Page 32 of Harvest Magic

“I’m not sure I like this gender separation,” Pepper grumbled as we walked. “But then again, I don’t like football.”

“Too bad. You know they’ll all be comatose in front of the TV for the rest of the day watching it,” Meri teased.

“How does it feel being mated?” Jane asked as we lagged behind the group. Of all of my Rosewater cousins, she was the one I’d become closest to since moving to Greysden.

“It feels weird, but also good, you know? Now I don’t remember why I was hesitating to go through with it.”

“As human women we’ve been raised to be cautious, and we’ve all had some asshole exes in our past,” she reminded me. “I wasn’t on board with being Gabriel’s mate at first either. I knew I liked him, and eventually I realized that I’d fallen in love with him. But it took a while for my head to catch up with my heart. But it was worth the wait.”

My daughters were hanging back, clearly wanting to talk to me, so I let Jane go ahead with the others.

“Mom, I’m sorry we were such jerks about Ollie,” Caitlin said as soon as we were alone. “We were taken by surprise, but that’s not an excuse.”

“No it’s not.”

“It’ll take us a while to get used to you as a person instead of our mom,” Laura added.

“Yeah, it’s taking me a while to get used to it too,” I admitted. “But I can be your mom and be Nora. That’s what I want you two to learn from me, that you don’t have to give up yourself and let your own hopes and dreams go in order to have a marriage or a family. You’ll be a stronger partner and parent if you don’t lose yourself along the way.”

When we got back I went right to the chair where Ollie was sitting and settled on his lap, leaning back against his chest with a contented sigh. His beefy arm wrapped around me, holding me tight. Protecting me. When I looked up I saw Caitlin and Laura looking at me with soft expressions. Clearly we’d won my daughters over.

I suspected Scott would take a little bit longer, although later that afternoon I saw him talking alone with Ollie out on the porch. As we headed up to bed that night though, my son surprised me. He strode up to Ollie, his chest out and shoulders back in a clear effort to make himself more intimidating. I would have taken it more seriously if he hadn’t slept with a stuffed dragon until he was ten years old.

Scott stuck his hand out and after a brief pause, Ollie took it.

“You seem like an okay guy Ollie, and it’s obvious you love my mom. She deserves that after all she’s been through.”

“She does,” Ollie agreed, settling his hand on my hip.

“I know that mating is fine for shifters, but we expect you to make an honest woman of her and marry her,” Scott continued. “Not now, but when the time is right.”

“I will,” Ollie replied in such a serious tone I rolled in my lips to keep from laughing.

“Don’t I get a choice about this marriage thing?” I asked.

They both ignored me.

“We have an understanding then,” Scott said to my mate.

“We do.”

He turned around and headed for the stairs, his sisters right behind him, but then he stopped and looked over his shoulder at us.

“One more thing. Pull the damned bed away from the wall. I can’t take another night of listening to you two banging.”

Epilogue – Ollie

Ten months later…

“The Harvest Festival is my favorite of all the Greysden festivals.”

That was saying a lot. There were no fewer than fifteen festivals here over the course of a year. People here loved to have something to celebrate. And despite my past antisocial behavior, now I did too.

“Why?”

She squeezed my arm. “Because this is where we met, silly. Don’t you remember?”

“Are you kidding me?” I asked. “It was the happiest day of my life. The moment I first smelled you is burned into my brain.”