Page 23 of A Dash of Wolf

Adeline sighed and leaned back in her chair. She stared out at the bay, drained the last of her drink, then spoke. “Can I tell you guys something? And Cassie, I need you to swear this stays between us.”

Cassie held up her nearly empty wineglass. “Off duty. Off the record. Swear.”

“I think...” Adeline took a breath. “I think I might have feelings for Chief Wolfe.”

The silence lasted approximately three seconds.

“I knew it!” Emory shrieked.

“Called it,” Tempi said into her wine glass.

“Oh, honey,” Cassie said, shaking her head with a grin. “We all knew.”

“She stares at his backside every time he walks away,” Princess Muffin Top said. “It’s shameful, really.”

“I do not! And I’m being serious right now!” Adeline sputtered. “He’s basically arrested me twice. How can I have feelings for someone who keeps putting me in handcuffs?”

Tempi giggled. “I don’t think I better touch that question.”

Emory popped an almond into her mouth. “Adeline, the man offered to help you take down our booth last night. He told you he didn’t think you did it. That’s a man who likes you.”

“He’s a werewolf,” Adeline said quietly. “Grandmother Lavinia would lose her mind.”

“Good,” all three of them said in unison.

“I concur,” Princess Muffin Top added.

Adeline threw back her head and laughed. Now that she’d spoken her feelings aloud, she felt better...freer. These were her people, her friends. Always had been. Emory, who’d been beside her since they were kids chasing fireflies through Whisper Crossing. Cassie, who’d graduated with her and chosen law enforcement, but still supported Adeline and Emory and their protests in her own quiet way. Tempi, whose family had moved to Moonlight Bay when she was in high school. Her first day she just fit right in with them. And Princess Muffin Top, who would never admit to loving any of them…but who was always, always there.

“All right,” Adeline said, setting down her glass. “Enough about my love life. We need a plan. I’m not going to sit around and wait for the next sabotage and the next arrest. We need to figure out who’s doing this.”

Emory’s phone buzzed. She glanced at it and grinned. “The eight are on board. They’ll meet us at seven tomorrow morning at Drury Marsh. Don’t worry, I’ve got Dawnya and her daughter covering both shops until we get back.”

Cassie held up her hands. “I don’t even want to know.”

“It’s probably better that way,” Princess Muffin Top said, her eyes gleaming in the dark. “Plausible deniability.”

10

“Let’s look alive, everybody!” Miss Moody called as she lifted her camera to snap another picture. “The light out here is somethin’ special this morning, for true. Smile pretty now.”

It was just past seven, and the morning sun was low over the water, turning the marsh grass gold. Adeline sat cross-legged on a blanket near the edge of the construction site with Herman nestled on her forearm, his tentacles loosely curled and his bubble eyes half-closed in contentment. Around her, the eight centenarian protesters had arranged themselves in a semicircle, their signs propped up beside them. Mrs. Abernathy had claimed the folding chair Emory brought and was knitting what appeared to be a tiny sweater in electric purple yarn.

“Is that for the squish-squid?” Adeline asked.

“It gets chilly out here in the mornings,” Mrs. Abernathy said, not looking up from her needles. “The little darlings deserve to be warm.”

Emory sat on the blanket next to Adeline with her guitar across her lap, strumming something folksy and slow. A few of the centenarians had started humming along.

“The squish-squids are our friends,” Artie suddenly sang in a warbling tenor. “Ivan is a mean old troll…who needs to fall down a hole.”

“That barely even rhymes,” Princess Muffin Top said from her perch atop the bulldozer.

“It does too rhyme,” Artie insisted.

“Not really,” Princess Muffin Top countered.

Miss Moody weaved through the group in her wide-brimmed hat, snapping photos and scribbling notes on a pad. “‘Dis the kind of thing that makes people sit up and pay attention, for true.” She straightened and turned her camera toward the squish-squids playing in the shallow water near the bank. A cluster of them were chasing each other in small circles. “They odd lookin’, but they do good things and got heart.”