I could see them now, holding hands, still chattering away. Maya’s German shepherd Kenjii walked on her other side. Maya will turn seventeen in a week. She’s Native American—mostly, at least—a few inches taller than me with long black hair and dark eyes. Daniel is about five-ten, with a boxer’s build, blond hair and blue eyes. When we first arrived, Tori had checked him out, but she’d declared that, as cute as he was, he wasn’t to her tastes. In other words, she’d seen how he looked at Maya and had known she didn’t stand a chance.

“Hey,” Maya said, turning as she heard my footsteps. “I thought if we talked loud enough, Derek would hear and come barreling over to give us crap for disturbing you two. But I’m guessing he’s not dressed yet.”

“He just finished Changing back,” I said as I gave Kenjii a pat.

“Uh-huh. In the last hour or so, right?”

A year ago, I’d have turned crimson and started stammering. Now I just laughed. Maybe I was growing up. Maybe it’s Maya, rubbing off on me. Or maybe it’s just learning that being able to talk openly about sex—with both my boyfriend and with a girl friend—makes it easier to navigate what can be really tricky ground. And yes, maybe that’s part of the “growing up” thing, too.

“Apologies for the interruption,” Daniel said. “We wouldn’t do it if we didn’t have to.”

“Yeah, I know,” Derek said, appearing beside me. “So, what’s up?”

“If we’re going to North Bay, we need to leave”—Daniel checked his watch—“right about now.”

“What?” I said.

“Moreno just got word that Sean had to move his visit up to Monday. While we don’t necessarily have to be here for that…”

“We have a list of things we want to discuss with him,” I said.

“Right. And Maya wants a rec center.”

“To hone our skills,” she said.

“Through table tennis, pinball, and pool,” Daniel said. “Don’t ask.”

“I wouldn’t mind a pinball game,” Derek said.

“Then you can ask Sean for that,” Maya said. “Tell him it’ll help you work off any extra aggression. We’ll divvy up the list. So we agree that we want to be back for Sean’s visit and that we still want to go to North Bay for the weekend?”

We did. Which meant we had to pack fast.