Page 371 of His Hungry Wolf

“Yeah, my father was in the Air Force. I’ve honestly been scared to ask if he and my mother were married. She doesn’t like to say much when it comes to him. But after telling me I have a brother, I’m starting to understand why. Do you know anything about any of this?”

“This is all new information to me,” she admitted.

I shrugged. “So I guess I have that going on.”

“I guess you do. By the way, did you want anything or did you just come to check out the place?”

I thought back to the pastry I saw on the table in front of Lou.

“Do you have any croissants?”

“Marcus has made these delightful croissants with chocolate striped over top of them,” she said bugging her eyes with excitement.

“I’ll take one of those. And maybe a coffee.”

“You got it. Sit. Relax. Enjoy the sights,” she said pointing at the view.

“Thanks,” I said choosing a seat and sitting down.

The view from Dr. Sonya’s back porch had to be one of the best in town. Tree-covered hills rippled off into the distance. And on the furthest peek was a cloud of mist from the largest waterfall in a hundred miles.

I was lost in both the view and thought when I heard a voice I hadn’t heard in a while.

“Titus?”

I turned to find Claude, the only kid from my graduating class to go to college immediately after high school.

“Claude! Good to see you. What are you doing here?”

“Here in town or here at Dr. Sonya’s pastry shop?”

I shrugged. “Both. Please, sit.”

Claude made his way to the seat across from me. Memories of Claude washed through my mind. I had always been a little jealous of him. Not only was he a wolf shifter who was one of the best football players on our high school team. But he was always so damn good-looking.

The man had perfect features and the most amazing brown complexion I could imagine. I didn’t know how he felt about being the only black kid in our high school. It might have been the reason he kept to himself. But I had always wished we could be friends.

“Well, I graduated early. That’s why I’m in town. And I’m here at Dr. Sonya’s because Marcus said that he was making his chocolate croissants today,” he said with the hint of a smile.

“I heard they’re good.”

“They are.”

I stared at Claude for a moment.

“You know, out of everyone who got out of this town, you were the last one I thought would come back.”

“Same,” he said looking down in thought. “But, my mother’s here. And she’s been needing a little help, so here I am.”

“And what are you doing? Are you working?”

“Do you have a computer that needs repair?” he asked leaning forward with a smile.

“You repair computers? Here?”

“Yeah, well, there’s not a ton of call for it. But when there is, there’s no one else. And I’ve been slowly convincing a few of the businesses to switch to electronic data management, so you never know.”

I laughed. “You mean, to get this town to move into the 21stcentury? Good luck with that.”