by Kayla Wolf
”You’re more than welcome to write a paper on him,” James grinned. “Just remember us when you’re famous, yeah?”
She laughed. “Oh, sure. I’ll be the talk of our—top-secret community. Real fame.”
“Speaking of fame and fortune … do you fancy a trip to LA?”
She blinked at James, a little confused. “Why?”
”We got an email yesterday from the Californian Tourism Association,” James explained, leaning forward. “They’re hosting some big conference in LA next weekend—a kind of who’s-who of local tourist hotspots, especially the environmentally friendly ones.”
Julia was nodding. “It’s a big conference—really good sign that you guys have been invited to participate.”
”That’s great,” Alice said, smiling. “It’ll be good to get more guests in with the new cabins all finished. Maybe we’ll be able to afford another doctor,” she added, grimacing a little. “If I have to spend much more time in that office by myself, I might actually explode.” She blinked. “But—wait. Why would Lachlan want me going to the conference? I’m just the doc. Surely all that—marketing and publicity stuff would be more Daniel’s speed.”
”Oh, yeah. He’s going. But the invite’s for him and his partner, and I thought maybe you could use the trip.” James shrugged, his mouth full of food. “You’re always complaining about being cooped up in that office …”
”Yeah, because I want to be cooped up in my own house instead!” Alice felt a vague tingle of panic running down her spine. “I don’t know how to network. I’d be worse than useless at an event like that.”
”I don’t think so,” Julia pointed out. “I think you and Daniel would make a good team, honestly. He’s great with people and everything, but you have to admit, he’s kind of a disaster when it comes to practical things. You know this place like the back of your hand … and you’re organized, diligent. Between the two of you, you’ll take the conference by storm.”
”You have to admit, she’s got a point,” James said, nodding. “I love Daniel, but he’d forget his own head if it wasn’t screwed on. You’re type A enough to keep him in line, channel his energy into the right places. If you can deal with sharing a room with him, of course. As I said, they’re expecting him to bring a partner.”
The idea of sharing a room with Daniel … of going on a long trip with just him … of being his partner … a treacherous part of her jumped at the chance, a strange buzz of enthusiasm rocketing through her. It was a stupid part of her, though. The stupid part of her that was still nursing that stupid crush on him. It couldn’t be trusted to make her decisions for her. She tried to think rationally. “I guess it’d be good for business, having the two of us there to talk it up …”
Julia was nodding. “Plus, they have a bunch of really good panels every year on all kinds of things—not just marketing. I looked them up. Stuff about sustainability, the ecological footprint, balancing education with preservation, giving guests a good experience without harming the wildlife … all kinds of stuff. And Daniel’s great, but I don’t exactly trust him to take reliable notes …”
“Exactly. You’re a big nerd. Who better to learn stuff for us?” James grinned at her across the table, and she resisted the urge to flick a spoonful of peas at her brother. Some urges never went away, no matter how old you got.
”I guess I could go,” she said hesitantly, trying not to think too much about Daniel—it was doing strange things to her pulse. “If Daniel even wants me to go along. Would he really want to be stuck in a hotel room with me all weekend?
James grinned. “That’s exactly what he said about you—he was worried you wouldn’t want to spend time with him!”
She blanched. “What? Why?” Anxiety began to bubble up in her chest—how had he gotten the idea that she didn’t like him? She tried to play it cool around him … had she overshot? “Does he think I don’t like him?”
James was laughing now. “Wow. The two of you have more in common than I thought.”
”But—I can’t just leave the settlement for a weekend,” she protested, her heart racing at the prospect. Los Angeles … she hadn’t been there in years. The idea of getting out of town for a while was oddly enticing … “I’m our only doctor. What if something happens?”
”Dragons don’t get sick,” James pointed out. “The construction work’s all done, there’ll be no more injuries from that—and with the last human guests checking out on Thursday, there’s no reason to have you on call all the time. We’ll be fine. I’ll tell everyone not to do anything stupid,” he said, his eyes twinkling. “And worst case, there’s a hospital on the mainland, maybe an hour’s drive. You’re not the only doctor in the world, Alice. Take a weekend off. You’re always warning us about burning ourselves out with too much work …”
How could she argue with that? James grinned in triumph, pulling out his phone to tell Daniel she was on board for the trip. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she picked at her dinner, mind racing. A whole weekend with Daniel. A long car ride with him … then sharing a hotel room … then the long car trip back … how was it that it simultaneously sounded horrifying and exciting? If Julia and James noticed how distracted she was, they didn’t say anything. The conversation moved on, and she made an effort to involve herself in it, aware that she was starting to spiral off into her own thoughts. There’d be time to freak out later.
”I’m taking bets on who’s going to be the next local to find their mate,” James was saying, his eyes twinkling. “I reckon it’s you or Daniel, Alice.”
”What?”
”You’re going away! Who knows who you’ll meet out there?”
Julia was smiling. “This soulmate idea’s kind of lovely, I gotta admit. I wish more humans believed in love at first sight.”
”It’s not exactly love at first sight,” Alice said, frowning. “There’s some research on the phenomenon—”
But James drowned her out with a groan. “Seriously, Alice? Research?”
