Page 66 of As The Shifter World Turns

“It’s not fancy.” I handed it to him.

“I’m not either.” He tried to twist off the top and gave up, getting out his keys and using the bottle opener slash screw driver slash something with a hole keychain.

“That’s pretty fancy.” Daire jumped in to save the day. “What all does it do?”

Martin explained a thousand little things about the tool and by the time he was done, they were calling us over one at a time to make our pizzas. The night only got better from there.

Not only did the pizza work, it was delicious and with none of us hangry, things started to lighten up. Was it perfect? No. But how could it be?

At the end of the night Archer was still living with people not me, Neil was still sort of afraid of Martin, Ivor and Ryder still had Kellan between them, and Daire’s parents still sucked and this time their sucking lost him even more money.

Poor Martin. There was no way he was going to want to move into Archer’s old place after this stellar evening of dysfunction. I was surprised he hadn’t run in the opposite direction already.

Run.

That’s what I needed was a run. It was days like this being something small that could blend in sounded pretty amazing. If I shifted into a house cat I could just wander around and no one would think anything of it.

The same could not be said for a unicorn.

As people started to head back to their apartments or in Martin’s case a rideshare, I pulled Archer aside.

“Want to come to my place?” Gah, I hated that. I wanted it to be our place. “I was thinking maybe you might want to ride a unicorn?”

“So the bending me over the couch thing is off the table? Because I’d been kind of waiting for that one.”

“Why not all three?”

“Three?”

“Ride a unicorn, over the couch, and on the table.”

25

TIME TO PITCH A TENT

Archer

The phone beeped but I was conscious enough to know it was Saturday. No way was I answering any work messages on my day off. My boss and I had come to a new agreement since I came back from my stint in the other office. Unless it was urgent, neither of us contacted the other on the weekend. And if my brain was working correctly, this was a three-day weekend.

It dinged again. But it was different. Sounded more like the clack of a typewriter. Micah’s phone. I opened my eyes. Another beep and one more from his phone.

Shit. Another leak or someone coming to commandeer Micah’s apartment. Ryder and Ivor having a huge argument while Kellan fanned the flames? Or had Daire’s friend turned up again and freaked Neil out? There was always something happening in Sunshine Manor.

I rolled over and stared at Micah, phone in my hand. “Should we do this together?”

He nodded. “On three. One, two…” Both of us clicked the message which was from Daire before he got to three.

Family, it read followed by a heart emoji and then a wave as in ocean waves not a hand flapping back and forth.Fancy a weekend at the beach?I didn’t want to pay exorbitant prices for accommodation by the ocean, and Ivor definitely couldn’t. Neil wouldn’t be happy about it either.At my folks’ house.

“Does he mean the country house by the lake where we shift during the week?”

“No,” Micah got up on one elbow. “His parents own a huge placeoverlooking the water. But something’s up. I’ve never been invited to stay there. Driven past once. There’s something he’s not telling us and based on how he lets out bad news drip by drip, my guess is he’ll tell us shortly.”

I’ll drive us in the van but we need to be out within the hour.

“What’s happening in sixty minutes?” I asked. “Will Sunshine Manor be demolished?” I glanced out the window expecting to see a wrecking ball.

“Wait for it.”

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