Fox Play (19 page)

My face steaming, I left my plate where it was on the edge of the serving table and went in search of Elisabeth. She was sitting on the front porch of the lodge, drinking a cup of coffee and taking a rare moment to relax. She glanced up as I stepped outside and grinned.

"Have a nice night after we left?" she asked. "You seem to be walking funny."

"Was I that loud?"

"Yes. The enforcers almost burst in from the screaming, but it was obvious what was going on."

"Is Lara strutting around somewhere?"

Elisabeth chuckled. "A little. You're good for her, you know."

"Who do I thank for starting the pool about me? You?"

"No, and I won't tell you. It's in fun. Be a good scout."

"Would you be a good scout?"

"I don't seem to attract as much attention as you do. I'm boring. You're not. Consider it a compliment."

"That was evasive, Elisabeth."

She didn't answer right away, but sat, drinking her coffee. I waited in vain. "Are you thinking about a response or trying to make me more upset?"

She glanced over. "I was being evasive because I don't want to admit the truth. No, I would not be a good scout. My reaction wouldn't necessarily be the right reaction. The right reaction is to be a good scout about it."

I took a breath and thought about it. "You're right. I will strive to follow your advice. Why are you managing the pool?"

"You and your damned hearing," she said. "I manage it because there isn't anyone else to do it. They came to me. It's not the first time."

"About me?"

"About everything. Sometimes about you; sometimes about Lara; sometimes about council decisions. Sometimes the pool is about me, and then they go to Francesca."

"What time slot do you have?" I asked her.

"I don't. First off, I wouldn't bet about you. Second, I'm the judge. Third, Lara and I are the only ones who could skew the results by pushing you, so it would be a conflict of interest for us. And I wouldn't want to be tempted. I'm pretty sure I could push you to defy me, but it all goes back to our conversation yesterday afternoon."

"What was the earliest slot someone picked?"

She laughed. "It already expired. The last one is three days."

"No one thinks I'll make it three days?"

"No one betting does."

"What happens if I blow past everyone's predictions?"

"You won't last forever. Once someone's slot has expired, they can make a new wager."

"I want you to put a time limit on it. No one has more than three days out? We're here until next Sunday. I'll make it until we leave. If we do, it's mine."

She laughed. "Fifty bucks."

* * * *

After breakfast, we sent teams out to collect more of my samples and otherwise do my job for me. Lunch was on the island, and after lunch, Lara rented a couple of large sailboats from the marina and we went sailing.

The boys, of course, wanted to be on the same boat as all the girls, so we largely ended up with a kids boat, along with a few of the adults, and an adult's boat. It was a breezy spring day, and it was nice to be out on the water.

I brought my laptop and all the data with me that had been collected. I wasn't able to analyze any of the samples, but I had everything back at the compound to do that. I spent time collating the data until Elisabeth found me hiding in the cabin.

"You need to socialize," she said.

I looked up at her. "Is that an observation, advice, or an order?"

She smiled. "Call it the start of a conversation that is going to end by you putting everything away and going out to socialize. There are people here you don't know. They deserve to get to know you. Hadley and Harper are returning to Madison in the morning."

"The boys will be disappointed."

"The girls are staying. I think the plan is you will be having house guests, by the way."

"Lara didn't tell me."

"She will. Give her a chance."

I nodded.  "You understand, Elisabeth, I am not a small talk kind of fox. And I don't have anything in common with anyone up there. And as you know, I get bored easily."

"I don't know how you can do all this," she said, waving at the papers spread out around me. "And say you get bored easily. It looks deadly dull to me."

"It's a puzzle," I said. "Collating the data, tracking trends, trying to find interrelationships between the trends. But I admit: I like the outdoor work a lot more than this. But this is better than sitting like a lump in a group of people and not being a part of the conversation."

"Lara hates your job."

"Lara isn't the one who has to do it," I said. "But are you say she's ashamed to be dating a public servant?"

Elisabeth shook her head. "Why would you ask something like that?"

