52)

I tossed her a Frisbee, an old blue flying saucer that was probably worth some cash now a days. “You throw this back and forth until one of you looses it in the lake or on the roof, then you fight over the tether ball.”

Mel looked at the Frisbee with excited eyes and turned to run outside, the others following along, except for Sara who gave me a suspicious look, walked over the shelves and grabbed two smaller off-brand plastic throwing disks small enough for Aran to be able to throw before heading out with one last glare at me.

Dare gave me a curious look to which I returned a shrug and then froze.

“Ah, Frisbees are basically a game of fetch, was it insensitive to hand it to the girl who turns into a wolf?”

He laughed. Guess that means I’m clear. I carried out the tether-ball then me and Dare got most of the way through a game before the kids ran over, asked questions and complained about us taking too long as the two of us, gave each other a look and wordlessly agreed to start hitting easy shots to each other to drag out the game to the kids growing frustration.

Ami figured it out first, and whined until Sara began smacking the ball with her hand to shoot the ball around at an awkward angle to hurry the game around, with both of us adults now having to work at prolonging “Our” turn, before the ball finally was driven all the way down the coil.

Of course we had never really decided which way each of us were supposed to be playing for, having just been messing around, but the girls still declared Dare the winner and demanded the paddles.

“Wait, why is he the winner? Give that back, me and him have to play real game.”

My protests were ignored and I was off to collect the making for Molly.

Dare rejoined the conversation at the picnic table while the girls argued behind me and yelled at their giggling brother. “No Aran. You can’t grab the ball while we’re playing. Stop it!”

I got the Dutch oven, a heavy metal pot with little legs on the bottom, a handle that went over the top of the pot, and a heavy lid with a ridge around the rim, from the garage and carried it over to the kitchen.

I had managed to get most of the ingredients out before Adora came wandering in watched me silently, with a growing look of concern on her face as I sprayed cooking oil into the dutch oven and then dumped in a medium sized jar of apple jelly. I had decided not to experiment with both the jelly and peanut butter.

From there I added in three sliced up apples, peels and all, then the cinnamon, nutmeg, and finally the yellow cupcake mix.

I topped that off with several slices of butter, the brown sugar, then a can of off brand lemon lime soda.

She finally broke down and asked “What is that going to be?”

I gave her a questioning look as I set the lid on top. “Molly?”

She followed me out and had a seat on the picnic table again as I knocked around the coals in the barbecue and set the pot in the middle, then started picking up hot coals with tongs and setting them on top. Behind me a I could hear Charles giving her the same answer of “Molly” when she tried questioning him.

The smell was enough to get a sweaty over excited little werewolf girl, followed shortly the rest of the youngsters, over to look at me and the dutch oven in curiosity and to asking a lot of questions.

“What’s that? Are you cooking something? Why are the coals on top? What’s Molly?”

“Dutch over. Molly. So it cooks from all sides. Bring out some ice cream, bowls and spoons, and you can find out.’

That, and Mel dragging on both of the girls arms, got them moving.

It didn’t taste exactly right, normally I would have used pie filling. But it was hot sweet and the ice cream gave it a nice contrast.

After that the younger girl and Aran was getting sleepy, the bugs were coming out, and I was quickly informed citronellen and werewolves did not get along. Deborah explained. “The smell is just too strong.”

So surprisingly werewolves are not a hang out outside in the evening kind of people. Wouldn’t have guessed.

With a promise to return her blue bowl after I finished off the potato salad, she insisted, and cleaned it, the deputy and her roommate where off to put a little wolf girl to bed. For all of the six hours she would be asleep before being up the rest of night.

Adora stayed behind and began helping me to clean up while the girls helped and Charles supervised the boy as he got his promised chance to burn as many twigs as he wanted.

After the clean up, Charles volunteered to help get the kids to bed, to all threes protests. While me and the sheriff sat close enough to the fire to keep away the worst of the bugs.

I offered her another cider, wondering how much being a werewolf changed your limits on drinking and driving. As I had a seat I decided I would keep my limit to two drinks and at least an hour break before getting behind a wheel. Things may have changed for me, but it still wasn’t just my life I would be placing at risk by testing that particular new limit.

“Sooooo… Which world war did you meet your husband in?” Yeah, that’s it. Smooth.

That got a laugh. “I’m not that old. I will not give you my exact age, but I was a just a girl when I meet Darian, and since I aged so much slower then him, he was stuck with a child bride for years.”

She smiled to herself. “He always had a sense of humor about it, bragging about having a young wife right up until he drifted off one night.”

I got a glance. “I will always love him, but my life was not over with him gone.”

She finished off her drink and got up, I joined her because that’s what you’re supposed to do when a lady stands up.

“I think I’ve drank a little too much to drive home, so I hope you don’t mind if I stay the night.”

She began heading into the house. “You should join me after you put out the fire.”

Charles stepped out just in time to step out of her way as she headed inside.

I was following close behind, really hoping I had read that invitation right.

“Ah, Aran is in bed, he was too tired to argue to much, the other two talked me into letting them watch a show before they went to bed...”

I nodded at him absentmindedly, “Thanks a lot Charles for everything, but If you do me one more solid and kill the fire for me, I would really own you one.”

I didn’t wait for an answer as I began to head into the house.