He pulled his head back and leaned against the cold stone wall. He closed his eyes, searching his memory for any hint of who she might be. He had been doing the same thing for the last five minutes, and it was proving to be a useless endeavor.
"What are you doing?"
He jumped, his eyes flew open as Mike and Jack stepped out of the shadows of the alley. "Don't do that!" he snapped.
They grinned as they exchanged amused glances. They knew he hated it when they cloaked their presence from him and popped out of nowhere to try scaring him. It often worked. What aggravated him the most was he couldn't do it to them. He couldn't control his powers as well as they could, and they knew it.
"So, what are you doing?" Mike asked again.
Ethan scowled at them as he glanced around the corner again. "I was looking at that woman in the diner."
"Ah hell," Jack groaned. "Don't tell us you're going to turn into your mother and father!"
"Hardly!" Ethan snorted, the thought alone made his stomach turn. "She looks familiar, but I can't place who she is."
Mike and Jack exchanged a glance before Mike poked his head out of the alley to look. "Where?" Mike asked.
Ethan leaned around him and pointed to the small, pudgy woman in the diner window.
Mike frowned thoughtfully, then his eyes widened in astonishment, and his mouth dropped. "It's Kathleen!"
"What?" Jack demanded, shoving his way past them. "Wow! It is! Crap, is that what we'd look like now?"
"She seems to have aged pretty well," Mike said thoughtfully. "She must be what, forty-seven?"
"How old are you, dumb ass?" Jack retorted sarcastically.
Mike scowled at him before turning his attention back to the diner. "Forty-seven," he muttered.
Jack smiled at him before turning his attention back to the diner. "There you go. Well, I guess she doesn't look bad. I'm just glad we don't look like that. Wrinkles," he said with a shudder.
"Shut up, Jack. Ethan, go over there and talk to her," Mike commanded.
"What?" Ethan demanded as he rounded on him in disbelief.
Mike nodded toward the diner; his short blond hair fell around his face. "Go over there."
Ethan stared at him incredulously. "You go over there," he retorted.
Mike and Jack looked at him like he was an idiot.
"We knew Kathleen in college, if she saw the way we look now, she'd probably have a heart attack," Jack explained slowly as if Ethan were dumb.
Ethan suddenly remembered who she was. Kathleen had been his mother's best friend in college, but he hadn't seen her in over fifteen years. He glanced back at the diner in disbelief. "What am I going to say to her?"
"Just go over there and see how she's doing. I'm sure your mom would like to know. Now, go on," Mike encouraged.
Ethan scowled at him. "I'm a little too old for you to be ordering around."
"You're not that big yet, now go."
He would have stayed and argued with them, but he knew it was pointless. They always won, and besides, he was more than a little curious to see how she was doing. He left the alley and jogged across the rain-washed street to the diner. The bell above the door rang as he entered, and the smell of human food instantly assaulted his senses.
Wrinkling his nose at the smell, he glanced down the line of booths to the middle-aged blonde sitting in one of them. Her short blonde hair was pulled into a ponytail, and strands of it fell free to curl around her small, heart-shaped face.
He was unable to move as he stared at her. She was not the woman he remembered. This woman had lines around her mouth and eyes, her forehead was creased, and her skin was beginning to sag around her neck and chin. Strands of gray streaked her hair. This is what his mother should look like, he realized with a start. The thought was incredibly sad and more than a little frightening. For the first time, he truly understood his immortality.
"Can I help you?"
Ethan blinked as he was pulled from his reverie by the cute waitress who stepped before him. An admiring gleam lit her brown eyes as she openly surveyed him. He returned her smile without thinking.
She moved a little closer, the menus in her hand brushed against his chest. "Would you like to sit?" she asked.
"Oh, ah no," he replied, casting a glance at Kathleen as he recalled why he was here. "I just came to see someone."
Her mouth pouted as she stepped back. Ethan brushed past her, instantly forgetting her existence as he made his way toward Kathleen. He hadn't seen her since he was ten years old, he highly doubted she would remember him, but he might as well try and talk to her. Besides, Mike and Jack would be pissed if he went back with nothing, and he didn't feel like dealing with the two of them.
"Hi, Kathleen, right?"
She looked up from the newspaper in front of her. Her large blue eyes blinked in surprise as her mouth dropped open. "Liam?" she gasped.
Ethan smiled as he slid into the booth across from her. "No, Liam's my father. I'm Ethan."
A cheerful smile spread over her pretty face. "I'm sorry, it's just... you look just like your father!"
Ethan slid an arm over the back of the booth. "So I've been told."
Kathleen's blue eyes rapidly scanned his face and posture as she shook her head in disbelief. "I can see some of your mother in you though. How is she?" she asked eagerly as she leaned across the table.
Although she’d gained some weight, and her face was aged, she was much like the Kathleen he recalled. She was energetic, with an easy smile, and an amazing amount of warmth pouring from her.
He felt a stab of sorrow for his parents and their friends. They’d been forced to push Kathleen out of
