“No special treatment,” Michael laughed as he lowered his voice. “Start as you mean to go on. Which means if we do become a family, we are all treated equally. At least where secrets are concerned.”
Ruth frowned. “Is that right?”
“No, I’ll tell you all my secrets, but some of them are not meant for young ears.” He threaded his arm around her waist and pulled her close. “I’m doing you a favor by not telling you about the deer treats.”
“Are you?” Ruth asked archly as she pulled away from him.
“Yes, if they found out you know the secret, they would never give you a moment’s peace.” He stepped back and held out his hands. “Am I right?”
Ruth shook her head and got in the car. “I have a game for us to play on the way home.”
“What is it?” Jenny asked enthusiastically.
“Guess what is in the secret deer treats.” Ruth waved to Michael as she drove away, carefully navigating around the potholes as the car bumped along toward the road.
“Pineapple.” Jenny’s first of many guesses might be correct, Ruth had no idea.
“Brussels sprouts.” Jason wrinkled his nose, after a few sensible guesses, they had become more outlandish.
“Pumpernickel,” Jenny guessed.
“What even is pumpernickel?” Jason asked.
“I don’t know. But I like the way it sounds,” Jenny told him as they both began repeating pumpernickel.
“Okay, here we are at your house.” Ruth pulled up on the drive.
“It’s not our house,” Jason reminded her, his mood flattening.
“It is while you live here.” Ruth got out and went to the rear doors, helping the children out. “Come on, I’ll walk you to the door.”
Jason and Jenny ran ahead, but before they had chance to knock, the front door opened and light flooded out, illuminating their two happy faces. “Someone looks as if they had fun.” Dean stepped back and Jason ran in, followed by Jenny, who grabbed hold of her brother and pulled him back.
“Thank you, Ruth,” Jenny said.
“Thank you.” Jason gave her a quick smile, before disappearing into the house followed by Jenny.
“Did they behave?” Dean asked quietly.
“They did. Perfectly. They’re good kids.”
“Who just happen to have a bad start.” Dean’s expression clouded.
“Is their father likely to want them back?” Ruth asked.
Dean shook his head. “He signed the papers, the children were made wards of the court. Unless he turned himself around, got a job and made a home for them… Why do you ask?”
“Just wondering,” Ruth lied.
“Did Michael talk to you about…” Dean inclined his head forward, before turning to listen for Jason and Jenny. “You know.”
“We talked about it briefly.” Ruth wrapped her coat around her as a gust of wind blew from the north, bringing a chill that she tried not to take as foreboding. “We’ve just met, we have to get to know each other. I’m worried about taking on too much at once.”
“I understand.” Dean gave her a sorrowful look. “I’d like to see them settled somewhere, to have a room they know is theirs and parents that won’t ever leave them.”
“Sometimes those things are out of our control,” Ruth reminded Dean. “Their mom didn’t mean to leave them.”
“No, she didn’t.” Dean took a step back inside the house. “Think about it, Ruth. I believe you would make a great mom.”
“Thank you.” Ruth took the compliment, even though she didn’t know what to do with it. “You do a wonderful job fostering.”
“We enjoy it. Elizabeth wasn’t too sure to start with. This is the first time we’ve fostered since we had the baby. But Jason and Jenny deserve a break.” Dean put his hand up and waved goodnight, and Ruth walked back to her car, mulling over what he’d said.
The idea of adopting Jason and Jenny firmly planted itself in her head. Tomorrow, she would go over to Michael’s place and have a frank discussion with him. Ruth slid into the car and started the engine, then she turned the car around and drove home. All the time, thinking of how her life would change, how she would become part of a whole. Part of a family, a family that depended on her.
For the last ten years, she’d fought to be an individual. She’d stepped away from being the glue that stuck her family together, trained to be a teacher, and stood on her own. Was she ready to go back to being responsible for children on a day-to-day basis? Meeting every one of their needs? She loved children, it was the reason she became a teacher, but she dreaded being swallowed whole. Her chest became heavy as she remembered trying to deal with four children under six, when she was still a child herself.
