by Sara Summers
“That’s going to be a good story to tell your kids.” She teased.
“I guess so.” I admitted, my smile slowly fading. I glanced down at the hot chocolate and sighed. “I was sort of excited that my mate didn’t want anything to do with me. I thought it would mean I would get to fall in love like a human, that I would get roses and poetry and maybe he would even try to write a song for me.” I shrugged.
“I don’t want my perfect match, I want messy, dramatic love. I want arguments and make-up kisses and date nights and a wedding. I want romance.” I wrapped my hands around my cup. “There’s nothing romantic about finding your soulmate, but falling slowly and madly in love with someone…” I shook my head. “That’s real.”
“We’ve had this conversation a thousand times.” Bree smiled wryly, and the number wasn’t an overstatement. Literally, we had probably talked about this same thing a thousand times in our years as friends. “Not all human relationships are romantic. In fact, a lot of them end in divorce. Humans lie and cheat on each other, while shifters build relationships that will last.”
“That’s not always true.” I protested. “Don’t you remember Merla’s soulmate?”
“Yeah, there are some bad shifters too.” Bree amended. “But you don’t believe in divorce. Your culture doesn’t allow it.”
“Leah helped a hundred ladies leave their mates.” I pointed out, running out of arguments.
“To teach the guys a lesson, not to help them get away permanently.” Bree reminded me. “Look, I know you don’t believe this, but shifter love can be romantic too. It can be just as messy, and poetic, and argumentative. And maybe since your mate dated a human, he’ll already expect that romance.” She offered.
“I hope so.” I sipped my hot chocolate. “His name is Grant.” I finally told her.
“That’s a good name.” Bree flashed me a smile. “Kennedy and Grant. That’s cute.” She said.
“I guess.” I shrugged, hesitant to accept any of it. Even if I let go of his past and accepted that we were right for each other, he still didn’t think he was ready to be with me. How could I accept all of it just to watch him walk away for another two, three, or maybe even five years?
“Is he cute?” Bree pulled me out of my thoughts.
“Oh, way more attractive than expected.” I nodded. “Perfect messy hair, blue eyes, really strong... yeah, he’s hot. I can understand why human girls would want to date him, he’s sexy.”
Bree grinned.
“That’s the spirit. He’s yours, you know. You’re allowed to be completely and utterly in love with him.”
“I don’t know, Bree.” I grimaced. “If I give him a chance, my whole life will change. What about finishing school and working in a museum? I’ve wanted to do that since I was ten. What if he wants to move to Glacier, for crying out loud, or what if he wants to stay with the military and leave me alone for nine months?” the anxiety seeped in again, and I made myself calm down so it wouldn’t take over.
“There are worse places than Glacier.” Bree shook her head at me. “Don’t stress so much. Love is worth giving up all those things, trust me on that.” She looked over at the car seat, where her daughter was still sleeping peacefully. “If I had a soulmate, I wouldn’t have to raise Emma all alone.” She said, her voice getting quieter. “I’d trade anything but her for that.”
“Hey, don’t forget about me.” I reminded her. “I’m not just going to ditch you. I’ll be her crazy art aunt who teaches her about all the things her mom doesn’t want her to know about.”
“It’s not the same.” She shook her head, giving me a small smile. “Thanks, but just be grateful for what you have.” She told me.
“Hey, some attractive rich guy is going to fall madly in love with both you and Emma, and you’ll get married and live happily ever after.” I told her. “He’s just taking his time getting here.”
“Yeah, like Grant did.” She twisted it back on me. I could tell she didn’t believe me about falling in love, but that didn’t stop her from holding fast to her ideas about shifters. “If there was a way to become a shifter, you would tell me, right?” She asked, and I could see the vulnerability in her eyes.
“Of course.” I nodded, though it was a lie. If I’d told her the truth, her chances at joining the shifter world would disappear. So I felt a little bad, but if it ever did end up happening, that was one lie she’d thank me for.
