Finding the Wolf Within

Chapter 26

So I don't know what happened, but I somehow deleted this chapter a month after I originally posted it. Argggg...makes me mad since I lost a whole bunch of reads and votes. Anyway, here it is again. 

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Recap

“Do you want to get dessert here and then get ice cream, or will just ice cream satisfy you?”

Eddie had a completely serious expression on his face, but I could hear the teasing note in his voice.

I stuck my tongue out at him. “Just ice cream is fine.”

Everyone laughed. As we were headed out the door, I noticed Brian sitting at a corner table with another guy, both of them almost hidden in the low lighting. What was he doing all the way out here? How long had he been there? Had he heard our conversation?

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Chapter 26

This was getting strange. First Brian wasn’t there when Amber showed up at the shelter and now he was here when he shouldn’t be. I mean, he could just be having dinner coincidentally in the same restaurant as me. In a darkened corner. With some guy I didn’t recognize. But then again…then again, what? Was I honestly thinking that he might be spying on me? That he somehow knew that Amber would be there the other day? I shook my head. No, that wasn’t possible. This situation right now might be suspicious, but there was no way he knew about Amber. She was definitely rogue, which meant she wouldn’t be in contact with anyone, let alone telling him her plans.

I shrugged it off. I was just being paranoid again. Brian was a nice guy after all – Eddie’s dad trusted him enough to have him guard me. And even Eddie had given his approval. It had to be nothing. Eddie hadn’t seemed to notice him so I decided not to say anything. I didn’t want to make it seem like I suspected Brian of something when it was more than likely I was reading more into the situation than there was.

In the back of my mind though, I knew I would be keeping my eye out on him. He already had two possible strikes against him and it had been less than a week. If something else happened, I would have to voice my concerns. 

We left the restaurant and headed to JP Licks. It was too cold to walk around outside with our ice cream, so we grabbed a table and stayed for almost an hour just talking. After we finished, we drove back to my house and hung out for a while. I almost didn’t want this night to end. Besides that brief moment with Brian, I hadn’t felt this carefree since my birthday. I was just a typical high school student again, one who spent a night out with her two best friends and her boyfriend. It really didn’t get much better than that.

The next morning, my mom was all revved up about getting a Christmas tree. She made a big deal out of the holidays every year, but I knew that she thought this year would be special since Eddie, Lindy, and their families would be celebrating with us.

We ended up spending the entire day out with my parents. We went to the mall to do some holiday shopping and my mom tried to make Eddie and me take a picture with Santa. Yea – it was pretty embarrassing. We actually stood in line for a couple of minutes, even the little kids waiting with us were giving us funny looks. Fortunately, we were finally able to convince my mom that it wasn’t necessary and we almost forcibly dragged her away before she got any more ideas into her head. After that, my dad, Eddie, and I consciously stayed clear of any Christmas-related things.

I couldn’t actually do much shopping, since half of the people I was going to give gifts to were out with me, but something Eddie had said the other day had given me a great idea for a Christmas present. I just hoped I would have enough time to make it. He had been joking around about the fact that there hadn’t been any wolf stick-ons when he had bought the fish ones to decorate his bathroom. I couldn’t make those plastic things, but I could paint him a portrait of the two of us as wolves. I only had a couple of weeks to do it though and since I spent almost all of my free time with him, it would be hard both keeping it a secret and finding enough time to paint it.