Jacqueline blushed even harder. Her eyes flicked up to meet his. They were bright hazel, like intricately patterned heartwood, and the longer she kept his gaze, the warmer and more intense they became.
Something you haven’t done ever. The words shivered down his back.
Arlo licked his lips. “Jacqueline,” he said, her name like a prayer, “there’s something I should tell you. Something about shifters.”
“What is it?” Jacqueline’s eyes filled his vision.
“I…”
“Aargh!” A heartfelt groan split the air.
Arlo jumped in front of Jacqueline. “Who—damn it, Pol!”
Pol was slumped in the door. He didn’t even look up as Arlo swore at him. He was holding a battery in one hand and a lightbulb in the other, connected by wires.
“How does it work?” he groaned, hopelessly banging the two together. “It makes no sense!”
“Oh God,” Jacqueline breathed from behind Arlo. “That’s your friend with the electric powers. Did I break him?”
Arlo looked over his shoulder. Jacqueline looked stricken, but when she met his eyes, she stuffed her hand into her mouth to stop herself laughing out loud.
“Pol, read a book,” Arlo told Pol as the dragon shifter slid down the doorframe in despair. “Jacqueline, I had a thought. Want to take the scenic route to the restaurant?”
This is safer than parading her in front of all my parents’ neighbors, Arlo thought as they climbed the hill behind the workshop.
“This is like a goat path,” Jacqueline said, panting slightly. “Or a…” She glanced at him and bit her lower lip.
“Wolf path?” Arlo suggested. He grinned. “If the weather’s too bad for sailing, I’ll come up here. Watching the water is almost as good as being on it.”
Jacqueline put her hands on her hips and gazed out over the bay. The sea breeze tugged at her curls. “You come up here when the weather’s bad?”
Arlo sighed. “Pol calls it my sulking perch.”
Jacqueline laughed. “No!” Her grin turned wicked. “There’s no way you could perch up here when it’s windy. You’d need to cling on…”
“To this shrub,” Arlo agreed, pointing at a nearby tree, twisted by the elements.
Jacqueline laughed again and the wind teased a hank of hair over her face. She pushed it back, giggling. “I guess this is the next best thing to being out on the water. It must be amazing, watching a storm from up here.”
“That it is.” He sat down and she settled in next to him, close enough that their arms brushed together and it seemed like the most natural thing in the world to take her hand. “I don’t know why it is, but the sea always makes me feel at home. Tess says I should have been a fish shifter.”
“Or a seal?”
Something jolted in Arlo’s heart. “Or a seal,” he repeated, slowly.
“I can’t believe that Hideaway Cove exists, that you all live here openly as shifters, and none of us knew anything about it.” Jacqueline gazed out over the water.
“Except about the curse?” Arlo joked, and was rewarded with an embarrassed smile.
“Except the curse, yeah.” She sighed. “I’ve lived in Dunston all my life. I knew there was a whole big wonderful world out there, I just didn’t know how wonderful. Or how close it was. I’ve spent all my life around people who know exactly who I am and what my story is, and all along…”
She hesitated. Arlo stayed silent, unable to take his eyes off her as the smile faded from her face.
“You must have all sorts of strategies in place to keep the fact that you’re shifters secret from visitors, I’m sure. But when I think I could have driven a few hours out of town and been in a place where no one knew my husband left me five years ago, and no one’s gonna corner me in the grocery store and tell me how his kid’s in second grade now… I’m sure you all would have done your best to drive me out of town, but even that would have been a step up.”
Arlo put one arm around her and she leaned into him.
“Sorry,” she muttered. “You brought me up here for a romantic walk and here I am, grouching about my ex.”