Caging the Wolf (Snowdonia Wolves) Read Free Page B

his head to one side, and sniffed the air. “Hang on. Can you smell popcorn?”
    I shrugged. “The cinema is just down the mall. We could get some, if you like?”
    “Really? I love popcorn. What are we waiting for?” He tugged my hand and with a giggle, I let him sweep me along. “Do you live near here?”
    “Not too far. I live in a suburb called Stockport.”
    We queued up with the movie-goers, and inched closer to the busy popcorn dispenser. The questions continued, tossed so quickly I couldn’t reply to them, before he asked the next.
    How long had I spent in New Zealand? Why had I gone there? Would I go back? What did I usually do at Christmas? Did I have a boyfriend? Did I have a big family?
    I couldn’t help laughing, and he turned to me, a quizzical look on his face. “What?”
    “I don’t know what to answer first.”
    The part of me that recognised this was a dream, noted that we were no closer to the front of the line than we’d been a minute ago. The rest of me didn’t care. I buzzed with the thrill of his attention, utterly enthralled by the novelty of having him by my side. People moved around us, endlessly shifting, like the incoming tide, and we stood still in the centre of it all. I stared at his face, wondering again about the brilliance of his eyes, the devilment in his smile. How would it feel to kiss him?
    It wouldn’t be real.
    He doesn’t exist outside my dream.
    Unthinking, I licked dry lips and saw his gaze focus on them.
    “The boyfriend question.” Levi’s voice rumbled, deeper and even more dangerous. “Answer that one first.” He leaned forward, and placed his hand on my arm.
    “Here we are, love.”
    I opened my eyes to see Mum’s smile. Where was Levi? I blinked and the world reasserted itself. We’d parked on the street outside our house. I’d been asleep in the car. It had been Mum touching my arm. I’d never been jetlagged before, never travelled far enough to cross several time zones in one journey, and now I understood why people hated it. I felt disoriented, as though I’d really been there at the Trafford Centre, and had been dragged back to wake here.
    I yawned, and then got my ass moving. Grabbing my bags from the car, I followed Mum up the path to the neat brick terrace house where I’d grown up. A typical Victorian build, it may have been narrow, but it was deep, and spacious inside. Everything was familiar, from the untidy heap of shoes by the door, to the fridge full of homemade food. I’d enjoyed travelling, but it was good to be home.
    Checking the time, it was only two in the afternoon. Dad wouldn’t be home for ages, and Charlie with him. That was one advantage of having their own business: my parents could take the dog with them to work. They owned and ran a small hardware store, and it’d been in Dad’s family for three generations. He liked to say that Morgan’s Hardware still had the same values as when his grandfather first established the business, and he was probably right. Sometimes I feared it still carried the same stock.
    Morgan’s Hardware would be my legacy when they retired. I’d spent afternoons and weekends behind the counter since I first started school, and would do my homework in the back room while my parents served customers. The shop was as big a part of our family as Charlie. That’s why it was so amusing that Jack was determined to buy it. Dad would never sell.
    At one time I didn’t mind having my future mapped out, but these days I had my doubts.
    Mum went back to work and I went for a long and blissful shower. That was the plan. I only meant to lie down on my bed for a few minutes, but I couldn’t keep my eyes open. Next thing, I was back in the Trafford Centre.

Chapter Seven
    Levi sat on the bench this time, sprawled as lazily as before, and his welcoming grin was a thing of beauty. “Sure is hard work having a conversation with you, Jess.”
    He didn’t look put out, and I smiled back. I felt absurdly relaxed