Read Timothy for Free Online

senses.
    Which meant Lona most likely heard as well. A slight nod let him know she had indeed.
    “Enough,” Tim mouthed at her.
    “I do wish Otto was here tonight,” Lona said to Steve as they turned and headed for the kitchen. “I think one of those young men would keep him out of trouble.”
    Dane pivoted and gaped at Tim. “That’s what she was doing? Vetting us to see if one of us was a good match for her son? Gack! Doesn’t she know she’s more likely to scare us off? The whole creepy, interfering mother-in-law vibe is just shooting off her.”
    Tim agreed but didn’t say so, since he was well aware Lona could probably still hear them. “Come on, let’s go eat.” Hopefully dinner would be ready soon.
    As if timed with his thoughts, the pungent odour of fried chicken filled the air. Even Dane could smell it, and he perked up, seeming to forget his pique. “Oh man, smell dinner cooking? I’m so going to pig out!” He hurried towards the kitchen, Tim grinning at his friend’s eagerness. “It smells delicious,” Dane announced as he walked over to the table. “What can we do to help get the food on the table quicker?”
    Lona shot him an incredulous look. “Do you have a mood disorder?”
    “No, do you?” Dane jetted back.
    “He’s just happy because he smells fried chicken,” Tim explained, clamping a hand to Dane’s shoulder. “Be nice,” he growled.
    “She started it,” Dane pointed out. “Can I make gravy or something?”
    Lona must have been content to let matters drop since she waved Dane over and started telling him what to get out from where. Tim started to ask if he could help too but Steve caught his eye. Tim sat down beside Steve and hoped he wasn’t about to get sent back to the States. He missed his family and everything, but there was so much he needed to find out about what they were—and alienating Lona was probably one of the dumbest things he could have done in his desire to help his family.
    “I didn’t know, when I accepted your application,” Steve said after he glanced to make sure Dane wasn’t paying them any attention. “It wasn’t until I started watching you here, saw the way you paid such acute attention to everything, caught you sniffing the air, parsing scents, something I’ve seen Lona, Otto and Vendelia do hundreds or even thousands of times, I guess. The way you move, the careful look in your eye, even the way you hold Dane at a distance despite him being your best friend—all of those things made me believe you might just be a snow leopard shifter, too. I’m glad to know I was right.”
    Tim let some of his irritation at Steve go. He could actually understand why Steve hadn’t asked him, or announce that he was married to a shifter. It’d have been beyond awkward had he done so and Tim not been who and what he was.
    Steve leaned in closer to whisper the next part. “And please forgive Lona. She worries so much about Otto. There’s not many…uhm, options, for our son out here, and he refuses to move away. He believes it’s more important to protect and preserve our species—both snow leopard and shifter—than it is to worry about something like love.”
    Tim risked a peek at Lona and found her glaring at her husband. “You know she heard you.”
    “Yes, and she knows I didn’t approve of her making you so uncomfortable, but Lona does love to tease.” Steve sat back and blew his wife a kiss. “And I love Lona like crazy, even after almost forty years of marriage.”
    “You better,” Lona told him, winking at Steve. She resumed cooking and Dane chattered away at her as if he’d never been ready to get into a throw down with her for Tim’s sake.
    “I’d like to talk to Lona about some things,” Tim began, then found it difficult to say anything more. He was so used to not discussing his family, them being shifters, with anyone other than a person he was related to. Changing something he’d done all his life wasn’t easy.
    Steve