“You’re not even pretending anymore?” There was only a hint of pleading in Tess’s voice, but it was enough to make Ma Sweets’ eyes sharpen.
“Pretend what? That our community isn’t disintegrating around us?” She fixed Lainie with a knifelike stare.
Arlo tightened his grip on Jacqueline’s hand. How did it take me so long to see the Sweets for what they really are? I was so desperate for someone to take me in, I never questioned what being part of the Sweets’ pack actually meant.
Ma Sweets spoke slowly, as though she was explaining something to a child. “Seals are group animals. Seal shifters need a pack to thrive. These children have each other, but they’re a pack without a leader. Arlo knows how difficult that is, don’t you, dear?”
“I do.”
“See—”
“But they already have a pack leader.” Arlo raised his eyebrows at Jacqueline and she mock-glared at him.
“Two pack leaders,” she corrected him, and grinned at the kids. “If they want us.”
There was half a second of silence, and then the room exploded with noise.
It was something special, Arlo decided, that all four of the shifter kids met Jacqueline’s suggestion with even more enthusiasm than they’d shown for the waffles.
“Yes! Finally,” Kenna cried out. Dylan threw his head back and whooped. Tally banged her fists on the table, and Eric gave a shy smile.
Arlo braced himself for the wave of unguarded emotion. There was no way he was going to let any of the kids see him wince with the migraine that would no doubt come along with it. But the only thing that hit him was the kids’ joy.
His pack’s joy.
Everything slotted into place. All his headaches had been his body’s reaction to him rejecting the truth: that these kids filled a gap in his heart he hadn’t let himself admit even existed.
Ma Sweets’ eyes narrowed. “Have you really thought this through, Arlo? Where are you going to live? That boat of yours—”
“Lighthouse Hill.” Lainie’s eye gleamed. “I know the perfect section.”
Ma scoffed. “And how do you intend to afford that?”
“I’m selling my house.” Jacqueline sounded perfectly calm. “You can help me with that, can’t you, Lainie? Arlo tells me you’re a realtor.”
“That’s hardly instant money.” Ma leaned back in her seat and sniffed. “What are you going to do until then? Set up camp beds in your workshop? I thought you were more sensible than that, Arlo.”
And I thought you actually had shifters’ best interests at heart. Arlo ran his fingers through his hair.
“This is Hideaway we’re talking about. It’s like you always said, Dorothy. Shifters look after their own. Whether that’s other shifters, or the non-shifters we need to be whole.”
The warmth and love in Jacqueline’s face made his soul light up.
His own pack had let him down. The Sweets had let him down, too, tainting the true meaning of pack with their hatred.
But with Jacqueline at his side, that was going to change. Their pack would be what packs were meant to be.
Home.
23
Jacqueline
It worked. That was the strangest part. She and Arlo had marched into the tense confrontation between the Sweets and the other shifters, declared that, actually, they were going to look after the new kids, thank you very much, and everyone accepted it.
Even Mrs. Sweets had reluctantly agreed to support Arlo’s new pack before she left in a huff. Of course, that might have had something to do with Jacqueline’s ace up her sleeve. She’d put together the pieces and figured out how Mrs. Sweets knew so much about her that she could needle Jacqueline with barbs about her infertility.
Bridge. Deirdre must have told the Sweets everything about her. But Deirdre’s gossip was a two-way street, and Jacqueline had spent enough work days listening to her grumble about the Dorothy and Alan who won every single bridge tournament they attended. All it had taken was for Jacqueline to whisper—sweetly—in Dorothy Sweets’ ear that wouldn’t it be awful if everyone here in Hideaway who thought she was such an upstanding member of the community