West sat at his desk in the manager’s office at Due South and wondered how the hell he would gift wrap his wife’s Christmas gift this year. He drummed his fingers and pulled a face at the office window, the darkening skies behind them providing a perfect reflection of a man in dire need of a personal assistant. Preferably one who had better wrapping skills than he’d ever possess.

Maybe he should call it quits this afternoon and go have a chat with Kip still working behind the bar for some tips. According to Carly, Kip was the boss at gift wrapping.

He crinkled his nose again. Poor Carly. She and Kip had been planning this US trip for months, with Carly’s Christmas-loving nature hitting overdrive at the idea of sharing a traditional white Christmas with her fiancée. West shot another glance outside at the rain-lashed waves rolling into Halfmoon Bay. Nope, Christmas this year was looking to be more gray than white.

A knock sounded on his door, and he swung around in his chair to Piper slipping inside his office. His heart muscles still gave a little heel click at the sight of her—her once short chestnut hair now grown out in soft layers to her shoulders, her long, slender limbs clothed in black jeans, her favorite purple combat boots, a thick wool sweater—his thick wool sweater that she’d stolen—and a fluffy purple scarf twisted around her neck.

“Like it?” she asked by way of greeting, pulling the scarf a little way from around her neck. “After you left this morning, Mrs. T said I could open my Christmas present from her early. Michaela put yours under the tree at home.”

“Another scarf?” he asked.

“Oooh, no. Something knitted, but bigger than a scarf. Probably another one of her eye-watering patterned sweaters.” Piper grinned at him and sashayed over to his desk, bracing her palms on it as she leaned over.

Giving him a perfect view down the V-neck of her sweater to the lacy black bra underneath. West couldn’t drag his gaze away from her breasts long enough to check if Piper had locked the door. So sue him—the ring on his finger gave him permission to ogle his gorgeous wife and imagine doing her on his office desk. Imagine, since unfortunately he was pretty sure the sounds she’d make would draw the attention of the patrons still drinking in the pub out the front of the hotel.

“You’re staring at my boobs,” his gorgeous wife said.

“Yep.”

“Thinking about me spread out on your office desk, too, are we?”

He loved that Piper knew him so well. “Hell yeah, we are.”

West slid his gaze upward from her chest. “Where’s our girl?” Please say with your mum.

“With mum. We’re picking her up after she’s had dinner.”

That gave them a couple of hours. One and a half hours to get festive in their child-free home, the other thirty minutes for him to slip out and grab his wife’s gift. West leaned over the desk, stopping inches away from Piper’s slightly red-with-the-cold lips.

“Wanna get merry with me, Mrs. Westlake?”

“Ho, ho, ho,” she whispered.

She closed the distance until her breath puffed against his mouth. Then she swooped in, cold fingers cupping either side of his jaw, and kissed him until he saw dancing reindeers.

When they finally came up for air and pulled apart, she ducked out of reach when he made a grab for her. Waggling a finger, she laughed. “We’ve got a stop to make on the way home.”

He grinned at her, grabbing his jacket from the back of his chair and slipping it on. “Russell’s grocery is going to have to expand their personal care shelves to keep up with the islanders’ demands for condoms and lube.”

Piper rolled her eyes. “Feel free to drop that into their suggestion box sometime. But rest assured, we have enough condoms. I bought three big boxes with the shopping this week, just to watch the expression on Carolyn’s face as she bagged them.”

“That’s my girl.” West came around his desk and hooked an arm around her shoulder. “Now she’ll never suspect that I’m trying to knock you up with Westlake baby number two.”

“Devious is my middle name.” Piper one-arm hugged his waist. “Now come on, we haven’t got much time.”

Ten minutes later, he and Piper followed a chuckling Jim Munro out to his garage. Jim’s eyes gave a Santa-ish twinkle as he looked from Piper to West while he unlocked the door. At the first scrape of the key in the lock, barks both high- and low-pitched exploded behind the door.

