Page 67 of A Wolf in the Garden

I don’t have the words to reply, so I nod, thankful for the sunglasses that cover my eyes, especially when she adds, “I’m still devastated about your sister Jenny. I am very, very sorry for your loss; I think about your mother often, and I feel for her.”

This is the trouble with reconnecting with people from the past; it all comes back to haunt you. I nod again, staring at my plate, unable to speak.

“And I see the way Ellie shines, in your presence. Her whole life, she’s done that. Lit up for you. Part of me hates that, that my beautiful daughter is happiest when she’s with a man — aparticularman — but I see her happiness and I can’t be upset about it, as long as you keep your fucking word this time and don’t hurt her.”

“Yes, ma’am. I will not…I won’t hurt her. I swear it.”

“Good.” She sighs, shoulders slumping, head tilting to the side. “I’m done growling at you now. Can I give you a hug, instead? It’s been too long since I last saw you.”

I let out a small huff of relief. “Yes.”

Amaia rises from her seat, coming around the table and hugging me around the shoulders. “You’re still a good boy,” she says, her voice and her scent transporting me back twenty years again, to when she’d pay me in the form of lemonade popsicles for mowing her lawn. “So, what’s the plan? Are you going to give me somemokos,sometime?” she asks, and I snort out a laugh in disbelief at the audacity of this woman, asking for grandchildren already, barely a minute after telling me off. She goes for the jugular, that’s for sure.

“One day. Not yet. Ellie and I are enjoying being together as a couple. But one day, yes, I want children with Ellie.”

“And they’ll be…wolves?”

Her tone is cautious, and I pause for a beat, biting back theObviously, that burns on my tongue. I have to remind myself that this is all so new for these humans, and they don’t necessarily understand how things work when an interspecies couple has children.

“Yes. If we have kids, they’ll be wolves. I myself am half werewolf, half shifter, so in terms of wolf forms, we won’t know what that will look like in our children until they reach their teens. They might turn into a werewolf under the full moon. They might be able to shift. They might not be able to do either.”

“They’ll be shifter, werewolf,andhuman.”

“Yes. And a little bit fae, obviously.”

Amaia nods, wide-eyed. “And this fae stuff Ellie tells me about… you’re keeping her safe, right?”

“I’m keeping her safe. I promise. I won’t let anything happen to her.”

“Good.” Her eyes search my face. “Are you going to come up for Christmas, or do we need to come to you?”

“I’m invited, then?” I say, only half-joking, my heart beginning to race at the mere thought of returning to Bluewater Bay.

“Of course. You’re family. We always loved having you kids over at Christmas.” It had been a tradition that started the first summer we came here. My mother had connected with Amaia on the beach over those first few weeks of December, while us kids all played together in the sand. Amaia had invited us over for Christmas Day lunch, and my mother had apparently been ecstatic at having made friends with a local to the degree that we would spend Christmas Day together. We Livingstons always had our big dinner on Christmas Eve, so it really did work out well each year. It was always the same food: a stuffed chicken, roast potatoes andkumara, fried bread, trifle, and pavlova for dessert. Hemi would attend, my mother would slip a wad of cash into Amaia’s handbag to cover the cost of the meal, and we’d all sit around the outdoor table in the backyard of the old bach, wearing our paper crowns from the Christmas crackers.

“I haven’t been back to Bluewater Bay yet.”

“That’s why I’m asking. I know it’s going to be tough for you, coming back there. Travel is hard on Dad, but…”

“No, I’ll — we’ll come up. Ellie and I. And maybe, if Lacey is here by then, her and her boys too?”

“Yes! I heard you’re an uncle now. That would be lovely. The summers haven’t been the same without you lot around.”

Nothing’s been the same since Jenny died.

“I know. It would be nice if we could hit rewind and experience things again. That last Christmas together was a good one.”

Amaia nods, her hand rubbing my back. “It was. You kids brought a lot of fun along with you every year.”

It’s hitting me now just how much I’ve missed these people that were part of my life for so many years. Not just Ellie, but her mother, her grandfather, the other familiar faces that I’d see every year in Bluewater Bay. The old fisherman who lived three doors down from Ellie, and who would take us out on his boat from time to time, the owner of the single store in town that served as a fish and chip shop and corner dairy in one. These people who were so different from me and my family, so welcoming and friendly, and so completely unaware ofwhatthey were actually inviting into their homes and spaces. “I miss that time, back when life was simple.”

Amaia is very much like her daughter, in that she knows what I’m actually saying. “You miss your Jenny.”

A sticky ice cream covered hand, reaching for mine as we crossed the quiet road and headed to the beach.

The sound of giggles as Seth chased her across the sand.

Her tiny voice, so certain as she looked up at me. “You’re going to marry Ellie some day.”

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