Chapter One – Caroline

“Are you sure you did the right thing, asking me to be his guardian if anything happens to either of you?” Caroline asked. She was holding baby Richard, and staring down into his clear, innocent, blue eyes, trying to ignore the sound of her biological clock ticking away.

“Perfectly sure,” Jamie, her brother, replied. “I know you would protect him and love him as your own.”

“That isn’t saying a lot,” Caroline replied. “I’m not the maternal type, remember?”

“Aren’t you, Caro?” Jamie asked, his eyebrow arched. He always was too good at reading her mind.

“I couldn’t do what you’ve done. Taking on two kids. That is the most heroic thing I’ve ever witnessed,” Caroline said, tearing her eyes off Richard to watch Jasper toddling around the garden with Juliet in tow. They were giggling like idiots. When Jasper lost his balance and sat down hard on his bottom, Juliet would copy him and they would laugh so hard it looked as if Jasper might puke. It was wonderful to see them so happy, despite having lost their real parents, but Jamie and his mate Dani were doing an amazing job. Not of making them forget, but of making them happy. And happiness was what everyone craved.

“You would have done the same thing if Rich and Mary had asked,” Jamie said, who had left the army to move back to Bear Creek and be their guardian.

“Do you still miss them?” Caroline’s voice hitched as she remembered Richard, whom she had a crush on a mile wide, even after he met his mate and she knew it was never going to happen between them.

“Every day,” Jamie admitted. “But this life is for living.”

Caroline pushed aside the melancholy mood that threatened to shove her pride to one side. Despite her words, she was proud to be little Richard’s godparent. He’d been named after Jasper and Juliet’s father, who had tragically been killed along with their mom, Mary, in a car accident, and that gave Caroline one small tenuous link to him.

Rich’s death had been particularly hard for Caroline. She regretted not getting to know Mary, but her feelings for Rich had been too difficult, a decision she would always regret. Looking at it now, Caroline realized she had been selfish, too wrapped up in her own disappointment to tell Rich and Mary how happy she was for them.

“Naming days are supposed to be happy,” Dani said, coming up to them. Dani was Jamie’s mate, and the mother of Richard, who Caroline had decided was the most beautiful baby in the world.

“They are,” Caroline agreed, reluctantly handing Richard over to Dani. “So I am going to find a drink, and then go and be nice to Richard’s other godparent. If I can find the old dragon.”

“Don’t let Fiona hear you call her old. She doesn’t mind ancient, but old, that hits a nerve,” Dani said.

“Fiona and I are developing a special relationship,” Caroline confided. Fiona, who worked for social services, had stuck by Jamie when false accusations had been leveled at him by Wilma. Fiona had been instrumental in getting the charges dropped.

“A special relationship.” Jamie chuckled. “We thought you were having a battle of wills. Who could spoil Richard the most.”

“There is no competition. A tank tops a dragon any day,” Caroline announced.

“But you don’t drive a tank anymore, sweetie,” Fiona said, coming up behind her. Fiona, a real live, fire-breathing dragon shifter had a habit of doing that.

“Fiona.” Dani kissed her on the cheek, making her blush. Fiona was an enigma, none of them could figure her out. She had an unfathomable depth of emotion, but she liked to hide it behind a hard exterior. “Thank you once again. Both of you for agreeing to be Richard’s godparents. It means a lot to both of us.”

“You are welcome,” Fiona said graciously.

“You know I couldn’t say no. I love you both… all of you… so much.” Caroline didn’t usually show her emotions openly, but she hugged Jamie and Dani tightly, breathing in the scent of little Richard, and wishing that one day she would find the same kind of happiness they shared.

“We love you too. I can’t tell you how happy we are you decided not to reenlist.” Dani blushed. “In a very patriotic way, of course.”

Jamie laughed. “I think Caro and I have both done our service to our country.”

“We have, and Will’s offer was too tempting. Helping extend what Dylan started in Bear Bluff, into Bear Creek has been a different kind of duty,” Caroline said. “Which reminds me, I have to go away for a couple of days.”

