Page 28 of The Healer and the Wolf: Part One

Perhaps because it had been a grounding moment in such an impossible situation. In a way, I was still trying to come to terms with the fact that not only were werewolves a thing, but so were witches and apparently other types of shifters as well. It was completely wackadoodle, yet it made sense in a strange way, even though it shouldn’t.

“What chores are there today?”

I looked up from the lunch I was making for my next shift to see Leo standing in the doorway, Goober in his arms. Ever since the shower, he’d been helping around the house quite a lot between his periods of intense contemplation. It was a lovely break, to be honest, and it gave me a lot more free time to work in the garden and relax.

More than that, though, I was far less lonely. Sure, my new companion wasn’t exactly chatty, but it was pleasant to have conversations with someone other than my cats. Especially when he washed the dishes, helped feed said cats, and weeded the garden. Even when he wasn’t up for more conversation, he still asked questions when he needed, like if it was safe to pull a plant out or not. It was such a little thing, but the fact that he listened was so edifying. My little shack seemed much less isolated now. Had I been missing a roommate the whole time?

Or had I just been missing a wolf?

“Would you pass me the drill?” Leo asked, drawing me back to the present as he worked on the garden bed we were building together. I had been meaning to do it for ages, but the power tool hurt my hands, which would make it difficult to do much else for the next couple of days. But as the days went by, Leo remembered more and more of himself, and apparently those memories contained using power tools.

I certainly wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I happily played second fiddle, handing him whatever he needed as he assembled the four planks for a new bed.

“Here you go,” I said, already planning the food that would come from the small space. Mostly fall crops since we were about to head into summer, which was pretty exciting considering I never felt like I had enough of them. A second round of carrots, beets, peas, broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower would be heaven. Especially with two mouths to feed.

That was one thing I hadn’t discussed with Leo. Although he ate far less in his human form, and a much greater variety, it still was hard to keep up with the dietary needs of someone of his size. Being under a curse for several years hadn’t stopped Leo from being quite jacked. It didn’t help that he was tall, either—he towered over me. It wasn’t the easiest thing to ignore, nor was the way my heart quickened whenever he happened to draw close to me.

“Next screw, please.”

I handed him the screw, trying to pay attention and not get lost in my thoughts, but that was easier said and done. Between watching those deliciously strong hands articulate themselves through his task, or contemplating how much my life had changed in such a short time, it was easy to let my thoughts wander—and my eyes if I were being honest. Not that I’d ever been very disciplined in that aspect anyway.

Yet despite my tendency to daydream, we got through the garden bed in record time, and he looked to the pile of wood I had scrapped from a deconstruction project a few months earlier.

His eyes met mine, and my mouth went dry. I had never in my life felt so much like a magnet, unable to resist the sheer pull I felt toward him.

Maybe it was my imagination, but I felt like he leaned forward slightly too, eyes going half-lidded. For all the world, it seemed like we might actually kiss, and my mind went wild with thewhat ifof it all.

But then a group of crows overhead suddenly wentcrazy, nearly starling me out of my skin. They were mobbing a hawk that must have drawn too close to a nest.

“Holy hell. Sometimes I’ve got noisy neighbors.”

Leo chuckled. Whatever moment we were having—if we’d even had one at all—was gone. “Did you say you wanted two of these?” he asked with a wide grin.

My eyebrows shot up to my hairline, and I kind of wanted to pinch myself. Normally, doing such a thing on my own would have taken me the whole afternoon. It wasn’t that I didn’t know how to do it, but between the cats, my job, and the power tool hurting my hand, it took a long time.

“Well, I’m certainly not going to sayno.”

Leo huffed the cutest little laugh. “I’m game if you are. It’s pretty easy to do this with someone so handy.”

My cheeks heated. I was so used to people either thinking it was weird that I liked to do a lot of things by hand, or that I was a lesbian because I liked building things. To me, though, it felt like creating things was the only magic left in the world, and accessing it made me feel less powerless in the relentless grind of society.

Boy, was I wrong about that being the only magic left.

“I’m just handing you things,” I rebuffed, wishing my cheeks would stop burning.

“Yeah, but you know the names for everything. And when I can’t remember what they’re called and describe them, you still know what I’m saying. You also know how to hold the board still, and you sourced these yourself. Makes the whole process so much simpler.”

“Well, when you put it that way…”

And so, we built the second bed together. At that point, though, I decided to call it. I needed to water the seedlings in the greenhouse and get dinner going. But unlike pretty much every night since I was seventeen, I didn’t have to do it alone.

It was a nice change.

Dinner was a simple affair—more ramen considering I was still flat broke, but livened up with greens, a couple of eggs, and some shredded chicken. On the side, I roasted some beans and busted out some of the pudding cups I kept around when I needed a sweet snack on the go. Leo practically inhaled it, and his exuberance made me feel like some sort of Michelin chef.

After dinner, we cleaned and prepped for the next day, which went so much faster with Leo beside me. Once we were done, he went to the couch, lounging with one or more of the cats in his lap while he read. He’d begun to build a routine, and I knew that within an hour and a half he would be asleep and snoring.

I should probably make him leave. He was crashing for free and eating about three times as much as I did, but where would he go? Leo was more out of place in the world than I was, and that was saying something.

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