I looked down. "Why is she with me, Elisabeth?"

"Oh hell, Michaela, don't go there. She loves you deeply and you know it."

"All right. Why does she hate my job?"

"You should have this conversation with her."

"Ah, but you brought it." I looked back up at her. "Tell me what you're willing to tell me, and if there is more, tell me to talk to her. Fair?"

"You are going to take this the wrong way, so you need to put it in perspective." I nodded. "She thinks your job is pointless. She doesn't understand it. She doesn't think anyone values what you do and doesn't think anyone uses whatever information it is you're collecting all the time. She thinks you should be doing something with clear value. And now that you are pack, she would prefer that value be directly to the pack, if possible. Or at least financially lucrative and worthy of someone with your intelligence and skills."

"The thinks I'm under-employed?"

"Deeply under-employed."

"Anything else?"

"If you let her give you a job, then when things like the current incidents come up, we don't need to bow to some human interest to keep your job. And of course, she would prefer you didn't spend so many nights away from her."

"But she also says it should be my choice."

"Yes."

"She has offered me four jobs over the last six months. Every single one is a fake job that she made up just to get me to quit my current job."

"They were not fake jobs!"

"They were all for some company she was going to form, some company that couldn't possibly make money. She was basically going to pay me herself, even if she disguises it. She wants me kept. And on low self-esteem days, it feels like she's trying to buy me."

Elisabeth frowned then finally said, "You and I aren't going to solve this. That's what I can tell you. You should still talk to Lara, and keep talking until you come to a solution."

"Why does there need to be a solution? Why can't she accept my job for what it is? She may be right about everything she thinks about my job, but it's still the best job I could find and it makes me happy."

"You've heard my advice. You'll follow it or you won't. Now, please, Hadley Smith and Harper Armstrong deserve to get to know you. Please go up on deck and make that possible."

"All right, Elisabeth. Let me put everything away and I'll be right up."

"How about if I stand right here glaring at you until you head up?"

I laughed and began collecting papers. Elisabeth helped, then chased me out of the cabin.

After that, I kept myself available for anyone who wanted to talk to me, although I didn't intentionally join the conversations going on. It was nice to be on deck. And it took me about ten minutes to get bored.

So I began eavesdropping. Listening to the conversations on our boat was too easy, so I listened for the other one. The kids were grouped up into three separate conversations. Scarlett and Angel were actually in different groups, but I didn't think that would last. Then I smiled, as I heard Derek and Jeremy both attempting to talk to Sophia, the girl I thought may not be fully appreciated. They were both bragging about their exploits, which wasn't the right way to win her affection, but she was being sweet and encouraging them. I decided she was going to be all right.

Chloe Lassiter, the 13-year-old, was talking to Scarlett. She sounded nervous, and Scarlett was telling her how great it was to live at the compound. And then my heart melted when Scarlett told her, "The best times are when Ms. Redfur teaches a class. The other classes are good, too, but she's great. Everyone loves her."

I didn't notice the shadow right away, but then a hand was holding out a glass of lemonade. "I hear this is your favorite." I looked up, and Hadley was standing there. She gave me the lemonade and sat down on the bench next to me. "I wasn't sure if it was all right to disturb you."

"Of course," I said. "I don't bite."

"I've never met a fox before," she said. "What is it like?"

"It's great, most of the time." I didn't know how to really answer her question. She didn't seem satisfied, but we moved on.

"I was surprised when I heard we had a new pack member, and she wasn't a wolf or a human mate."

I judged her body language; she didn't appear hostile, just curious. "Lara has been working on me about it for a while, but to be honest, I didn't think she was serious, either. I can't imagine why the wolves would want a fox in the pack."

Her eyes glinted and she grinned at me.

"Oh, do not go there!" I said. "Did you get in on the wager?"

"What wager?"

"Apparently, there is a pool for when I next publicly define the alpha or the head enforcer."

"Does that happen often?"

