Page 4 of Loan Wolf (Green Valley Shifters: Generations #1)

4

CLARA

C lara wasn’t sure why she felt so restless and at odds with herself. She wanted to prod Trevor or Aaron into a fight for no good reason, but she didn’t want them to argue. She wanted to point out how well she’d done for herself, but she wanted to stop talking about dancing forever. She wanted to be the center of attention, but she didn’t want anyone to look at her.

And if she heard ‘I remember when you were this tall!’ one more time, she was going to scream.

She shook hands with a hundred people, Trevor and Aaron trailing her and jostling over who got to introduce her to each one. Trevor was very ungracious about having to leave, but made her promise to meet for breakfast some morning.

Linda Powell had married the Fire Chief Turner, apparently. “Clara Montgomery! Of course, I’ve heard all about you, and you were a very memorable Mary in the Christmas pageant.”

Clara smiled the exact amount she had to. That story had been brought up almost as many times as her height. “Come back, baby Jesus,” she chuckled.

Linda’s laugh was a sparkling city-laugh, and she didn’t take long to get to business. “You’ve heard about our new theatre, I believe. We’re hosting a revue to end our season next weekend. Would you be willing to do a short dance number? It would be an absolute coup for the theatre! The perfect note to end on!”

Clara was intensely aware of how many people were around them. Some were distracted with their own conversations, but a lot of them—too many!—were shamelessly eavesdropping or lingering at the fringes. Dancing in Green Valley was the last thing she wanted to do, but she knew it would reflect poorly on her stepmother if she was rude, and she couldn’t think of a graceful excuse. It wasn’t like there was anything else to do here during their stay and it wasn’t like she could admit she’d been looking forward to seeing who she was when she wasn’t a famous dancer.

“I’d be delighted,” she lied reluctantly.

This sparked a flurry of excitement and speculation around them and Clara knew there was no way to back out now. She was well and truly backed into the corner.

At least it couldn’t possibly be worse than the Christmas pageant everyone remembered her for now!