Chapter Twenty
Bram took Thea into the garage with him on Monday morning. While what he really wanted to do was stay in bed all day and visit the other rooms in the house for some sexy times as well, he knew she wanted to get out for a while and see the town.
“Hey, kids,” Linus said from behind the counter when they walked in.
“Morning,” Bram said.
“Hi,” Thea said.
Linus pulled a paper carrier with two to-go cups and a white sack and set it on the counter. “Jason let me know you were coming in today, so Karly sent along coffee and crumb buns for you.”
“Wow, thanks,” Bram said as he picked up the carrier.
“That’s so sweet of her, please send her our thanks,” Thea said.
“You bet. Stop by Lonestar’s for dinner some night, she’d love to feed you. Food is her love language.”
“Eating’s mine,” Bram quipped.
He carried the treats back to the breakroom and set them on an old table. “Have a seat,” he said, gesturing to one of the metal chairs. “We have a little time before I need to clock in. There’s milk in the fridge and sugar on the counter. There might even be some flavored creamers since Mom likes them.”
“Your mom works here too?”
“Yep. She’s been the office manager since before she and my dad mated.” His dad, he’d been told, had offered her the job to keep her close and use the opportunity of her nearness to woo her.
“I thought they were truemates,” she said as she lifted a container of sweet cream flavored creamer from the fridge door and poured it into her coffee.
“They are.”
“Then why did she have to be wooed?”
“Now that, sweetheart, is quite a story,” he said. Then he told her how his dad had marked her when they were kids and Peter, who had been alpha at the time, had refused to allow it to stand because they’d been so young and her father was human and hated wolves. “He put his alpha authority into his voice and told my mom that the marks on her neck came from scratches from a bush. She was young enough that it pretty much erased the mating from her mind and left my dad scrambling for a way to get close to her. She went away to college and came back after her dad died, since he left her the house. There was another wolf trying to get with her, and he actually abducted my mom on their mating night.”
“Oh, that’s what she meant,” Thea said. “She didn’t elaborate so I wasn’t sure who she was talking about. What happened to the other wolf?”
“He was killed according to pack laws,” Bram said. “But before that, before the abduction and everything, my dad was able to get my mom to remember what happened, but it was apparently pretty touch and go for a while. I might never have been born if she hadn’t figured things out.”
“That would be an epic tragedy,” Thea said.
“Indeed,” he chuckled. “Things aren’t always easy as alpha, you know? It’s a lot of responsibility and care for people other than your own family. I mean, my mom and us kids are my dad’s number one priority, but shit happens.”
“I’m worried I won’t be a good alpha female.”
“I worry about that for myself, that I won’t be a good alpha male. But together we’ll be a great alpha pair, we’ll learn how to do it together.”
She beamed at him. Then she took a bite of crumb bun and made a pleased exclamation. “This is freaking good!”
“Karly’s awesome. My cousin Micah’s mate, Zoey, also works at the restaurant in the kitchen as a baker. It’s where they met—he mans the grill there.”
“Wow, that’s cool. I can’t work with you, though. I don’t know the first thing about cars.”
He ate the crumb bun in a few bites and crumpled the paper. “What would you like to do? You don’t need to rush to find a job, of course. You can hang out and get to know the town and get settled in.”
“I’d…well, I’m not sure.”
The way she spoke told him she actually did have some thoughts about that, so he pressed. “What are you thinking about? You can tell me, whatever it is.”
She picked at the crumb bun, eating a few small pieces. “I picked horticulture in school because I wanted to be able to provide for my family.”
“Like have a farm?”
“A small one, but yeah. I love plants of all kinds, but fruit and vegetable gardens are so cool. Being able to grow food was the only reason my parents didn’t outright forbid me from going to college. If I’d wanted to do something else that wouldn’t be helpful to the nest, they wouldn’t have allowed it.”
“But you did want to work with plants?”
