Free Thank You For Not Shifting (Peculiar Mysteries Book 2) by Renee George

right?”
    “Call me Dom. I’m pleased you remembered.” His green gaze met mine. “We’re still on for Sunday, right?”
    I wanted to tell him “no,” but I would’ve had to explain why, and I wanted to explain even less than I wanted to back out of our lunch date. “Sure.” I gave him a tight-lipped smile because it was all I could muster under the circumstances.
    A woman sashayed into the Sheriff’s office. She had curves for days and fiery red hair to go with her fiery expression. She raised an eyebrow at Dom and his cohorts.
    “Well?” she asked.
    “Wilhelmina,” the Hans guy said, his voice slightly accented. “I told you we’d take care of this.”
    “Look,” she said, snapping her fingers at him. “Jerry might not have been a peach, but he wouldn’t take off without a word.”
    “Who?” I asked.
    Randy Lowry moved closer to me. “You definitely don’t want to get in the middle of this,” he said conspiratorially. He pointed to the redhead. “That’s Willy Boden. Hans’s sister. She’s security for the therian council, and that hair isn’t just window dressing. She has a hot temper. Jerry Blackwell is her sometimes boyfriend and fellow delegate from the Kansas group. They represent the Felidae of their state.”
    “Feel-a-day?”
    “ Felidae ,” he said again. “Big cats. In their case, pumas.”
    “Ah.” In other words, mountain lion shifters like Rose Ann Corman, Jo Jo’s mother, had been. “She seems pretty peeved.”
    “Apparently, Jerry took off the day we arrived and hasn’t been back.”
    A shiver rippled through me. “Three days ago?” Why were they just reporting it now?
    “He and Willy got into a huge fight,” he explained without me asking.
    “Hmm.” I pursed my lips then looked at him. His brown eyes were full of mirth. “Why are you telling me all this?”
    He smiled, his brown eyes glittering with intensity. “I like having a reason to talk to you.”
    “Oh.” I blushed.
    “I only wished I’d been quicker than Dom in asking you out.” He nudged me familiarly. “Watch out for that one. From what I hear, he never stays in one place too long or with any one girl.”
    “You really are straight forward.” And slick, like Dom, in his own way. I bit my lip nervously. I hadn’t been flirted with by any man in a long time, and now I had two flirting hardcore.
    “Life’s too short. I believe in pursuing something when I really want it.”
    I think I must have looked like a deer in the headlights because he suddenly laughed. “Have a nice day, Ms. Trimmel. It was a pleasure to see you again.”
    “Uh huh.” I gave him a crisp wave. “I’ve got to go. See you around.”
    He flashed a brilliant smile. “Count on it.”
    I nodded to Farraday and Connelly, who sat at their desks typing up reports or something to that effect, as I passed by. Before I got to the exit, a hand on my shoulder stopped me. I turned to see Tyler Thompson.
    “You okay, Chav?” He and my brother Judah had been best friends at one time until they had a falling out. Which meant, eventually, I would forgive him for being uncharitable to Sunny when she’d arrived in town. He’d been a dick because he was afraid she’d expose a secret affair between his mother and Judah with her psychic visions. An affair that never happened, I might add. It had made me so angry when I’d found out, but as I stared at him now, all I could feel was pity.
    “I am,” I told him. “Have you been by to see your mom today?”
    “No.” He gave me a puzzled look. “Why?”
    “No reason. I’ll talk to you later.” And without waiting for his response, I made a hasty exit.
    * * * *
    It was almost ten a.m. when I wandered up to Ruth’s yard. The Thompson’s two-story home was just on the other side of their garage. The yard was neatly trimmed and green from all the frequent rain storms we’d had in June. The border up the driveway was lush with purple irises and orange tiger lilies. Bright fuschia