The day before Christmas Eve, Matt worked a half-shift, as a favour to cover Owen because his daughter had an emergency.

He rarely pulled any extra shifts these days. He was too busy renovating the new Escape Inn, on the outskirts of Pine Harbour. If they kept to a good schedule, they might open in time for Valentine’s Day. He liked to joke that Natasha might have a boutique inn empire at this rate, and she liked to joke that he hated sleep.

She wasn’t wrong. But he was getting better on that score every day. Balance and purpose in his life really helped.

So did doing little things to make his fiancée happy—like picking up a newly cut Christmas tree the day before their wedding, so it would be as fresh as possible.

Except that wasn’t such a little thing.

And Natasha freaked out when she saw the one he’d picked. “You have got to be kidding me.”

Matt glanced behind him, following her gaze to the tree in the back of his truck. “What?”

“That thing is not going to fit through the front door.”

“Ah, sure it will.”

“Matt!”

“What?” His grin was so big he thought it might split his face open. Okay, so the tree was a bit big. Even bundled, it wasn’t contained in the bed of his pickup. It bulged proudly, promising thick green branches to hold the Christmas ornaments he’d been buying every time they stopped at a thrift store together over the last year. “I want to have a nice big tree. It’s an important date.”

“There won’t be much room for our guests since the tree is going to take up half of the living room.”

“I had a different idea. Let’s put it in the back hallway, outside the downstairs apartment. Next to the stairs. I think everyone would fit in there, and that would be a nice place to exchange vows.”

“Did you just rewrite our entire wedding plan?”

“Maybe.”

She kissed him hard on the mouth. “I love it.”

Natasha’s sister and her family arrived that night, checking into the upstairs apartment. Shortly after they arrived, Matt’s brothers came over to take their brother to the pub for a final drink as a single man.

Meredith gave Tasha an are you freaking kidding me look, and as soon as the Fosters were out the door, she told Dan he was on bedtime duty for all three kids.

“We have sister things to talk about,” she said. “Over tea.”

“I’ve missed you,” Natasha said, laughing as she was dragged into the kitchen.

“You never said Matt’s brothers were all equally hot.”

Because they weren’t, but she didn’t think Meredith cared about Tasha’s opinion on the matter. She forced herself to stop giggling. “They’re all married.”

“What? So am I. Dan’s definitely there in whatever firefighter-sandwich fantasy I might innocently have.”

“There’s nothing innocent about you. And I didn’t need to know that about Dan, either.”

“He looks great in yellow and red.”

“Please stop. Also, none of them are firefighters.” She hesitated. “There is one coming tomorrow, though. Matt’s boss. Don’t grope him.”

“I make no promises. What’s his name?”

Natasha wiped happy tears from her eyes. “Owen. And he’s lovely. Don’t scare him away.”

Of course Mer was all talk. The next night, Christmas Eve, she was the picture of sweetness as Natasha’s maid of honour. “None of this matron crap, right?”

“Never,” Tasha promised her sister as they finished getting dressed with Emily in the downstairs apartment. “You look beautiful. And very maiden-ly.”

They were all wearing lace. Meredith and Emily were both in red—Emily’s dress with a pink ribbon around the waist—and Natasha was in white.

Their wedding might be small and intimate, but her dress was gloriously formal. It even had a little train, which she would bustle up immediately after the ceremony.

A knock at the door interrupted their tearing up. Dani popped her head around the door. “Calvin’s ready,” she said, ducking into the room with her son.

He was dressed in a tiny tuxedo.

“And everyone is outside.”

Nerves fluttered to life in Natasha’s chest. “Okay. We’re… ready, I guess. If Matt’s out there?”

Dani nodded, her eyes wet. “He’s grinning like an idiot.”

“Then let’s do this. Em, take Calvin’s hand. Dani, you can start the music.”

Her new sister-in-law left, and then she heard the first strains of “Carol of the Bells”, the song she’d decided to walk down the aisle to. Or really, out the door to.

Meredith went first, opening the door, and this time leaving it open. Then Emily and Calvin followed her, hand-in-hand. Her daughter had sprouted up in the last year, now proudly four-and-a-half.

