Firefly Hollow by T. L. Haddix Page A

on end. He sat down with a soft grunt. “Try starting at the beginning. Tell me who she is.”
    Owen knew his face reflected his surprise. “How did you know it was a girl? Woman, I guess. She’s not a girl.”
    His uncle’s answering smile was rueful. “When a man gets to a certain age, it’s almost always a woman. Tell me about her.”
    “Remember the neighbor’s daughter who’d been coming over to the little swimming hole on my land? The one who went away to school a few years ago?”
    Eli nodded. “Sure. I remember how relieved you were when she left.”
    “Well, she’s back.” Owen explained about Sarah’s father’s death, her job at the library, and their encounter at the pool. “I didn’t handle it well, but damn it, Eli. I didn’t know what else to do.”
    His uncle rubbed a hand over his chin, a look of almost disappointment on his face. “How did she react?”
    “It upset her. I felt like a heel. And then, the day I left to come down here? I got this.” Laying the comb aside, he pulled the letter from his coat pocket. The paper was starting to become worn, he’d read it so much. With some reluctance, he handed it to his uncle, then turned to finish working with the horse.
    Eli opened it and read without speaking. When he was finished, he carefully slid it back into the envelope and tapped the edge of the paper on his knee. His expression was pensive, and he didn’t speak as he watched Owen finish grooming the horse. Once the animal was back in its stall, fed and watered, Owen sat down on a bale of hay across from his uncle.
    “Why are you so afraid?” Eli asked. “Is it because you don’t want to be hurt, or is it because of what you are, what we are?” He handed the letter back to Owen, and Owen tucked it into his pocket.
    “A little of both, I guess. I’ve never fit in with the rest of the world, not really. And I’ve never told anyone what I am. Harlan didn’t even know, and he was my brother. He never accepted me for everything else that I am, so I couldn’t see him accepting that I’m a shifter.”
    “No offense to your late brother, but Harlan was never the most thoughtful person. If he’d been much more close-minded, he would have been a potato.”
    Owen conceded the point with a nod. “True. But, Eli, there are way more people like Harlan than like you. What if I did reach out to her, let her in, and she turns out to be like him?”
    Eli crossed his ankle over his knee. “Your instincts are better than that.”
    “Not where she’s concerned, they’re not. She mixes me up inside. I either clam up when I’m around her, or I say the wrong thing. She’s home to stay, from what I gather, and I’m not about to move off the mountain. I can’t avoid her. I don’t know what to do.”
    “What do you want to do?”
    Owen felt his cheeks flush.
    Eli gave a soft laugh. “Okay. Well, there’s that. What does your gut say? Ignore your head and tell me what your instincts are saying.”
    Running his hands through his hair, Owen sighed. “I want her. Period. The end.”
    “Then don’t you think you should find out if she feels the same way? Owen, what if she isn’t like Harlan? What if she’s more like my Amy or your mother?”
    “What if she isn’t?”
    Eli stood. “Then find out one way or another. Don’t keep torturing yourself, and her, by going on like this. It serves no purpose.” He walked toward the door, then threw a question back that gave Owen pause. “Do you think the kind of person who comes to that pool, who respects it the way your Sarah seems to, could really be like Harlan?”
    Owen shook his head.
    His eyes full of sympathy, Eli held out his hand. “Come on. Amy’ll have supper ready by now. There’s no need for you to rush off. I think you do need to think on this for a little while. Stay here like you planned. But you’re going to have to give serious consideration to making things right with this girl, Owen. I don’t think you’ll rest