* * *
“I see you eyeing my mashed potatoes, little brother.Want seconds?”my sister, Calissa, gestures to her husband to pass me the serving bowl.
“Yes, you know I do.Just like how Mom used to make them.”
Arlo passes me the bowl and I scoop out another heaping pile of delicious sour cream and bacon mashed potatoes onto my plate.
“I promise to give your future wife the recipe,” she teases, which makes me guffaw.
“Been there, did that, got the shitty shirt.No thanks.”
Calissa rolls her eyes at me.That’s been the theme with my siblings today.
“That was ten years ago.You don’t know what the future brings.”
I swallow a large mouthful of potatoes and say, “No, but I know I am terrible with women.And one doesn’t need to be married to be happy.It’s only been a few years since you were living the happy loner mountain life before this guy came crashing into your world.”
Both Bernie and my brother-in-law laugh, with Arlo adding, “Literally.”
“And if I remember correctly, you and Bernie here used to needle me about getting out into the world and moving closer to society.Right?”my sister retorts.
I answer her by dramatically stuffing more delicious potatoes into my mouth.
Arlo changes the conversation to some town gossip he learned at his barbershop.He always has the best local stories, since people often have diarrhea of the mouth while he cuts their hair.Bernie and I have been running our construction company in Corvid Valley for around a dozen years now, but there’s no way I know even half the people who Arlo knows.
“Save some room for dessert,” my sister says when there’s a pause in the conversation.“I made my salted honey pie.”
“Dang, Cal, are you trying to beef us up?”Bernie cracks.
“Give me a break.This meal is nothing for the average bear shifter,” she says, throwing an eye roll in his direction.
I am full to the gills, but I will never say no to my sister’s incredible pie.
With a mouthful of salted honey goodness, Bernie says, “Will this recipe be given to Barrett’s future wife as well?”
Shooting him a glare, I say, “Maybe it’ll be given to your future wife, big brother.”
“I sure hope so!”he says, sitting back and rubbing his stomach.
After dinner, we watch a Natalia Rose movie in Calissa and Arlo’s living room before heading home.I am still uncomfortably full, so I tell Bernie I am going to walk off the meal.
“Just stay off the road so that you don’t freak anyone out,” he warns me, before driving off.
I watch him pull away, then shift into my bear-form and take off into the woods to head home.
2
Abigail
The three ofus sit on the floor of my empty studio apartment, noshing on pizza, and drinking beer.
“What does the movers’ app say now?”Alona asks before finishing her beer.
I look around for my phone, which should be easy to find in a furniture-less apartment, and Dinah finds it under the open pizza box lid.She tosses it to me.
Taking a bite of pizza, I log into the app.I do a happy dance sitting on my butt before jumping up and running to the window.
“They’re outside!Finally.”
