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I immediately recognized the deep male voice.
My heart jumped into my throat, and my palms turned clammy and cold.
Ugh. I hated myself.You are not a teenager. Stop acting like one.
I looked up and met the smoky gray eyes of Dr. Billy Bob Smith, the local witch doctor and family medical practitioner. I went completely squishy inside. He was the most gorgeous man I’d ever laid eyes on. Usually, he wore his hair down in silver waves that flowed over his shoulders. Right now, he wore it tied back, really showing off his angular face with a strong but narrow jaw, a wide mouth, straight, broad nose, and hypnotizing eyes.
Before the haircut, he’d had a tangle of thick dreadlocks down to his trim waist. I still remembered how soft his hair felt when he’d carried me bloodied and bruised away from the hunters who’d tried to kill me. I lost myself for a moment thinking about how the doc’s hair had brushed my skin like the tips of angel wings, and even though I’d been in excruciating pain, I’d been comforted.
Billy Bob was good at offering comfort.
But he was a lycanthrope, and I was a werecoyote. We were about as compatible as lemon juice and an open wound.
There wasn’t a person in town who didn’t sing the doc’s praises—except me, of course. He had a medical degree from a big university. Yet, he also believed in hoodoo spiritualism or what he called, “earth magic.”
I couldn’t see how he could possibly reconcile science and magic.
“Did you hear the one about the wolf who walked into a diner and was ogled by a coyote?” Elbert Johnson chuckled.
Jo Jo laughed.
I closed my gaping mouth and snapped at Jo Jo, “Don’t you have work to do?”
He walked away with a wide grin on his pierced lips, and I caught the fist bump he handed Elbert when he strolled past the Johnson’s booth.
I tried to get myself together, but crap, it wasn’t easy.
Billy Bob smiled at me. My stomach fluttered. Unfortunately, I hadn’t noticed the pretty, blonde-haired woman directly behind him until she stepped into view. She moved up beside him and looped her arm around his. I wanted to punch her in her shiny, pretty face.
“Hey, doc,” trilled Sunny. She waved at Billy Bob from across the room.
Thanks to Sunny and her haphazard psychic visions—and her penchant for finding trouble—she’d managed to lead the charge to find me before the hunters could finish me off. Sunny got to know the doc quite well during that time, and while she was married to my brother Babe, she and Billy Bob had maintained a close friendship. I couldn’t be mad at her. She’d fought for my freedom, the way only a BFF can. She was beautiful inside and out, and I felt grateful to have her in my life. Today, she wore her golden hair in a ponytail. The style really showed off her large, striking green eyes. The pink V-neck shirt she’d just changed into showed off her other large assets as well. She’d already been blessed with good boobs before pregnancy. Now that she was nursing my adorable infant nephew, her boobs were almost in Dolly Parton territory.
The werewolf grinned at her. Hmph. Any idiot could see he was in love with my best friend. However, she was married to my brother, Babel, and Billy Bob making goo-goo eyes at her was plain ol’ wrong. It hadnothingto do with him not making goo-goo eyes at me.
“Hey, Sunny,” he said back. “How you feeling?”
“Really good,” she replied, all bright and perky. “Those herbs you gave me have really helped with Jude’s colic.”
He chuckled. “I’m glad to hear it. Bring him by next week for his five-month checkup.”
“You got it.” She smiled, her lashes batting hard enough to stir up a breeze.
“Anytime. You don’t need an appointment.” He laughed again. The sound hit all my buttons. I glared at Sunny. She noticed my look, smiled sweetly, and shrugged.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one glaring. The shiny little blonde, still clinging to Billy Bob’s arm, shot daggers at my bestie. She clearly didn’t want his attention focused anywhere else but on her. I tapped the counter to draw their attention away from Sunny. I’d hate to have to beat a bitch for making angry eyes at my friend.
She wasn’t a local, which meant she was here for the festival. I wondered what her animal could be. Since I grew up an integrator, I’d never really learned all the characteristics for the different therian ethnicities. In their human forms, most therians had minor traits that revealed their inner animals. For example, werecoyotes have similar bone structure and build. We tend to be taller than average and have high cheekbones, wide mouths, square jaws, and straight noses. Raccoons, like Sheriff Taylor and his wife Jean, have the tale-tell darker circles around the eyes and wide cheeks. Ruth Thompson, one of my very good friends, and the local go-to gal is a spotted white tail deer. Deer are more delicate in their features, and they have the kind of beauty written about in fairy tales. They can seem almost nymph-like, even the men, like her husband Ed and all five of her boys.
Those were the obvious ones, but I’m unfamiliar with the therian groups outside of Peculiar, so I was no better than a human at identifying them. Of course, there are the hybrids as well, like Jo Jo, our bus boy-slash-waiter-slash-dishwasher who is half coyote, half mountain lion. His face is more narrow and longer than a normal coyote, but he has a similar height and build. Even still, if Ruth Thompson hadn’t told me, I would never have guessed.
The blonde who clung to Billy Bob had a tiny nose and pouty lips and big, blue, doll eyes that all screamed weasel to me. Also, her itty bitty waist told me she wasn’t drowning any sorrows in potato salad.
“Pie?” I asked her, pulling out a slice of coconut cream pie with coconut whipped topping from the refrigerated display case. I pushed it across the counter.
Her upper lip curled in disdain. At least, that’s how I read it. She gazed pointedly at my mid-section then glanced down her svelte form.
“Why not,” she said, pulling the pie across the counter. She picked up a fork from the silverware cups, scooped some pie up, and took a big bite. “Good.” She sniffed, as if she’d had better, but was being polite. “I’m lucky,” blondie said, taking another bite. “I can just eat and eat, and it never goes to my hips.”
