Page 28 of Wolf's Midlife Bite

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Brody pulledup in front of the packhouse. The place was busy, as it often was. Some of the younger wolves had gotten together in the backyard for a bonfire. He could see them around the edge of the garage, talking and laughing. A few of them had snuck off into the shadows to make out. Someone’s marshmallow had caught fire, which caused another round of laughter.

“Feeling wistful of your younger days, son?” Jimmy Glenwood came out of the garage, wiping the grease from his hands on a rag that already looked too greasy to do any good.

“Not exactly, but maybe wishing I’d done things differently back then.” Brody turned away from the young wolves he’d spent so much time training and stepped into the garage with his father. “I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately, actually.”

“No room in life for regrets, you know.” Jimmy turned down the volume on one of his numerous old rockabilly albums he had playing and nudged his thumb toward the speaker. “I figure you’re like old Carl Perkins here.”

“That’s a new one for me,” Brody commented. He could appreciate his father’s taste in music, though he’d never shared it.

“Well, Carl Perkins wrote a little song you might know called ‘Blue Suede Shoes.’ There are a few different stories floating around about exactly why he wrote it and what influenced him, but that doesn’t really matter. The fact is that he did, and then he recorded it.”

Brody leaned against the hefty toolbox, waiting patiently for this to go somewhere and make sense.

“He did pretty darn well with it, too. It was climbing the charts in Memphis, and then it was hitting the national charts. Right as things were starting to look big for him, he had a car accident and landed himself in the hospital. That made things difficult for him, for sure. The thing is, a lot of other guys on the same record label had also recorded the song. One of them, as you might know, was Elvis Presley.”

“So then Elvis got all the money and the credit?” Brody guessed, still not sure what direction this was supposed to be going.

“In the long run, sure. But the thing is, Elvis knew Carl Perkins. He recorded the song under the condition that it wouldn’t be released as a single while Perkins’ version was still doing well. Like I said, that auto accident meant old Carl was stuck in a hospital bed, and he started slipping from the spots he’d earned on the charts. But once Elvis got out there with it, it kept enough interest in the song that he was able to get a gold record.” Jimmy winked and picked up a wrench.

“Okay. You got me. What the hell does that all mean?” Brody looked over the old wreck his father was working on. This one was bad enough that it wasn’t easily identifiable, and he didn’t pretend to know what it was.

Jimmy laughed and adjusted his glasses before he leaned in under the hood. “Well, if Carl Perkins hadn’t written ‘Blue Suede Shoes,’ then it couldn’t have been one of Elvis’s first hits. Now he was talented, of course, and he was bound to take off one way or another, but Carl made a huge difference in that man’s life. Elvis’s is the one that people remember the most today, but they might not have if it weren’t for Carl.”

“I figure it’s kind of the same for you and Devin,” Jimmy continued. “That boy needed love and support, and you were there for him. He and his mama have moved on to do other things, but you can’t underestimate the impression and influence that you had on his life. It was because of you that the boy had food on the table and a roof over his head. It was because of you that he knew so much before he even started school. I know it’s pained your heart ever since they left, but don’t shortchange yourself and start thinking you should’ve done something different. You did exactly what you were meant to.”

Brody straightened as he listened. Leave it up to his father to know he was thinking about Devin even when he hadn’t said it. “I never really thought about it like that. I’ve always just felt bad that I haven’t been there for him all along.”

“No, but you tried. And once the boy is old enough to make his own decisions, you can try again sometime. We all get hurt sometimes, but I don’t want you to get all hung up on it. Ah! Got the old son of a bitch!” Jimmy straightened with a rusty bolt in his hand. “That sucker has been holding me up for the last hour.”

“Thanks, Dad. I’m heading in to find Dawn.”

“Anytime, son. Anytime. Next time you’ll have to grab a wrench and help, though!” Jimmy’s laughter followed him into the house.

Brody stopped in the kitchen for a soda. Something was simmering on the stove, and it smelled delicious. He peeked in the pot before he headed down the hall. There was wisdom in what his father had said. He could learn the lessons of the past, but he couldn’t let himself get so caught up in it that he couldn’t see the future. Maybe Devin had left a hole in his heart, and maybe there was no guarantee of ever having children with Robin, but things would work out the way they were supposed to. Shifters were big on fate, after all.

The problem was that he wasn’t so sure Robin believed in it the same way he did.

When he peeked into the living room, he found Dawn and Lori sitting on the oversized comfy couch, each with a glass of wine in hand. “Am I interrupting?” he asked. “You said my results would be in this afternoon.”

Dawn waved him into the room enthusiastically. “Not at all! We’re just having some girl time. And yes, your test results came back in. Everything was fine, just like you figured it would be. I like having a fellow wolf in the lab, so I don’t have to worry about anything weird getting flagged.”

Lori frowned. “I didn’t think about that. I swear, every day that goes by, I’m still learning more and more about being a shifter.”

“Speaking of,” Dawn began with a curious look, “how is the newest addition to the pack? And when will we get to meet her?”

Brody hadn’t intended to sit down and chat, but now he collapsed into an armchair. As he felt the soft upholstery around him, he realized just how exhausting this had all been. “Fine, I guess. I’m not really even sure.”

“Uh oh. Trouble in paradise?” Dawn asked.

He let out a long sigh. “Not trouble, exactly. It’s more like paradise is up in the air once again, and I’m never sure if or where it’s going to come back down again.”

“You’re being about as clear as Dad is when he’s trying to explain something,” Dawn noted.

Lori leaned forward to set her glass of wine on the coffee table and grabbed some cheese and crackers from the charcuterie board. “I assume you went and talked to her?”

“I did,” he admitted. “I didn’t give her as much time as I’d meant to, partly because I was worried she could end up the next woman found in the woods and partly because I just couldn’t stay away. She wasn’t thrilled to see me, and I couldn’t blame her. Then I showed her how to shift and protect herself.” He laughed as he rubbed his thumb over his lip. “We were outside half the night, and she did pretty well by the end.”

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