Scotty never did go back to his job. He called Rachael and told her we were getting married right before we went to the Justice of the Peace to elope on that same Saturday night that I’d found him again. She’d told Scotty that she would forgive him for leaving her if she got to come witness our marriage.

I smiled at the memory as I flashed back over our brief ceremony while I double-checked my red serge and adjusted my collar in the mirror. Yeah, we’d married faster than we probably would’ve if there hadn’t been a citizenship issue, but we were happy with our choice. It would’ve happened eventually anyway, of that I had no doubt.

Rachael had crossed the border for the festivities today, and was keeping Scotty company while I marched in the parade with my fellow officers. I’d already turned in my notice right after our wedding, and today was the last time that I would officially wear my RCMP dress uniform—and the first time that Scott would see me wearing it. After today, I’d be a regular citizen again.

I’d slipped away from our Winnipeg hotel room to change at the office before the parade so that he wouldn’t see me in advance, I wanted him to get the full effect of my red serge and breeches as I marched today. My buddy Mike came walking up as I turned away from the mirror.

“Rumor has it that you’re leaving us. Is there a reason why I had to hear about it through the grapevine?”

Seeing the hurt in his eyes made me feel about two inches tall. “Shit, Mike. I’m sorry. I guess I should probably tell you that I got married too, and that we have a baby on the way?”

Mike whistled through his teeth and held up a hand. “Alrighty then. So it wasn’t that you were excluding me, but more that you’ve been busy. Damn, Justin. All these years that I’ve been telling you to get a boyfriend—or girlfriend—and you just slipped off like a ninja and got married? Do I at least get a name?”

I smiled proudly. “Scott. Remember the omega that I met up at your cabin? I know I told you about that much, at least.”

“The one that you’ve been pining for all spring? So I take it you finally tracked him down then?”

“We kind of ran into each other after that weird flooding a couple weeks ago. I found him working in a diner on the American side of Stafford. He’d been trying to get his paperwork together to cross the border and come find me because he’s three months pregnant and wanted me to know. Well, that and he also missed me as much as I was missing him. We got married the same night that we reconnected, and I gave my notice that Monday morning. There you go, you’re all caught up.”

Mike shook his head. “I’ll never get over how that flooding mysteriously stopped after so many people worked to contain it and now it’s like it never happened. It was almost supernatural, if I believed in things like that.”

“Don’t even get me started on that one,” I said as I held a hand up. “Scotty firmly believes in the legend of Amik. If I told you some of the shit that went down after we met—including but not limited to more than one sighting of a fucking albino beaver, if you can believe that shit—you’d almost find yourself becoming a believer.”

“Did you tell your husband that everything can be explained rationally if you examine it hard enough? And that sometimes an albino beaver is just an albino beaver? I mean, they’re rare, but they do exist,” Mike scoffed.

I snorted out a laugh. “Sure, I told him that, and I’d be happy to tell him again—as soon as I make sense of it myself.”

Mike and I walked out of the building and got into formation with the other officers. Our easy patter ended as the parade started. Not because conversation was difficult at the slow pace we were marching, but because it was too loud to hear yourself think, let alone talk, with the bands playing both in front of and behind us.

I burst out laughing when I saw Rachael and Scotty along the parade route. He was wearing an oversized T-shirt with a cartoon picture of Dudley Do-Right on it with Married to a Mountie printed over the cartoon. Rachael’s white T-shirt had a a big red Maple leaf with the words Sorry, eh printed in the middle.

“Hey, Mike!” I shouted over the noise of the crowd. “If you look to your right, the cutie in the Dudley Do-Right shirt is my husband Scott, and the dark-haired girl next to him is his friend Rachael.”

Mike craned his head to check them both out, then turned back to me with a grin. “I see why you were so broken up when he left; he’s adorable. Now tell me about his friend, is she single?”

I was still cracking up when we reached the end of the parade route. After Mike and I were done with our duties, I texted Scotty and met up with him and Rachael at the festival.

Mike naturally tagged along, but that worked out since he and Rachael started flirting and slipped off on their own while I showed Scotty around the festival and introduced him to Timbits.

Even after snacking all afternoon, my husband was still hungry. “Okay, I’m partied out. Why don’t you take me to some restaurant that will show me a taste of Winnipeg’s cuisine.”

“Well, if you’re interested in the cuisine of Winnipeg, you really only have two choices. Pierogies or burgers—if you like either of those, you’ll be just fine living around here.”

“Definitely pierogies,” Scotty said after a moment’s thought. “I mean, I’m an American so obviously I’m always down for a good burger. But pierogies sound really good right now, I haven’t had those in years.”

“So you’ve had them? I didn’t want to assume,” I said as we headed for the car.

An hour later, Scotty pushed the plate away after he’d finally eaten his fill of pierogies—all of his plate, and half of mine. He leaned back into the booth where he sat across me and rubbed his belly with a sated smile.

“My dad’s mom was Polish, and those were almost as good as my babcia’s were. Almost. I should ask my brother if he has her recipe, that would be good to serve at our B&B, especially if pierogies are popular in this area.”

“Definitely, we’ll be the toast of the town with a good pierogi recipe,” I said honestly.

“Remind me when I’m not too full to think, and I’ll text Todd.”

“Is it going to be weird when I meet your brother? Let me rephrase that. I mean, are you guys completely identical?”

“Oh, yeah. When we were kids, we used to take each other’s tests in high school. I was good at English, while Todd was the math wizard. We’d meet in the bathroom and switch clothes to take each other’s tests since we were always in different classes.”

I quirked a brow. “And none of your teachers ever clued into that?”

Scotty’s eyes danced as he shook his head. “Not once. We used to trick everybody—except the people we were dating, so don’t worry about that. Todd and I have strict rules when it comes to the romance department.”

“That’s a relief then,” I said. “As long as I don’t have to worry about waking up to the wrong pair of pretty green eyes, I won’t give it another thought.”

“Speaking of which… we should go back to the hotel and get some sleep, since we need to get an early start tomorrow, right? Do you have anything to do at the office before we have to meet Martha to sign the papers and get the keys?”

I looked down at my uniform as I realized all over again that I’d never wear it again as a commissioned officer. Shaking my head, I moved a reverent hand over my beloved red serge.

“No, I’ve already signed everything I needed to. I’m all yours now, babe.”

Scott’s eyes roamed over my uniform. “What are the stars on your left sleeve for, and is there a significance in the amount that you have?”

Running a hand over the stars, I explained. “Each one represents five years of service. I just earned the fourth one this month; today is the first time it’s been on my uniform. And before you ask, the crossed rifles on the lower part of the left there are to represent my sharpshooter qualification.”

“Sharpshooter, huh? And here I thought the only guns Canadians owned were water pistols.”

Grinning, I shook my head. “Unfortunately, no. Especially when you’re a member of law-enforcement.”

Scotty shivered and reached for my hands across the table. “I was so caught up in how hot you look in that uniform that I never thought about the fact that your job put you in danger while you were protecting the people of your country. That’s both sexy and terrifying at the same time. All of a sudden, I don’t feel quite so guilty about you retiring for me.”

“You didn’t need to feel guilty in the first place. I’d already planned to quit before we ran into each other again, remember? Now what do you say if we go back to our hotel and enjoy what’s left of Canada Day? Or, we could go back downtown and watch the fireworks instead?”

“I’d rather see the fireworks in our hotel room, and I’m not talking about the view from the balcony,” Scotty said with a wink.

I winked back as I silently held up my hand for the check.