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now of all times was her father’s stupid trailer acting like a stubborn
child.
    “It’s
a sign,” Trent shouted through the window. “A sign that you’re not meant to
drive away from here, from me, from us.”
    “It’s
a sign that my father needs to get a new trailer.”
    She
looked at him. She shouldn’t have done that. She tried to look away but she
couldn’t because he had his face pressed close to the window. He had puppy dog
eyes. No bear pup eyes.
    Emily
shook that thought out of her mind.
    “You’re
a freak,” she shouted.
    “That’s
a cruel thing to say. We’re all different in our own special way.”
    Emily
tapped her fingers on the steering wheel, contemplating her next move. He was
right, that had been a nasty thing to say. One of the children in her class had
lost their arm due to cancer, and that didn’t make him a freak either. He was
just like the other kids in her class. One of the smartest
too.
    She
looked at Trent again. He hadn’t moved from the spot since she looked the last
time. Bears were stubborn creatures. She’d always had a thing for a guy who
knew what he wanted.
    “I’m
going to sit here until you go away,” she shouted to him.
    “Then
you’ll be in there a long time because I’m not budging until you’ve at least
given me the chance to talk face to face.”
    Emily
stood up walked to the back of the trailer. She sat and folded her arms across
her chest.
    We’ll see who
can hold out the longest.
    She
hadn’t realized she’d dozed off until singing woke her up. Her neck snapped as
she looked up, startled at first, but then she remembered where she was and
what had happened.
    A
man was singing outside the trailer. He had the sweetest voice. She leaned over
to look out of the window. It was Trent; he was singing and playing a guitar.
    She
tried to duck behind the curtains but darn it, he’d seen her.
    He
was singing one of her favorite songs, damn it. He was serenading her.
    No
man had ever done that. She walked to the door, opened it, and sat on the step
as Trent continued singing for her.
    She
couldn’t help but smile. This guy was pretty darn perfect, and yes, he did
deserve the chance to at least explain everything to her. She walked toward
him. He stopped signing and put the guitar on the ground.
    He
took her hand and walked her down to the water’s edge and they sat on a fallen
log.
    “You
see up there?” He pointed to the sky above them. “That empty space between the
stars to the left of that mountain?”
    “Yes.”
    “That’s
where I’m from. We crash-landed here a long time ago. We’re animal shifters and
there are lots of us, but I belong to the Kalispell group.”
    “Am
I dreaming all this?”
    “You
want to be?” he asked.
    She
shook her head. No way did she want to wake up and realize meeting Trent had
been just a lovely dream.
    “Does
anyone else know about you?”
    “A
few people, but we keep it our secret, so if we’re going to have a relationship
you can’t tell anyone what I’ve told you, and what you’ve seen me do.”
    He
put his arm around her and she rested her head on his shoulder. There was no
such thing as the perfect man, but besides being a guy who was sometimes a
bear, Trent was as close as she had found. She had that strange feeling in the
pit of her stomach, the fuzzy sensation her friends had talked about, but she’d
hadn’t experienced until now, that this was ‘the one’.
    “Would
anyone believe me?” she asked.
    “Probably
not,” he said.
    They
both laughed. A man she could laugh with. Another plus in
Trent’s favor.
    “Am
I your first human? I mean…”
    “Oh
yeah, you’re my first.”
    “So
I took your virginity?” she asked.
    “I
guess you could say that. I suppose our only problem is how we get a bear for
your dad without hurting one.”
    “We’ll
think of something.”
    ****
    Trent
woke up, his arm aching where it had been wrapped around Emily all night.
    She
was already awake and looking at