Page 47 of Shifter's Dream

Reed stared, not blinking, trying not to look at the forest, listening hard, trying to hear any noises from nearby. Nothing. She settled for examining the cup. It was a glass cup rather like a mason jar, but with a handle on the side, and a piece of paper rubber-banded to the top. Twenty or more lightning bugs crawled on the glass walls inside, flashing their lights intermittently.

This was no thief. This was a stalker.

Reed pulled the door shut as quietly as she could. She locked it. She ran to the couch and snatched up her phone, shut off all the lights in her house, and ran to the window while dialing 9-1-1. Her finger hovered over the call button. She looked out the window, but not to the forest. What if she went blank, like she had been lately? If there really was a stalker out there, she might as well serve herself up with a bow wrapped around her fun parts.

Reed almost hit the button on her phone, but she held herself back. What was she going to say? There’s a cup with fireflies on my porch that wasn’t there ten minutes ago? She hadn’t even seen anyone skulking about, or heard a thump in the night.

Reed ran to her bedroom. There was a window back there, too, but when she got there, instead of looking out the window, she went to her vanity and picked up her lipstick, applying some and pressing her lips together. No point in dashing outside looking like a crazy person. If she was going to end up dead, at least she could leave a cute corpse. She ran a comb through her hair, imagining what her mother would say if she saw it all loose and wild like this.

Reed paced her bedroom, her phone gripped in her hand, thinking she should change her clothes. She got all the way to the closet before she realized what was going on.

Troy.

She thought it was Troy, and she was…primpingfor him! Reed swiped the back of her hand across her lips in a vicious little arc, calling herself crazy. She stuck her hands in her hair and messed it up. Then she stalked to the window. She didn’t see anything, so she headed for the door onto her porch, fuming.

Before she unlocked it, she texted Sage.

Hey, you around?

Yep

Do me a favor? Text me every 10 minutes and if I don’t answer, call the cops and tell them I’m being killed.

Tom?

You know it. He climbed my porch to leave fireflies on my table.

Aw, romantic. Give him a chance.

Sage.She put in five angry face emojis.

Got it.One eye roll emoji.I’m starting my timer now.

Reed pushed onto her porch, grabbed up the cup, popped the paper off of the top of it, balled it up and dropped it on the ground, then shook the fireflies out over her porch railing. She wanted to whip the glass cup into the forest but she held off. Kids played in that forest. She had played in that forest.

She slammed the cup back down on the railing, head down, ready to chance a look at the forest, at exactly where she knew Troy would be standing, watching her.

She knew it!He was there, a dark figure, leaning back against a tree, arms crossed, his posture sad, almost slumped, still sexy, even from a distance, even in the near-dark, even when he was sad and even when he was creeping her out. It almost made her mad, how sexy she found him.

“Hey creeper,” she called. “You might want to take off if you don’t want to lose your job, because otherwise, I’m getting a restraining order on you tomorrow.” Her voice cracked on the word, ‘tomorrow’. Her heart beat hard in her chest and her throat tried to close as the words echoed between them.

His shoulders slumped a little more, and she imagined she could see anguish in the shadows on his face. Not fear that he would lose his job, but anguish that he would never see her again.

She hardened her heart and went inside, slamming and locking the door.

28 – Females Flounder, Too

Sage texted her.

It’s only been four minutes, but I gotta know what’s going on.

Not a damn thing. I just told him I was getting a restraining order on him.

How did he take that?

Reed peeked out the window.I can’t tell. He’s just standing there, watching my place.

Are you calling the cops?

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