Page 222 of His Hungry Wolf

She looked at me confused. “I thought you came to the town looking for a red headed man?”

“We did. But we found Cage’s mother instead,” I said with as much enthusiasm as I could manage.

“That’s incredible! Had she been missing?”

“In a way. He had never met her.”

“That’s amazing!”

“It is. It’s quite wonderful.”

“Well, we’ll have to do something to celebrate,” she concluded making me feel as if I were a part of her family.

I dropped my bag in my room and lied in bed thinking about everything again. Once it started making me feel worse than I already felt, I decided to head downstairs.

“Did you have dinner plans? Would you like to join us?” Dr. Sonya said from the kitchen.

“I don’t think I have plans. I haven’t spoken to Cage, though.”

“Then how about you join us, and if you have to run off, you do?” She suggested with a smile.

“Sounds great. Thank you,” I told her before joining Cali in the living room watching TV.

I could feel Cali’s uneasiness as I sat there with him. Always having been the shy one, I knew how he felt.

“How long have you been playing football?” I asked him causing his cheeks to turn bright red.

Cage might have been right. He did seem to have a crush on me.

“Since freshman year,” he eventually squeaked.

“That’s cool. Are you thinking about attending East Tennessee?”

“I was thinking about it.”

“It’s a good school. I think you’d like it there. If you ever want a tour, let me know.”

Cali didn’t respond, but he did turn beet red at my suggestion. I was going to have to be careful with what I said to him. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt him or lead him on.

Bringing up Cage many times, I spent the rest of the night with my two hosts. After dinner, Dr. Sonya suggested a game of Scrabble.

“I have to warn you. I’m pretty good,” Dr. Sonya said proudly. “There’s a group of us in town that play and I haven’t lost a game in two years.”

I nodded politely and then beat them by 50 points.

Dr. Sonya stared at the board shocked.

“We need to play that again,” she announced.

We did and the results were similar. But, more importantly, it was fun. It took my mind off of Cage. So, when he texted saying that he was going to sleep there, it stung less.

Heading to bed alone and waking up alone, I tried not to let my imagination get away from me. The only reason Cage hadn’t returned was because he wanted to spend time with his family. That made complete sense. It had nothing to do with me or how he felt about us. He needed this time and I was going to give it to him.

I didn’t hear from him until nearly 11 A.M. when he told me that he would come by around 7 P.M. to pick me up.

‘Are you having a good time?’ I texted in reply.

It took him 30 minutes to text me back. ‘Definitely! I’ll tell you all about it later.’