Chapter Seventeen

Oren

The notification on my phone beeped, letting us know that the delivery was almost here.

“Archer! Heath! Come on!” It was safe to say I was a little excited.

We’d finally decided to get one of the fold-up houses as our addition. Technically, they didn’t fold after you got them set up, but I’d always think of them that way. I still didn’t fully understand the engineering behind them, but I didn’t need to. I wasn’t the designer.

When deciding, we toured the factory to make sure we liked them in real life and not just on the screen. They were even nicer than we’d hoped, and all indications were that they’d hold up nicely in this weather.

Obviously, they wouldn’t look like a cabin at first, but with some “log” siding, it was going to look amazing. And really, it wasn’t the looks that mattered—it was getting everything ready in time. As the season progressed, I really wanted it done both right and quickly. This would accomplish that. We could add a traditional addition on at a later time if we wanted to, but for now, this was the ideal solution.

“How far out are they?” Archer asked, sipping his coffee, nowhere near as hurried as I was.

“Oh, I didn’t look.” I tapped away on my phone, pulling up the delivery notification map. “Ten minutes or so?”

“Excellent.” He pulled out the seat beside him. “Coffee first.”

I loved seeing how much more chill Archer was now that he’d decided to leave his high-pressure position. It had made such a difference for him, both physically and emotionally. I was so glad he was taking the leap.

A few minutes later, he must have sensed how antsy I was because he stood up with his cup in hand. “Let’s drink them outside.”

Archer had given up coffee by this point and had a cup of iced tea that he brought out with him, and I’d been too antsy to even pour a coffee. I’d been the one who pushed for this, and I put a lot of pressure on my shoulders for it to be perfect. Neither Archer or Heath put that on me nor would they want me to feel this way, but I couldn’t help it. I wanted everything to be perfect for us as we began our new lives together.

We stood and watched as the truck made its way to us. It was a lot bigger than I had anticipated and barely fit in our drive. And really, I should’ve known it was going to be like that since it was bringing an entire addition, but spacial memory was weird like that.

After signing the proper paperwork and showing the delivery person where it was going, the hard part began: getting it behind our house without ruining too much of the yard. The driver seemed to have a lot of experience and managed to maneuver it with lots of little baby steps. He never looked worried, and that calmed us down. Once he set it on the foundation we’d had poured, he had us sign again and left.

Now came the fun part.

“The video says it’s not hard,” I reminded them, pulling up the instructions on my phone.

“Not hard and easy are two different things,” Heath yawned. He’d been perpetually tired lately. I didn’t love it, but he assured me he was fine and that his two sexy alphas were just wearing him out. “But I’ll be sure to guide you both.”

As we started to follow step one, we realized this wasn’t a two-person job. It didn’t matter how easy the video made it seem, we needed more help. And even if Heath pitched in, that still wasn’t enough hands. We needed a crew.

“I think we’re in over our heads, guys,” Archer sighed. “So far over our heads we can’t even comb our hair.”

“Agreed.” I pinched the bridge of my nose and tried to brainstorm ways to make this work.

“That’s fine.”

I snapped my head up to see Heath pulling out his phone. He called his friends from the motel and asked them to come over and help, promising to watch the kids and make them food. He’d been getting better at cooking, and hearing him offer meant he was gaining more confidence in the area.

At the same time, Archer took out his phone and called over to the Grizzly to see who was there. Twenty minutes later, there was a whole community of people helping us get everything set up—connecting it to the electricity and water we’d prepared, sealing it to the side of the house so the rain wouldn’t get in, and even putting up the “log siding.”

I hadn’t realized until that moment just how many friends we had in this community. And not work friends who were there during office hours. These were friends friends who showed up when it mattered. I’d never experienced anything like it before in my life and I finally understood the pack thing. There was a time when I thought I did, but it wasn’t until this morning, standing here, taking in the scene happening in front of me that I finally truly understood.

Even though we lived alone in our little cabin in the woods, we were part of something bigger. We might not be a pack or a herd or a den, but what we were was pretty freakin’ amazing.

I was happy not only to be a part of it but to be getting ready to start my family here, where our future children could grow up with this as their norm. I couldn’t think of anything better than that.