CAR.”
“I know, squirt, but think about it. She’s not a shifter. You can sense that, right? She doesn’t know that you were the armadillo she picked up. We have to keep that asecret.” Bruno lowered his voice as they returned to the day care to collect the rest of Gil’s stuff. Alan buzzed them promptly in.
Gil pouted, then pointed out, “But I was a good armadillo! She couldn’t tell I wasn’t a ball!”
“You did a great job being a ball,” Bruno agreed.
This, and the promise of hot dogs, seemed to appease Gil. “I’M A GREAT BALL!” he announced to the kids left in the day care lobby.
“I’m lucky,” Tara told him, carefully pulling on one boot.
Shane babbled happily and tried to snatch at the strings hanging down from his sister’s hat.
“I’m glad you found him,” Vivian said kindly. “All’s well that ends well.”
Bruno felt a whisper of uncertainty. He’d found Gil and that ought to be the end of it, but he had a sneaking feeling thatsomethingwas just beginning.
3