“Very much. I love digging in the ground and watching things grow.”
He thought over his yard, which wasn’t very big. And then he thought to the future and eventually taking over the pack. His parents would retire and move from the house and into the retirement community, and he and Thea would move in. Michael and Shyne would also leave their home and retire, and Gideon and his mate would move in, assuming his brother ended up as his second in the hierarchy.
“You look so serious,” she said suddenly.
“I was just thinking about the future, sweetheart,” he said.
“Me too,” she said wistfully.
He made a mental note to talk to his dad about houses and gardens.
Finishing his coffee, he tossed their trash into the receptacle and took her hand. “Bring your coffee, sweetheart. I’ll show you around.”
She grinned. “I can’t wait.”
He gave her the tour and they chatted with the other employees before he dropped her off at his mom’s office to hang out with her for a bit while he worked. He offered her the keys to his truck so she could go home and come back and get him later, but she waved him away and said she was content to hang out, at least until lunch.
He stopped in his dad’s office.
“Got a sec?” he asked, knocking on the open door.
“You bet.”
Bram pulled the door shut and sat down in front of his dad’s desk. “I want to ask Thea to marry me.”
“Of course. Do you want to mate her during the March full moon? We can do a double ceremony of wedding and mating.”
“I’ll talk to her about it, once I propose, but yeah keep that date in your pocket for me.”
“Sure thing.” When Bram didn’t speak, Jason said, “Is there something else on your mind?”
“Thea wants to have a garden. Like a big one. And I don’t have the space for that. Plus, I’d hate for her to invest years in a garden and then when you and Mom retire, to have her have to abandon it.”
“Ah, okay. I was actually talking to your mom about this the other night, before things went to shit with the nest.”
“You were?”
“I’m always thinking to the future, son, you know that.”
“Any thoughts about what I should do?” He loved how her eyes lit up when she talked about gardening. It’s how he felt about fixing cars.
“Yes. If you’re interested, we could knock down trees next to our house and you guys can build a house, and then have a garden across both yards. Hell, Michael would probably love to have a garden in his yard too.”
“But your house is the alpha house.”
“It doesn’t have to be. If we build on the other side of our house, when we retire, you can be the alpha house and our house can be for the second or third, or whatever. And hell, we’ve long outgrown the backyard anyway, half the tables are in Michael’s yard. What do you think?”
“I think it’s amazing, Dad, thanks.”
“Talk it over with Thea, come check out the area and see if she thinks it would be a good fit. We’ve got a contractor and a construction company we can hire out for the job, and you can build your dream home. I bet you could be in it by the end of the summer if things moved forward soon.”
Bram stood, his heart feeling lighter than it had when he’d seen how much Thea wanted to garden.
“Thanks Dad. I mean it. For standing with me to save Thea and being a great father. I hope I’ll be as good a dad as you are.”
Jason stood and came around the desk. And then he hugged Bram.
He couldn’t remember the last time he was hugged by his father, who wasn’t the most outwardly emotional male on the planet.
But damn if it didn’t feel good.
Bram hugged him back.
“I love you, kiddo,” Jason said, his voice suddenly thick. “And I’m proud of you.”
“Love you too, Dad.”
Bram’s eyes stung and he blinked away the sting as the hug ended.
“I’ll let you know what Thea says after I talk to her tonight. I’ll let you know when we can come to the house.”
“Of course. You heading into the bay?”
“Yep, I’ve got some things to get done. Thea is hanging out with Mom until lunch, and then she’ll probably go to the house and come back and get me at the end of the day.”
“Sounds good.”
Bram said goodbye and left the office, leaving the door open as it had been when he stopped by. He walked through the lobby and into the bay, picking up a clipboard with paperwork and a keyring attached.
It was going to be a long day without Thea, but he had to get to work so he could build her a dream house and the garden she wasn’t able to have growing up. He never wanted her to do without, and that included having plenty of dirt to dig around in and plants to tend.