“Look who I’ve got!” Julia crowed as she pushed open the door. “It’s your Auntie Chloe, pampered and relaxed!”
Harriet, twelve years old with green eyes and bright red hair, looked up from her book. “Who is that woman, and what’s she done with Chloe?”
Jude, beside her, giggled.
“Hi guys,” Chloe said warmly. “I’m not that relaxed, don’t worry. I didn’t appreciate those elbows in my spine.”
“It’s good for you!” Julia protested. “Works out all of the knots; you’ll sleep well tonight.”
“Maybe,” Chloe said darkly, making both Harriet and Jude chuckle with appreciation. “We brought food.”
“Pizza?” Jude sniffed the air appreciatively. “I’m—”
“Starving?” Chloe finished. “Shifter metabolisms, I can’t keep up.”
“You’d think I never feed these two,” Julia rolled her eyes, leading them to the dining table next to the kitchen and reaching into the cupboard for plates. “They look at me with those hungry eyes.”
“We don’t even know if we’ll be shifters yet,” Harriet objected. “You said you first shifted at thirteen. That’s, like, a year away.”
“I have my suspicions,” Julia said. “But either way, you two will eat me out of house and home.”
Jude was already seated at the table, snaking a piece of pizza from the box and shoving it into his mouth whole.
“Jude, we have company!” Julia admonished. “Can’t you pretend to eat like a human?”
“It’s not company!” Jude insisted around his mouthful of pizza. “It’s just Chloe!”
“Sorry, Chloe,” Julia said with a long-suffering sigh.
“No, I’m very flattered that I don’t count as company,” Chloe said, wisely fetching a stack of paper napkins. “That must mean I’m family, huh?”
“Definitely,” Julia said. “Which means that we’re allowed to know all your business. Did I tell you guys that Auntie Chloe has a boyfriend?”
Harriet let out an excited squeak while Jude rolled his eyes.
“I don’t!” Chloe protested, sitting down and getting herself a slice of pizza (extra cheese with chilli. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it). “Your Auntie Julia is being very silly.”
“Okay, maybe not a boyfriend,” Julia conceded. “But she likes him. And he likes her. So that’s pretty close.”
“Who is he?” Harriet asked. “Is he handsome?”
“Very,” Julia said.
“You don’t know that; you haven’t met him!”
“He is, though, isn’t he?”
“Yes,” Chloe admitted. “He’s…quite good looking.” She didn’t say that she had entertained multiple fantasies of licking molten honey off every part of Maxwell’s rather exquisite anatomy.
“So why isn’t he your boyfriend then?” Harriet asked, looking at her over her own piece of pizza. Harriet had a habit of picking off all the topping and then rolling up the bare slice and gnawing it like a dog with a stick.
“Because we’re very different people, and I don’t have time for a boyfriend, and I don’t think he really likes me like that anyway,” Chloe said, and then she took an enormous bite of pizza so she couldn’t be forced to answer any more question from curious preteens.
“Sounds like excuses to me, huh, Harriet?” Julia said, nudging her niece.
“Definitely,” Harriet agreed, nodding happily.
Jude grunted and inserted another slice of pizza into his mouth, his cheeks bulging like a chipmunk’s.
“Anyway, how’s school?” Chloe asked, desperate to avoid the topic of herself and Maxwell. Especially when she didn’t know if there even was a “her and Maxwell” to be talking about. He was flirty with everyone, wasn’t he? They were just friends, that was all.
“Good,” Jude said, swallowing hugely and thumping his chest. “We had sport today, and I scored two goals in soccer.”
“They make you play sport in this weather?” Chloe frowned at the cold rain that was currently pelting down outside. Blessedly, there was still no snow.
“Indoor soccer,” Jude corrected her, with all the condescension that only a ten-year-old could give.
“I see,” Chloe nodded. “Well, that’s good. And you, Harriet?”
“Okay,” she frowned, wrinkling up her nose. “But they’re making us write poems in English about our dads…” Harriet looked down at her rolled-up slice of pizza.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Chloe said quietly, looking at Julia, who looked like she might shift into that fierce snow leopard right then and there.
“They’re forcing you to do what?” Julia thundered. “Well, that’s completely inappropriate. I’ll be calling your teacher first thing, and—”
“Don’t,” Harriet said, and she squeezed the crust in her hand. “It’s okay. I remember Dad. I can write a poem about him. It just…made me a bit sad.”
“It’s okay to feel sad when we remember people we love,” Chloe said quietly, reaching out to squeeze Harriet’s arm.
Chloe sometimes forgot just how much Jude and Harriet had been through; they were such lively, happy kids. But losing their parents just a few years before had taken its toll, and she saw it sometimes in their young faces. Kids were resilient, and Julia had done a fantastic job at becoming Mum and Dad rolled into one. But it wasn’t like Jude and Harriet could just forget that they had had a normal family once.
“Auntie Chloe’s right,” Julia said, calming down. “Sorry, Harriet,” she said after a moment. “I just wouldn’t want school to make you do anything you’re uncomfortable with.”
“I know,” Harriet said, re-rolling her pizza slice. “Thanks, Auntie Julia.”
Chloe watched as Julia smiled at her niece, reaching out to ruffle her hair. Even though they weren’t a typical family, there was no doubt that the three were a family just the same. Was that what Maxwell had lost? If he had, it was no wonder he had trouble trusting people.
Would he ever really trust her?