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I look over at her and see a soft smile that contrasts with her strong words. “Still,” she continues. “I appreciate it. I’ll let you butter Jason up and then I’ll ask my questions.”
We reach the hospital, and my thoughts turn back to my friend. I feel a rush of fear when we stand outside of his room and hesitate. Suddenly, the thought of seeing Reggie covered in bandages with tubes sticking out of him is too much to handle. I feel Kellie’s hand slip into mine and when I turn to her, I see that she’s smiling compassionately at me. I return a grateful smile of my own, take a deep breath and walk inside.
Reggie is lying in bed talking quietly with his brother Jason, who stands over him. Jason is a big man, an inch taller than me at six-foot-four and powerfully built. Combined with an overbearing demeanor and a booming voice, he is an intimidating presence, even at fifty-four years old.
They turn to us when we walk in and Reggie’s face lights up in a smile. “Stone!” he cries. “It’s good to see you.”
I cross to him and throw my arms around him. He returns my embrace with a laugh, and I’m pleased to feel strength in his grasp. “Christ, what’s your problem?” he asks. “You act like I just woke up from a coma.”
He bursts into laughter at his joke and though I protest, “That’s not funny, Reg,” I can’t prevent my own laughter from bubbling up.
I suppose I didn’t allow myself to realize how frightened I was when I heard that his house was on fire. Reggie’s been the closest thing to a real father I’ve ever had and the thought that I might lose him was too catastrophic to face. Seeing him strong and smiling is an enormous relief and much of my stress disappears.
“Who’s this?” Jason asks, thrusting his chin in Kellie’s direction. “Girlfriend?”
Kelli blushes a little at the question but doesn’t correct him, keeping her agreement to let me speak first.
“She’s the claims adjustor,” I say. “She came down to speak to you and Reggie but she wanted to wait for Reggie to wake up before she came down.”
It’s an outright lie and if Jason knows about it earlier this morning, then we’ll both be in trouble. Fortunately, Jason only nods and says, “Well, why didn’t she call?” He turns to her and says, “Can’t we handle this over the phone?”
“She thought it would be better to meet you in person,” I say.
“What, she doesn’t talk?” Jason says to me. “You have to answer every question I ask her?”
“Jason, will you relax?” Reggie says. “Not everyone is out to get us.”
Jason lifts his hands and lets them drop. “All right,” he says. “I just wish she’d have called.”
Despite his grousing, he seems placated, so I nod at Kellie.
She takes the cue and turns to Reggie with a smile that could melt even the iciest heart. “Mr. Underwood, I’m so glad you’re all right.”
“All right?” Jason protests. “Look at him, he looks like a Halloween mummy!”
“Jason, relax!” Reggie barks. To Kellie, he says, “Thank you very much, Miss…”
“Kellie O’Malley,” she says. “You can just call me Kellie.”
“Thank you, Miss Kellie,” he replies.
“Okay,” she says, retrieving a notepad and pen from her purse. “I just need to ask a couple of questions. If you don’t know the answer, that’s okay. Just tell me what you know, and we’ll go from there. First, tell me what happened the night before.”
Reggie sighs. “Well, I was sleeping one minute and the next, I was running to the house.”
She looks up from her notepad and says, “You were sleeping outside the house?”
“Yep,” Reggie confirms. “In the stable. I do that sometimes if one of the horses is ill or needs extra attention.”
The real reason is that Reggie spends most of his time in his horse form. Most shifters spend the majority of their lives as humans and only shift in their spare time. Most of us don’t really have a choice since the overwhelming majority of people aren’t shifters and we have to spend our lives living in their world, and a giant horse is going to have a hard time holding a firehose. Reggie, on the other hand, rarely ever needs to leave his homestead. I’ve known him to go for weeks living as a horse before shifting back.
Of course, he can’t tell Kellie that. I can only hope she buys his explanation without probing further.
I have no idea if she buys it, she moves on and asks him the usual spiel of questions: What do you think caused the fire? Have you ever suffered a fire before? Have you noticed any loose wires or flickering lights or dead outlets that might indicate an electrical problem? What about the gas? Any problems with hot water or unexplained smells?
After a few minutes, it becomes clear that he doesn’t know anything that will help us and Kellie wraps up the interview with a promise to call him if she needs anything else. Jason spends a few minutes pressuring her about a judgment and I am pleasantly surprised and very impressed to see she retains her pleasant demeanor throughout the entire barrage.
This kind, gentle side of her is so different from the aggressive, pushy woman I met the night before. I suddenly want to know everything there is to know about her.
