“Not that anyone’s told me about,” Arlo replied.
“Guh.” Lainie groaned. “Well, we’ve sold enough sections and basic builds to make back our investment, at least. But I really want to branch out with shifter-y designs, you know? The architect I’ve got working on the subdivision has all these great ideas…”
Lainie had inherited half the hill they were sitting on from her grandparents, who’d settled in Hideaway decades ago. Since she moved to town, she and Harrison had been developing the land, adding more—and more modern—houses to Hideaway’s stock.
Arlo frowned. “If you can’t find enough shifters to move in,” he began, and Lainie froze.
“You too?” she asked.
“I didn’t mean—”
Lainie sighed and popped another prawn cracker in her mouth. “I’m not selling to humans. Shifter and shifter-adjacent only. You can tell Dorothy that. Should make her happy.”
“I wasn’t—”
“It’s okay, Arlo. I know. You’re in a tough situation.” She waved his protestations away. “Let’s just eat lunch, and I want to hear more about these kids you picked up out of nowhere.”
Arlo sighed. Lainie was the best person he could talk to about Jacqueline—but he still didn’t know her well enough to know how to make the conversational leap.
“They’re amazing,” he said instead. “I wish I was half as smart at their ages. They made it all the way here without being picked up by human authorities—but they don’t have to do that anymore. Shifters look after their own.”
Again, that little twinge of wrongness. Lainie’s lip twisted.
“They sure do,” she murmured blandly. “Lemonade?”
The door opened, and Arlo was already leaping to his feet before Jacqueline’s voice floated out over the patio.
“Is this the right place?”
She was standing in the doorway. He opened his mouth to usher her to the lunch table, but no words came out.
Yesterday, soaked through and out of her depth, she’d been stunning. This morning, salty tangled hair and all, she’d been the most beautiful person he could imagine. But now?
Her hair shone in a mass of curls. Her eyes seemed brighter, somehow, and the soft t-shirt and jeans she was wearing caressed her figure.
Her cheeks went pink as she met his gaze, and then her eyes slipped past him to Lainie.
“Harrison lent me some of your clothes, I hope you don’t mind,” she said.
Lainie quickly reassured her, and then the others all appeared behind her. Jacqueline rode a tide of hungry shifters to the picnic table and ended up sitting beside Arlo.
“Dig in, everyone,” Harrison announced, and for a few minutes there was nothing but the sound of happy eating.
Arlo felt Lainie’s eyes on him. Even knowing he was being watched, he couldn’t help stealing glances at Jacqueline. When she reached for the salt, he handed it to her. When her lemonade ran low, he refilled it before she’d even noticed she needed more.
Lainie narrowed her eyes.
“So what’s the next step?” Harrison said once everyone had eaten their fill and was caught up on how three orphan shifters had turned up on their doorstep.
Kenna and Dylan exchanged a glance, and then:
*We should tell them—*
*Shh! They’ll hear!*
Dylan winced, and Arlo wondered what it was that he’d been about to tell Kenna they needed to say.
Kenna was fiddling with the edge of her napkin. “We still don’t know where Eric is,” she said, and Jacqueline nodded.