“Darn.” She looked over at the car seat that held her daughter, then glanced at the clock. “Crap, I have to go to work. I’ll be back at five.” She promised, standing up and grabbing her purse. “You know the drill, just text me if you need anything. It will all work out.” She promised.
Bree dropped to her knees to kiss Emma on the forehead, then hurried out the door.
“Bye!” I called after her.
As the door shut behind her, I leaned back in the chair and sighed. Bree was right—I had to give Grant a chance, no matter how much I would’ve rather had a human relationship. I just hoped he wouldn’t leave as soon as I told him he was forgiven.
Chapter 6
Emma woke up twenty minutes after Bree left, and I spent the next three hours holding the cute little two-month-old. When she fell asleep again, I put her in her crib and sat on the couch, flipping on the TV to see if there was anything I wanted to watch.
A few minutes later, I heard a knock at the door. That was weird, because Bree never had visitors. Still, I went to the door.
I looked through the peephole to be on the safe side, and almost gasped when I saw Grant standing outside.
I stepped away from the door, my heart suddenly fluttering. While I contemplated not answering it, I knew that I needed to talk to him. Grant was my soulmate whether I wanted him to be or not.
So, I opened the door.
“Hey.” Grant didn’t try to smile. “Can I come in?”
“Um, sure.” I nodded, stepping back to give him enough room to come in.
His hands were behind his back, and my heart sped up even faster. Was he hiding a flower? Was he romantic, despite everything else he’d done?
When he put his hands in his pockets, it was apparent that he didn’t have a flower. No romance, after all. I bit back a sigh.
“I’m sorry.” He apologized. “I should’ve talked to you two years ago, but I was scared.” He admitted.
“It’s okay.” I nodded, stepping forward. I held out my hand. “Hi, my name is Kennedy. I’m a junior in college, majoring in art history, and I’ve always dreamt of running a museum.” I introduced myself. In the movies, that was always a sure-fire way to start a relationship off right.
He relaxed as soon as I offered him my hand. Maybe he was more worried about everything than he seemed.
“I’m Grant.” He shook my hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“You too.” I smiled. I could only muster a tiny smile, but I figured it was better than nothing. I was still upset about everything, so a tiny smile was as good as it was going to get. “Want to sit down? This is my friend’s apartment, but she wouldn’t mind you being over.” I offered.
“That sounds great.” Grant nodded.
We sat down on the couch. He said,
“You were at that shifter summit a few weeks ago, right?” Grant checked.
“Yep.” I nodded. “My friends couldn’t talk any other otter shifters into going, so I was the lucky winner.” I shrugged. I hadn’t exactly wanted to go to the summit. I had to quit my summer job to get the time off, even. But it was worth a few uncomfortable days to help more humans see us shifters as people like them.
“How did Sam do? He told me he just became the mermaid king.”
“Yeah, it was rough for him at first, but he seemed to catch on pretty quick. He and Ava didn’t like each other in the beginning, but it sounds like everything worked out for them.” I said.
“It’s weird to think of Sam with a tail.” Grant shook his head.
“And he has a pink tail.” I smiled. “Al
l royalty does, according to Ava.”
“I’ll have to ask him about that.” Grant grinned.
The conversation was a little awkward, but I could tell that Grant was trying to make it comfortable. Everything that had happened between us was kind of a problem, though.
Before either of us could ask each other anything, Emma started to cry in the other room.
“There’s a baby?” Grant’s eyes widened.
“Yeah, my friend’s daughter. I’m babysitting, that’s why I’m here.” I hurried into Bree’s room and carefully picked Emma up. Cradling her against my shoulder, I walked back into the living-room-kitchen area.
“Oh, cool.” He nodded, though he looked alarmed at the sight of a baby.
“Have you never been around little kids?” I wondered.
“Not really…” he scratched his neck. “My sister has a kid, but I was gone when he was born so I never saw him when he was that small.”
