Page 44 of Enchanted to Meet You

“What?” he demanded, noticing my glare. “Those two were never going to buy anything anyway.”

“He’s right,” Zahrah said. “They were only window-shopping.”

“And not for anything we actually sell,” Becca added, and then she and Zahrah collapsed into snorts of laughter.

I was giving them a disapproving look when—thump!Something struck the front display window.

Expecting to see a dazed bird—they sometimes flew into the windowpane during migration season—I was startled when instead I saw that a curvy purple-haired Latina girl had suddenly thrown herself against it. There was a small, frantic-looking dog clutched in her arms.

“Wolf!” we could all hear her crying frantically through the glass. “There’s a wolf!”

Zahrah and Becca stopped laughing, and Dina, flinging her hands to her cheeks, cried, “Mark’s wolf! Oh my God! It’s real.”

It made no sense. How could there be a wolf in West Harbor? Especially downtown West Harbor, where people were still hurrying along the sidewalk in order to make it to the Country Gourmet to pick up their prepared food for dinner before it closed.

Still, Derrick and I reacted at the same time, and so similarly that we almost collided into one another:

We both ran for the door.

“What are you doing?” I cried as Derrick’s hard fingers sank into my soft shoulders.

“Stay. Here.” Then he pushed me behind him before throwing back the dead bolt and opening the door.

“Sweetheart?” he said to the girl in a voice I’d never heard him use before, it was so gentle. “Come here.”

It’s weird how our brains respond in moments of peril. Mine registered the softness of his voice and thought,That must be how he talked to the animals on the farm. No wonder his dad wouldn’t let him go to school. He needed him.

The gentleness of his voice seemed to work. Before I knew it, the teenager was inside the shop, panting breathlessly and squeezing her little dog nearly to death as her gaze scanned the night-darkened sidewalk outside. I saw no signs of a wolf—or anything else, except a normal chilly night in October, with normal West Harbor residents hurrying to get home to their loved ones.

But there was no denying the terror in her gaze.

“Wait!” she cried, as Derrick threw the door closed behind her and prepared to lock it. “My friend! She’s still out there, in the parking lot, around the back!”

Derrick looked at me, his silver eyes so bright they might as well have been stars. “Lock the door behind me,” he said to me, then plunged out into the darkness.

What was going on? Wolf attacks didn’t happen in West Harbor—at least, none that I’d ever heard of.

Except that here I was, locking my shop door against one.

“Holy shit,” Dina cried, rushing forward with Becca and Zahrah to surround the terrified girl. “Are you all right, honey?”

“Did the wolf bite you?” Becca asked. “What about your puppy?”

“Do you want some water?” Zahrah wanted to know. “What’s your name? Can we call your parents?”

The girl, overwhelmed, could only gaze out the glass door after Derrick. “No. I think I’m okay. My name is Gabby.”

I gasped as I turned around after throwing the dead bolt into place. “Gabby? Are you Esther’s friend?”

She nodded, gazing up at me with mascara-smeared, tear-filled eyes. “Yes, Gabriella Aquino. We were just out walking Willa—that’s my dog—after the Harvest Princess meeting, and I was saying how lucky Estie is to have you for a mentor. I love this shop. I would give anything to work here. So we decided to walk by. Not tospyon you, or anything,” she added, hastily. “I would never do such a thing. But I wanted to see if you’d discounted anything even more since the Fall into Fall sale. I got these shoes here.” She pointed to the purple clogs she was wearing. “But just as we were cutting through the parking lot out back, this wolf—at least, I think it was a wolf—appeared out of nowhere, and—”

She broke off, shuddering, which was just as well because it was at that point that I saw Pye slink into view. He’d realized there was a dog in the shop—wolf or domestic pet, it didn’t matter, Pye hated all dogs equally—and had leaped silently up onto the sales counter, his tail puffed.

“It’s okay,” I said soothingly, slipping an arm around the girl and turning her so that her back was to Pye. The dog, unfortunately, now had a perfect view of the cat, and began to whimper—and rightfully so. Pye was harmless—unless you were a mouse, chipmunk, or small lap dog. “My friend Derrick will find Esther and bring her here, good as new.”

“Really? Do you think so?” Gabby sniffled. “I’m so worried. I shouldn’t have left her out there, but I was just so worried for Wil—”

Bang.We all jumped as a fist struck the glass door. It was Derrick, standing beside a smiling Esther. “Heeeyyyy!” she called,waggling her gloved fingers at Gabby. She was dressed in the same clothes she’d been wearing when I’d seen her at school, including her backpack—which meant that, unless she’d found and removed it, she still had my protective amethyst with her.