”What?” she protested. “It’s an interesting field of study! Every known species of shifter that we know of has some kind of concept of a soulmate bond … a kind of predestined individual. It’s unique to us. Obviously, there are some animals that mate for life, but—”
”We’re not animals,” James said irritably. “We’re people. And it’s love, not … math. Why do you have to be so scientific about everything?”
”There’s more than one way to look at the world,” Julia said reprovingly. “I think the science of love is incredibly interesting.” She reached over to squeeze his hand, and Alice couldn’t help but smile at the closeness between them. “Besides, it’s clearly not love at first sight, because you saw me three years before you figured out it was love,” she said, clearly teasing her mate. He chuckled.
”I guess. Still—it’s destiny.”
”Have you ever met anyone special, Alice?” Julia said curiously, leaning across the table. “Anyone who might’ve been your match?”
Alice resisted the urge to blush. Sure, she’d been around a long time—she’d met some pretty handsome guys in her time. But none of them had ever made her feel anything … the closest she’d ever gotten to that kind of feeling was the stupid crush she had on Daniel. And that wasn’t anything she felt like discussing. James would never let it live her down. So she just waved a hand dismissively. “No way. I don’t think there’s anyone out there for me.”
”Seriously?” James frowned. “I mean, I used to think that too, but—”
”No, you didn’t,” Julia chuckled. “You thought that there were hundreds of people out there for you.”
“But I didn’t believe in soulmates until I met mine,” he said simply.
”I’ve met mine,” Alice shrugged. “I met my soulmate decades ago. My work is my soulmate.”
The conversation moved on after that … but Alice couldn’t help but dwell on it a little. Was it possible that there was a soulmate out there, waiting for h
er? Someone who’d look at her the way James looked at Julia … someone who’d adore her, who’d live with her, care for her, listen to everything she was discovering with her research? Someone she could live with … someone whose company she could enjoy more than she enjoyed her own? Though she liked being by herself, some part of her thought that having someone with her wouldn’t be so bad. It could get lonely, living by yourself. Especially when everyone around you seemed to be falling in love … even your womanizing brother, who until very recently had seemed like the last person on earth who’d be interested in settling down with a family.
Maybe James was right. Maybe her soulmate was waiting for her at this conference, ready to sweep her off her feet. Someone just like her … someone quiet, someone shy who liked reading as much as she did, who was happy lying in bed or on the beach all day. Someone who could finally help her shake off this stupid crush on Daniel that she’d been nursing for all these years. Maybe this was a good thing, she thought as she headed home after dinner, her mind full of swirling thoughts about the conference, the trip away she’d committed herself to. Maybe if she spent enough time with Daniel, she’d get over her crush on him. Exposure therapy, right? He was so brash, so loud, so outgoing … everything about him was her absolute opposite. If she spent enough time with him, maybe the stupid part of her that found him attractive would finally realize that he was a terrible match for him.
Still, as the days passed, she found herself thinking more and more about the trip … and, to her great displeasure, about Daniel. As she packed her clothes, she found herself thinking about how she wanted to look for him … then wrinkled her nose, angry with her own treacherous mind. The weekend couldn’t come soon enough. Surely after five hours stuck in a car with him, she’d be over this stupid crush. And until then … well, until then, she’d just focus on what this trip was really about. It was about the settlement—about ensuring that their little business would succeed. It was about taking thorough notes, about learning everything she could to make their settlement thrive, to help their guests enjoy themselves, and spread the word about the place.
And yes, maybe she’d get to know Daniel a little better, she thought irritably as she packed her suitcase. That wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. He was her brother’s best friend, and like it or not, they lived in the same place. And maybe James was right—maybe Daniel would meet someone at the conference who would turn out to be his soulmate. That would be good, wouldn’t it? If he was taken, maybe her feelings would get the hint and go away and leave her in peace. Maybe she’d help him—scope out the crowds, see if there were any single women who could tolerate extroverts like Daniel. Who knew what could happen in a weekend, right?
And if the thought of Daniel meeting someone else while they were away sent a spark of jealousy shooting through her like wildfire, it was easy enough to fight it down and pretend she hadn’t felt it. What she felt for him … it was stupid and childish, and the sooner she stopped feeling it, the sooner she could get on with her life. Focus on her work, on her research, on doing what she could for their little settlement.
Not on the handsome blue-eyed dragon with the rakish charm and the bright red hair that she just couldn’t stop dreaming about.
Chapter 4 – Daniel
Friday dawned bright and warm, and Daniel was out of bed before the sun had cleared the horizon. Something about this trip just had him excited. The chance to get out of the settlement, to hit the open road, to spend some time in a city he hadn’t been to in decades—not since he and his friends had lived on the road. Even then, they hadn’t spent much time in LA—the city had been big and bright and expensive, and they were much better suited to the suburbs and small towns that lay around its edges.