“Okay.” I nodded, staying on my feet to rock Emma so she wouldn’t start crying again. “Do you want to hold her?”
“Uh…” his eyebrows jumped into his forehead.
“Come on, she’s a baby. She can’t hurt you.” I teased him.
“Alright.” He nodded, though he still looked uncomfortable with the idea.
I placed Emma in his arms, and watched him hold her like she was a breakable piece of china. He looked down at her, and she started to cry. The panic in his eyes told me that he’d had enough, and I scooped her back up into my arms.
“Shh. It’s okay.” I cooed to the baby, cuddling her against me. “I don’t think she’s been around many men.” I apologized to my mate. “Bree doesn’t know who Emma’s dad is.” I explained.
“Oh.” Grant nodded, though he looked surprised.
“She’s a human. Bree and Emma, her baby.” I added, realizing that he wouldn’t know. “She went to a party, and someone slipped something into her drink.”
Grant grimaced.
“Yeah.” I sighed. “We cried for a few days, tried to hunt him down so we could kill him for the next two months, but then she talked to a counselor and came to accept it all.”
“Wow.” He shook his head.
“Yeah, Bree’s amazing.” I nodded.
It was 4:30, then, so we were only alone for the next thirty minutes before Bree walked back through the door. She smiled when she saw Grant and I sitting on the couch together, Emma with her hand wrapped around my pinky.
“I’m Bree.” My best friend introduced herself to my soulmate. “And you’re Grant?” She checked, hanging her purse on the hook by the door.
“Yeah.” He nodded.
“Nice to meet you.” She walked over to see her daughter. “Hey, Em.” She cooed at the baby, before picking her up. “I missed you.” She smiled. “How was she?” She asked, her words pointed at me.
“Good.” I smiled.
“Nice.” Bree nodded. “How did—“
She was cut off by my phone ringing loudly, playing whatever country song I was most into at the moment.
“Sorry.” I looked down at the caller ID. It was Savanna, so I figured the call might be about something important. “One second.” I told Bree and Grant, answering the phone as I stepped into the other room.
“Hello?” I said.
“Hey, Kennedy.” Sav said. “How are you?”
“I’m fine.” I peeked out into the living room, at Bree and Grant chatting like they’d known each other for years. “What’s up?”
“A lot, actually. You might want to sit down.” Sav advised.
I leaned against the wall.
“Okay.” I nodded.
“So, the president wants us to open a shifter museum, filled with shifter artifacts and paintings by shifters, stuff like that. He’s donating a bunch of money to get it set up for the first six months, and then he and a group of other donors are going to pay to run it for six months after that. We need someone to oversee it all.” Savanna explained.
“Okay.” I nodded again. My heart had started to speed up when I realized what this meant. She wanted me to be in charge of the museum, to run it? That had been my dream for as long as I could remember.
“But here’s the catch.” Sav hesitated.
“What?” I was desperate to hear her say the museum was all mine, that there was no one else who could take the job.
“He wants it to be run by a pair of soulmates.” Sav said.
My mouth opened, and I glanced out at Grant and Bree, still talking like best friends.
“Oh.” I swallowed.
My mate was already more comfortable with my best friend than he was with me. How would he fall in love with me after two years of staying away and the most awkward first conversations in all of history?
“Everyone wants you to run this thing. You’ve been wanting the job for as long as I can remember. But unless you can convince your soulmate to run a museum, I don’t know what to do.” She explained.
“Yeah.” I bit my lip.
Eff.
“Sam said he knows where your mate is though, right? Would he tell you if you asked?”
“Finding him isn’t the issue. He’s with me right now.” I whispered so that he wouldn’t hear me. “But I don’t think we could pass as the kind of couple anyone would want running a museum. We can hardly even talk to each other.”
“Well you have six months to get yourself there.” Sav said. “I’ll send you the address for the building that’s going to become the museum. Jazz already has a construction crew on their way to start a few add-ons and some remodeling, so you can start whenever you’re ready.” She told me.
