by Sara Summers
“Follow me.” Otter-Grant spoke into my mind.
I followed him, kicking my feet to propel me forward.
We swam for the next hour and a half, flying through the water. We were monster-sized compared to normal otters, so there weren’t any sea animals willing to challenge us (unless you count mermaids). Shifter animals are always bigger than their regular animal counterparts; another advantage for us, I guess.
When we finally stopped, I was exhausted but exhilarated.
Grant climbed out of the water and shifted before I did.
“Careful, it’s cold.” He warned, after slipping behind a bush to grab the clothes that were already waiting for us. Grant came back out wearing basketball shorts and a t-shirt. He gave me a thumbs-up and turned around.
I shifted and hurried up to the bush, hiding behind it. I pulled on the Grant-sized basketball shorts and t-shirt that had been left for me, then walked barefoot out to where he was standing.
We headed up the beach, slipping and sliding around. My hair was dripping wet, so I twisted it up into a wet, tangled mass on top of my head.
We walked past some nice little houses and a few fancy big ones, then got to the main street of the town we were apparently in. Grant pulled me down the street, moving quickly to avoid having to say hi to everyone we passed.
“Grant!” a busty woman stepped out of a little boutique just in front of us. He grimaced, but didn’t stop walking. “I’ve missed you.” She smiled, hurrying over to throw her arms around him.
“Hey, Lisa.” He tried to step away but she held onto him tight, as if she was some sort of octopus trying to squeeze the life out of him with her large chest.
“It’s been too long.” She grabbed his face and pulled it to hers, planting a big fat kiss on his mouth. I could see him trying to get away without offending her.
As hard as it was not to bust up laughing, I wasn’t okay with that woman kissing my man. We might not have been completely comfortable with each other yet, but we were still soulmates.
“Excuse me? Hi.” I pushed the woman’s hand off his back, pulling Grant over to me. “My name’s Kennedy, and I’m Grant’s soulmate.” I smiled sweetly, stepping closer to Grant and putting my hand on his chest.
He wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me to his side.
“Yeah, I’m a lucky man.” Grant grinned, though I could tell he’d had to force it.
“Well, I was his girlfriend for a month. We were going to get married.” Lisa was smug that they had been planning on getting married? Even though it hadn’t happened?
Well that was strange.
“Funny how things don’t work out sometimes, huh?” I looked up at Grant, an overly-lovey look on my face. “But not for us. We make each other whole, and that’s not something that anyone or anything can break up. We’re married for the rest of forever.” I gazed into his eyes with total(ly fake) adoration.
“I love you so much, baby.” Grant tilted my chin up and gave me a soft, sweet kiss.
“Well, aren’t you something.” Lisa smirked.
“I know, we’re perfect together.” I batted my eyelashes up at Grant. It was our first movie-like moment, and it was completely fake. No real romance, no real cute nicknames. Just me and Grant pretending to be in love.
Yeah, my love life was depressing.
“I just can’t resist you.” Grant groaned, yanking me close to him and kissing me for much longer than most people would be okay with, in a public area. It was the perfect icing on the lovebird cake we’d just baked for Lisa. I would’ve thoroughly enjoyed that cake, too, if there had been a shred of honesty to it.
Unfortunately, it was all fake.
If Grant hadn’t been my soulmate, it would’ve been fun to pretend. But knowing that he was, and that he didn’t love me, and that I didn’t love him... the pretending wasn’t fun at all.
“Well, I need to get going.” Lisa stepped backward.
“It was nice meeting you!” I called out to her, waving as Grant kissed my cheek and pulled me close.
“You two look happy.” A quiet voice called out from behind us.
We spun around, and I saw a small, beautiful girl holding two shopping bags. She looked a little sad.
“Hi, Miriam.” Grant gave the girl a small smile.
Call it romance-movie-junkie 6th sense if you want, because I knew immediately that this was the girl he had dated for a year, the one he had been in love with in high school.
