by Zoe Chant
Arlo’s heart sank. “You mean the alligators.” Dorothy and Alan Sweets were alligator shifters.
“Bingo.”
Kenna and Dylan came back in then and Arlo slipped out while Lainie was distracted.
Jacqueline called her office, and by the sound of it only managed to talk to the answering machine. She shrugged when Arlo gave her a questioning look.
“Either they’ll check it or they won’t. And frankly, if they end up thinking I’ve drowned myself because they forgot to check the freaking answering machine, it’s no skin off my nose.” She reassured Kenna and Dylan, “I made sure to ask about your uncle Eric. If they check the message, they’ll know to send him this way if anyone sees him.”
“And I’ve put the word out around my contacts out of town,” Harrison added. “Now, who’s ready for ice cream?”
Tally was almost snoozing by the time they started down the hill again. They all walked this time, after a short argument where Lainie reasoned with Harrison that, even if she was too tired to walk back up later, he could always carry her.
Arlo watched them bicker companionably.
They’ve been together for—what, six months?
Arlo counted back. Lainie had first arrived in town the previous autumn, and one winter of bad storms had cemented their bond. Arlo couldn’t imagine either of them without the other now. Lainie might not be a shifter, but she was as much a part of Hideaway Cove as any of them, even if some locals—mainly the Sweets, he thought with a pang—still didn’t totally accept her.
Six months, and the rest of Harrison’s life stretched out in front of him, shining like the sun on still waters. Marriage. A baby. Maybe not in that order, depending on how quickly they managed to organize the wedding.
And Arlo…
Jacqueline was walking a little ahead, with Tally bundled sleepily over her shoulder. Lainie was walking with her.
“So, how long will you be in town, Jacqueline?” Lainie asked.
“Honestly? I wish I could stay forever.” Jacqueline laughed, but softly, as though she was trying not to disturb Tally. “But I have work, and a house back in Dunston… Now that the kids are safely here, I should probably be heading back.”
Arlo swallowed, and Lainie shot him an entirely too innocent look.
Arlo had less than a day, if he was going to have even a chance at six months, or longer.
They reached the promenade, the wide pedestrian area that stretched the length of the main street on the water side.
“Ice cream! Ice cream!” Dylan yelled, running towards the small shop halfway down the promenade. The sign, Sweet Dreams Ice Cream Parlor, used to make Arlo’s stomach rumble just looking at it.
Arlo groaned. He wouldn’t have minded going there earlier, but they’d run into Harrison and Lainie and bypassed it. Now, after what Lainie had said about his foster parents…
“Can we?” Dylan begged Kenna, who bit her lip.
“Eric has all our cash…”
Arlo straightened his shoulders. The parlor belonged to Tess Sweets, his foster parents’ granddaughter. “My treat. Come on.”
13
Jacqueline
Jacqueline didn’t miss the way Arlo straightened his shoulders just outside the ice cream parlor door. Almost as though he was preparing himself for battle.
He stepped through—and then backed out as though a swarm of bees was after him.
Jacqueline caught his arm. He was wincing and clutching his head. “Are you okay? What happened?”
“Loud,” he grunted, and Jacqueline looked past him to see the ice cream parlor full of… kids?
Dylan shrieked with excitement and ran in to join the throng.
“Ah.” Jacqueline nodded and let the door swing shut. Arlo was still clutching his head, so she guided him carefully away, towards a seat overlooking the water. “A thousand happy screams, direct to the inside of your skull?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you need some space?” Which she one hundred percent wasn’t giving him right now, clinging to his arm like this. If he insisted, though…
“It’ll pass.” One side of his mouth hooked up. “Or I’ll get used to it.”
He didn’t pull away from her, so she didn’t let go. Her hand fit into the crook of his elbow like it was meant to be there.
“Headache?” Harrison dodged past them en route to the ice cream shop. The door swung open and Arlo winced again. Harrison looked bemused. “The kids? I know you’ve always been more sensitive to it than me, but—geez, Arlo. Are you all right?”
