Page 52 of A Wolf After My Own Heart
“So, instead a stranger?” Macropi asked. Then to Lila, “No offense, dear.”
“None taken.”
“Daddy said it was okay once I told him about the Stable who found me. You tried to help me, even ’cuz you thought I was a wild animal. And when I wasn’t, when you knew I was a Shifter, you kept my secret. And you didn’t kick me out when I came back.”
“So you’re all in my house because I’m not enough of a heartless wench?” Lila snorted. “Noted.”
“Anyways. Daddy said to go to you. And I figured he was right. ’Cuz it’s not just that you don’t have a side. It’s that you don’t care!” The girl beamed like she’d been given a grand gift. “At all!”
“So you’re all in my house because I’m not enough of anindifferentheartless wench. Got it.”
“Lila, you’re the first one of your kind I’ve spent any real time with,” Sally added.
“Yeah, you told me that.”
“I can’t wait to tell my folks! They’ll besosurprised.”
“Sally, did he give you any kind of time line? Did he tell you how long you’d have to stay? Or where he was? Or what happened?” Macropi leaned forward, almost vibrating in protective urgency. “And what about your mother? Was she—”
“Whoa, back up.” Oz held up his hands like he was being mugged at gunpoint. Which was tempting to contemplate and she might try it later. “Sorry, Mama, but I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves.”
“Agreed.” From Garsea. “How did you even know it was your dad?”
“Because.” At the silence, she added impatiently, “He’s mydad. I know his voice.”
“Even if it was someone pretending?”
“But why would someone pre—oh.” Small shoulders slumped. “You still think he’s dead-for-real, not just playing.”
Garsea and Oz exchanged glances, and then Oz gently said, “We’re just trying to put the puzzle together.”
Sure. The puzzle analogy. Except they were trying to put it together in the dark with half the pieces missing and an arsonist waiting in the wings to torch it the moment they made even the smallest amount of progress.
Sally, meanwhile, had sidled over to Lila’s chair. Like any child trying to get out of an unpleasant conversation, she was anxious to change the subject. “Dev told me you’re a teddy bear doctor. Cubs send you their broken bears, and you get to fix them?”
Get to, nothave to.As it happened, Lila felt the same way. “Yeah, I do.”
“You prob’ly like it.”
“I do. I set my own hours and the pay’s adequate and I hardly ever have to deal with people because it’s all mostly done through the mail.”
“You don’t like people?”
“We’re getting far afield.”
“Dunno what that means.”
“It means, Sally, that other than his voice, did your dad say anything while you were talking, something that proved he was who he said he was?”
“He called me Possum. That’s our joke because when I was little I used to play dead to get out of chores. I don’t, um, actually turn into a possum.”
When you were little? Because you’re now the ripe old age of ten?
“Oh. Well, that makes sense.” Lila settled back, figuring Garsea and Oz would want to pick up the questioning, but they just looked at her. It took an embarrassing amount of time for her to realize they wanted her to keep going. Which was nuts, except Sally did seem more inclined to answer questions when Lila posed them.
“Okay, he used a family nickname, that answers that. Did your dad say what had happened?”
“He said their plane crashed and that he was hurt but was coming.”