“Yeah, we’re happy.” I smiled, lacing my fingers through Grant’s. Knowing that she was the girl he actually cared about (even just as a friend) while I was the one holding his hand really sucked. I felt like a fraud.
“I’m glad.” Miriam nodded. “You deserve to be happy, Grant.” She gave him a sad, beautiful smile, before walking off down the street.
Did she have to be so pretty?
He watched her go, and I couldn’t read the emotions that were moving in his eyes. It didn’t matter that I couldn’t read the emotions, however, because they were there. When he looked me, he saw a stranger. Looking at her, though, he saw someone he cared about.
“Do I need to worry about competing with her?” I asked, trying to be careful with the question. I didn’t want to feel clingy or jealous, but I was. My soulmate cared more about his ex-girlfriend than he did about me, and good gracious, that sucked.
It really sucked.
“No, I just feel bad.” Grant shook his head, pulling me down the street once again. “We were in love, and I broke her heart when I should’ve known better than to date her in the first place. It’s my fault that she’s still hurting, even if it’s been a few years.”
I didn’t say anything, but I couldn’t help but think that maybe human relationships weren’t quite as romantic as the movies made it seem. Things didn’t always work out in the real world, after all. In the shifter world, no matter how rough a relationship started, it (practically) always worked out.
It had to.
“I can’t imagine loving someone for that long and then losing them.” I admitted.
“It hurts at first, but you learn to move on, eventually.” Grant shrugged. “It’s just part of loving someone, for humans.”
“I guess.” I nodded, but I wasn’t convinced. Was love really something that could just vanish if you waited long enough? Did the feelings just disappear after enough time passed?
No, I decided, they didn’t. If they did, Grant would’ve been able to treat Miriam like a close friend rather than a girl he had dated.
A few minutes later, we were off the street and walking toward a modest farm house, which marked the edge of the small town.
“Anyone home?” Grant called out, opening the door. I followed him inside.
“Grant!” a little voice screamed, coming out of nowhere and slamming into Grant’s legs.
“Watch where you’re going, big guy.” Grant lifted the kid off the ground, making rocket-ship noises as he zoomed him around. “Say hi to Kennedy.” He told the boy. Grant settled the kid on his hip, holding him up.
“Hi!” the boy waved his cute little fingers. They were stained with what looked like green marker.
“Hi.” I waved back, smiling at him.
“Elijah!” a woman walked toward us, shaking her head. “Be nice.” She warned, before smiling at me. “Your name is Kennedy, right? I’m Jamie. Nice to meet you.” She gave me a quick hug before taking her son from Grant.
“No!” he screamed, flailing his arms and legs everywhere.
“Yep, come on. Uncle Grant has to say hi to grandma and grandpa before he leaves.” She chastised her son.
He screamed as she took him up the stairs, and I could hear him even with the door closed.
“Yikes.” I grimaced. “Can’t wait for Bree’s daughter to scream like that.”
“I bet.” Grant agreed, pulling me to another room in the house. He knocked on the door, and a woman called out for us to come in.
“Hey, Mom.”
Grant smiled. His mom hurried over and pulled me into a hug.
“We’ve been telling him to go after you for years.” She shook her head at her son. “Thank you for not hating him.”
I laughed.
“He’d be hard to hate.”
It was the truth, if only because I couldn’t bring myself to hate anyone other than rapists and murderers.
I felt weird, standing inside Grant’s house when we didn’t even know each other. We were supposed to be soulmates who were happy and in love and completely star-struck by each other, but I didn’t feel that way at all. I felt like I was standing next to a stranger with a pretty face and a tattoo on his collarbone that matched mine.
Grant smiled and put his arm over my shoulders, and the physical closeness actually made me a little anxious for some reason. Probably because I didn’t feel any emotional connection between us, yet there he was, making it physical.
