The answer came to her, so simple that she couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of it before.
“Conleth,” she breathed. “What if my family moved here?”
She had the rare delight of taking him utterly by surprise. For a moment, he simply stared at her, mouth ajar.
“You think your mother would be willing?” he asked.
“She’s always been reclusive. She doesn’t really have any close friends back home, and I don’t think she’s particularly attached to the area. It’s just where we could afford to live.” The more she thought about it, the more perfect it seemed. “I’m sure she’d like Thunder Mountain a lot more. And Archie would love it.”
“There’s certainly a thriving shifter community here. Good schools, too.” From Conleth’s abstracted tone, she suspected he was already making a mental to-do list. “And many of the teachers are aware of us, even the ones who aren’t shifters themselves. Even if it turns out Archie’s struggle with his bear isn’t due to ADHD, your mother wouldn’t have to worry so much about him accidentally shifting in public.”
“The hard part’s going to be convincing my mom to accept financial help with moving here.” Paige grimaced. “And persuading her that I haven’t lost my mind. She’d think I was crazy for wanting to upend my life for any man, let alone one I only met this summer.”
Conleth draped an arm along the side of the hot tub, fingers tapping in the restless pattern that meant his thoughts were racing down new paths. “You haven’t told your mother about us yet, have you?”
Guilt stabbed her. After that first night together, Conleth hadn’t raised the topic of mating again, but she knew it had to be on his mind. It had certainly been on hers.
“No,” she admitted. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I have any doubts about us. It’s just…going to be complicated to explain to my mom.”
A slow smile spread across his face. “Good. Don’t.”
Uh-oh. She knew that look. It was his ‘I am preparing to do something completely insane’ expression.
“Conleth,” she said suspiciously. “What are you thinking?”
His eyes gleamed. “That I may have a plan.”
CHAPTER 33
Zephyr leafed through the outline document, his eyebrows rising. “You want us to hold a Parents’ Day?”
“Why not?” Conleth kept his tone carefully casual, as though it didn’t much matter to him one way or the other. “Most summer camps have them. The only reason we haven’t been able to hold one before is due to the number of campers with a non-shifter parent, and Lord Golden’s idiotic prejudices. That’s not an issue now.”
“I like it,” Leonie said, tapping a pen thoughtfully against her clipboard. “A lot of the campers would love a chance to show off for their parents. They could get involved with decorating the camp, and planning games and activities.”
“I can see benefits for both the children and the camp.” Zephyr closed Conleth’s proposal, setting the document to one side. “Good idea, Conleth. Let’s do it.”
“Excellent.” Conleth clapped his hands together. “How about next Saturday?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Leonie said. “Even you couldn’t organize anything at that short?—”
She stopped mid-sentence.
“Conleth,” Zephyr said, very calmly. “I was under the impression that you were suggesting this as something we donextyear.”
He shrugged, uncomfortably aware of Leonie’s increasingly predatory stare at his jugular. “You both just agreed it was a good idea. Why wait?”
“Sometimes,” Leonie said meditatively, “I think about getting a shovel. I would find a quiet, isolated place, and dig a very deep hole. And then I would put you in it.”
Zephyr shook his head. “Conleth, how many parents are going to be able to drop everything and travel to camp at less than a week’s notice?”
“More than you might think.” He cleared his throat. “Especially if, hypothetically, they might have been given a little more notice than that.”
“I would bury you up to your neck,” Leonie mused. “Then, whenever I wanted you to stop talking, which is often, I would put a bucket over your head.”
“Despite what you might believe, Idocheck the emails the camp sends out,” Zephyr said, frowning. “I haven’t noticed any unauthorized announcements.”
“It is possible that there may have been some preliminary phone calls with parents to gauge general interest in such an event.”Thathad been a challenge, even with his speed powers. He’d had to secretly hire a couple of his former PAs to assist. “In general, initial feedback was highly positive. Especially when parents learned the camp is arranging all transport.”
