Chloe debated telling her mother what happened, but did she really want to worry her? Maybe she could fib a little and get her opinion.
“Hi, Mom, how are you?” She kissed her cheek, then sat opposite her at the table.
“Did you see your father’s boobs? I swear all he’s done is stand out there and stare at them. He acts like he hasn’t seen tits before.”
Chloe giggled. “You know how he gets with his discoveries.”
“I do, but that ugly thing is out of here as soon as I figure out a way to get him away from it. He’s like a dog in heat with that thing.” Chloe giggled again. Her father was a mountain lion, not a dog. She had gotten the nuthatch gene from her mother. There had been a fifty percent chance she would be a mountain lion, but she looked like her mother down to the colors of her feathers. If she were a mountain lion, she wouldn’t have hidden in a tree like a weakling, she would have fought. At least she could fly. Layla had always been jealous of that fact.
“Something happened in the woods with me and Brent,” she blurted out.
“Oh, my dear.” Her mother didn’t look up from her list-making. “I hope you used protection.”
“No, Mom, that’s not what I mean. We were walking in the woods and something startled me, and I changed in front of him.” She thought maybe she should mention someone shooting at her, but didn’t really want to alarm her parents if it was a wrong place wrong time thing.
“Oh no, Chloe, you didn’t. You just started dating.”
“Why is that a bad thing, Debra?” Her dad had walked in and was frantically trying to scrub silver paint off his hands. “That can got away from me.”
“Because, Rob, you don’t lead into a relationship with a human by letting them know you’re a shifter. That’s something you ease them into if you even need to tell them at all.”
This was a subject her parents disagreed heavily on. Her father thought the whole world should know about shifters and it was dumb that they kept it a secret, while her mother very much adhered to the rules that a human only needed to know if it was unavoidable. In her mother’s mind, when it came to a relationship, waiting to tell the other person what you were was right up there with waiting to say I love you.
“How did he react when you talked to him afterward?” Her mother put down her pen and leveled her with a piercing stare.
“So, I didn’t talk to him. I hid in a tree for the evening.” Chloe looked down, knowing her mother was going to be disappointed in her.
“Okay, so you go see him and you talk to him about it as soon as you do.”
“It’s okay, baby girl.” Her dad had given up the battle with the paint and joined them at the table. “You gave him time to think about what he saw and now you can explain that he didn’t eat some tripping mushrooms, but he actually saw you change.”
“Dad, I don’t think they call them tripping mushrooms.”
“How would you know?” He immediately got defensive.
“Fair point,” she said, “it’s just that I’ve wanted to date Brent since the eighth grade and it’s finally happening. I screwed it up by an uncontrollable freaking shift.” She put her head in her hands.
“I think if you’re meant to be together, then he won’t care about your feathers, Chloe,” her mom reassured her. Chloe wanted to believe her, but she didn’t see his face when the change happened. He was scared.
“Does this have anything to do with the gun shots I heard yesterday afternoon?” her dad suddenly asked.
“Yes,” Chloe said. “They startled me and I changed.” There was no point in lying and she just didn’t have to say they were shooting at them.
“Well, I guess that would scare anyone. See you later.” Her dad retreated back to his special project and Chloe turned to find her mom staring at her again. She was trying to figure out what Chloe wasn’t telling her. It was time to go. Ever since she was a little girl her mother had always been able to tell when she wasn’t giving her all the information.
“I better go home and get ready for work. I’ll let you know how that conversation goes.”
Her mom nodded. “I think it will be fine. Just be honest with him. We can’t help what we are, sweetie.”
Chloe kissed her cheek and started for the door. “I’ll call you after work.”
“Listen, honey, our instincts aren’t usually wrong. If something scared you that badly then maybe don’t go into the woods for a few days.”
“All right, I won’t. Good luck with Dad’s statue.” She wiggled her brows and headed back out to her car. Her dad was really concentrating on painting one breast with the tip of a paintbrush. It was a little disturbing.
Brent Perry woke up on his couch where he’d sat for three hours after coming in from the trip in the woods. He’d stared at the wall, reliving over and over again what he’d seen Chloe do. He still didn’t believe it. There was simply no way she had done that. People didn’t just turn into animals and fly away. Maybe she was some kind of witch. He’d known Chloe for most of his life, and he was just not ready to believe she’d kept this type of secret from him.
He’d finally gotten the courage up to ask her out. It had only taken him six years and he was kicking himself for waiting. They’d always been such great friends, he hadn’t wanted to ruin it. Before he’d asked her out the first time, their friend Layla had sat down with him and laid it out for him. She was pretty blunt and basically told him what an idiot he was being.