Page 7 of A Hutch for Hoover

I was all about community events. The only people I knew at all were Hannah and her staff and Pierre who owned the charcuterie place next door. We often sent one another customers or met outside to chat for a few minutes here or there. I bought lunch from him quite often as well. But even though I was surrounded by other businesses, and I wanted to go and visit with the owners and staff, bring them samples of my product and see what they had to offer, my days flew by without my finding time to do so. At first, I had thought I might be able to manage the shop by myself, but it took only a couple of days to disabuse me of that notion.

Ronny and his sister Jen came in to apply within moments of my placing a help wanted sign in the window. They had no experience but were among those who’d left their aerie, as a group of hawks are often called, with disastrous results. Neither had yet told me why, but they had been declared rogue and were not welcome home.

How could I turn them down? They had nowhere to live, so I checked in with Hannah to see if she had any ideas, and she hooked them up with another sibling pair who had a small house not too far away and were seeking roomies to share expenses. I hadn’t thought I could help anyone until I was ready to look into franchising, but Fate or maybe karma had provided an opportunity to pay the kindness and opportunities I’d received forward even sooner.

They’d been with me long enough to be mostly trained, freeing me to work in the office in back and swore they could handle things while I went to the event. I thought about it, and they would likely be okay, but I decided to close the shop andtake them with me to Animals anyway. When they both squealed and hugged me, I knew I’d made the right decision. My thoughts had been that they could run the blenders while I networked, but their joy spilled over. “Animals must be a pretty good place, huh?”

Jen’s jaw dropped. “You still haven’t gone?”

“He hasn’t,” Ronny informed her. “Lucky Karma invited us to Community Days.”

I chuckled at their enthusiasm. “I’ve never been into clubs,” I said, “but it is a good business move.”

The two of them looked at me as if I’d suddenly sprouted horns, something a wolf rarely does, but I counted their reaction up to youth and enthusiasm. Approaching thirty, I sometimes felt impossibly old around my employees.

The day of the event approached while we made plans. Karma or her staff had sent me all the details, and we typed lists of things to bring, printed out recipes, made a closed-for-private-event sign. So much to do for a few hours, that I began to wonder if it would be worth it. Ronny and Jen never had those doubts, their enthusiasm spilling over and pulling me out of my exhausted funk.

On the day of the event, we loaded the van I had just bought with the idea that we would eventually cater birthday parties, weddings, anniversaries, special occasions of every kind. It needed work on the interior, but the wrap job with its bright-colored smoothies and our logo offered terrific advertising wherever we went. And was a whole lot more convenient than trying to fit all our equipment and ingredients in the trunk of a car.

“The instructions say to follow the signs to employee parking,” Jen said, reading the information from her phone. “And we can stop in the loading zone if we need to.”

I glanced over my shoulder at the mostly filled van. “We do.”

Ronny drove a steep road up the cliff face, steering with care. “I’ve never been to this side of the club. I know you can come out here to shift, but I’m always having such a good time, I haven’t come out here yet.”

“I have.” Jen gave him a big grin. “While you were flirting with that fox shifter, I went out the side door and flew off the cliff. So. Much. Fun.”

Glancing at the desert floor far below, I could imagine a hawk would have a great time soaring on the updrafts. But before I could say anything, we were parked at the back door of the club, and who but Hannah should come out, her ever-present tablet in hand. “Welcome, welcome!” she said, hugging each of us as we climbed out. “I’ll show you where to set up.”

“Wait, you work here too?” I asked, confused.

“No, just helping out for the event. I’m a volunteer. Right this way.”

I followed her through a bustling kitchen that smelled incredible and down a hallway into a big open room with a stage at one end and a DJ booth suspended in one wall. Deep, leather booths lined the walls, and a dance floor with multicolored squares took up space in front of the stage, but the rest of the room was filled with merchants and community organizations setting up. Hannah showed us to our table, where we had electrical power as we’d requested, waiting for us, the cords taped to the floor for safety. We made one trip after another to the van, and when it was empty, Ronny moved it to a parking place while Jen and I set up the blenders and the coolers and the cups and everything.

Karma came through, accompanied by a bear shifter even larger than the two who had come to the shop with her. She paused at each table to greet people and chat a moment, andwhen she got to us, she smiled, her eyes dancing. “Warren, this is the wolf whose shop makes the world’s best smoothies.”

“Those two you brought me a while back? That shop?” he rumbled, shaking my hand.

“Yes,” she said. “The very one.”

He rested his arm on her shoulder and brought her in close to his side. “Karma always knows what I like.”

She batted at his chest, laughing. “You’re so hard to decipher.”

We spoke another few minutes before they wandered on to the next booth, and a moment later, the doors opened. What had seemed like such a big room only a few moments before, was suddenly smaller as it filled with people who’d come to Community Days. Dozens more appeared from a side door, which, Ronny informed me, was the one where you went out to shift and also led to the apartments in the cliffs behind the club. “Rumor has it, Warren’s family lived in those cliffs for centuries, and then it was abandoned for a long time before he came back and built the club.”

“That’s amazing.”

And then we were too busy to talk for a while, busy making drinks for people and also setting out samples of the different smoothies we had available. We had chosen five different kinds for the event, thinking more would get too complicated, but if anyone wanted something else, they didn’t say so. I don’t know why I’d expected only adults to be there, but Community Days drew families as well, and while the kids ran and played, the parents explored the booths.

There were so many, and I had Jen and Ronny take turns going around to check them all out while I filled in for them. Two or three people came up and said they were also merchants at the outlets, and several more had tried our smoothies before and wanted to say nice things about them. I enjoyed speaking toall of them, but the best were the children we served smoothies to. They were so cute and funny, and it did my heart good to watch them enjoy what we prepared for them. Growing up, I’d been surrounded by wolves, but there were not only every kind of shifter here but also witches and fae and even a few vampires as the afternoon moved into evening and the sun set.

And humans. Having met Karma, I don’t know why I was surprised to see them there, but according to Ronny, who seemed to know everything about Animals, before she came, there were no humans allowed, but how could Warren fall in love with one and turn the others away?

So many couples came by the stand, arm in arm or holding hands, and I enjoyed seeing them and the happy families. Somehow, I’d never thought much beyond having a good business. Especially once I left the pack. But maybe Fate had a little more kindness left for me?

Could I have a mate as well? And would it be asking too much for a pup or two?

---