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“No, I’m not sure where to even start.”
She gave a slight groan and I started to tell her off that I wasn’t ready to say anything, but she surprised me. “No, it’s okay. You don’t need to tell me yet, but I do want to know. It’s just . . .” She rubbed her hands across her face to wake up a little. “Bruno called me yesterday, and we had a really good conversation. But he hasn’t answered any of my calls since.”
I looked over at Lira, but she had her face buried into her pillow. What a mess this whole thing was. Instead of answering, I said, “Jill and Becca are on their way. They’ll be here in an hour.”
“Why?” That got her attention. She looked up at me, and I saw her eyes were puffy, as if she’d been crying this whole time rather than sleeping.
I crawled back into bed and pulled her in for a hug. “I think you’re going to get all your questions answered really soon.”
Her quiet sobs blended in with my tears.
* * *
Lira and I had managed to get out of bed and get dressed and were just starting to eat some yoghurt when the doorbell rang. I hesitated, wondering if I really wanted to know what Becca and Jill were here for. The sinking feeling was back, telling me that what I saw yesterday with Jacob and Bruno was true and not my vivid imagination. I wanted it to be a dream. A very bad dream.
Lira saw my hesitation and went to answer the door. “Hi, gals.”
“Hi . . .” Becca said, a frown wrinkling her brow.
“I’m Lira. Don’t worry, I know we’ve never actually met. Come on in.”
“Lira, it’s really nice to meet you. When did you get back from traveling?” Jill asked, following Becca into the room.
“A while ago, just in time to help Millie with the latest gallery showing.”
“Oh,” Jill said, looking over at Becca.
“I wonder . . .” Becca said.
“It’s too much of a coincidence,” Jill said.
“But it would explain a lot,” Becca said.
“What in the world are you two mumbling about over there?” I said, finally walking toward them and gesturing at the sofa and chairs. “Please, take a seat. What was so important you had to make a trip to tell me in person?”
Jill and Becca came and seated themselves in the armchairs while Lira stayed at the breakfast table.
“How are you doing, Millie?” Jill said, completely ignoring my question.
“How am I doing?” I looked over at Lira, and she just stared back. Where did I even start? That I saw two grown men fight over me and then they turned into wolves and attacked each other like vicious animals?
But there was no use trying to deny that somethinghadhappened yesterday.Go carefully, Millie.“I’m assuming you two are here because of what happened yesterday.” At this, Lira got up and sat down next to me, and it gave me enough courage to say, “Given what I saw, I don’t know how I could possibly be doing well.”
“Yeah, it was a surprise to me too,” Becca said. “I ran screaming the first time I saw them in their wolf form.”
“Wolf form?” Lira said. “Were people dressed up prematurely for Halloween? Did I miss an epic costume party?”
“No, nothing of the sort,” I said.
“Lira doesn’t know?” Becca asked.
“No . . .”And I’d like to keep it that way. But one look at Lira and her comment about Bruno this morning, and I realized she should know. I’d never seen her so serious about a boy before. She didn’t even eat her breakfast this morning, just picked at it, even though food was her love language.
“What have you not told me?” she asked, now turning to look at Jill and Becca. “Millie has refused to tell me anything. She’s just been moping around the house for the last twelve hours. It’s really worrying me. Do you two know what happened to her yesterday?”
Jill and Becca nodded but kept their eyes on me.
“I think we should talk to Millie in private,” Jill said.
