Page 34 of Meant To Be

Maisie shrugged lightly. “Hotshot firefighters are basically all action heroes, but I can only call Beck that. So the rest of you…” She waggled her brows. “Dilly, Coopy, Grammy, and Rowy, well, that’s what you get.”

After a few more minutes of low-key teasing conversation, the group broke apart. I walked through the back area, swinging by my locker to grab my keys.

The biggest adjustment for me in Alaska was the short days in winter and the long days in summer. Being in the southern part of the state, I discovered we didn’t experience full darkness during the winter. The sun sure came up later than I was accustomed to in winter, and summer days were seriously long with only a few hours of darkness.

I left the station, hopping in my truck to pick Piper up from the vet clinic. The moment I thought of her, my lips curled into a smile. I stayed with her almost every night lately, and I loved it.

The following morning, I held the door to the coffee shop as Piper brushed past me, letting out a happy sigh. She smiled up at me as I closed the door behind us. “It’s warm in here,” she announced.

“Well, the upside to it being fucking cold outside is all we have to do is walk inside, and it feels warm.”

Piper nudged me with her elbow. I leaned down to kiss her, feeling her lips curling in a smile against mine before she drew back.

“No, but it’s really warm in here. It’s early, and I know Janet’s got the ovens baking in the back.”

“I sure do,” Janet said, hearing Piper’s reply as we approached the counter at Firehouse Café.

Janet chuckled as she glanced back and forth between us. In the year since I had moved to Willow Brook, Alaska, I’d discovered this café was the pulse of the town and Janet was everybody’s unofficial mother. With her warm, brown eyes and silver-streaked dark hair, usually twisted into a braid, a smile from her was enough to brighten any day.

“What brings you two here so early?” she asked as her eyes bounced to the clock on the wall that read 6:00 a.m.

“Is that a judgment on when we usually get here?” I teased.

Janet shrugged. “No, but…” She slid her gaze to Piper. “Is he a late sleeper?”

Piper arched a brow as she glanced up at me. “Not really. He gets up earlier than me. We’re here early because Dylan said we had somewhere to be. I have no idea where we have to be by six-thirty in the morning.” Her gaze turned pointed.

“Ah,” Janet said. “Well, wherever you have to be, you obviously need coffee first.”

We got our coffees. Piper got her favorite cranberry scone, and I got an everything bagel. I had a surprise for her.

We had already talked about making it official and moving in together. Piper’s lease was coming up on her apartment. We planned to fly to Stolen Hearts Valley for the upcoming holidays and spend the weekend at the pub where it had all begun. Piper had jokingly said she hoped we got stranded again because it was fun. It was fun.

But first, I had a surprise.

I’d been renting a place from Russell, a fellow hotshot firefighter. I’d also been working on a secret project.

I knew what I wanted in life: Piper, and to stay here. She loved her job, I loved mine, and life was pretty freaking good these days.

She bounced her heels on the floorboard of my truck as I drove. “Where are we going?”

I grinned over at her. “Just wait. We’re almost there.”

I’d found a sweet piece of property just outside downtown Willow Brook. There was no house there yet, but there would be. Probably next summer if I had my way as far as using the winter to plan and then start building in the spring before fire season kept me away too much.

A few minutes later, I rolled my truck to a stop. There was already a driveway and a foundation here.

I took a moment to look around. The foundation where the house would eventually be was situated perfectly on a low rise. The mountains were visible in the distance, although that was pretty much the case no matter where you were in Willow Brook. There was a small pond to the side, and I envisioned a deck off the back of the house that would give us a pretty view.

Piper glanced at me. “Where are we? I mean, it’s pretty, but…”

I gestured at the foundation. “See that?”

“Yeah,” she said slowly.

“Come on.”

I hopped out of the truck, and she followed. I reached for her hand. We walked to the foundation and stopped. “I bought this piece of property. For us. The foundation is here already because someone was going to build here and had to move unexpectedly. I heard about it from Cade at the station. The people had originally hired Amelia to build it,” I said, referring to Cade’s wife, who ran a construction business and was friends with Piper.

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