He nodded gravely. “I am the guy.”
“And are you planning on moving here, or taking Maya away from us all?”
Maya raised her eyebrows at him, echoing Lainie’s question. His eyes were soft as he gazed at her. “I will take her anywhere in the world she wants to be, and always bring her home here.”
“And I’ll travel with you to deal with your family drama, and always drag you back here to hide from them behind Apollo’s magic afterwards.”
“Promise?” he teased.
“Good.” Lainie resettled herself and the baby absently. “Then there’s only one other thing I need from you.”
“What is it?”
Her eyes widened. “That bath I saw coming out of the moving truck the other day? The one that looked like a leaf? Where did you buy it?”
“Aleaf bath?” Maya turned equally wide eyes on Corin, who cleared his throat.
“I’ve largely let my mother take on redecorating that house while I stay with Maya,” he explained.
“That was before I knew your house now has a bath shaped like a leaf!” she laughed, mock-dismayed. “I want to see it. And lie in it until I turn into a prune or a mermaid, which I assume is the only reason anyone would own something like that. Can we get one for Lainie?”
“I want one so badly,” Lainie agreed.
“Consider it a late wedding present,” he told her.
Tomás had pulled a necklace out of his shirt and was dangling it in front of the baby, who alternated cooing and frowning at it in confusion. Corin cleared his throat.
“I have already met Mr. and Mrs. Eaves-Galloway. But I have not had the pleasure of making this child’s acquaintance.”
“Oh,” said Lainie happily. “This is Fletcher.”
“Hello, Fletcher,” Corin said gravely.
Fletcher babbled up at him briefly, then wriggled, his face screwing up.
“I’ll get a bottle from the fridge,” Maya offered.
When she returned, Harrison was in human form, wearing a fluffy robe and a serious expression as the three grown-ups talked business.
“We could never afford what we wanted to do with the subdivision, even with a loan and Harrison doing the work—and that wasbeforeFletcher,” Lainie was saying. “If there’s one thing we’ve learned these last few years, it’s that there are far more shifters out there who don’t have any home or community than we ever thought. Jacqueline and Arlo’s children had at least heard of Hideaway, even if it was more of a myth than anything—and you had no idea the place even existed, Maya.”
“I had no ideashiftersexisted,” Maya reminded her.
“And I don’t know how to solve that. But we can solve the problem of Hideaway not having enough homes to house all the people out there who need a place like this.”
“Most small, ex-industrial towns have trouble with their populations leaving, not being too full,” Corin said. “You’re in a unique position.”
“Lucky us. It’s our job to make the most of it,” Lainie said plainly. “For people like Harrison and Arlo and Pol, and Tomás, andyou, Maya, and—and me,” she added unevenly.
Harrison leaned across and kissed her. “Always you,” he murmured.
Maya thought of all Corin’s contractors, and how just being in a town where other people knew what shifters were had been a revelation for them. How half the people she spoke to in Hideaway had a story of finding community here, and the other half were stalwartly dedicated to creating that community, and keeping it safe.
She thought of all the other shifters who must be out there in the world with no idea a place like this was possible.
“You know,” she said to Corin slowly, “I don’t think I ever gave you my one condition for staying in town.”
His eyes glittered. “No. Have you finally come up with one?”
