Now was not the time to discuss how soon she could move in with him, and she knew it’d be a matter of when, not a discussion of whether Simon was okay with it.
“Good to know I’m doing my bit for science.” He took her hand as they strolled down the sidewalk. “Do they deserve cupcakes yet?”
“No. Maybe next week.” She was glad he’d taken her lead in changing the subject, and she told him of what they’d gotten up to over the past week as they walked over to his parents’ house. It took her mind a little off the evening ahead, but her stomach still squirmed when they arrived at a detached house with a well-maintained front yard.
She knew that the shifters in Kirkwood were still suspicious of her, but the mayor visiting her two more times was helping. She’d also taken her students to lunch a couple times in town, and Simon told her some bold shifters had gone out earlier that week. They’d stayed in their own area and away from Madison’s research site. So far, so good.
Random shifters being wary around her she could live with. Tonight was different.
“Won’t they be scared?” Madison tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “Because of who I am?”
Simon squeezed her hand. “Who you are, is wonderful. You’re my fated mate. That’s the most important thing.”
“I’d like them to like me for me.”
“They will.” He nodded at the front door. “Besides, they’re as nervous about meeting you as you are about meeting them. I’m just saying, you may want to prepare for some mutual awkwardness.”
She sighed, squaring her shoulders as she went with him.
Simon knocked on the door and kept holding her hand when a young woman with wavy brown hair opened the door. Her eyes were a lighter brown than Simon’s, but her grin was equally infectious. “You must be Madison! Come in!” She stepped back, turning around. “Mom! Dad! They’re here!”
Madison shared a smile with Simon. “Your sister doesn’t seem nervous.”
“Cassie was the most excited to meet you,” he admitted, leading the way inside. “She’s been asking about you.”
She realized she hadn’t been asking about Simon’s family as much as she should’ve. She didn’t know if there were sensitive topics she should avoid. “And your parents?”
“Have also been asking about you.” He closed the door behind her. “And I already told you, they’re as scared of you as you are of them.”
“That’s spiders.”
“Close enough.”
She laughed. “It’s nowhere near close, it’s—” She fell silent when they entered the kitchen, where Simon’s mother had just opened the oven. “Oh, that smells amazing.”
Simon’s mother, wearing oven mitts, looked relieved. “Oh, good. Simon didn’t tell us anything about what you liked for dinner, so I made a casserole. You like tuna?” She looked to be in her fifties, a few silver strands in her dark hair, and shorter than Simon and Cassie.
“Tuna’s great.” Especially after multiple evenings of eating outside and spending a lot of time settling arguments over who had to cook and who had to wash up. “I’m Madison.” She offered her hand.
“Barbara, and it’s wonderful to…” She trailed off, having realized she was still wearing the oven mitts. “To meet you.”
“Probably should’ve waited to introduce myself…” Madison felt equally embarrassed. She’d been the one to offer her hand, too eager to make a good impression.
“Oh, never mind.” Barbara gestured towards the living room. “Dinner will be ready in a few minutes.”
“Can we do anything? Set the—oh, that’s already set.”
Simon put a hand around her shoulder. “Let’s introduce you to Dad.”
That introduction went a lot smoother, and when Cassie mentioned she attended Pinevale University as a Business major, talking came easier. Madison worked in a completely different building, but the campus gave them something to talk about that wasn’t her being an ornithologist.
When they sat down for dinner and Simon had put plenty of salad on her plate, the topic switched to how nice the food was. But there were only so many things Madison could say about the salad and the tuna casserole, and she wondered if she should broach the topic when Cassie did it for her.
“Discovered anything interesting yet?”
“Cassie,” her mother muttered, shooting Madison an apologetic look.
“What, she’s here for research.” Cassie gestured with her empty fork. “They’ve been coming here for years and they’ve never told us anything. I want to know!”
“That doesn’t mean you can just ask her like that,” Simon’s father said. “I’m sure if they’d found anything important, they would’ve mentioned it.”
“Professor Brown really wouldn’t.” Madison wasn’t surprised he’d never bothered reporting back to the town. They weren’t scientists, so what was the point? “I’ve only been here for a week, so it’s far too soon to say if we’ve found anything interesting. We’ll have to look at the data we’ll gather over the next few weeks, then go back to the university to compare it to information from previous years. I’m sure we could present our findings to the town, if anyone’s interested.”
“I’m interested,” Cassie immediately said.
Simon’s parents looked less sure. “I’m sure you have other important things to do,” his father told her.
“But this is important,” Madison insisted. “My colleagues have been coming here for years and they’ve never even told you why, have they?”
Simon’s mother shook her head. “Well, no, but to be honest, I’m not sure we would’ve given them much of a chance…”
Their secret. The reluctance went both ways. “Then maybe it’s time to change that, too. If people want to,” she added. “But I think it’s important. It’s your forest. You deserve to know what we’re doing here and what we’ve found so far. Maybe not everyone in town wants to know about bird migration, but we can still share our findings.”
“Is that what you guys have been studying all those years?” Cassie sounded both surprised and disappointed. “Migration?”
If Madison ever ran into Professor Brown again, she’d yell at him for not even