“Can I feed you lunch before you leave?” she asked. When we agreed, she herded us into her kitchen.
Grant’s mom made us peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and refused to accept any help cooking them.
She asked me a few questions about myself before telling me a story.
“Do you like your crust on or off?” She checked.
I felt like I’d been robbed; my mom always made me eat the crust. Nutritional value and whatnot, so it was understandable.
“I’ll try it off.” I shrugged. Gosh, the whole scene was so uncomfortable. I was sitting in a strange kitchen, surrounded by strangers. One of the strangers was supposed to be my prince charming, but wasn’t acting like it at all.
“You know, when Grant was eight or nine, he went on strike against crusts.” She shook her head as she cut off the crusts on both sandwiches, but I could see the smile on her face. “He would rip it off when no one was looking and store it in his pockets, and it would always end up in the trash can in his room.
“One day, I was emptying the garbage—it had been a while—“ she winked at me, “And a pile of moldy crusts came tumbling out of his trash can. It smelled so bad that I could hardly breathe!” She and I laughed, and Grant tried to hold back his smile. “His room reeked for weeks, until he finally just threw out the trash can. Good heavens, that thing smelled awful.” She smiled, handing us the plates.
“Thank you.” I smiled at Grant’s mom, who had become my mother-in-law, I realized. That was weird to think about. Too weird.
I tried to kick that thought out of my brain.
“Oh, it’s my pleasure.” She smiled.
I told her about the museum I was going to set up, and I explained that my friends were the ones who made the Shifty YouTube channel. That led to her asking about the school, and the summit. After an hour and a half of talking, she was thoroughly impressed.
“You ladies sure are changing the world.” She admired. “I know it’s made a difference in our little town. People have been asking me for relationship advice, just because I’m a shifter!” She chuckled, and I smiled.
“Alright, we need to go.” Grant stood up, though he was reluctant. He probably didn’t want to be alone with me; understandable, because well, we were supposed to be in love but we weren’t. “Is dad around?”
“Oh, he won’t be back until tonight.” His mom shook her head. “I’ll tell him that you said hi, both of you.”
“Thanks.” Grant gave her one last hug. “We’ll try to come by sometime soon.” He promised.
“You’d better.” His mom said, as she hugged her son tight. After she let go of him, it was my turn for a hug. “I’m glad you’ve finally joined the family.” She beamed at me. “Come and visit.” She said.
“We will.” I smiled back, sending up a prayer that “soon” wasn’t for at least long enough that I could build a real relationship with Grant.
With a goodbye yell up to his sister and her son, Grant grabbed his keys and climbed into his truck. I had to jump to get inside, but when I closed the door, he drove away.
I couldn’t brush off the feeling that everything should’ve been different. Grant and I should’ve been asking each other questions, dying to get to know each other. We should’ve been talking and laughing and agreeing on things.
We were supposed to be perfect for each other, right?
While I knew that was true, nothing about us felt perfect. If anything, it felt wrong.
Chapter 10
It was 9 or 10 at night when we got back to Bessie. Grant stumbled around in the dark, trying to find our clothes on the beach, and then our keys under the rock. It took a few minutes, but he found everything.
“Ready?” he called out. I climbed out of the truck and hurried over to Bessie. Both Grant and I were exhausted, and more than ready to get to the museum. Sav had called while we were driving to tell us that there was an old house behind it, and that it was ours to live in. That was good news, considering that we hadn’t even thought about where we were going to live.
“Ready.” I nodded, grabbing an armload of stuff and carrying it to the back of the truck.
When I went back for my second load, I saw Grant manhandling my masterpiece.
“What are you doing?!” I shrieked, pulling the big canvas out of his hands and making sure it was okay.
“I was just carrying stuff.” He blinked at me, completely confused by my freak-out.
“This is important, you have to be careful with it.” I insisted, all but cradling the painting against my body for protection.
“Sorry, I didn’t know.” Grant apologized.