Arlo scowled at him and must have said something telepathically, because Harrison shrugged his shoulders and backed off.
“I’ll grab you a cone,” he said. “Caramel, right? What about you, Jacqueline?”
“Caramel sounds great.”
“On it.”
Arlo sighed heavily as Harrison went inside, and sat down on the seat. Jacqueline sat next to him. They weren’t as close as they had been on the rowboat, not hip-to-hip… but close enough, with her hand still folded under his arm.
“Part of me is glad that didn’t work,” Arlo admitted ruefully. “Saved by the screams of a hundred happy children.”
“There can’t have been more than five people in there,” Jacqueline protested.
“And Tally. She counts for at least fifty by herself.” Arlo smiled, then his expression became serious. “My sister owns the ice cream parlor. With the kids, and my parents… maybe it’s best I don’t see her right now.”
“But I thought your parents were going to look after them?”
“I…” Arlo raised his hands and dropped them in defeat. “I need to figure some stuff out.” He frowned.
“Like how you’re the only one who get migraines around the kids?” Jacqueline bit her lip. She still wasn’t sure whether she should mention all these things she was noticing. She was probably reading things wrong, and even if she wasn’t… she was only going to be here for a day. It was none of her business.
Arlo smiled weakly. “That. And some other things.” He hesitated, and then wrapped his hand over hers. “I was wondering…”
Warmth spread across Jacqueline’s skin. “Oh.”
Arlo tensed. “Good oh, or bad oh?”
Jacqueline laughed out loud. Here she’d been, tying herself into knots over missing out on her spring fling, and Arlo was practically throwing himself in her lap. At least, as close to throwing himself as she imagined the quiet, stoic man ever got.
“Good oh,” she reassured him. “Definitely. What were you wondering?”
“That, for a start.” He looked down at their intertwined hands.
“Do you have your answer?” Jacqueline’s skin was humming. God, this was incredible. She was just holding hands and felt like she was flying. She was sure it hadn’t been like this with Derek, even at the start. Why had she waited so long to stop being a sad lump at home and get out and enjoy her new life as a single woman?
“I hope so.” He cleared his throat. “I know you wanted to stay until the kids were settled in. With the Sweets not being here yet…”
“With what not what? Who are we talking about?”
“Dylan!” Kenna’s groan was like a jet engine dying.
Dylan torpedoed around the seat, and Jacqueline had to whip her head back to avoid getting an ice cream cone to the face.
“With, er… is that for me? Thanks.” Jacqueline inspected the ice cream carefully. “Caramel?”
Kenna slouched into view. “Apparently. The lady said she experiments with the flavors.”
“Is that why it’s green?”
Kenna handed Arlo his cone and Arlo gave it a suspicious look. “Tessa,” he sighed, and then: “Cheers.”
He bumped his cone against Jacqueline’s.
It tasted like…
“Sort of caramel-y… seaweed?”
Dylan burst out laughing. “Yes! That’s what it said on the board!”
“Seaweed caramel.” Arlo sh
rugged and took another bite. “I swear, Tessa is wasted in this town.”
“Tessa is your sister?” Jacqueline licked the cone again. It was strange, but it was kind of growing on her.
“Tess, I mean. That’s what she prefers now, anyway, even if I keep forgetting.” Arlo licked his ice cream again and frowned. “She’s my foster parents’ granddaughter. I guess technically that makes her my foster niece, but she says that makes her feel like she should be nine years old, so, sister it is.”
“She said she wanted to talk to you,” Kenna said. “She just needed to finish serving—oh, there she is.”
Arlo’s fingers tightened around Jacqueline’s. She turned to look where Kenna was pointing, and caught a glimpse of a strange expression on Arlo’s face. Almost as though he was scared.
When she glanced at him again, the expression was gone, so quickly she must have imagined it was there in the first place.