“Oh, how exciting, all expenses paid, I hope,” Dani said enthusiastically. Caroline loved her new sister-in-law, as a first-grade teacher she was enthusiastic about everything, especially changing diapers. Although even Caroline could understand why Dani loved changing diapers, and all of the other messy stuff that came with having a baby. When Dani met Jamie, she was certain she would never conceive, after suffering a miscarriage a year before. The fact that she had made the beautiful baby boy Dani held in her arms more special, if that were possible.

“It is all expenses paid,” Caroline admitted with a rueful smile.

Jamie laughed, and Dani looked from one to another and said, “What am I missing?”

“My sister’s all expenses paid trip, is a two-day hike up a mountain to ask a man about a house.” Jamie put his arm around Dani and grinned at Caroline. “You should have asked for danger money, Caro. Carter Eden is one of the grumpiest men in Bear Creek. I’m surprised Will is letting you go.”

“Excuse me?” Caroline asked hotly.

“I’m surprised he is letting you go,” Jamie repeated slowly, pressing his sister’s button labeled, women are as capable as men.

“You don’t think I can handle myself?” Caroline asked.

“I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that you can handle yourself.” He grabbed her in a bear hug. “But as your brother, it is my duty to worry.”

“And as Richard’s father, it is also your duty to change his diaper, while I make sure everyone has a drink.” Dani passed the baby to his father. “Do you need a refill, Caroline?”

“No. I’m fine, thank you,” Caroline replied, as Jamie walked off, with Fiona at his side. “Do you need a hand?”

“No. You relax, it sounds as if you are going to need all of your strength before you go hiking through the mountains,” Dani insisted.

“Thanks, Dani,” Caroline said. However, she was looking forward to going into the mountains. Her time in Bear Creek, since she retired from active duty, had been one long day after another filled with organizing and arranging, a thing she was good at, when it came to troops who knew their job and obeyed orders. Civilians, that was a whole other matter.

A couple of days with only her thoughts in her head, and the sun on her face was just what she needed. She was also confident she could handle Carter Eden better than anyone else, except maybe Will, or Dylan. She was a diplomat, able to compromise but still keep her end goal in sight.

She knew Will was worried about her going, he had a protective streak a mile wide, but they had all put their names in a hat, or at least an empty cookie jar, and when her name was pulled out she insisted she was going. Alone. They were too busy for Will to spare more than one person, especially if it turned out to be a bust, and Carter Eden just disappeared into the wilderness, as he had done the last few occasions anyone had gone up to his cabin to visit him.

Not social visits, everyone knew Carter Eden didn’t do social anything. Everyone besides Caroline who had no idea who the man was until she Googled him. Carter Eden had retired from acting at the ripe old age of twenty-five, after turning his back in fame and fortune at the height of his career. Turned his back was putting it mildly. He had bought a house in Bear Creek, which also had a cabin in the mountains attached to the deeds. After a couple of months in Bear Creek, he moved to the cabin permanently. If he came down from the mountain for anything, he did it with no one knowing.

His house in Bear Creek stood empty, no one went in, and it was slowly falling into disrepair. Which was up to him, it was his house after all. However, Carter Eden also owned a parcel of land Will wanted to buy to expand the project he had started with Dylan. The land was to be used for teaching woodland skills, and horticulture. It was ideal, since it was adjacent to the buildings that had already been purchased and converted into a learning center, and a place for the local people to come together to make a community farm.

All she had to do was persuade Carter Eden it was a good idea. If she could get close enough to talk to him. For Caroline that was her main fear, that Carter Eden would take one look at her, and disappear across his mountain, and she would have wasted four days on the round trip for nothing.

Except for a chance to get her head together, and enjoy the mountains she had roamed as a girl. She cast a glance that way now, smiling wistfully, as she remembered the days she had roamed over the highest peaks with Jamie and Rich. Such happy days.

A squeal of delight pulled her back to the two children scampering around on the lawn. At least there was a part of Rich in those two smiling faces. And there was always hope that one day she might meet her mate, and have kids.

Thanks to Jamie and Dani, that thought no longer terrified Caroline. If motherhood was her next job, she would embrace it. But to do that she would have to let go of part of herself. She would have to loosen up, step back from her military training, the training that had filled the hole in her heart left by her unrequited love for Rich. Love that she had to let go of if she was ever going to let anyone else in.

No. No matter how this trip ended, it wouldn’t be a waste of her time.