He’d been repeating that over again, but that made sense, Lydia thought, considering this was the call where he’d had to awkwardly explain to his moms that he’d been married for weeks—to a woman they had never met—and hadn’t told them about it yet. She couldn’t blame his poor parents for being flummoxed by it all.
“It’s a weird situation, but I’ll be able to explain everything when Lydia and I come to visit this weekend. I promise it’ll make sense then. –No, I haven’t joined a cult.”
He shifted the phone around his ear, and Lydia heard a woman say, “Is it a ‘fringe religion’ that you’re not ready toadmitis a cult?”
Case laughed. “It’s not a fringe religion either. It’s not a religion at all. But it’s impossible to explain over the phone, because I need a ... visual aid.”
Lydia, as if to illustrate the point, playfully shifted into wolf form and settled her head onto his lap. Case stroked her between her ears.
She couldn’t wait for their trip to see his moms and, of course, the Grand Canyon. She had already made a serious dent in her bank account buying everything she could imaginepossiblyneeding for her first real vacation, from new clothes to sunscreen. What had really made her tear up was buying real luggage for the first time. She’d never been away from home for more than a night before, and she’d always settled for shoving some spare clothes in a gym bag or a shopping tote.
Case had seen how much it meant to her, and he had insisted on getting her new suitcases monogrammed to drive home that they were really hers and always would be.
Just like this new life.
So even though she couldn’t help being the tiniest bit nervous about what his parents would think of her, she still felt essentially at ease—and especially comfortable resting on his lap like this, with his fingers gently combing through her fur.
Besides, she trusted Case with her life, which meant she certainly trusted him with her social awkwardness around new people. If he was convinced that his moms would like her and be delighted by her having turned their son into a werewolf, then she was too.
She heard the smile in Case’s voice as he said, “She’s absolutely fantastic. You’re going to love her, trust me.”
They must have finally gotten over their shock enough to ask what their new daughter-in-law was like.
We’re absolutely fantastic, Lydia’s inner wolf preened.They’re going to love us!
She shifted back to human so she could feel her cheek pressed against Case’s thigh. Without missing a beat, he switched from scratching lightly between her ears to twining her long hair between his fingers.
It was so soothing that she almost fell asleep listening to him describe her—well, what she was pretty sure was anidealizedversion of her, but it was nice that he thought it was her—to his parents.
“Okay. We’ll see you soon, and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. Love you.”
Case hung up and turned his attention to Lydia.
“They’re already starting to come around,” he said, continuing to stroke her hair as she steadily melted into his lap. “Obviously the situation sounds weird from the outside, but they know me. They can hear how happy I am.”
“And that it’s not a spacey, joined-a-cult kind of happiness?”
“That too. Definite plus.”
If she stayed down here any longer, she reallywouldfall asleep on him, so she reluctantly hauled herself up.
They were leaving tomorrow, because they were going to split the drive to Case’s parents’ house into a sprawling three days.
Whoever wasn’t driving could readShadowsaloud. At this point, they didn’t even carewhatgenre it was. It wasn’t that well-written, but the western-fantasy-midlife crisis unicorn cowboy/geographer romance had them both hooked. They had to know how it turned out. Would Levi’s evil twin resurface to plagiarize his book on the history of maps? Was Milton the human form of Levi’s daughter’s imaginary unicorn? So many questions! So little hope of any solid answers!
Their route to Case’s moms’ place was a little more leisurely than it needed to be, but it would give them plenty of time to finish their book. Besides, Case insisted that Lydia have a chance to really soak up the landscape. The way back would be even better, because they could take all the detours they wanted even before they adjusted their heading towards the Grand Canyon.
It would be a big trip, and Lydia couldn’t lie: even after her big epiphany, she was still a little nervous about leaving Mountainview “unattended” that long. But it helped that everyone in the pack had been enthusiastic about their belated honeymoon.
“There’s a difference between leaning on someone when you need help and never learning to stand up straight on your own,” Wendy had said ruefully, “and we don’t want to be in the latter category.”
“You’re not,” Lydia had rushed to reassure her. “When you all stood up to Reeve—"
“That felt incredible, but we waited too long to do it. We should have pushed to get more involved from the start.” Wendy straightened up. “I ... I don’t want to say anything bad aboutRuth, God knows, because she held Mountainview together for a long time. But I think you and Case are going to be better for us. And we’ll be better foryou. We never helped Ruth much. She never let us. But you guys—this works.”
It did. Her whole life, Lydia’s loyalty to her pack had been in an uneasy struggle with her need for freedom and the occasional escape, and Ruth had raised her to think that was an either-or fight that only one side could win. Case had opened her eyes to a better way of doing things, and she loved that the pack thought it was better too.
They were also thrilled about Case’s idea of opening the town up a little more, and several people, Wendy included, had already filed the business paperwork for B&Bs. New people—and, to be brutally honest, new money—would help invigorate Mountainview.