Oddly enough, the company he’d be keeping that weekend was part of his enthusiasm for the trip. Ever since James had texted him that Alice was keen to come along, he’d been looking forward to spending a little more time with the quiet doctor. They’d caught up once or twice to chat about the trip and compare notes on the itinerary. Sure enough, Alice had a detailed plan on which talks to get to, which panels to prioritize, and a list of a dozen people they should make an effort to talk to about the specific needs of their little settlement. He’d been blown away by the level of detail—she’d planned their every minute, down to meal and bathroom breaks. He’d been feeling good about having Googled an approximation of how long the drive there would take, but Alice had him beat, that was for sure.
Speaking of which … he didn’t want to be late. Alice was so organized—he had a suspicion that his usual laissez-faire attitude to time wouldn’t suit her. He’d said he’d pick her up at seven, so at a quarter to, he had his bags in the back of his truck. Sure enough, even though he rolled into the driveway of her little cabin five minutes before he’d said he would, there she was, sitting on her porch with a suitcase, ready to go. She was wearing jeans and a blouse, and he blinked a little. It felt odd to see her without the white lab coat that she wore whenever she was on duty at her office … which, now he thought about it, was pretty much every time he’d seen her over the last few years. He felt an odd pang of guilt at that. Why hadn’t he made more of an effort to spend more time with her when she wasn’t at work? Sure, she was the kind of woman who tended to keep to herself … but still, he was meant to be a people person. He felt like he’d let her down, in a strange way.
”Hope you’re ready for a long drive,” he said brightly as she climbed into the cab of the truck beside him, her purse in her lap. She nodded, smiling a little—that remote smile she had that never quite reached her eyes. “It’s nice to be up this early. I usually sleep past dawn.”
”I love the mornings,” she said softly, her blue eyes on the slowly lightening horizon. “The world feels so fresh. Like a blank page in a notebook.”
”I’m a night owl,” he confessed, smiling a little. “When the stars are out … it feels like anything’s possible, you know?”
”We’re pretty different, I guess.”
There was an odd quality to the silence that fell as he pulled out onto the main road and accelerated up the peninsula. They’d have to drive north for half an hour or so, then double back where the peninsula met the mainland—it would add an hour to their trip, but with no bridge connecting the peninsula to the mainland, it couldn’t be helped. He fidgeted with his hands on the steering wheel, the silence bothering him. “We should get a ferry or something. Feels silly to drive all the way up then all the way back down.”
”Maybe one day. If we can afford it,” she said, a rueful look on her face. “We’ve got a few debts to repay first, of course, and ideally, I’d like at least some of the budget to go towards another staff member for the infirmary …”
”Oh, definitely. It must get lonely, working all by yourself.”
She shrugged. “Not lonely. I like being by myself. But it’d be nice if I didn’t have to be the only person on call all the time, you know? Even going away this weekend, I’m worried about something going wrong. Having even one more person who could handle it instead of me … well, it’d be nice.”
Daniel nodded. The uneasy silence fell again, and he reached down to flick on the radio, already feeling a little awkward. But even the music wasn’t enough to make him feel less shifty. Alice was clearly happy to sit in silence for the rest of the trip—but for Daniel, that was an unbearable prospect. They had to be able to find something to talk about, didn’t they? They’d both been alive for decades on end; surely they had some stories to share.
”How was med school?” he asked finally, seizing on something he didn’t know anything about. Alice looked up at him with an eyebrow raised, clearly surprised by the randomness of the question. “Where did you study?”
”There’s a school in San Bernardino,” she explained, still looking a little amused. “I went there … oh, a long time ago. Back when you guys and James were still on the road, getting up to no good.”
”He’s told you
the stories, huh?” He couldn’t help but grin. Those years … they’d been pretty crazy. The five of them hadn’t exactly stayed on the right side of the law the whole time … far from it. And they’d gotten into more than a few fights. “We could’ve used a doctor back then. We got into a lot more trouble than—”
”Than falling in rosebushes?” Alice asked, shooting him a quick look. He laughed aloud.
”I was hoping you’d forgotten about that.”
”I don’t get many patients,” Alice said drily. “Injuries like that tend to stick in the memory.”
”Well, I learned my lesson,” he said grinning. “No more embarrassing butt injuries for me, no sir.”
She looked at him curiously. “You didn’t seem embarrassed.”
”I was so embarrassed! Having to ask you, a trained professional, to yank thorns out of my butt—”
She giggled—a pleasant sound that took him by surprise. “Well, you covered it well.” She tilted her head to the side. “You never seem anything other than completely confident. I envy that about you.”
That surprised him, too, and he took his eyes off the road for a moment to shoot her a surprised glance. “Seriously? You’re—a doctor. You’re basically the most impressive person I know. Why would you have any reason to feel less than confident?”
”I mean, I’m confident about—medicine, all that stuff,” she said, fidgeting with the purse in her lap. “That stuff, I understand. But … people, social situations, anything like that? That makes me unbelievably nervous.”
”But why?”
She shrugged. “I’m just—like that, I guess. What makes you so confident?”
He shrugged. “I guess I just … don’t let it bother me. I like talking to people. Hearing their stories, getting to know them … I guess I don’t have much room to worry about what could go wrong.”