When she picked her daughter up from kindergarten that afternoon, she bent down to hug her. "Guess what we're doing tonight?"
"Swimming!" Eliza loved swimming and she did it as often as she could.
"No. Do you remember Mr. Roman? The man who came into the bookstore with us?"
Her daughter pouted briefly. Not many people could outrank swimming. "Yes."
"We are going to go out with him. I don't know what we're doing yet, but he is a wolf shifter. You can be yourself around him."
"He's a wolf?” Eliza hopped up and down. "I thought so. He feels fuzzy."
She had always laughed at the way her daughter described the feeling of another shifter nearby. "Yes, he's definitely fuzzy.”
Roman arrived right on time and Eliza yanked the door open. "Mommy says you're a wolf shifter. Can I see your wolf?"
"I think that's a great idea. I thought we would have a picnic in the woods and then maybe we could all shift and go for a run."
Everleigh felt tears spring to her eyes. She got so little time with other shifters that it meant a lot to her that he had considered that. They were going to have a picnic in the woods in Alaska in March, something that human families would not do generally, as it was still too cold and the snow was on the ground. But they could do it. They could sit right on the snow and eat their food and relax in each other's company.
"Picnic in the woods, picnic in the woods!" Eliza yelled, hopping up and down. "I can change into my bear too." She stopped abruptly. "Do you know any bear shifters?" she asked Roman. "Besides us?”
Everleigh breathed a sigh of relief. She’d told Eliza to only switch into her bear that day. If Roman saw her shift into a wolf, he’d probably know exactly who her father was. She wasn’t ready for that confrontation yet.
Everleigh saw his mouth open when Eliza asked if he knew any other bear shifters. He actually did know Eliza's uncle quite well and considered him a brother. But she was not ready to have that conversation. Luckily, he just smiled and said yes, when he went to the Blackwood Academy.
"Did you like them?'' she asked.
"Yes, several of them are my friends."
"I can't wait till I meet more shifters. There's not many here, you know. But I don't want to move either. I like my human friends too."
"I agree with you," he said, giving Eliza a high five. "Meeting other shifters is fine but so are humans."
She giggled once and then skipped off. "I’m getting my picnic stuff," she yelled over her shoulder.
She watched Roman’s eyes, looking for judgment, looking for him to consider that she made the wrong choice about how to raise her daughter. But he only looked mildly curious. And not judgmental at all.
Maybe he had changed in the last five years.