Jim flicked on the garage lights and stepped aside so Piper and West could enter. The garage was toasty warm and fragrant with the smell of fresh straw and damp dog. A corner of the garage had been sectioned off with a low barrier, and peeping over it were four furry black ears, four alert brown eyes, two white and black faces with a white ruff of shaggy fur, and four paws braced on top of the barrier.

Border collies.

Behind them, sitting at attention and keeping an eye on her babies, was the proud—and probably exhausted—mother.

“These are the last two,” Jim said. “The bigger one’s the girl, but she’s already been spoken for. The smaller one’s a boy and the runt of the litter.”

As if the boy knew his size and strength were being called into question, the pup on the right gave two explosive barks, his little tail a wagging blur.

“He’s a fighter that one,” Jim added. “Didn’t think he’d make it, but he’s a stubborn little bugger. He’s all good now, and ready to go home with his new owner.”

Piper rose on tiptoe and kissed West’s cheek. “I know how much you miss Donny, and I know you said you wanted to wait awhile longer, but when Jim told me about this little guy, I knew he was meant to be yours. He’s my Christmas present to you, if you’ll have him.”

The pup cocked his head and whined, head straining forward as if desperate for a hand to stroke those silky ears of his. Donny, the crazy mutt, only had one tattered ear. Arguably the ugliest dog in Oban, but one with the gentlest soul. West had nearly lost his shit the day after Donny died and he’d come to work to find Donny’s bed at the hotel’s back door was full of flowers and little condolence cards from the locals who’d loved him, too.

West drew Piper into a hug, squeezing her tightly and burying his face in her hair. “Thank you, babe.”

“You sure it’s okay?” she asked, a sliver of doubt still in her voice. “I know a puppy is a lot of work.”

“It’s easier if you have two of ’em to keep the other company,” Jim said. “As I said, pity his sister’s already been spoken for.”

He bent over the barrier and plucked the girl pup up, passing him over to Piper. “Here you go, my dear.”

“Oh, but—” Piper’s objections disappeared under a frantic face-licking from the female puppy.

Jim scooped the boy up and set him on the floor by West with a wink. “And your Christmas present, courtesy of your better half.”

West crouched down and the pup immediately planted his front paws on West’s chest, licking his chin with unrestrained delight. Piper set the wriggling female down and she danced over to sniff West’s legs, as if checking him out to see if he were worthy to become part of her pack. His wife’s gaze went just a little misty as it lingered on the two pups both scrambling to climb onto West.

“What do you think, Pipe?” West asked. “Do you need me to gift wrap your Christmas present? Or shall we leave her al fresco?”

Piper’s eyes widened. “My present? You mean you got me a puppy, too?”

“I did.” He laughed as the boy made a last ditch attempt to push past his sister, and in the tussle, knocked West off balance so that he toppled backward onto his ass.

Fists on hips, Piper grinned down at him sprawled on the floor. “And you had no idea I was getting you a puppy?”

“Nope.”

“That happens when you’ve been married awhile,” Jim said. “You start thinking the same thoughts, finishing each other’s sentences. Kind of a mind meld type of thing.” He clucked his tongue. “Anyway, I’ll go get my boy to give us a hand with loading all their dog gear into your car while you four continue getting acquainted.”

Jim left the garage and Piper offered West a hand to haul him upright—a hand that was immediately set upon by both puppies. West clambered to his feet and wrapped his arms around his wife again. He raised a suggestive eyebrow and she placed a palm across his mouth.

“Don’t even think about kissing me with that mouth when you’ve been French kissing those puppies.”

“How do you know I was thinking about kissing you?” he asked.

“Mind meld, remember? I know exactly what you’re thinking.” She reached around him and gave his ass a squeeze.

“You do, huh?” Yeah, they’d been married awhile, but he was even more in love with Piper today than he had been yesterday and all the days that stretched backward to the moment she’d returned to Stewart Island and turned his life upside down.

Piper slanted him a smile that convinced him he was still the luckiest man in Oban. “You’re thinking that if we can tire these babies out in the next fifteen minutes, they may be ready for a nap once we get them home?”

“Great minds think alike.”

Then West kissed his like-minded wife even though she giggled and slapped at the arms that held her tight. What was a little dog spit among friends? It was the season of giving after all.