Jeff padded away, still with that slow, powerful grace—and then suddenly, he sat back on his haunches, and with a burst of power, he leapt up onto a tree trunk.
He scaled the tree with quick movements, settling into a fork in the trunk with a self-satisfied air.
"Wow," Leah said. The way his muscles had coiled as he leapt, the easy strength as he seemed to just walk up the trunk... "That's amazing."
Without warning, he leapt easily down again, landing in the snow on all four paws like a gymnast, and then raced away and disappeared.
Leah scanned the forest for him, and saw nothing. Although it was wooded, this patch of land was pretty flat, so he couldn't have vanished over a hill, and he definitely hadn't been going fast enough to hit the horizon this quickly. Where was he?
She saw nothing, and more nothing...and then there was a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye and she turned to see him coming out of the complete opposite direction to pounce on an unsuspecting bush.
"Whoa!" Leah’s eyes went wide. "How did you do that? I didn't see a thing!"
Jeff let the bush go and transformed back to human, grinning. "Snow leopards' camouflage ability is legendary. It's almost impossible to get a good picture of a snow leopard in the wild, because we're so incredibly difficult to see. Snowy, mountainous, tree-filled territory like this is perfect for us to completely disappear into the landscape, which is one reason Glacier is a popular place for us to live."
"Wow." Leah shook her head. "It was like you just went invisible."
"No magic necessary. It's all nature. Which is the most miraculous thing of all, I think."
"I agree," Leah said softly. "Snow leopards are magnificent. I didn't know anything about them before today."
"The wild ones mostly live in the Himalayas, so there's not a lot of reason for you to have seen one before today." He stretched his arms up over his head, as though he needed to shake out his muscles after being in another form.
Leah's chest was aching at the sight of him. He was just so happy. So obviously delighted with what he could do, so eager to share it with her, having so much fun running around in the snow as a leopard.
It made her feel envious, and weighted down with all of the reasons she had to be...not like that. To be depressed, and pessimistic, and disappointed in the world.
Well, maybe when she left Glacier, she could take some of Jeff's joy and excitement with her. After all, she wanted her daughter to grow up with that ability, to see the world as a wondrous, delightful place. Maybe she could learn something from Jeff, something more than just this insane secret about shapeshifters.
Something about what the existence of shapeshifters meant. That there were always surprises left in the world, and she shouldn't ever think that she'd seen it all.
Suddenly, Jeff’s head tilted, and he turned to scan the horizon.
“What is it?” Leah couldn’t hear anything.
“Snowplow,” Jeff said. “They’re clearing the roads.”
“That’s great,” Leah said automatically, but the words were accompanied by a sinking feeling in her stomach.
Clearing the roads meant that they’d be getting out of here soon. Which was good, because they were stranded in a cabin in the snow, and that was generally a situation that people wanted to get out of.
Right?
But oh, Leah wished that they could have had one more day. Just one more day, tucked in this cozy little home with Jeff and Emily, eating trail mix and oatmeal, playing with the baby, watching Jeff transform and do amazing, magical things, and making love.
Stop that, Leah told herself. She was turning this into something it hadn’t been.
It wasn’t like she thought Jeff was the sort to sleep with a girl and run off without a care. He clearly wasn’t. He was a good, kind person, and she believed that he did truly care about her and Emily. That he wanted to help them and make sure that they were all right.
But that didn’t mean he was in love with her.
Even though this swelling of feeling inside her chest when she looked at him, the sparks that she thought she could feel whenever they touched, the way she seemed to fall into his eyes whenever she looked at him...
She was falling in love with this man.
No. She’d already fallen in love with this man.
And that meant that she had to leave. As soon as possible. She should probably even turn down that dinner invitation, because the longer she stayed, the more she’d be tempted to tell him how she felt. To try and entwine her life with his.