“Okay.” I nodded. “I’ll try to convince him.”
My heart pounded in my chest.
“Good luck.” Sav said. “It’ll work out.” She promised.
“I hope you’re right. Bye.” I hung up the phone and closed my eyes, leaning back against the wall.
An art-history museum? That was like, a combination of all my dreams in one opportunity. All my dreams minus the one about love, that is. And I could only have the museum dream if I also fell in love with Grant?
I glanced back out at the living room and saw him helping Bree with dinner.
They looked much more relaxed together than I could ever imagine him looking with me. He was a farm boy, I was an artsy girl. He was a military man, and I loved to do my own thing.
And he was supposed to love me? How, exactly, would that work?
As much as I wanted love, and as many romantic movies as I had seen, I had no idea what I should do to get someone to love me. I was desperate to be loved the way Superman loved Lois Lane and Elizabeth Bennet loved Mr. Darcy, but I was clueless.
How was I supposed to get a man—my soulmate—to fall in love with me? How would I convince someone who was positive that he wasn’t ready that being together was the right thing to do?
No movie had ever told me how to do that.
“Kennedy?” Bree called out. “Do you want sour cream on your tacos?”
“No thanks.” I joined her and Grant in the kitchen, my heart still pounding. I wanted that museum more than anything, or at least, more than anything but love.
And love… well, that was the most difficult part in the whole plan Savanna had told me. That was the part that I had no idea how to do.
Everything would’ve been so much easier if Grant had just shown up and talked to me two years earlier. It would’ve been easy to forgive him and move on then.
But now, everything was different.
Chapter 7
“Who called?” Bree asked, looking over her shoulder at me.
“It was Sav.” I admitted, sitting down on the couch and smiling at Emma, who was buckled into one of those little baby bouncers.
“What did she want?” Bree frowned. “Not another summit, right?”
“No, I don’t think anyone’s agreeing to another one of those for at least a year.” I shook my head, remembering how many time
s we’d come close to dying over that one weekend. “She told me that the president is funding a shifter history and art museum, and that all the girls decided I should be the one to run it.”
Saying it out loud made the whole thing more surreal. I was going to get to run a museum—what I’d been dreaming about for ten years!
Well, I was going to get to run a museum as long as Grant wanted to run said museum with me.
“Seriously?” Bree raised her eyebrows. “That’s awesome.” She smiled.
“Yeah.” I nodded, the corners of my mouth rising a little. “But the president wants a pair of soulmates to run it.” I said.
“Oh.” Bree blinked.
“Yeah.” I ran my fingers through my hair to distract myself. Grant turned around, his eyebrows raised.
“What?” apparently he wasn’t completely on board with jumping into my life and helping me be in charge of a museum.
What a surprise. (yes, that was sarcasm)
He still wasn’t “ready”, how would I convince him to go with me? Did I even want to convince him to go with me?
“Let’s talk about this after dinner.” Bree decided, grabbing three plates from the dishwasher. It was clean, I knew, having loaded it for her earlier. “Tacos before talking.”
“Okay.” I nodded, leaning forward to smile at Emma some more. She was cute enough to take my mind off the struggle, at least for a little while.
We ate dinner a few minutes later, Grant and I sitting on the couch while Bree sat on the floor next to Emma’s bouncer. The tacos were delicious, as always (Bree and I had tacos together every Tuesday and Thursday), but they didn’t take care of the uncomfortable feeling hanging in the air.
“Alright.” Bree stretched her arms out, still sitting on the floor. Our plates were stacked on the side of the couch, and she insisted she would do the dishes later. “So, the museum.” She began.
“Right.” I nodded once. “We have six months to get it set up and ready, and another six months to promote it so it starts paying for itself to run.” I explained.
“Okay, that’s reasonable enough.” Bree nodded. She had been going to school for business management before she had Emma, so she knew better than I did.