Page 124 of Big Bad Wolf

“Oh my god! What else has he been right about?” Lena wheezed.

“Bigfoot?” Sawyer said. “UFOs?”

“Anything’s possible!” Callie said between breaths.

Sawyer shook his head. “How many times did they tell us, stay out of the woods? And we all thought it was just stories, fairy tales to keep us from wandering off.”

Their laughter died down as they thought about the stories that had long filtered through this town. Stories intended to keep children on the lit walkways in town, to keep them away from strangers, from things that lurk in the dark corners.

A hell of a lot of good that had done her.

Sawyer grinned. “And now look at us.” He pointed at each one of them in turn. “A witch, a seer, and Ruby has a werewolf boyfriend.”

Ruby scoffed.

“Why do you look so happy about it?” Callie asked, pushing the hair that escaped her braid away from her face.

“It’s objectively very cool,” he said, and Ruby couldn’t help smiling. It was objectively cool. Even if it had kinda come back to bite her in the ass.

“Ruby’s a seer too,” Lena said. “It’s a family trait.” It was almost accusatory, the way she said it. Like she wanted Ruby to have to deal with the same shit she was. Even though they weren’t the same in this. They weren’t experiencing it the same way at all.

And it was jarring. To be different from her twin in a new way.

Sawyer’s brows rose. “Is that so?”

“Maybe. Unconfirmed,” Ruby said even as she felt it in her bones that her sister was right.

“Well, Callie is going to help me rein in my episodes,” Lena said.

“I’m going to try. I think maybe some of the things my grandma taught me to help with my … powers might help Lena.”

“That’s great.”

“You can come to our witchy study sessions too,” Lena said, and maybe it was a peace offering. A peace offering that Ruby should have taken, but she highly doubted her friend had any witchy tricks for her. She still doubted she had any special abilities at all. At least none that were coming back any time soon.

“Thanks,” she said, knowing she’d find a way to back out later.

“Okay, where is he?!” Dolores stormed up to their table, a laundry cart trailing behind her.

“Where is who?” Callie asked, looking up at the tiny woman. Dolores was bundled under multiple layers of flannel and a puffy vest today making her look even smaller than usual.

“Your giant boyfriend,” she said, pointing accusingly at Ruby. “I haven’t seen him at the laundromat in days. We always do our laundry together.”

Sawyer snorted another laugh.

“He’s not here,” Ruby said.

“Well, where the hell is he?” Dolores demanded.

“I wouldn’t know,” Ruby bit out and the woman’s face fell. “Sorry, Dolores.”

“Hmph.” Dolores frowned. “He could have told me he was leaving.”

“He left in kind of a hurry,” Ruby said, feeling the odd need to cover for Rafe and to save Dolores’s feelings.

“What seems to be the trouble?” Sal asked, sauntering over to the table like he was the sheriff. Which he definitely wasn’t. Sheriff Mike hadn’t had a drink in twenty years and only stepped in this place when he absolutely had to. But that didn’t stop Dolores from looking at Sal like he was her hero.

“I was looking for Rafe,” Dolores told him.