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Chapter One
Jasper
Ipulleduptothe curb beside a run-down Victorian in Missoula, Montana as the GPS cheerfully told us we’d arrived.I leaned over Mom so we could both stare up at the house.“Don’t ask me if I’m sure I want to do this,” Mom warned.
I bit back those exact words.We’d already argued enough during the two-hour drive to Missoula from Twisted Pines.If she hadn’t been so sick, she might have driven by herself and kept the visit from all of us.But then, if she wasn’t so sick, we wouldn’t be here.
“You can’t manage those stairs,” I said instead, peering up at the cracked, crumbling cement stairs that zig-zagged their way up the hill toward the house.“I’ll carry you.”
Her mouth turned down.Six months ago, Mom had been strong enough to break a horse, haul a kayak for miles, then lead the pack on long runs all night.Today, she couldn’t manage a flight of stairs without wheezing and shaking.“I hate this.”
“I know.”I looked up at the house again.I wasn’t as good at estimating construction costs as my brother Flint, but even I could see the dollar signs in the sagging roof and drooping gutters.Too bad—it had beautiful bones, with the columned front porch and gabled eaves.The place might have looked abandoned, except for the windows that were open to catch the late-summer breeze.“I hope this Professor Matthews can help us.”
“Me too.I really don’t know where else to turn.He’s been researching shifters for years, apparently.It’s made him a laughingstock,” Mom said contemplatively.“He’s supposed to be brilliant, but a bit … cracked.”
“Well, yeah.He believes in shifters, so he’s obviously nuts.”
She tossed me an indulgent look.It said ‘you’re funny, but stop being funny because I’m serious about doing this.’I sighed, then pulled the keys out of the ignition and came around to help her down from the truck.
“I can make it,” Mom said, looking up at the stairs.“There’s a railing.I’ll just go slow.”
“You could,” I agreed.“You’d be totally exhausted by the time you reached the top, way too worn out to interview this guy, and you might even make yourself sicker, but sure, youcould.“ When she frowned, I continued, “Besides, I missed my workout to drive you here.You owe it to me to let me carry you so I can get my cardio in.”
She rolled her eyes as she tightened her grip on her purse and the cane she used if she had to walk any sort of distance.“Jasper, really, you’re being silly.You can’t carry me up all those steps.”
“Bet me twenty?”
Now her eyes sharpened.“You still owe me fifteen from that bet on Micah’s zucchinis.”
“Double or nothing.”
“You’re on.”She allowed me to gather her up in my arms.I tried not to think about how easy it was to lift her, how her body kept withering no matter what we tried.
“You can pay my winnings to Flint.I owe him for that soccer tournament last week.”
“I can’t believe you were betting on a kid’s soccer tournament,” I said, carefully checking each step with my foot before I put our combined weight on it, “and you didn’t invite me.”
“You and Dylan and the rest of the stablemen have all kinds of bets on the horses, and you don’t ask me,” she mock pouted.
“We really should have a chart,” I said, starting to get breathless.We were more than halfway up and my thighs were complaining.I reminded myself that this was precisely why I’d put in so much time under the squat bar and kept climbing.“Or maybe a spreadsheet.”
She scoffed.“You are the only one who understands spreadsheets.”
“Yeah, because none of you have bothered to learn.They really aren’t that hard,” I said, huffing now.“I could teach you in an afternoon.And there’s so much information to be gleaned.Like, the other day I pulled this pivot table—“
“Are you trying to torture me?”
I grinned down at her.“Wait until I tell you about functions.”
“I’d rather die.”She said it jokingly, then the smile faded from her eyes.“Sorry.”
“So’kay,” I said, now too breathless to form words.My heart was pounding in my chest and sweat had sprouted down the center of my back, but I had done it.I set her on her feet, making sure she was stable before I let her go.“I know you didn’t mean it like that.”
“Jasper—“
“It’s okay,” I said, more firmly.My speeding heart surged with anxiety.“We don’t need to talk about it.”
“Jasper.”