The woman walking over from the ice cream parlor looked a few years younger than Jacqueline. She had her hair pulled back under a retro-style hairnet, and huge dark eyes behind thick-framed glasses.
When she spotted Jacqueline and Arlo sitting together, those huge eyes got even bigger, and she spun around and darted back into the ice cream parlor.
“What—” Arlo began, and frowned. “One moment,” he muttered to Jacqueline, and his eyes went vague.
“He’s mindspeaking to her,” Dylan explained.
Jacqueline raised her eyebrows. “Oh. You can hear?”
“No, because he’s really good at it.” Dylan heaved a sigh. “But it feels kind of buzzy against my brain. It’s nice.”
“How’s your ice cream?” Jacqueline didn’t want to guess at what flavor Dylan’s bright pink cone was.
“Really good!” his eyes lit up. “It’s like cotton candy.”
“I got chocolate,” Kenna said, ducking her head. “Not chocolate-and-anything, just chocolate.”
“And what did—wait, where’s Tally?” Jacqueline stood up. Oh God. I lost one of them.
Arlo snapped to attention. “What is it?”
“Tally’s—”
“With Ms. Eaves and Mr. Galway,” Kenna said quickly.
Who? Jacqueline thought. Arlo caught her confused look.
“Lainie and Harrison,” he explained.
“Oh. Good.” Jacqueline sat down. Her heart was racing, and everyone was staring at her. “I guess I’m more on edge after what happened yesterday than I thought.”
Dylan was jumping on his heels and tugged at Kenna’s sleeve. “Yeah, I know,” she muttered, shaking him off. Despite her surly tone, her face was glowing.
Jacqueline sat back. Her ice cream was melting, so she ate a few bites while she gathered her thoughts.
Arlo still had that second question for her. And she had a pretty good idea what it might be.
She’d let go of his hand when she stood up, but even the memory of his fingers wrapped around hers made her skin go hot all over.
She knew what she wanted that second question to be and, damn it, she knew where she wanted the answer to land her. Not on a car back to Dunston that evening, that was for sure.
There was still one more day left to the weekend.
“I was saying that I’ve decided to stick around for the rest of the weekend,” she said, and Arlo made a soft, strangled noise that made the heat on her skin blaze. “At least to see you kids settled.”
And spend more time with the hot guy who saved my life, she added privately.
14
Arlo
Harrison appeared a few moments later, surrounded by small children and with Tally on his shoulders and half of her ice cream running down the side of his head. He rounded up Kenna and Dylan and led the shrieking mob straight into the water.
Arlo watched them, his head still spinning. One minute he’d barely as good as hinted to Jacqueline that he’d like her to stick around—and the next she announced she was staying the night.
His wolf growled happily and he shushed it. In town. Not with me. That’s not…
He shook his tangled thoughts away.
Jacqueline was watching the water, too, her face glowing.
“So, what was your second question?” she asked chirpily.
Arlo stiffened. “My—? Oh.” His tongue felt thick. “I, er.” Her hand was warm in his, small and soft but strong, too. “I was wondering if you’d like to join me for dinner.”
Jacqueline’s lips twitched, as though she was trying not to let a smile escape. “I’d like that. Very much. Dinner and a drink,” she declared, “to make up for your shiny friend earlier.”
Arlo’s head was ringing. “Yes,” he said, and tripped over his tongue again. “That sounds, yes. I’d like that.”
“Before then…” Jacqueline seemed lit up from inside. “I’d love to know more about Hideaway Cove. Would that be okay? Since Harrison said the cat’s out of the bag already…”
She wants to find out more about Hideaway. She wants me to show her my town.
“Of course,” Arlo said. “Where do you want to go first?”
They sat and finished their ice creams, watching the kids play in the surf. Other Hideaway locals joined them and Arlo pointed them out—including the seagull sisters Jools and Jess, who soared over in their gull forms and then, when they saw the newcomers, flew off to get changed and dressed and raced back to the beach.
