I felt bad. John had had our backs since we moved to town. He’d had Mason’s family’s backs even longer. And now, with the town suffering, he had no one to help him.
“John, I can?—”
“Get out of here,” he chided without looking up. “Don’t make Mason wait.”
My chest hurt as I left his office and closed the door behind me. I made my way to my truck, then called my dad.
“What’s up, kid?” he asked when he answered.
“I need help.” Except I wasn’t sure what I wanted to ask.
“Anything for you. What can we do for you?”
I realized that if I needed him to help me, I’d have to tell him the whole story. I trusted my dad, so I told him about Mase and his people. What they were. He was shocked, because he hadn’t known such a thing existed. Once we cleared that, he told me the fact there were werewolves could work for us. Then he asked what I believed we needed. It started out with me talking about the house, how I needed it to keep Mason safe, but then it segued into how to help the town. I was glad I’d told Dad about Mason’s people. I didn’t like lying to him, and we’d already been doing enough of that. I vowed that Mason would learn about my secret with no more hesitation.
After we took care of the mess I was trying to help with.
“Dad, the town is in trouble,” I blurted out. “Like, deep financial trouble.”
“Okay, and? What is it you want to do about it?”
That was the problem. I had no idea what I wanted to do, or if helping them was even possible.
“I don’t know,” I admitted.
“You do.” His voice was warm. “You went to school to learn all you could. These are your people now, so how can you help them?”
“By talking to my father?” I said, annoyed.
“Can’t fix all your problems, kid.” I could hear his smirk. “We’d really love to, but you know it doesn’t work like that.”
Yeah, I knew. It just bugged me that no one could help me fix this broken thing.
I started the truck up, and it kicked over on the first try. Thanks to what Dad had taught me, the truck was better thanit had been, that was for sure. I put him on speaker to continue talking with him while I drove home.
“John has been good to us,” I said. “He got us the house, and he’s been Mason’s biggest supporter after me and our families.”
Dad let out a wry chuckle. “Glad you remembered to put us on that list.”
“It’s just… John is suffering, and I don’t know how to help him.”
“You can’t help everyone,” he reminded me, just like he had while I was growing up.
“I know that!” I snapped. Regret flushed through me. “Sorry.”
“I’m not even taking offense at that. You got my temper, which means I understand. So tell me, what do you think would help the town?”
“More people,” I answered.
“That’s a good start, but it can’t be the only thing.”
It wasn’t. With such a small tax base, the money had to stretch to include road repairs, upkeep on lots, and a ton of other things.
“Dad, I’m not sure what to do,” I admitted.
“Then let’s figure it out together. You say more people, but where will they live? How about jobs? What will keep them here?”
‘There are houses,” I said.
