“What do you do in your spare time?” he asked impulsively.
Startled, she looked over at him, animation coming back into her face. “What?”
“When you’re not working,” he said. “What do you do? Other than run out here in the mountains. Do you have hobbies?” Friends? A boyfriend?
They hadn’t yet clarified whether this was a date or not. Ty had suppressed the impulse to ask in so many words, because he wasn’t yet sure it would be fair. Not when he was only here for a couple weeks.
But it meant that he didn’t actually even know whether Misty was single. And suddenly, it was very, very important for him to know.
Misty, meanwhile, was shaking her head. “I don’t do much besides work. Shifting and running is my hobby, I guess.” She eyed him. “Do you have hobbies?”
He had to laugh. “My hobby used to be hanging out with my sister’s kids,” he confessed, “and that took up most of my spare time. But the youngest is off to college now, so I’ve mostly just been working more. God knows there’s always more work to do.”
“Amen to that,” Misty said on a sigh. “I wish...” She trailed off.
“Yes?” Ty asked, as invitingly as he could.
“I wish that I—knew how to have a real social life.” Misty’s voice was almost a whisper. She laughed a little, then looked up at him. “I haven’t said this to anyone before.”
“No one else here,” Ty said, just as softly. “Just me and the mountains.”
She looked up at the tall, dark peaks above them. “I feel like them sometimes. Standing above the town, looking down on everyone, too far away to share anything.”
A long pause, and then she snorted. “That sounds melodramatic and ridiculous, doesn’t it.”
“No,” Ty said immediately, his heart aching at the self-deprecation in her voice. “You want to know a fact?”
“What?” she asked.
Unable to stop himself any longer, Ty reached for her hand. Misty blinked, looking startled, and then hesitantly reached back.
Taking her hand in his felt like coming home. Like walking into his sister’s house, full of children and laughter and happiness, and knowing everything was all right.
“Loneliness negatively affects people’s health,” Ty said to her, gripping her hand tightly. “It’s been studied. Not having a close community—it’s not only bad for people’s happiness, but it decreases their lifespan, makes them more susceptible to illness.”
Misty blinked. “Really?”
Ty nodded. “Scientifically.”
“I didn’t know that,” she said. “I—my father, he always spoke against tight pack bonds. Said that it promoted tribalism, where people were more likely to be loyal to a pack member, even if they were a violent criminal, than they were to do the right thing.”
“Healthy communities work against that sort of thing,” Ty said quietly. “I’m not saying that that doesn’t happen in shifter packs. I know that it does. But the answer isn’t to be alone.”
Misty bit her lip, and her fingers clenched hard on Ty’s. “But then how do I fix it?” she asked. “You’re telling me this is a problem—all right, it’s a problem. But a community, a pack, it doesn’t just arise out of nowhere. There aren’t any other deer shifters around anymore, and even if there were, I hate it when shifters only think their type is—is worthy. And I’ve never had a community around here. I grew up here, and I still never quite managed to make friends.”
Ty’s heart wasn’t just aching now, it felt like it was about to crack. “I’ll help you,” he said. “I know how.”
Misty looked up at him. For a second, she seemed totally trusting, with a vulnerable excitement in her eyes.
Then her forehead wrinkled. “Hold on a second,” she said. “You just got here today. How are you going to help forming a community in a place you don’t know at
all?”
Ty felt a helplessly fond smile spread over his face. Both the vulnerability and the suspicion were integral parts of Misty, he could already tell. “I’ll tell you after we get back,” he said. “First let’s run again.”
Misty held the frown a moment longer, searching his face as though there might be a clue hidden in there somewhere. Then she laughed a little. “All right, fine. Keep me in suspense.”
“I’ll tell you if you catch me,” he said with a grin.