By Hook or by Wolf

Still, old habits die hard, and Mom loves a good bit of gossip. Even though I don’t appreciate her meddling, I’m happy to admit that the reason this entire date is even happening is because she did meddle.

“I ran into her at the art show. Well, actually, she ran into me. She was looking at our display table and turned around. She bumped into me when she did.”

“What was she doing at the art show?” Lee asks.

“Her daughter had a display, too.”

I’d taken a look later and Natasha hadn’t been exaggerating. Her daughter is very talented. In fact, she won several prizes for her designs. It was really lovely to see how she’d taken pictures of herself and her mother and then framed them in pretty, handmade frames. I was totally honored that the frames resembled the ones from our own gallery. As Natasha had said, our frames were definitely the inspiration for her own.

Each one had been painted carefully and i

n the center of every flower was a small gem.

They were lovely.

I’d been drawn not only to the pictures themselves, but to the way Natasha and her daughter seemed to truly care about one another. So many parents claimed they hated raising kids and that middle and high schoolers were terrible and awful to be around, but I never got that vibe with Natasha.

She and Rebecca seemed like they truly cared about each other and that they weren’t afraid to have fun and be goofy together. I’m not a parent myself, but it seems like that’s the real secret to raising sweet kids. It seems like if you want to have great kids, you have to be great with them. You can’t be afraid to have fun with them. Life is too short to be serious all of the time.

“She said she wanted to stop by and see Mom sometime, so I took her phone.”

“She just handed it over?”

“Yep. I put my number in, texted myself so I’d have her number, and then added a date to her calendar.”

Lee looks shocked, but Cody is totally on my side with this one. He high fives me as he laughs.

“Clever,” he says.

“And then I kissed her,” I tell them. I have no idea how mate sharing works. I don’t know if this is something where jealousy is ever going to come into play, but I like to think that it won’t. I’m going to be totally up front with my brothers, though.

I’m not surprised that both Cody and Lee smile.

“Tell us about it,” Cody says, smirking. “And don’t leave anything out.”

THE WEEK SEEMS TO GO by slowly.

Painfully slowly.

Everything feels boring, to be honest.

Work doesn’t bring the same joy that it used to and even when I do feel happy, it doesn’t feel as good as thinking about Natasha does. There’s no rational explanation for my feelings. There’s no realistic, logical reason I should feel so completely tingly when I think of her.

But I do.

By Wednesday, my brothers and I are all going crazy with anticipation. We finally told our mother about our upcoming date, and she was ridiculously pleased with herself. I realize she’s going to give herself all of the credit, but that’s fine by me. What matters isn’t how we met Natasha, but that we did.

After work that evening, my brothers and I decide to go run. We all want to move our bodies, to shift, to change. We all want to feel the rush of wind on our faces and on our bodies. We want to feel free. Sometimes working in an office feels like I’m on top of the world. Other times, it feels like I’m in a little box that’s slowly crushing me. Tonight all I want to do is feel free.

I want to see her tonight.

I want to see her and touch her and feel her.

I’ll wait. Natasha is totally worth waiting a few days for, but damn if it’s not eating me up inside.

We go to an abandoned cabin at the edge of town. It’s been vacant for years and nobody really knows who owns it. It doesn’t have running water or electricity. It’s literally just a shack someone put up. Maybe they planned to use it for hunting or just wanted a place they could call their own. I don’t know.

Undressing quickly, we each shift in turn. Then we move stealthily through the forest that surrounds Starton.