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At least I looked good while I stalled

Every s, and practically sprint to the lobby

I would hitchover my shoulder, prepared to make a blind run to the post office to pick up Red-burn’s package I could feel the cold fingers of outside air tracing the lines ofout into the cold, so at the bank of elevators, ready to go back upstairs And every ly alarry with Caleb There was no question about it But I’d lied to hi toto him Neither of us was the picture of healthy communication

In my minibar-buffeted den, I mulled my options over and over Run back to the valley, or start another new life, or go back to Tennessee and straighten out the mess I’d made of my old one The last was more of a not-even-the-least-bit-likely palate cleanser

A tiny, twisted part of ed,lot without having a panic attack Werewolves needed fierce e, violent pressures of their world I would fold under the first test I knew that pack overned thenant Maybe he could go on to have babies with soht terrors and trust issues And yet the very ideaso hiure out how to go about talking to hi hihes retreat, Red-burn resolved my quandary with a phone call

"Well?"

"Well, what?"

"What do you think about your new ID? My connection worked really hard to make sure your picture caht you sounded like a Bethel"

"What are you talking about?"

"Your new ID Haven’t you picked it up yet? Honey, I sent it a week ago, three-day guaranteed delivery I thought you hadn’t called because you were on the move Or because you were pissed because your new first naht now, there’s an ani for you to take over a vet-tech position"

Sadly, given the a with both wolf and human anatomy, I was probably qualified for this position "I haven’t had a chance to pick it up"

"What’s going on with you?" she asked "You hassled me for weeks for that ID, and all of a sudden, you don’t have time to pick it up? You sound all weird and distractedwait, is there a man in this picture?"

"Sort of"

Red-burn snorted "Honey, either he is or he isn’t"

"He is" I sighed "I have the chance to build a good life with someone A life I could live asyou?"

"This insane roller coaster of a life I live?" I suggested

"Not good enough"

"For the first couple of months we knew each other, I lied to him about who I was"

"You’re in the doood enough"

"He lied to me about who he was And he was a bounty hunter hired by my ex to find me"

There was a heavy pause on the other end of the line "OKthat would be an obstacle"

"Why do I hear glasses clinking?" I asked

"I’ myself a drink You do the same, and we’ll talk this out"

I cracked open a tiny bottle of vodka from the minibar and tossed the contents downher snicker on the other end of the line "You didn’t , did you?"

"No," I whispered hoarsely

The whole sordid tale poured forth fro run-on sentence How I unshot wound (I left out the spontaneous healing) Hoe’d bounced around the state fighting criainstabove-average Internet-surfing skills led to Schuna’s e- of a lifetime I don’t think I used sothe word into two syllables

"Tell me about it"

"OK, bottoain, I --"

"I ae"

She continued as if she hadn’t heardto Adele and s one of the T-shirts you stole from him You would never see the barest hint of his existence on this earth Hoould you feel?"