Page 16 of Leaping Into Love

Part of me is tempted to accept the offer. “You said the magic responsible for glamouring everyone’s appearances caused a physical sensation that ended when fate decided I was ready to see what you truly are, so I assume everyone else would have felt the glamour unraveling too, and the entire town is aware that I now know they’re not human.”

“Yes, that is correct.”

“Then I have to go with you.”

He doesn’t speak, not to accept my comment, encourage, or dissuade. He simply blinks those big, reddish eyes while waiting patiently for me to continue. He already knows me better than anyone has.

“We’ve shopped together a bunch of times since I moved to town. If I’m suddenly conspicuously absent, everyone will think I’m scared to see what they really look like.”

“They wouldn’t think that. They’d understand that adjusting to a community inhabited by a wide variety of nonhuman species you didn’t know existed a few days ago may require time,” he says, gently squeezing my hands. “Your arrival and our bond give them all hope that they may find the same happiness one day. Everyone is excited to fully and openly welcome you to Rita’s Hollow.”

“Does ‘everyone’ include the butcher?” I still get the wiggins thinking about the first time I saw him, standing on the sidewalk, his bloody apron, the big knife he gripped while staring at me as I drove through town. And that blink’s worth of time where I was sure he changed into a wolfman. A moment I now know wasn’t my imagination playing tricks on me.

“Yes, Hans included. He has been quite distressed to have frightened you.”

“He has? Wait, how does he know?”

“One day when I was attending to some business while you remained at Ulphia Manor, Hans stopped me on the street to ask why I hadn’t brought you over to his shop yet, as he knew from speaking with Miriam at the grocery market that you had purchased meat on more than one occasion. I felt it best to explain truthfully, with the information you told me.”

“Of course. But now I feel bad for avoiding him every time I came downtown. I’ll have to apologize.”

“That isn’t necessary; he understood your trepidation.” Henry’s wide mouth stretches into a wholly amused grin. “Perhaps I should apologize, though. I wasn’t particularly discreet when I relayed your description of him, and it spread through the grapevine. He has been rather annoyed about the jests referring to him as the big bad wolf,” he says, croaking a laugh.

The sound is as endearing as before the glamour lifted, but fuller now. Unfiltered. The way everything should be.

“I’m ready. I want to meet everyone. Authentically this time.” I turn one hand palm up and thread my fingers between his, as much as that’s possible. Even with the differences in our anatomies, we fit together perfectly. Naturally.

Henry leans in and kisses me, then puts the car in gear and pulls away from the curb. As he turns onto St. Anthony Street, tingling ripples through me. Like the first time I drove through town, only…better. Because it’s not magic’s protective spell this time, it’s magic’s welcome.

I’m home.

And I’m in love. It doesn’t get more magical than that.