Ali Parker surveyed the mountain of dishes in the kitchen sink.
It was a true Everest of dishes, worthy of miniature backpackers and tiny frolicking mountain goats. It had been growing for a couple of days because everyone in the house had been working late this week. When you got home from work at 10:00 PM, you wanted to microwave something and go to bed, not wash dishes.
Ali lived with her brother, Paul, and his wife, Molly. It seemed like three adults should be able to do the dishes regularly, but both women had a lot of evening shifts, and Paul didn’t seem able to cook or clean.
Ali figured it was because he’d spent his time outdoors when they were kids, instead of staying in and doing chores. Her brother had been born a bear shifter, like their father, so he’d been taught hunting and woodlore and shifter customs. But Ali had turned out to be a human, like Mom, so she’d stayed home and done human stuff.
At the time, she hadn’t been jealous or wanted to be a shifter herself. Back then she’d mostly been interested in slumber parties, makeup, and clothes. But nowadays, sometimes she thought wistfully about what her life might be like if she too had gotten the shifter gene.
It would’ve had some downsides, she supposed. If she’d ever left town, she’d have had to keep it a secret. Most of the world didn’t know about shifters. But it was different in the little town of Prescott, tucked away in the Colorado Rockies. There were enough shifters there that most people at least knew that they existed. But the town kept to itself, far away from anything resembling civilization, and so shifters stayed Prescott’s secret.
They still kept to themselves. Even Ali, who’d grown up with a bear for a brother, didn’t know much about shifter culture. Paul didn’t talk about it. Their father had left when they’d been little, leaving her brother to be taught by the Prescott shifters, so it had never been a family thing so much as a Paul thing.
Ali put an end to that train of thought. She wasn’t a shifter, and that was that. Dreaming of things she could never have wouldn’t get the dishes done. She rolled up her sleeves, determined to conquer Everest tonight. It would be nice for the family to have a clean kitchen for a while.
She’d just reached for the tap when her phone rang. She looked at the screen. Denise.
Denise had been Ali’s best friend in high school. At twenty-six, she was still the fun, party-loving girl she’d been at sixteen. If it weren’t for her, Ali would probably have become a homebody by now.
“Ali!” Denise said. “You have to come out to Ryder’s Lodge with me tonight. I got you a date. It’s Ted Elton.”
“Ted Elton? I’m pretty sure I’ve never said anything to you about wanting to date him.” From what Ali remembered, he was a mousy, scruffy guy a couple of years younger than they were.
“Well…” Denise dragged the word out. “Mac Elton said he’d only go out with me if I brought a friend for his brother.”
Aha, Ali thought. “I don't know, Denise, I was thinking about staying in.”
Everest beckoned to her. Doing the dishes seemed like a nice, calm, simple way to spend the evening. Unlike going out to Ryder’s Lodge on a semi-blind date.
“Stay in?” Denise went on, oblivious. “I know you better than that. You want to be where the party is.”
Once upon a time, that had been true. But Ali’s time as a party girl hadn’t done her any favors. These days, she’d rather be where the clean dishes were.
Although, to be fair, that wasn’t her kitchen right now.
“So I’ll pick you up in an hour, okay?” Denise asked. “We’ll pick the boys up at their place and head over to Ryder’s Lodge in time for it to really get going. I can’t wait, can you?”
“Actually, I think I can.” Ali wasn’t talking to Denise so much as the world around her.
That was okay, though, because Denise wasn’t listening anyway. “Great, see you soon!” Denise burbled, and hung up.
Ali slid her phone into her back pocket and stared at the dishes again.
It could be fun, she told herself.
Ryder’s Lodge was the logging town a twenty-minute drive past Prescott. Ali and Denise and their dates had lived in Prescott for their entire lives. Ali was sick of it. The same people, day in and day out, the same grudges, the same gossip.
The same reputation following her wherever she went.