“It’s okay.” I nodded, taking deep breaths to calm down my now-racing heart. I reminded myself that everything was going to be okay, and carefully put the painting in the back seat of the truck.
We unloaded everything else in what could only be titled ‘Awkward Silence’. When it was all done, we got back in the truck and drove off once again.
“I’ll call a tow truck in the morning.” Grant told me.
“Thanks.” I looked out the window, still a bit anxious from the freak-out earlier.
“Hey, I’m really sorry about the painting. I didn’t mean to be rough with it.” Grant spoke up again, a few minutes later.
“It’s alright, you didn’t mean to.” I sighed.
He turned the radio on, blasting us with familiar music that I loved. Between Rascal Flatts, Lady Antebellum, and Hunter Hayes, we were set to go for the rest of the drive.
If I had been with any of my friends, we would’ve jammed out to the music. The shifty girls would’ve sang along with me, or at least danced (most of them didn’t listen to country music). With Grant, though, I just sat. It was a little awkward.
When we pulled up to the address Sav had texted me, it was 11:30 and completely dark outside. There were no lights around what was supposed to be the museum, nor were there any other houses I could see.
“We’re building a museum in the middle of nowhere?” I grimaced as we drove down the dirt road leading to it.
“Looks like it.” Grant nodded.
When the headlights shone on the building that was the potential museum, I gaped. It was a wreck, a complete wreck. Other than the add-ons being built, the museum was ancient. Like, at least 100 years old. It looked like it could fall apart at any minute, and not in a charming sort of way.
“Eff.” I leaned my head back against the seat.
“We’ve got our work cut out for us.” Grant agreed.
“You can just say it. This is hopeless.” I stared at the window as he drove around the museum and down yet another dirt road, stopping when we got to the house Sav had mentioned.
It was almost as bad as the museum. Not quite, but almost.
“Let’s just bring in some pillows and blankets. We can clean up tomorrow and wash it all.”
“If there’s a washer or dryer in here.” I sighed.
“Hey, it’s going to be fine. Cheer up.” Grant shot me a smile as we climbed up the stairs. They creaked under our feet, and one of them
felt like it might give out.
We tried the door, but it was locked.
“Maybe the key’s under the doormat.” Grant guessed, picking up the old, dust-filled doormat. “Or on top of the door?” he tried, dropping the mat. Dust flew up everywhere, and I waved it out of my eyes. “Alright, well maybe the window’s unlocked.” I followed him over to the window.
He pulled it open, then turned to me.
I had a sick feeling in my stomach.
“I’ll have to lift you inside. You’ll end up on the counter next to the sink, so you’ll be fine.” He assured me.
I hesitated.
“Here.” He set one of our blankets down on the porch, then put our pillows and everything else down on it.
“Alright.” I agreed, walking over to the window. Grant lifted me up and in. It took a second to maneuver myself inside, but I made it.
I could see the outline of a light switch by the door to my right, so I slipped off the counter and headed for it.
That turned out to be a mistake.
My first foot hit the bare wood floor, which was fine, but my second foot landed on a furry lump.
“AHH!” I screamed bloody-murder, jumping back up onto the counter and pulling my legs up to my chest. “AHH!” I screamed again, my heart pounding and my entire body shaking.
“What?” Grant yelled. “What’s going on?” he looked in through the window, seeing me quivering on the counter.
“Something on the ground.” I shook. “A mouse or rat, I think. It might be dead.” I whispered, horrified with the realization that I had just stepped on a dead rat.
That sick feeling in my stomach grew more violent.
“Alright, just put your hand against the wall behind you and see if you can find a light switch anywhere.” Grant was strangely calm, despite the un-calm feelings I was throwing out everywhere. “It’s going to be fine.” He assured me.
“I can’t.” I shook my head, my whole body still shaking.
“I know that you can.” He promised. “Take a second to breathe, and then do what I said.”
