“I would have waited for the fear in your eyes to leave. I would have given you a chance to know me better.” He leaned on the rail beside me looking out at the yard. “But not telling you felt like a lie to him. And he couldn’t stand lying to you.”
I looked at Jim then glanced at both ends of the porch, wondering who else hid just around the corners.
“It’s just me,” he assured me. He nodded toward the garage below. “He’s in there.”
The door gaped open, but I couldn’t see anything within the shadowed interior. It didn’t matter, though. I knew whom he meant.
“So, are you going to stay?” he asked bluntly.
I thought about asking for the keys. “Why should I?” I said instead.
“Because whoever you’re running from is still out there. Here, you’re safe, whether you believe it now or not. Because we care about you...he cares about you.”
A part of me did a tiny little cheer hearing that. Still, I worried what it meant.
Jim straightened his full height and looked me in the eye with a stern and serious expression. “Can I have some cereal, too?”
Through the doors, Aden shouted his approval. I slowly nodded, coming to terms with several facts.
First, Blake did still lurk out there somewhere.
Second, the actions of an individual or even a handful of individuals within a race...er, species...shouldn’t be used to pass judgement on the entire species. That didn’t mean I was willing to risk the safety of my brothers by trusting Emmitt, Jim, and Nana. Yet, I couldn’t ignore the fact that they’d given me no reason not to trust them other than showing me they grow fur, too. Blake, on the other hand, had given me so many reasons not to trust him. And, that was before he had even shown his fur.
If Blake and the people here were the same, would it be wise to pass up the opportunity to learn about their kind while we were still relatively safe? Between the opportunity to learn more, the potential protection they could offer, and the way we’d been treated so far, the reasons to stay outweighed the reasons to leave. But, not by much.
Lastly, maybe I wanted to stay because I was curious about Emmitt and the vision.
I joined the boys inside and watched them laugh when Jim fished out a mixing bowl as his cereal bowl.
He stayed with us for the rest of the morning, acting as an indoor jungle gym. The boys climbed all over him, used him as a horse, had him hold blankets while they built a fort, fed him, of course, then settled down to watch fuzzy cartoons with him. The rain continued to fall. Without Jim, I would have gone crazy with their energy.
I watched how he interacted and reacted to the boys’ antics. In his eyes, I saw the typical amusement but also concern when Liam accidently rolled into Aden, causing Aden to cry. He acted nothing like Blake. Heck, he acted nothing like David who was human. It helped further ease my concern about my lost determination to leave.
Before lunch, Jim apologized and said he needed to go back downstairs. With sad eyes, we all watched him go. Werewolf or not, I was glad he’d spoken to me, and I was glad he’d stayed.
The afternoon progressed slowly with Aden and Liam requiring all of my time and attention. My annoyance with them bubbled to the surface again, as it had the day before.
They fought, whined, and pouted their way to just before dinnertime when it finally stopped raining. Not caring about wet grass or mud, I nodded when Aden asked to go outside then sat in the middle of the retired warzone. Lunch shrapnel still stuck to the counters. Overturned stools blocked the hallway to the bedrooms. Cushions from the sofa littered the floor.
Jim found me in the same spot fifteen minutes later.
“Rough afternoon?” he asked grinning.
“I think I’m ready to start drinking,” I tiredly joked as I threw a cushion closer to its home.
“I’ll make you a deal. You cook me something, and I’ll watch the kids for you.”
“Deal.” I didn’t care if I just made a deal with the devil. I’d lock Aden in a room myself if I had to spend another ten minutes with him. As soon as I had that thought, I felt horrible.
Jim ducked back into the hall and bellowed downstairs that I would make dinner. Then, he disappeared, leaving me with my guilty thoughts. Outside, I heard faint, childish cheering. I drifted to the porch and watched Jim run out the door and chase Aden and Liam around the swing set. Jim’s low laugh reached me on the third story. It didn’t feel fake. He enjoyed spending time with them. These people seemed so real. Please let them be just as they seem. Please don’t let them turn out to be like Blake. I turned away from their play, an act of trust that filled me with apprehension.