Catching the Bear: BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance (The Callaghan Clan Book 3) (12 page)
Read Catching the Bear: BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance (The Callaghan Clan Book 3) Online
Authors: Meredith Clarke,Ashlee Sinn
“Where are we going?” I asked. The ground still bumped beneath the tires even though I’d heard us slow down a couple of minutes ago. I reached for the blindfold, but Bo gently knocked my hand away.
“Don’t peek!”
“Okay, okay.”
The car finally came to a stop and I heard Bo’s nervousness in his voice. “If you don’t like it, we can find something else.”
“Bo, I don’t even know what the surprise is yet.”
“I know. But I’m just saying.”
“Bo, stop.”
“Okay.” He got out of his side and opened my door a second later. So quick and powerful, my grizzly. I shivered with the idea that he was all mine. “Just hold still a sec.”
Bo swept me up into his arms and lifted me from the car with ease. I let out a little squeal of delight. “Can I see it yet?”
“Hold your horses, little witch.”
My feet hit the ground softly and he used my shoulders to turn me toward something. I smelled pine and water and fresh dirt. It was a combination of smells that reminded me of my early childhood. I felt his hands on the back of my head untying my blindfold.
“You ready?” he whispered into my ear.
If I hadn’t been so excited about my surprise, I would have melted at his touch. “Yes!”
He dropped the bandana and revealed the thing that he’d been working on all morning. I stood in front of a house. No, a log cabin nestled into the pines but not too far from a similar cabin an acre away. A log fence surrounded the property and a cobblestone path lead the way into the cutest house I’d ever laid eyes on. It reminded me of a cottage tucked away into the wilderness. Only this one wasn’t as secluded as Calvin’s den even though it backed up to the forest and a ton of open space.
“What is it?” I asked with a breath.
“It’s our home,” he said. “If you like it.”
Spinning on my heels, I looked up at my wonderful mate. “Our home?”
“Yes,” he smiled.
“Like just for the two of us?”
This time he laughed and flashed me his dimples. “Yes.”
I jumped up into his arms and let him spin me around as he continued to chuckle. “Oh Bo, this is perfect.”
“But you haven’t seen the inside yet—”
“I don’t care. It’s perfect.”
“But—”
“Stop saying “but”,” I whispered against his ear. And when I kissed his neck he melted underneath my skin. “Wait, is this what you were working on all morning?”
“Yep.”
I pressed my lips against his. “My sneaky grizzly.” Turning in his arms, I peered back over my shoulder at the house. “How did you do this?”
“Well, see that house behind me?”
I looked across the small paved road at another log house that sat back under the trees and nodded.
“Derrick lives there.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, and he told me about this place and…I bought it.”
“What? That quickly?”
He nodded and pushed his face against my neck. “Yep. It just seemed so perfect for you…in the woods but not too far from other people and we’re only a ten-minute drive to Homer.”
“Can you be any more perfect?” I asked.
“Probably not,” he joked and smothered my laughter with a kiss.
Wiggling out of his arms, I turned to run up the path. “I want to see inside,” I said. But I didn’t hear Bo following me. So I spun around and almost fell over when I saw what he was doing.
Sitting on one knee, Bo held out a little black box with a sparkling turquoise and diamond ring inside. Although smiling, he looked nervous with his scrunched up face and raised brows. My heart melted at the sight.
“I know this is fast but I can’t imagine my life without you,” he started. “And your eyes remind me of turquoise so I hope you don’t mind something a little untraditional.”
“Bo,” I whispered as the tears began to flow.
“Kenzie Parker, you are already my mate but will you please be my wife?”
Cue the sobs.
I jumped into his arms, almost knocking him over with my petite body. He laughed underneath me as we fell to the ground, me smothering him in kisses and him waiting for an answer.
“Kenzie?” he asked. “Is that a yes or a no?”
“Yes, yes, yes!” I said around my kisses. “Oh my god, Bo. I can’t believe this is all happening. I’m so happy.”
His dimples took my breath away and the joy on his face etched its way into my heart. Never again would I want to see him sad or worried or upset. I promised myself I would do everything I could to keep him feeling like this every day of our lives together.
Our lives together.
Holding out my left hand, I removed Evan’s promise ring and started to put it in my pocket. But Bo stopped me.
“You can wear that if you want,” he said softly.
God, how I loved this man. “It’s okay, Bo. It’s time.” I put the ring in my back pocket, saying a silent goodbye to my old life. It was time to start new. It was time to start that with Bo.
He slipped his gorgeous ring on my finger and I let it glisten in the sun for a few moments. “You know,” I finally said as Bo watched me admire my new jewelry, “this was a lot of work in a short amount of time.”
“Hey, I don’t do anything half-assed,” he kissed my forehead when I wrinkled it up with my impending question. “Okay, well I don’t half-ass anything anymore. Not for my tiny witch.”
“Are you always going to call me that?”
“Yep.”
“Forever and ever?”
“Yep.”
I rested me head against his chest. “Good,” I whispered.
His muscles tightened underneath me as he stood with me still in his arms. “Come on, let’s go see the new house.”
“
Our
new house,” I corrected.
He smiled and squeezed me tighter. “That’s right, future Kenzie Callaghan. Let’s go see our home.”
And as he carried me to the dark blue front door, I couldn’t help but thank the world around me for giving me this grizzly man. Bo may have had a past, but so did I. And those pasts, good and bad, led us to where we were standing right now, today. Without all of those karmic events leading us to the trip a few days ago, we wouldn’t be here.
I hugged him as tight as I could while Bo opened the door and stepped into the threshold of this home.
Our home.
Want more of the Callaghan Clan?
Read Brandt and Emma’s story now
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