Page 14 of The Way We Were(wolf)

Eric’s head pounded, the vein that always throbbed before he lost his cool warning him that he was on the verge of something no one at this food drive had ever seen before, and he needed to get his emotions in check. Now. “That’s…”

“Business.” She kicked the piece of gravel into the grass nearby. Her reply exuded a nonchalance that her raised shoulders and pinched lips contradicted, and he wanted to bolt from this food drive and make this mentor pay for what he’d done to Lucy, make him look like the pile of bones they’d collected at Crafty Cathy’s last night.

But that was an animal impulse, something he needed to grab a fire hose and spray until the flames that raged inside him were a billowing plume of smoke. If he wanted to prove—if to no one other than himself—that he wasn’t the animal Nathan always reminded him he was, this was his chance, an opportunity to show compassion, to be here forher.

“It’s not fair is what it is. I hope you know that,” he said in the most reassuring tone he could, given his heart was still pounding from the adrenaline that mixed with his desire for revenge. As she peered up to him with a slow smile that didn’t quite meet her eyes but was pretty darn close, his heart took off at a sprint.

What was happening to him? He lost control of his body, his thoughts, when he was a werewolf, which was frightening because he never knew how he’d react or who he might hurt. But this right now…his body’s reaction to a look of appreciation…he couldn’t control the warmth that spread from his chest throughout his body. But he also didn’t want to. This feeling was new, a comfort. And he wanted her to feel comfortable with him too.

“Getting your ideas stolen doesn’t mean you weren’t creative—quite the opposite. That’s why your mentor stole it.” And also because he was something else, but there were children lining up at theFrighteningly Fabulous Face Painttable, and Eric didn’t figure the good folks of Wheeling would appreciate him spewing profanity in their presence.

“But I couldn’t come up with something else fast enough to keep my job.”

“Who could, with that kind of pressure?” He took a step toward her and then another. “And I’m not saying I’m someone worth listening to either. I mean, what do I really know about art? Unfortunately, I do know a thing or two about letting people control you.”

“But that has nothing to do—”

“Doesn’t it?” he asked, his eyes holding her stare. “Isn’t letting the things people tell us about ourselves—things we end up believing despite evidence to the contrary…” He turned and waved his hand at the mural. “If we let those things define us, aren’t we letting these people control our lives? Aren’t we just letting people who think they know us better than we know ourselves win?”

Lucy stared at him slack jawed, like what he’d said had touched something real. Whether that was a good thing, he wasn’t sure.

But the words had only passed his lips when he was slapped in the face by his own lecture. Because how much of his life was out of his control? How much had Nathan, or even the phases of the moon, controlled? That thought stirred something inside him, a bubbling cauldron of hot lava burning him from the inside out. He’d never asked for this life, never wanted this to be his reality day in and day out. That was why he’d come here—to live as much of a human life as he could for as long as Nathan would allow.

Nathan.

Just the thought of his brother got him more riled up than he ever let himself get among humans. His breathing increased, the rapid rise and fall of his chest his first tell—his anger was getting the better of him. And that only meant one thing.

He was just about to turn and run, leave the premises before he shifted—or worse—when Lucy’s palm cupped his cheek. Like a soft blow of air snuffing out a candle, she’d extinguished the mounting rage inside him with a single touch of her hand. But how?Hewas the healer. He’d been born that way, something Nathan seemed to resent. While they’d both been born with healing powers, only Eric could heal others as well as himself.

And yet, with a gentle touch,Lucyhad healedhim. The pad of her thumb snagged on the stubble that had just poked through the surface of his skin—growth that hadn’t been there moments ago.

“No one’s ever really put it like that to me before. Is that something…has anyone ever made you feel that way?”

Where could he begin? There wasn’t a good answer. Not one that he could come up with on the fly, not while she hypnotized him into a state of calm like that with the rhythmic brush of her thumb. So, he simply said, “Yes.”

She nodded once, her dark doe eyes rounding even more than they already had, and it wasn’t his imagination when he felt her leaning closer to him. Her warm breath kissed his cheek, sending a trail of goosebumps down his spine. “Eric, I’m…”

“Hey, guys,” Stella’s voice cracked the silence like a crowbar through a glass window, causing Lucy and Eric to jump apart like teenagers caught making out when they should have been studying. Not like two grown adults who had just had a soul-to-soul moment…and maybe a near-kiss? “I was just, uh, yeah…I—well, you know Bobby, my boyfriend, right? We were hoping to find a couple to go bowling with tonight. What do you say?”

“I…” Lucy drew out the single letter a good six seconds as she looked at Eric, her cheeks still flushed from whatever had transpired.

“Sounds good to me,” Eric responded, not really because he wanted to bowl but because he wanted to spend more time with Lucy, which, of course, was forbidden. But he wasn’t sure how much he cared about that anymore.

ChapterSeven

“Wow, this place is…” Lucy’s head moved left to right, her eyes taking in the breadth of the long, rectangular building. “There are no words,” she finished slowly, a smidge of disbelief woven through her words. Not that she’d been to tons of bowling alleys, but this place was not at all what she’d expected.

“It’s groovy,” Eric marveled as he strode from the entrance to the check-in counter where the attendant sprayed a plume of disinfectant so large Lucy feared she’d lose her bowling partner in the haze.Groovywas one word to describe the place. He also could have gone withtotally tubularor evenall that and a bag of chips, as the alley was a mish-mash of the last three decades of the twentieth century. From the quasi-tie-dye pattern swirling in the carpet at the entryway to the sound of “Thriller” blasting from the speaker, right down to the larger-than-life phone that would have given Zack Morris’ mobile device a run for its money, Bowling Bonanza was as kitschy as it was loud.

And Lucy loved it.

“Two pairs of shoes and one lane, please,” Eric said to the man with a mustache Yosemite Sam would have envied. They’d gone fromSaved by the BelltoLooney Tunesfaster than you could say, “Meet me at the Max.”

As the worker turned with a grunt like someone had tasked him with manufacturing the color-blocked shoes himself and not simply fetching them from a shelf four feet away, Eric pulled out his wallet.

Lucy stuck out her hand. “You really don’t have—”

“I know,” Eric responded, a twinkle in his eye more fitting for the Christmas season than Halloween. “But I’d like to. If that’s ok with you, that is.”

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