"Noon yesterday was the last time, but I was only a little mouthy. I'm not sure if it would have counted."

"You're actually serious?"

"Yes. And apparently, no one thinks I'll last very long."

"I don't know you well enough to comment," Hadley said.

"Well, someone who knows me very well had taken the slot ending two hours ago. If that tells you anything."

She laughed.

"If you want to get in on it," I told her. "Talk to Elisabeth."

"Got a hot tip for me?"

"Well, I will only point out I am still walking funny from the repercussions of my practical joke last night. Note that the practical joke would not have qualified as public defiance and maybe not even private defiance."

"So you're cowed for a day or two, and I should pick, say, noon on Wednesday?"

I laughed. "I wouldn't say cowed. I would say satiated."

"You aren't giving me good feelings about my daughter living with you."

"Excuse me?" At first, I thought she meant at my home in Bayfield, but then I realized her daughter, Ava, would be taking a room in Lara's house. "Ah, right. I wasn't sure which of the girls was staying in Lara's house."

I would have to talk to Lara about clueing me in.

"You should talk to Francesca, perhaps," I suggested. "Her daughter, Angel, lives with me."

Confusion ran across her face.

"She's my intern, and she uses a room in my Bayfield house."

That didn't clear anything up at all.

"Perhaps I should start over?" She nodded. I explained things as efficiently as I could, and her expression cleared.

"That is the girl who interfered with your competition with the alpha yesterday?"

In a small voice, I said, "I suppose that isn't going to reassure you about me, either."

"Not particularly."

"Well, I seem to be making a right mess of things. I'm sorry. I'm really not as bad as all that, but I can see how I am giving that impression."

"I think I may need to think about this arrangement further," she said. "No offense."

"No, of course not." Bitch. To say it to my face? I schooled my features. "Perhaps you'll excuse me."

I didn't wait for a response but got up and moved forward, sitting on the deck in front of the mast, hoping everyone would leave me alone.

I was safe for a good fifteen minutes before Francesca found me and sat down next to me. I glanced over. "I take it you had a nice conversation with Hadley Smith? She's my newest anti-fan."

Francesca didn't say anything. "I meant what I told you yesterday."

"I know. I put my foot in it. I was aiming for charming and slightly self-deprecating."

"Don't worry about it."

"How can I not? She's making decisions about her daughter's life based on my unusual sense of humor. The only good thing about her taking her daughter back home is that I won't be required to have another conversation with her."

"Didn't like her?"

"No."

"No one does."

We sat quietly for a while. "Too bad the boat captain isn't a wolf. I wouldn't mind going furry for a while. No one would expect me to say anything intelligent."

"You're too hard on yourself."

I shrugged. "What's it like to have kids?"

"It's amazing and scary and wonderful. Gia was the difficult one. Angel is more precocious, but I always knew she would be okay. Gia was lost, not sure where she might fit in."

"Were they difficult births?"

"Well, Angel was. Gia practically popped right out. But the first time I held either of them, helping her find a breast, hoping she can latch on and feed properly, and then she does. It felt so amazing, this small life, clinging to me."

"I'll never have kids," I said.

"Why not?"

"Seen any foxes around to mate with? And Lara would kill him, anyway. Wolves can mate with a human and produce a wolf, but that would be dangerous for a fox." I didn't tell her I wouldn't want to bring fox children into a world ruled by werewolves.

Francesca smiled broadly. "You just told me you expect your relationship with Lara to be permanent."

I thought about it. "I guess that's what I want. I don't know what she wants."

"I think she has been clear, Michaela."

"Doesn't she want children?"

"I honestly don't know," Francesca said. "But there are ways. You know that. But even if there weren't, I'm pretty sure she'll take you over kids."

"I'm sort of the size of a child."

"True." She bumped her shoulder against me. "Ready to give Harper Armstrong a chance to alienate you as well?"

I sighed. "Poor boys. If I scare away both Ava and Sophia, that just leaves Abigail. Unless Chloe is a fair target, but she seems a touch young."