Page 388 of His Hungry Wolf
“Wow! So, is he a wolf, too? How are we going to find him? Do you think you two grew up in the same town?” Lou said invested.
“Your guess is as good as mine. But I always got the impression that my parents weren’t living together when I was born. I don’t think my father’s from our town. On the other hand, my brother’s probably a shifter too since I get my shifting from my father. And there’s a lot of shifters where I grew up.”
“So, basically, anyone anywhere could be your brother?”
“Yep.”
Lou was lost in thought for a long time after that. At least it took his mind off of his parents. Every so often he would toss out a thought or ask a question, but his adorable thinking face always returned.
He didn’t even realize it when we crossed through his grandmother’s picturesque town. It wasn’t until we approached the gates to his grandmother’s estate that he returned to me.
“Oh, we’re here,” he said perking up.
“We’re here.”
The stressful look quickly returned to his face. “Are you ready for this? Who am I kidding? Of course you’re not ready. How could a lamb be ready for the slaughter?”
He turned to me.
“All you have to remember is that you asked me to marry you on Sunday with four of your teammates singing, ‘I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You’ in the background. It was very romantic. You’re very romantic. Everything else about our relationship can be true.”
“So, how we met? The memorial for your Grandmother?”
“Yeah. We were best friends who fell in love, a classic romance story.”
“I got it. You were in love with me from the moment we met and it took me a while to realize how great you are.”
“Please! The story needs to be something they’ll believe. If that’s the type of storytelling we’re in for this weekend, the plan is already lost.”
“Wait. Why couldn’t that version of the story be true?”
“No time for jokes. We’re here,” he said crackling as we pulled up to the grand colonial-style home. It looked like a place straight out of the time of slavery.
“How did you say your family got its money again?”
“I didn’t.”
As soon as I turned off the truck, he took both of my hands and stared into my eyes.
“This has to work. Okay? You can’t do anything to screw this up.”
“Don’t worry. I have you. You’ll be fine.”
Lou squeaked in reply.
Scrabbling out of the truck, he rushed to the bottom of the stairs and waited for me. When I got there, he took my hand and held onto it for dear life. With a deep breath and a nod, he led me onto the veranda and through the large double doors.
The place looked like the entrance to a grand ballroom. There was a spiral wooden staircase directly in front of us, a dining room that sat twenty to the left, a passageway with green marble floors to the right, and two stories of circular balconies visible through the hole in the ceiling above.
As I stared, a woman appeared on the landing on the floor above. I recognized her from the pastry shop. This was Lou’s mother and she was dressed like we were at a fancy horserace.
“Mother,” Lou said nervously gripping my hand.
“Louis, one of the handymen has parked their truck out front. Can you kindly inform them to park on the street and that the service entrance is in the back.”
“Mother!”
I felt a knot in my stomach hearing her words.