Page 17 of Wrong Number, Right Grizzly (Dial M For Mates #7)

NIX

"I still can't believe your new job allows for you to be remote.”

There was a saying that good things come in threes. First I met and mated Ronan, secondly, my mate was pregnant, and finally, we were going to live together.

Ronan was taping up another box in his living room while I packed books from his shelves. He grinned. "I may have mentioned that my husband lived an hour away and we're expecting a baby.”

His boss was human, hence calling me a husband rather than a mate. But I was cool with that. If it made Ronan’s life easier, I’d dress in a tux and say my I do’s.

My beast refused to believe we’d be in the same house as our mate until it happened. Since we’d discovered Ronan’s pregnancy, my grizzly had been pestering me to see him every day.

The past week we’d had conversations about breaking a lease, moving trucks, and what furniture he’d get rid of.

Initially, I’d assumed I could pitch in and help while working full-time, but that proved impossible and I had to take a week off.

My colleagues pointed out it was the first time I’d taken a holiday in years, and they expected our boss to help out with the move to get me back in the office quicker. That or he’d move in with us.

"This is the last of the office stuff," Ronan announced, sealing the box and writing Computer Equipment on the side. "Everything else is either packed or going to charity."

I looked around his small apartment which had been emptied over the past few days. It was strange seeing the place reduced to boxes and bare walls, and I wondered how he felt.

“Any second thoughts?"

"About leaving here or moving in with you?" He crossed the room and wrapped his arms around my waist. “I can’t wait for our life together to begin.” He grinned. “Don’t tell me you’re dreading all the true crime programs I’m going to torture you with.”

He was only half kidding, because since that night when we discovered he was pregnant, he’d become a fan of nature documentaries, but he preferred when they didn’t feature baby animals. If they did, I had to have two boxes of tissues handy.

“Nah.” Those would never be in my top ten, but my mate enjoyed them, so I’d watch them with him. “Besides, now my beast will stop bugging me about where you are and what you’re doing.”

“Ready?” Ronan walked from room to room, making sure nothing had been left behind.

“To go home?” I tucked my arm in his. “Since that night of the flood.”

My mate snorted. “Remember those awful clothes?” I pulled up a pic on the phone. “We should get that photo framed.”

It’d been framed in and around my heart, but yeah, I’d enlarge it and hang it above the fireplace.

“Home,” he repeated. “Not your house or my apartment but our home. It’s where we’re going to build a life and our little one will grow up.”

I couldn’t wait.

Before we set off, he checked his list. “The power company will close out the account next week, and I’ve arranged for any mail to be forwarded. I think that’s it.”

Whenever I’d driven back from Ronan’s in the past, my beast had been telling me to turn around.

My heart was saying I’d left part of it behind, and I could hardly see through the tears.

But this time, my mate was in the U-Haul we’d hired, and I was in front, driving his car.

I kept peeking in the rearview mirror to make sure he was still there.

When we arrived at home, I ordered food. Ronan insisted we cook most nights to save money, and I agreed, but today was an order-in day. Neither of us wanted to cook after unpacking.

Of the three bedrooms in my house, one would be repurposed as the nursery and the third was my mate’s home office.

He’d chosen the smallest room because it had a great view of the back yard.

And while the night we met was pinned as a Very Important Day (VID), Ronan’s first glimpse of my beast in the back yard had equal importance.

He set up his office, and I left him to it because it was his space and he had to arrange it how he preferred.

I carried boxes labeled bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, and living room into their respective spaces, wishing they’d unpack themselves.

The bathroom was the easiest, and I placed his toiletries on the vanity and in the cabinet.

Ronan wandered out and rummaged in the kitchen box for his favorite coffee mug and placed it on his office desk. “Now it feels like home.”

We could live in a hut in the middle of the forest with no running water or electricity and it’d feel like home if my mate was there.

“Wanna help me tackle the closet?”

My honest answer was no, but I agreed, and by evening his clothes were hanging or folded and most of the boxes had been flattened and placed in the recycling bin.

I’d wanted to order more food for dinner because I was tired, but my mate insisted on cooking.

We both had a few more days off, so we could sleep in tomorrow.

After I’d chopped vegetables and Ronan was stir-frying, I snuck into the bedroom and opened his closet and ran my hands over his clothes.

Then I crept into the bathroom and admired his toiletries lined up neatly.

He was really here and he wasn’t leaving.

“Nix, to celebrate, I vote we watch one of my true crime mysteries, but we pause it after each revelation and debate who dunnit and how.”

I promised not to look up if anyone had been arrested for the crime.

“Look at you. I might turn you into a sleuth yet.”

I closed one eye and mimed smoking a pipe. “I just need a monocle and a twirly mustache.”

Ronan laughed, saying I should grow a mustache and he’d buy me a deerstalker cap so I’d really look the part.

I placed my hand on his belly, thinking of the baby growing inside him. But as my eyes were closing after an hour of debating who the killer was, Ronan suggested we use the next few days to paint and wallpaper the nursery.

I opened one eye. “Couldn’t we have one day where we can sleep in and have nothing on our schedule? Pretty please.”

He agreed that we’d start the day after tomorrow, and he hefted me off the couch. I hadn’t told him that some nights I was so tired, I slept right here which was why I’d spent a fortune on the sofa.

“You know what else we could do?” He put toothpaste on his brush but waved it around as he was speaking.

Ideas that popped into my head were: run a marathon, build a pagoda in the back yard, or volunteer for a year with a children’s charity.

“We should go back to the sad little motel with champagne, chocolate-coated strawberries, and lobster, and celebrate our first night together.”

That wasn’t a bad idea. We could wear the awful tracksuit pants and T-shirt.

“I love it, but not tomorrow. Is that okay?”

He kissed me with his toothpastey mouth. “Fine,” he mumbled through the foam.

As we pulled down the quilt before climbing into bed, Ronan stood on his side of the bed, staring at my side.

“Something wrong?” He’d replaced the pillows on that side with his own, saying he preferred one firm and one soft pillow.

“I have a confession.” He nibbled his bottom lip. “Every time we've slept together, I’ve been on the left side of the bed, but I usually sleep on the right.”

What? How had he not told me? The right side was my side. Was this going to be our first fight?

“Okay. I can sleep on the other side.” We’d have to compromise because we couldn’t sleep on top of one another. “How about we take it in turns until we work out a solution.”

“Sure.”

We changed pillows, and I moved over. I thought about why I liked the right side. It was closest to the door, while the other was nearest to the bathroom.

“What if we got a bigger bed or adjusted the angle?”

“That’s possible.” He sat up. “Actually, now that I’m here, I prefer the view from the other side.”

Were we going to play musical beds—or rather sides of the bed?

“Wanna move again?”

“Are you already regretting having me move in?” He put my arm under his head and swung a leg over my hip.

“I so am. In the middle of the night when you’re asleep, I’m going to pack up your stuff and leave the boxes at the door.” I brushed my fingers over his belly.

“Not take the mattress into the garden with me on it so I can get an even better view of the garden?” He placed a soft kiss on my lips.

“Did I ever tell you what we got up to in college doing something similar?”

Ronan giggled, saying he regretted putting that idea in my head.