Five months later
“Guess what Steffi dropped off this afternoon?” Mary said, leaning against the black granite kitchen counter and grinning at Tyler.
She was holding something behind her back.
Tyler was in the middle of basting the Thanksgiving turkey with a mixture of white wine and melted butter. The house was filled with the mouth-watering smells of the roasting bird and all the side dishes that Tyler and Mary had prepared for their guests.
He paused to study his mate with appreciation. Her honey-colored hair was loose and shining on her shoulders. She was wearing a very flattering wine-colored tunic and leggings, and her rounded belly made him smile with happiness every time he saw it.
“I have no idea,” he said honestly. Then a thought struck him. “Oh shit, it’s not your birthday, is it?”
He could have sworn that Mary had been born in mid-May.
“Nope, but it kind of feels like it,” she said, to his relief. Then she showed him what she’d been hiding. “Hot off the presses and all mine!”
Tyler examined the glossy calendar and chuckled at the cover photo of Dane posing shirtless at the entrance to one of the firehouse’s garage bays. He wore just his bunker pants and boots, with little Matt perched on his shoulders and the BPRFD’s ladder truck in the background.
“I asked Steffi to make you Mr. March,” Mary informed him. “Since that’s when the baby’s due. Wanna see your picture?”
“I’m scared,” Tyler joked. “I probably look like an idiot.”
Despite his protests, last July’s photo shoot for the calendar had been more fun than he had expected. Mary, Annabeth, Steffi, Caitlyn, and all the other firefighters’ wives and girlfriends had come to watch their men make fools of themselves for charity. Most of the onlookers had brought food, turning the event into an informal potluck picnic on the sidewalk across the street from the firehouse.
“Maybe you see an idiot, but I see sexy and happy…and all mine,” Mary said, flipping the calendar pages to Tyler’s portrait.
Tyler groaned with embarrassment, but he had to admit that the photographer had done a great job posing him with Bogey perched on his forearm.
Steffi had found a website that sold costumes for pets, including “birdie bonnets,” and as a result, Bogey was wearing a miniature fireman’s helmet.
Being a parrot, he’d promptly chewed the helmet to dime-sized red plastic pieces as soon as the shoot was over
“Please put that thing away before my mom shows up,” he begged Mary.
He and Mary were hosting Thanksgiving this year in their newly completed home. Tyler had invited his mother, and Mary had invited her parents and Kenny, along with her Uncle Bill and Aunt Mandy.
Mary’s older brother Dean had his own mate and family, and they were hosting Thanksgiving for the rest of the pack on his ranch. Elle was doing the same for the Swansons living on the Grizzly Creek Ranch.
Tyler was glad that he’d finished building the Craftsman-style cottage in time for the holidays. Once he’d recovered from his injuries, he’d spent most of the summer working on it every spare minute.
There’d been a few sleepless nights in September when delayed shipments had played havoc with his construction schedule. He had only managed to make his October 1 deadline with the help of his Swanson cousins and most of his fellow firefighters, including Zack, who had shown up to help with the painting and other finishing touches on the cottage.
Her blue eyes dancing with mischief, Mary shook her head. “Too late. Your mom bought her own copy. So did my mom. And so did a whole lot of other people. Steffi told me that this year’s calendar sold out in a week. She’s already ordered a second print run.”
Tyler wasn’t sure how he felt about that.
Mary giggled at the expression on his face and drew him down for a quick kiss as the front door opened.
“Oh, I see you got your calendars! I just picked one up too, sweetie,” Grandma Betty said cheerfully, as she and Grandpa Rob came in from the cold.
She was short and plump, with carefully styled ash-blonde hair, and she was carrying a pair of full shopping bags. Grandpa Rob, tall and silver-haired, was right behind her, carefully balancing a stack of Cinnamon + Sugar’s bakery boxes in his arms.
She continued, “I’m going to hang it in my living room and make all my friends jealous when they come over to play cards.”
Tyler felt his face go hot. “Grandma!” he protested, mortified.
Everyone laughed at him.
“I’m going to put mine in my office,” Mary told his grandmother. “Where I can look at it whenever I’m stuck in there, filling out reports.”
At Tyler’s urging, his grandparents had come all the way from Portland to spend the holiday in Mary and Tyler’s new house. They were currently installed in the guest suite, which had its own attached bathroom.
Itching to help with the Thanksgiving preparations in some way, they had offered to make a run over to Annabeth’s to pick up the pumpkin, apple, and huckleberry pies that Tyler had ordered.
Grandma Betty had also swung by the grocery store to pick up a few last-minute odds and ends that Tyler had discovered he needed, including whipping cream for the desserts.
Grandpa Rob looked around the big chef’s kitchen with an approving expression. “Son, have I told you that you did a great job with this house? I’m impressed, especially when you mentioned that you bought the plans over the Internet.”
“Thanks, Grandpa. I learned from the best,” Tyler said, filled with warmth from the compliment.
His grandfather didn’t hand out praise like Halloween candy, so it made receiving compliments from him all the more precious.
It had been a busy summer, but by the end of it, Tyler had moved into this new house, handed the reins of Schaeffer Construction over to his cousin Eddie, and started his new business, Swanson Construction.
Now here he was, cooking in the kitchen he’d built with his own hands to feed his mate and their future children, and about to share Thanksgiving dinner with Mary and their respective families.
He had finally found his forever home in Bearpaw Ridge.
The End
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