He shrugs. “Yeah, well, it’s still hot.”
I take a sip and have to agree. It feels good, warms me up from the inside out. “So what happened?” I ask.
He doesn’t pretend not to know what I mean. “What? You wanted to see my place? Meet my mom? You serious, Shep-herd?”
Always the deflector, always the joker. Still, he makes me laugh.
“Charlie—?”
“Oh, don’t say it—”
“Thank—”
“Here it comes—”
“You.”
“Ugh, now it’s out there. Next, you’ll start with the crying and whining, and I won’t be able to get you to stop.”
I let him have his moment. I take a sip of coffee and finally sigh. “Good coffee.”
“Yup, it is.”
“You pay for it?”
“Of course not.”
We both smile.
“Oh, that reminds me.” He searches his jacket and grabs a small paper bag that he hands to me. “This is for you.”
I look inside and find a doughnut—a Boston Cream. I pull it out and take a big bite.
It tastes fantastic.
acknowledgments
Thank you to our first readers: Lana LaFontaine, Anna Gane, Kate Gane, Charlene Hilkewich, and Kevin Leflar. Our extreme gratitude goes to Dimitrios Kounios for all his artwork and to Nathan Mader for his excellent editorial work. Thank you to Angie’s students and Constable Blair Randall for fielding her many questions. We’d also like to give a special thanks to those early readers who caught our mistakes: Kevin Leflar, Kevin Johnson, Lucas Frison, Michael Hadjimichael, Maria Plastaras, and Maria Makris-Nagel. Thank you for your eagle eyes. And a big thank you to Heather Nickel, who helped us bring this book to life.
Angie would like to thank the Creator for this beautiful, crazy journey.
David would like to thank his family, Kate, Anna, and Peter, for all their love and patience.
about the authors
David Gane is a writer, teacher, and stay-at-home dad. He writes film scripts and fiction, and has also composed poetry, plays, and academic film reviews. He occasionally teaches screenwriting at the University of Regina.
Angie Counios teaches by day, and writes film scripts and fiction the rest of the time. When she’s not teaching or writing, she’s packing a bag for another adventure, completing a goal list, playing with her camera or practising yoga.
Find them at www.couniosandgane.com
Along Comes a Wolfe Page 27