She was going to make the best big sister.

They would tell her tomorrow morning.

Tasha pressed a hand to her still-flat belly, then took a deep breath and stepped up to the doorway.

Everyone in their family was there. Meredith and the kids had stepped up the staircase, moving out of her way. In front of them stood Matt, on the bottom step. Gorgeous and strong in a black suit.

He held out his hand to her and she crossed the small landing to join him and the minister who had agreed to marry them.

“My bride,” he whispered.

She smiled and took a deep breath. “My husband.”

After their vows, and a long, glorious kiss, Matt took Natasha’s hand and led everyone back to their side of the house for a dinner he’d made with his own two hands.

Except for dessert—that was all his wife’s doing. She’d put herself in charge of the drinks, too, which meant she kept getting dragged from his arms.

He didn’t mind, though. He had the rest of his life to hold her, and she was in her element as a hostess.

And it meant that he could spend time with their guests—and notice when things were wrong. Tom kept checking his phone, and after the third hostile shove of the device back into his pocket, Matt sauntered over with two beers.

He held one out to his friend. “Here.”

“Thanks.”

“What’s wrong?”

Tom wiped his face. “Nothing.”

“Are you sure?” Matt gestured for the kitchen, and his friend—always in control, always stoic and reserved—stormed past him.

Okay, so not nothing.

He followed Tom through the door to the back of the house and found him pacing in front of the giant Christmas tree.

His friend swore under his breath. “I didn’t mean to bring down your night. That was a really nice wedding.”

“You aren’t doing anything to my night, it’s fine. What’s going on?”

“Chloe’s pregnant,” Tom growled.

That’s what he was blowing up his phone over?

“Chloe who you hooked up with once before she rejected you?” If Tom was having misplaced jealously over an old fling, Matt didn’t have time for that.

The growl got worse. “Chloe who I’ve been sleeping with for a year.”

Ah. Not misplaced, and not jealousy. “Okay, well, congrats on keeping that a secret. And why are you pissed? Is it yours?”

“Yes, the baby is mine. Except she’s taken off. She left me a note that she doesn’t expect anything from me. And now she’s not responding to any of my text messages.”

Oh, good Lord. “You probably said the wrong thing and she’s reacting with pregnancy hormones. She’ll be back after the holidays and you can make it up to her then.”

“No. She won’t. Her apartment is empty. She’s gone, and I don’t know where or why.”

Well, shit. “This sounds like a problem for Dean and Zander.”

A muscle spasmed in Tom’s jaw. “No. We’re not telling anyone else until we track her down.”

Their brothers were the security consultants, but Matt sensed that this was not a time for logic. “Okay. We’ll figure it out.”

“I mean—” Tom swore under his breath again. “Jesus. Even though it’s unexpected, this baby would be loved, you know?”

Oh, Matt knew. But now wasn’t the time to get into that. “Yeah, for sure. It’s just, ah, maybe she thinks she’s not ready for a baby?” He was out of his depth here. “Maybe she should talk to Natasha. And she’d keep the pregnancy a secret, of course.”

The door opened behind him as he said that, and he turned around.

Owen was glaring at him. “How did you know?”

Tom frowned at Owen. “How did you know?”

“Who are you talking about?”

“Who are you talking about? I’m talking about Chloe.”

Fuck. Matt held up his hands. “Okay, one at a time. I mean, I don’t know who’s drama is bigger here, but please tell me you aren’t talking about the same woman.”

Owen was still giving Tom a terrifying look, but he shook his head. “No. Sorry. Not the same woman.”

Matt wasn’t sure he wanted to be in the middle of any of this, but hey, he’d never been a friend one would have confided in before, so he wasn’t going to knock that he had two buddies sharing secrets.

Except it was his wedding day, so they should make it quick. He wanted to get back to his bride. He turned to Owen. “Who did you think he was talking about?”

“It doesn’t matter. I overreacted.”

Tom laughed. “Welcome to the club.”

“Is someone else…” Matt trailed off as Owen’s eyes blazed with fury. Pregnant. Someone else was pregnant.

And Matt was pretty sure it was Owen’s eighteen-year-old daughter.

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