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She laughed. “Yeah, something like that. I like to go on walks between sessions to refresh myself and allow myself to be fully present with my next clients.”
I leaned my head to the side.Session.Clients.A woman with a need to be present.“Yoga instructor?”
She smiled. “In another life, but in this one, I’m the town psychiatrist.”
“Ah.” The words made sense now. Shrinks hadclientsand clients hadsessions.
“Lola Kipling,” she said, holding out her hand.
I shook her hand. “Tori.”
“I recently moved to town and still don’t know many people, so this helps me get out of my office, or else I’d be stuck behind my desk all day.” She chuckled. “And it’s a lovely day.”
I gestured back to town, silently asking her whether I could join her on the return journey. It seemed silly to walk separately if we were going the same way, and it would give me the chance to speak to another newcomer and get her perspective on Blackwood Creek and its denizens.
She nodded, and we started walking back together. The walk was slow, amicable even, as if she wasn’t in a hurry to get away from me. I appreciated that.
“That makes two of us, then,” I said. “New to town, I mean.”
She laughed. “Yeah, I may not be friends with many people, but you’re the buzz of the town. You’ve had quite an impactful introduction.”
Word of my interaction with the mayor and the cranky couple had already made the rumor rounds. Typical small-town life. But I didn’t want to talk about myself.
“So, Doc, why did you move to Blackwood?” I didn’t know much about making friends, but I knew it required a certain amount of getting to know one another, and that meant asking questions. Listening. Caring.
Her face lit up. “I’ve visited the town several times since I was a child, and it fascinated me. I’ve been reading up on it ever since. It has a rich, intriguing history.” She shrugged. “When I decided to open my practice, this was where I wanted to settle down and get some roots planted. I can now fully immerse myself in the history of this town. It’s a dream come true to live here.”
She seemed so excited, and I felt genuinely happy for her. It felt a little odd since other people’s feelings didn’t generally affect me. But something about the way Lola’s voice filled with excitement and her eyes sparkled with joy as she spoke about the town made me glad for her, though. I’d never been that excited about a place before, or dedicated to a single topic. Well, besides my art, but even that had been lost because of the way I had to live and survive.
Lola chatted on about the town and all the amazing things it had to offer—the food, the stores, the people. It kept the conversation flowing. For a psychiatrist, she didn’t ask many questions, and nothing she asked was overly personal or intrusive. It was a very ordinary conversation between two people taking a hike.
It was difficult not to like her. She seemed genuinely pleasant, and I didn’t get any bad vibes from her, nor did the wolf inside me feel threatened by her small stature. Lola truly loved this town and her job and was grateful to have made her dream come true. If she was a hunter, she hid it well, and I deserved to be caught.
We made it back to town and crossed the parking lot to reach the diner. Her office was right next door. This town was small enough that everybody knew everybody’s business just by looking outside the window. A simple visit to the store was fodder for gossip. By the time you returned, everyone knew where you’d been, who you’d spoken to, and the contents of your shopping cart to boot. That being said, the town had its charm.
A pearly white convertible BMW honked furiously at us as we headed toward the sidewalk. The young female behind the wheel gesticulated rudely. Lola jumped, and I glared.
“That’s Audrey Greenthorne,” Lola told me.
She had to be the daughter of the couple I met the first night I was here. I could see the family resemblance—rich, rude, and entitled. I looked around the parking lot. There were several open parking spaces, but evidently, they weren’t good enough. Oh no, she wanted the one we were currently standing on. We moved to the safety of the sidewalk outside the diner.
Parking her car, she stomped out of the vehicle, slammed her car door, and marched toward us.
“Lola, I know you’re here in town to permanently stick your big nose in and meddle in everyone’s drama, but the least you could do is do it without getting in my way. Okay?” She flipped her hair over her shoulder and pushed her sunglasses up. “The only reason you’re still in town is thanks to me. So, do me a favor. Stay out of my way.”
Each word of the last sentence was punctuated with the stabbing motion of her finger in Lola’s direction. She had created the situation purely to berate Lola.
I glanced at Lola. With her shy demeanor, she couldn’t take on the likes of a Greenthorne. She curled her shoulders in on herself as her face fell and she began apologizing.
A red haze clouded my vision as the aggression I’d worked so hard to dampen started resurfacing. My wolf was giddy at the idea of tearing into this woman.
I stepped between the two women, and when I got level with Audrey, I quickly realized she was a shifter. A beautiful shifter, but her attitude made her ugly. Beauty was wasted on bitches.
“Look here, Barbie. There are literally a dozen other parking spots. You could’ve parked in any one of them. If you’re going to actively be a bitch today, then go and do it somewhere else because I’m not in the mood to deal with any condescending crap, especially from the likes of you.”
Lola gasped behind me, but I didn’t remove my gaze from the entitled shifter in front of me. Audrey’s jaw dropped, and her eyes widened in shock before narrowing into a glare.
I raised my brows, expecting some sort of angry response that would lead to the verbal altercation to end all other altercations. But the woman decided to pull a tantrum by stomping her foot like the child she clearly was and returning to her car.
