“Sure.” The word was garbled. He popped open his door, a toothbrush dangling from his mouth. “I’ll get Eric to pick me up. He was planning on helping me out at the house this morninganyway.”
“Thanks.”
“How’s thearm?”
“Still attached to my elbow, so there’sthat.”
He took his toothbrush out, and pasty-foam dribbled out. “Is it stillbleeding?”
“No.” I pushed off the wall I’d been leaning on and displayed my knitted skin. “All healed. Anyway, I’ll see you at the house later. I was going to oil the floorstoday.”
“Eric and I can dothat.”
“You’re already doing somuch.”
He let out a little snort. “Honey, I’m loving thisproject.”
I smiled. “I’mglad.”
As I headed for the front door, he asked, “Whereareyougoing?”
“To campus. To pick up books I need forMonday.”
He nodded. “I keep forgetting you’re starting college. For some reason, I feel like you’re so mucholder.”
I felt way oldertoo.
“Hey, it’s your birthday nextweek!”
I jumped from the intensity of hisvoice.
“Eighteen.” He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “That’s . . . that’s it. You won’t need me anymore.” Sadness mangled my uncle’stone.
“Aw, Jeb. Just because I’ll no longer be a minor doesn’t mean I won’t needyou.”
His lips bent but then fell, and then his eyes became allglossy.
I strode back over and hugged him. “I’m not going anywhere. At least nowhere without you,okay?”
He didn’t speak but squeezed me hard. When he released me, I repeated that I wasn’t leaving, because he wore a look I recognized; it was the look of people who’d been repeatedly abandoned . . . who didn’t believe people stuckaround.
“Love you,” he said right before I exited the house. I was pretty certain it was the first time he’d said those words tome.
“Love you too.” I was pretty certain it was the first time I’d said themback.
As I drove down the roads I knew only-too-well, I itched to phone Sarah and find out how her evening had gone, but what if she was hanging out with the Creeks and they saw my name appear on herphone?
Maybe she’d be at theinn.
When I started up the sinuous drive, my heart grew weighty with dread and something else . . . anticipation? Call me crazy, but I was looking forward to speaking with Sandra.Cassandra. I wondered why I hadn’t gonesooner.
I parked in the far corner of the employee lot; then, fully alert, I walked up to the revolving doors. The land had once belonged to my family, but not anymore. Now I was in enemy territory. When I pushed through the glass doors, I expected shifters to pounce on me, but no one pounced. No one was even here. I had to remind myself that this was no longer a publicinn.
Nothing had changed. Except thesmell.
The air still carried the odor of wood smoke, but it was barely distinguishable under the aroma of damp fur and warm musk. It was as though the Creeks spent more time in fur than in skin. Perhaps they did. I realized I knew more about the Rivers than I did about the wolves in my owntown.
Heartbeats pounded behind the wooden walls. I heard them above me, below me, in front ofme.
