Chapter One #2
Her face snapped right up toward him. “You know her?”
“She’s my best friend’s wife, and you should know, if you’re here for any kind of weird reason, I won’t have it. She’s good. She doesn’t need anything extra. She is not alone here. Do you understand what I’m saying to you?”
“You’re being protective of her,” she guessed.
“Call it whatever you want. I’m going to let her know you’re here,” he said, aiming for the lodge.
“No!” Her little hand gripped his jacket sleeve with surprising strength. “I’m not ready.”
“Look, if you’re staying here, then you checked that you’re a shifter on the registration information, right?” Something was off.
“I…thought about checking that box, but then I didn’t, because I didn’t want them to reject me.
I want to do the UnValentine’s thing. I…
” She lifted her chin higher. “Well, I haven’t taken a vacation in a while, and I hate Valentine’s day.
And the picture on the website was two guys shot gunning beers and shooting rifles into the air with Ava in the background, and now that I’m thinking about it, you look like…
one of…the guys shot gunning beers. Oh my gosh. Do you work here?”
“Yep,” he murmured, resting his hands on his hips. “Why were you going to knock on me like I was a door?”
Her voice came out very small as she said, “I was wondering if you knew where the Pants Are Overrated Cabin is.”
“The what?”
She inhaled deeply and said it louder. “I booked the Pants Are Overrated Cabin.”
So that’s why Brock had been putting dumb sayings on the cabins this afternoon.
He must’ve named them to go along with the UnValentine’s Day theme.
He recalled getting drunk with him last year and coming up with some good ones.
He hadn’t realized Brock had actually gone through with changing the website though.
“There are signs on the porches. I think I saw that sign on Lodge 9”
“Oh.” She frowned over at one of the lodges but still looked confused. “I’m going to make like a tree and leaf now.”
He snorted. “You still can’t see the numbers, can you?”
“Here’s the thing. When I see chaos, my brain does this really annoying thing where I can’t focus on a singular thing and everything is blurry and colorful and loud, and I can’t just zone in on something, but I will figure it out.”
“ADHD?” he guessed.
“What are you, some kind of shrink?”
“I just offered you a half-eaten package of crackers to bribe you not to cry in front of me. What about any of that interaction screams shrink?”
“Oh. Right. Well, it’s still rude to diagnose people.”
“I would say it’s rude to keep calling people rude.
” Lance shrugged. “My brother has it. I was always bringing him back to focus when we were growing up. Our parents weren’t as understanding.
Come on,” he said and before she could argue, he started marching toward Lodge 9 aka the Pants are Overrated Cabin.
When Lance looked behind him, the tiny woman was following at a struggled pace with all of her bags. The snow-hating wheels on her suitcase seemed to be giving her the most trouble.
“Do you want help?”
“No. Stop being nice to me. The point of UnValentine’s Day is we are all supposed to come here grumpy and wallow in self-pity and loneliness.”
He chuckled and leaned on the log wall beside the door of Lodge 9.
“I don’t think that’s the point of this week at all.
I think you’re just supposed to enjoy yourself in whatever capacity that means.
Although,” he drawled out as he glanced over at the woman dressed in all black who was now on the porch of Lodge Six and glaring at him.
“I’m sure some people have come here to be grumpy. ”
“Well, luckily for you, you just work here, and don’t have to be one of the losers here celebrating their singleness,” she muttered, fumbling with the key. “You can go back to your gorgeous wife and four kids with a Labrador.”
He watched for a few seconds more and then took the key from her in frustration. “How did you even get here?” he muttered, sliding the key easily into the lock and opening the door for her.
“My hands are froze!” she said. “That’s why I can’t do the key. And my toes are froze, and my nose and my cheeks are froze. Everything in Colorado is froze!”
“Frozen,” he corrected.
“Whatever.”
“Are you a honey badger shifter?” he asked.
“Ha ha,” she said sarcastically.
“Okay, well it’s been an undelight to chat with you. Can’t imagine why you’re single.”
“It was equally undelightful to meet you, Chaz.”
“Chaz?”
“You look like a Chaz.”
He stood there staring for a full seven seconds before he said, “Lance.”
“Same diff.”
Okay, this angry little creature was kind of entertaining. She was all bristled and stressed, but he hadn’t a clue why. “Why are you here to see Ava?”
