Page 161 of As The Shifter World Turns

A girl we were having a girl. Ryder and I shared a glance. Our little family. Him, me and our daughter. We were the parents of a girl. Growing up there hadn’t been many girls in our neighborhood or at school. I was hit with the realization that I knew nothing of dresses and dolls, but caught myself. Thinking like that was how our ancestors had treated girls. Our daughter might prefer wearing pants and racing monster trucks.

“You know what us having a daughter means?” I pointed out to my mate that evening as we sat in bed reading.

“I have to immerse myself in all things girls.”

I giggled. That sounded adorable. “Names. We have to choose one.” I’d searched girls’ names during my lunch hour. “I like the name Rica.”

Ryder gave me a look. “That means a powerful wolf.”

“You’ve been researching baby names too.”

“Of course.” He showed me his phone where he’d bookmarked various sites. “Ivor I love you but assuming the baby will be a wolf is a big leap. What if our daughter’s a deer? I like Dyani.”

He was right. Me being a wolf and carrying our child, I’d automatically gravitated to a wolf name. It would be sensible to bring that up with my therapistduring my next visit. “You’re right and I’m sorry. As we won’t know for ages, maybe we should choose a neutral name. Neither wolf nor deer.”

He gave me a peck on the lips. “That’s probably best. I don’t want to be sleeping on the couch because we’ve been arguing about names for our daughter.”

Archer

“Fuck, what the hell is this shit?”

I raced toward my mate, thinking he’d stood on one of Elune’s toys with his bare feet or Patch had had an accident. He was a good pup and always let us know when he wanted to go out, but… “What is it?”

“The deal. It’s gone south.”

He had the phone tucked under his ear while he scanned the computer screen and typed frantically as he responded to an email. He and Daire had agreed to the sale but there’d been a lot of back and forth on the details. My mate was fed up with the amount of paperwork required and the incessant phone calls, messages and emails.

“Why?”

But Daire answered the phone and the grizzly shifter yelled, “I just saw. What the fuck?” which had Micah taking the phone away from his ear and cringing. It was late evening and Micah had shut down the computer for the night not expecting a business-related email to arrive, considering the company was in the same time zone as us.

“They didn’t even contact the lawyer but sent the email directly to us,” Daire yelled so loudly I was worried he’d wake Elune. “Or give us a detailed explanation as to what happened.” All they’d said was that they were going in a different direction.

“Not much we can do tonight. Let’s go for coffee early and we’ll call the lawyer. I figure we’re going to need a lot of caffeine.”

Neither of us slept and by the time dawn broke, we were up and showered waiting for Elune to wake.

“This is a first,” Micah noted. “Normally our daughter wakes us bright and early.” She must have sensed us hovering near the crib and she woke soon after. Thirty minutes later we were seated at a coffee shop, Elune in a high chair eating her baby cereal but with her gaze fixed on my chocolate croissant.

Daire was on the phone to the lawyer as I sipped my coffee and offered my daughter a tiny piece of my pastry. Even though Micah had been saying, “Anything can go wrong. Don’t count the money until it's in our account,” we’d been planning what we’d do once the deal was finalized.

We could take a vacation, maybe buy an investment property, and take ourtime as to what we wanted to do regarding work. We could have my dad, Ron, back in the basement apartment if he wanted, and afford a full time carer. He’d chosen to stay at the aged care facility after my father died as he’d made friends and his health had declined recently. There were so many options—or there had been.

Daire got off the phone. “They’re being evasive but look like they over extended. They’ve got a loan due and some property in the center of town they’d expected to sell and haven’t. It’ll be made clear in the coming days but the deal is definitely off.”

Even Elune stopped whining for more croissant as the news sank in.

“The good thing is we know what our company is worth, which we didn’t previously. Or should I say what people are willing to pay for it,” Micah said. “So, maybe we should have the lawyer put out feelers and see if we can find another buyer. Because I’d love to work less than I do now.”

Daire’s gardening videos were bringing in excellent money and he had little free time. “I vote for that,” he said.

“Archer?” Micah asked. Even though technically it was his and Daire’s business, I was his mate—and I worked for the company— so I got a vote.

“I agree. Let’s find someone willing to buy us out.”

66

MOVING ON

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