Ruth parked in front of her house, got out and shut the door, breathing in the cold night air.
“Your neighbors think I’m an intruder.” A shadowy figure stood up, hitching a backpack onto her shoulder.
“Frankie?” Ruth asked, even though she would recognize her sister’s voice anywhere.
“In the flesh.” Frankie, pretty, blonde and petite, stepped out from the shadows. “I thought I’d come and check up on my big sis.”
“You should have called.” Ruth walked forward and hugged her youngest sister. “I’m in shock.”
“In a good way, I hope.” Frankie stood back, holding Ruth’s hands. “Are you all right?”
“Yes. Come in.” Ruth led Frankie to the front door and fumbled with her keys as she attempted to open it. Was she all right? Frankie’s arrival was a shock, but did it go deeper than that? What if her sister was here because she needed something? Was Ruth ready to go back to being a mother to her sister, when she wanted to be wife to Michael and mother to the children?
“You look pale,” Frankie stated when Ruth switched the light on in the hallway.
“It’s been a long day.” Ruth’s cheeks flushed.
“Extracurricular activities?” Frankie asked, her voice deep and sultry, in complete contrast to her appearance.
Ruth grinned. “I may have met someone.”
“May have met someone?” Frankie asked, intrigued by her sister’s teasing.
Ruth went to the kitchen and made a fresh pot of coffee while Frankie used the bathroom and deposited her backpack in the guest room. With a plate of cookies in front of them, they sat in the kitchen and caught up on each other’s news.
“Are you going to tell me now?” Frankie asked, devouring a cookie.
“Do you need a proper meal?” Ruth asked, going into mother hen mode.
“No, I grabbed food in town. And what a great town it is.” Frankie took another cookie. “Don’t change the subject. You may have met someone…”
“I have met someone. The one.” Ruth hid her face behind her coffee cup.
“Oh my God. You mean I won’t be able to brag about having a spinster schoolmarm as a sister?” Frankie asked in mock horror.
“Is that how you describe me?” Ruth asked caustically.
Frankie laughed and hugged Ruth. “I could describe you as the best sister in the world. But that makes both of us sound about seven.”
Ruth hugged Frankie back, rubbing her back as she had so often through the years. “How are you?”
“I am good.” Frankie sat upright and smiled. “Don’t I look good?”
Ruth narrowed her eyes and examined her sister. “Aside from the shadows under your eyes, you look amazing.”
“I feel amazing.” Frankie patted her chest lightly. “This heart beats so strong.” Her expression faltered, and she frowned.
“Hey, no dark thoughts,” Ruth warned, offering Frankie another cookie.
“Always a smile. Each day counts, right?” Frankie put a smile on her face. “I remind myself how lucky I am each night before bed and every morning when I wake up.”
“Have you been attending regular checkups?” Ruth asked.
“Yes, Mom.” Frankie took Ruth’s hands. “Listen, I didn’t come here for me. I came here
to see how you were settling in. Of course, if you had bothered to send me a text, or pick up the phone and tell me you’d met someone, I wouldn’t have turned up on your doorstep to cramp your style.” Her eyes widened. “He’s not coming over, is he? If so I can make myself scarce.”
“No need. I’ve spent the evening with him.”
Frankie looked at her watch. “It’s not eight yet. Was it an after-school playdate?”
Ruth laughed and got up from the table. “I think we need wine.”
“On a school night?” Frankie asked with feigned shock.
“Don’t tell the principal.” Ruth grabbed a bottle of wine from the fridge and took out two glasses.
“Thank you.” Frankie sipped her wine slowly. “So are you going to tell me about him, or do you want to keep him to yourself?”
“Straight to the point, as always, Frankie.” Ruth sipped her wine, trying to figure out what to say.
“When you are told you don’t have long to live, it teaches you to cut through all the bullshit and get to the point.” Frankie shrugged. “I still live every day as if I’m on borrowed time. This heart might beat a hell of a lot stronger than mine…” Her face crumpled for a moment and then she recovered.