“If I tell you, will you promise to not tell anyone what I am, and also not tell Ava I’m here to see her, and also give me time to settle and introduce myself to her on my own?”
“That’s a lot of negotiating.”
“Yes or no?”
“Sure, on one condition.”
“Annoying, but okay. Name it.”
“You take your sunglasses off. The snow has melted and I have no idea how you see out of thirty water drops.”
“Why do you care about my sight?”
“Just take the glasses off.”
“So you can snap a picture of me and post it on your social media and make fun of me? No thanks.”
“Whoa, has that happened to you?”
She crossed her arms and looked toward the stone hearth. Her refusal to answer was answer enough. Aw man that was messed up. He wouldn’t like that at all if he were a shifter.
To ease her defensiveness, he pulled his phone out of his pocket, showed her the dead screen, and set it on the bench beside the door.
After a few seconds, she inhaled deeply and pulled the sunglasses from her face. She tugged her bangs lower again, and Lance wondered if it was a habit.
When she looked up at him, some of the defensiveness was gone from her glowing gold eyes. Good Lord she was gorgeous. He cleared his throat and shifted his weight in the doorway. “Why?”
“Because Ava is a rare shifter, and well…she’s kind of like me. And she’s the only one I’ve been able to find, and I kind of…” She fiddled with her stuck zipper. “I kind of…”
“You can just say it. I’m a stranger you’ll never see again. Your admissions won’t go anywhere.”
“Well, I guess I kind of just wanted to know what it was like being around another shifter like her.” She cleared her throat and said lower, “Like us.”
“You’re an armadillo shifter?”
The woman gasped. “Why did you out her like that? I’m a stranger. That’s so messed up.”
“But you know she’s an armadillo shifter already.”
“Doesn’t mean you should ever say what we are. You’re a human. You wouldn’t understand.”
“Aaah. Except I hang out with Ava and Brock all the time, and she doesn’t hide what she is anymore, to anyone. Everyone in this town knows she’s an armadillo shifter.”
He couldn’t see her eyebrows behind the thick bangs covering a third of her face, but he was pretty sure a frown was glued to her forehead.
“Oh. So, she just…tells people.”
“Her eyes glow bright green. Like…Northern Lights green. And she stopped wearing her sunglasses here about a month after moving here. I watched the transformation.”
“So…she just…shows everyone her eyes?”
“Yep.”
She pressed her lips together, like she was smearing around her pink lipstick. “I need to think on this information. You may go now, Lance.” She stuck her hand out for a shake.
This was the strangest woman he’d ever met.
“Okay.” He shook her hand and held it. “Sorry for calling you a child.”
“I forgive you.”
“Do you want me to help you with your zipper?”
She nodded magnanimously. “I might be permanently stuck inside of my jacket if you do not.”
He bit back a smile as he knelt down in front of her and finagled the stuck zipper. Some of the puffer fabric was caught in it, so he gently released that and pulled her zipper down.
“That was the most action I’ve had in a year,” she said.
A laugh took him and he stood. “Nice.”
“Eh hem.” Her cheeks were bright red. “See you around, Lance.”
“See you around, Dorcas. You didn’t tell me your name, but you look like a Dorcas to me.”
Her smile was stunning. “My name is Birdie.”
“That’s even worse,” he teased, and ducked out of the way of her swat.
“Be gone, annoying one. I have to get ready for dinner.”
“Can’t wait to hear how you charm the pants off of everyone,” he called over his shoulder as he left.
Her giggle was actually really cute.
What the hell had just happened?
Lance made it all the way to his truck before he gave into the temptation of looking back.
She was still standing there in the open doorway, a lingering smile on her face.
When she saw him turn toward her, Birdie suddenly tensed and slammed the door.
Then the door opened again, and she yelled, “You forgot your phone,” and then that woman chucked it out onto the snow, looked mortified, and then slammed the door again.
He laughed and went back to pick up his phone, wiped it off on his jeans and then strode back to his truck and yanked his door open.
Okay, this week might be more fun than he’d thought. Little hellion hated Valentine’s Day and had traveled here from who-knows-where to avoid it.
He wanted to know why.
Sure, he had his own reasons for hating the holiday, but Birdie was an interesting distraction.