“I don’t know if you saw the Rodríguez kids before.” Arlo pointed to three dark shapes flitting through the water out past the breakers. “Diego, Aarón and their baby sister, Ana.”
“A friend for Tally?”
“She’s closer to Dylan’s age. I think.” Arlo frowned. “Never been good with kids’ ages.”
“I’m not sure how old Tally is. Not older than three, though, I think.” Jacqueline sighed. “Those kids have had a rough few years. I’m glad they’re here now.”
She sounded sad—but determined, too. Then she sighed. “I’d like to say I’ll stick around until I’m sure they’re settled, but… work…” Her voice dropped. “You know, yesterday morning, I was half planning to quit?”
Arlo’s heart leaped. “Why?”
If she didn’t have her job keeping her in Dunston—he cut the thought off before it could overtake him.
Jacqueline shrugged. “I feel like I’ve been… stuck, these last few years. I’ve finally gotten rid of the last thing that’s been holding me back, and I was ready to let everything else go, too. Except now, seeing the kids like this… knowing how quickly everything can fall apart… except I already know everything can fall apart…”
She shook her head, glared at the remains of her ice cream cone, and ate it in two bites. “Sorry. I’m not making sense. How about that town tour you mentioned?”
“Sure.” Arlo stood up. “Let’s start…”
His mouth went dry. Let’s start by introducing her to shifters whose first thought will be to realize she’s my mate. And whose second thought will be…
What the hell is the Sweets’ boy doing with a human?
He gulped.
“What about your workshop?” Jacqueline suggested, and Arlo let out a huff of relief.
“Great idea.”
“You still here, Pol?” Arlo pushed the workshop door open and ushered Jacqueline in before him. “Pol?”
The foyer was small. There was a low sofa against one wall, which Pol usually spent the working day lounging in, and a desk with an old computer and half-alive potted plant on it. The room was a bit dusty, a bit worn—but with Jacqueline in it, it lit up.
There was a strangled noise from further inside. Arlo raised his eyebrows and exchanged a look with Jacqueline. She snorted and covered her mouth.
“It feels like we’re sneaking in,” she whispered, tiptoeing into the foyer. “So this is where you work?”
“When I’m not on the water. The three of us—Harrison, Pol and me—went in on this place together a few years back.”
“Is
n’t Harrison the mayor?”
“And our builder and handyman. Pol looks after electronics—well, you already know how well that goes—and I do boats. And other carpentry. It’s not guaranteed work, but with the number of boats around here and the sea doing its best to beat the town underwater, it’s as close as you’ll get.”
“So you work on buildings all around town? If I go out and look, I’ll be looking at places you had a hand in making?”
“Or at least maintaining.”
“That’s wonderful.” Her gaze went distant. “It must be great, knowing the work you do is so important to the town.”
“Don’t you work at the sheriff’s office?”
“The sheriff’s office in Dunston,” she said, as though that said everything. She caught the expression on his face and waved her hands. “I worked as a tutor during high school, to save for college. Then after I got married I got the job at the sheriff’s office, and… kind of kept up the tutoring?” Arlo must have still looked confused. “Dunston is a quiet town. There is a lockup at the sheriff’s office, but mostly Reg just uses it to hold any teenagers he finds getting drunk or frisky where they shouldn’t. And they tended not to have done their homework before they went out to get into trouble, so… I guess I’m still tutoring. Still doing the same high-school job anyone could do, and not particularly contributing to anything else.”
Arlo frowned. “I bet the kids you taught would say different.”
“I’m not a teacher. It’s just… homework help. While they try not to vomit into buckets.” She sighed. “Never finished that degree, after all. Anyway. We were talking about you. You like the boats best?”
“Of course.” He wanted to ask her more about herself, but she’d made it clear that she’d prefer not to. And she seemed interested in his work, so he added: “I built the Hometide myself.”