Page 32 of As The Shifter World Turns

Father ended the call without a goodbye.

I was proud of the Sunshine Manor family pulling off our scam. But I’d have to come up with something to bring in more money. The phone pinged again. I sighed. It’d be Father continuing his tantrum. But it was Neil. One of my oldest friends from school. The one I’d blabbed to about shifters when I’d had too much to drink. He was cool with it. Our resident human.

I need some advice. Are you free?

I wandered to the fridge and stared at the almost empty shelves, wondering if I could make fried rice with leftovers.

Got any eggs?

He did and ten minutes later we were chopping vegetables that had seen better days and frying them. “What’s going on, buddy?”

“Two things. There was a guy at work pestering me to meet up.”

“Neil, no. I don’t like the sound of that.”

“Okay, Dad,” he joked.

“Sorry to go all grizzly bear on you.”

“I love your bear.” He patted my shoulder. “But regarding the guy I mentioned, Ivor said the same thing and Archer thought we needed to dig into his background.”

“Honestly, I don’t want you going on a date with some random person.” I dropped the wok spatula on the bench. “And I’m sounding like your father again.”

“Nah, it’s okay. I’d already decided it was a lousy idea. Just wanted your opinion.”

We sat on the sofa eating our meal, me with a spoon shoveling it in and Neil using chopsticks.

“But I’ve had another offer,” he said.

“What?”

“Nothing to do with work. Well, it is, but not my online job.”

“You got a job offer?” I wasn’t crazy about Neil’s current line of work. Sure it paid the bills and he got to do it from home, but there were so many crazies online. And he didstuff! I hated that.

“Yeah but just one morning and one afternoon a week. And I won’t get paid. It’s more volunteer work.”

“Doing what?” I put our dishes in the sink and grabbed a tub of ice-cream from the fridge along with two spoons. “Sounds as though someone’s taking advantage of you.”

“It’s coaching a youth soccer team.”

Not what I was expecting. “And?”

“I don’t know. Soccer brings up a lot of painful memories but teaching kids would be fun.”

Neil had to quit playing professional soccer because of injuries. “But what about your anxiety? How would you handle that?”

“I was thinking of getting counseling.”

“That’s a great idea.” I patted him on the back. “I’m really proud of you.”

“You think?” He swallowed a mouthful of ice cream.

“Yeah.” I raised my spoon. He did the same and we clinked them. “Congrats.”

13

DANCING THE NIGHT AWAY

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