Page 22 of A Bear's Journey
“Gary!” said her mom, swatting him for the second time that day.
Olivia’s papa, sitting next to them, laughed and took another bite.
“Now, Austin, you said it’s Barb and Bill,” Olivia’s mom said. “They don’t have a third?”
“They did,” Austin said. “But he died thirty years ago when he was thrown from a horse.”
“How awful!”
“We’re all very careful now.”
“Do you wear a helmet?”
A smile tugged at the side of Austin’s mouth, but he managed to keep a straight face.
“No ma’am,” he said.
“You should,” Olivia’s mom admonished.
“I’ll consider it,” Austin said, his face still perfectly serious.
Olivia looked at the clock on the wall, trying to make apologetic eye contact with Austin.
* * *
The momentthey got into Austin’s truck, Olivia apologized.
“I’m really sorry about my mom,” she said.
He laughed his good-natured laugh and started the engine.
“It’s fine,” he said. “I’ve known what to expect from Aunt Lydia for a long, long time. For a while, the word was that you went feral just to escape her questions.”
For a moment, Olivia didn’t really know what to do. People usually avoided the f-word around her, like if they said it she’d immediately shift and start tearing everything to shreds.
Then she laughed. The idea that she’d gone feral to escape her mom wasn’t true, of course, but all the best jokes had an air of almost-believability.
“Still, she really ran you over the coals.”
“I’ve had much worse,” Austin said. “With Cora having a baby, my mom’s reached some sort of fever pitch too.”
“I figure I’ve still got a good excuse for about six months,” Olivia said, leaning her elbow against the door frame. “Then it starts.”
“Maybe seven,” Austin said.
* * *
They drove for half an hour,up through a mountain pass and partway down the other side, before pulling through a huge gate that said Double Moon Ranch, with a crescent moon on either side. Austin parked in a field, and when Olivia walked with him toward the brightly-lit barn, the ground squished a little under her feet.
She hoped she’d dressed properly for a square dance. She’d never been to one before, mostly because wolves and bears just didn’t mix that much, even as humans.
They mixed even less in their shifted form. That was why Olivia had gotten into trouble, though it had been with an entirely different wolf pack. Austin swore that Barb and Bill were much, much more reasonable.
Olivia could feel her mom’s pot roast and biscuits churning in her stomach as she walked toward the barn. This was the first time she’d be in a big social setting, and the closer it got, the more it seemed like a bad idea.
Am I really ready for this?She thought. Yesterday, at that coffee shop it hadn’t seemed like a big deal at all. She’d go, learn some square dancing, and then whirl around with people in a big group.
Then the smell hit her, and she stopped dead in her tracks.