Ruth stroked her sister’s cheek. “You have to let go and stop feeling guilty.”
“What, that I’m alive and she isn’t?” Frankie put her wine down on the table. “Here I am drinking wine and eating cookies. Would she approve? Am I doing everything I can to keep this heart healthy?”
“Shhh.” Ruth soothed her sister as a tear trickled down her cheek. “His name is Michael.” There was little Ruth could say to ease the guilt Frankie often experienced, but if anything was going to, it was talk of her mate.
“And?”
“He is a bear shifter.”
“Oh my, you snagged a bear shifter?” Frankie asked in awe.
“I didn’t exactly snag him.” Ruth’s eyes sparkled as she remembered their first meeting.
“He makes you laugh. That’s good.” Frankie sat back, assessing her sister. “You like him. A lot.”
“I do,” Ruth acknowledged. “The mating bond only works one way. At least that’s what I thought. But I really like him.”
“That’s great. So I arrived just in time to help organize the wedding.”
“No, I mean we haven’t gotten that far yet. We only met a couple of days ago.”
Frankie’s expression grew serious. “Don’t put it off, Ruth. Don’t coat it in what will people think. Mom and Dad thought they had forever, but that forever was barely six years. And look at me, if someone hadn’t died in an accident, I would not be here now. Grab hold of that man with both hands and don’t let go.” Frankie’s cheeks flushed with passion.
“There’s one more thing,” Ruth said. “Or two.”
“You’re pregnant?” Frankie asked.
“You heard the part about we only met two days ago? I know your biology teacher despaired of your grades, but you do have some idea of how long a pregnancy is?” Ruth put on her best spinster schoolmarm face.
“You might have had another lover.” Frankie rolled her eyes. “You’re a spinster, not a virgin.”
“Okay, let’s get your head out of the gutter.” Ruth rolled her glass between her hands. “What if I told you that as well as getting married, I might adopt two children.”
Frankie’s reaction was to spray a mouthful of wine across the table. “Are you crazy? You spent your life raising four children already.”
“I think I am crazy,” Ruth agreed.
Frankie wiped her mouth on the back of her hand and then got up to find a cloth to clean the table. When she sat back down, she’d composed herself. “Sorry, I think that was jealous child syndrome. You would make an amazing mom. Because you were an amazing mom to me and the others.”
“Part of me wants to be free. Part of me wants to nurture the two kids.” Ruth drank her wine and then got up. “I need sleep.” She kissed the top of Frankie’s head. “Help yourself to whatever you need.”
“I will.” Frankie watched her sister as she padded out of the kitchen. “I’m overjoyed for you, Ruth. If anyone deserves a happy ending, it’s you.”
“Oh, I should have told you. He also won the lottery.” With a gasp from Frankie, Ruth ran upstairs. Perhaps tomorrow she would have a clear idea of what to do.
Or maybe she would be just as confused.
Chapter Twelve – Michael
Michael woke to the sound of birdsong. The forest was alive with the sound of animals raising their young, and if Michael had his way, he’d be soon raising his own young, too. Okay, so technically they wouldn’t be his own, but who cared?
Jason and Jenny belonged here, along with his beautiful, smart, funny mate, Ruth.
Swinging his legs off the bed, Michael got up and hit the shower. He needed to be alert and awake for the day ahead. His plan was to talk with Fiona, off the record. A little bird, well, a big bear, actually, had told him Fiona usually grabbed a coffee to go from Momma Bear’s Café every morning on her way into the office. No surprise, since the owner, Betsy, made the best coffee this side of Wolf Valley.
Half an hour later, Michael drove his truck into town. Usually, at this time in the morning, he would eat breakfast on the porch, with the birds singing and the wind rustling through the leaves. Yep, his routine had completely evaporated like the morning mist. He was not complaining one bit. Instead, a sense of adventure took him over. Maybe from the thought of a new family to share his life with, or maybe the thought of coming face to face with the infamous dragon shifter, Fiona.
She was a formidable woman, from what he’d been told. However, he wasn’t going to be beaten down by a fire-breathing reptile. Michael wanted Jason and Jenny to be part of his life, almost as much as he wanted Ruth. Nothing could beat the need for a mate. But, the need for those two cubs to be his to raise, and protect, was nearly as strong.
As he sang along to the radio with the window rolled down, Michael figured fate might move in more than one mysterious way. Perhaps he was on to something. If fate could choose your mate, maybe it could choose your kids, too.
Parking his truck in Bear Creek, he ran across the road and into Momma Bear’s, a full five minutes ahead of Fiona’s schedule. If she was sticking to it. Michael put his trust in his lucky bear’s good fortune holding out.
“Hi there, Michael. What brings you in here this early in the morning?” Betsy fetched a cup and placed it down on the counter. “You smell my coffee?”
“Something like that.” He turned to look out of the window. “It’s a beautiful day and I thought I’d make the most of it.”
“By driving into town?” Betsy studied him for a moment. “You haven’t been out all night, have you?”
“No.” Michael sipped his coffee. “Boy, this is good.”
“I know.” Betsy placed a menu on the counter. “Why don’t you order some food to soak up the coffee? You look as if you need fattening up. And I might be persuaded to volunteer for the job.”
“What?” Michael shook his head. “I have a mate.”
“Pity.” Betsy arched her eyebrow at him and then laughed. “I’m just kidding you, Michael. I heard you hooked up with the new teacher in town. Congratulations.”
“Thanks, Betsy.” He smiled through his confusion. It surely was too early in the morning.
“Hi there, Fiona. The usual?” Betsy’s voice called out as she moved away.
“Yes, please.” Fiona came to stand next to Michael while she waited for Betsy to pour her coffee.
“Fiona?” Michael asked.
She frowned. “That depends on who is asking, and why.” Her voice was formal, she wasn’t joking.
“I’m Michael. Michael Finnian.” He held out his hand, and she looked at it, but didn’t shake it.
“Am I supposed to know you?” she asked.
“No.” He shook his head. There was something about Fiona that made him nervous. Perhaps it was
her fire-breathing capabilities, which simmered below the surface of her cool exterior.
“What do you want, Michael?” Fiona asked warily.
“I wanted a quick talk with you. Privately.” He smiled, trying to put her at ease—as if he wasn’t the one at unease.
“About what?” Fiona asked as Betsy gave her a coffee to-go. “Thanks.” Fiona paid for her coffee. “You have one minute before I leave. Make it snappy.” Did smoke come out of her ears? A chuckle from Betsy told him it probably did.
“Dean and Elizabeth are fostering a couple of kids. Jason and Jenny.”
“I know them.” Fiona sipped her coffee, which was piping hot.
“I wondered what it would take to adopt them. For me to adopt them. I’m a friend of Dean’s.”
That got Fiona’s attention. “Oh, that Michael.” She slipped into the seat next to him. “You would have to go through all the usual background checks and home visits.”
“How do I apply? Is there a waiting list?” Michael asked.
“Shifter children can be hard to find adoptive parents for. So you have that in your favor.” Fiona studied him for a moment. “You don’t wear a wedding band. Do you live alone?”
“I do. Right now. I’ve just met my mate. Ruth Bishop, the new schoolteacher.”
Fiona’s eyes lit up as if she’d just spotted dinner. “Excellent! Make an appointment to see me.” She placed a card on the counter in front of him. “I’ll help in any way I can.”
“They are free to be adopted? There’s no way their father will take them back? Only I don’t want to put any of us through unnecessary trauma.”
Fiona shook her head sadly. “No, the father is a lost cause. At least for now. He signed the papers, giving up custody of them both. I’ve seen people affected by grief before, but never to such an extent. Which is why I took the case on. I want Jason and Jenny to have a fresh start, a secure start.”
“I believe Ruth and I can give them that,” Michael assured her.
“I believe you can. Call my office, make an appointment.” Fiona got up and walked from the cafe without a backward glance.
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