We did it!!! I can’t believe we actually did it!!!
And she didn’t just mean breaking the curse.
She had a new addition to her family, and he completed her in ways that she had never even realized she wanted or needed to be completed. He was handsome, kind, strong, brave, smart – even if he wasn’t much good at riddles! – and absolutely devoted to her and her son. What more could she ever want from life?
And he’ll probably help me keep my air conditioning bills down as well,she thought with an internal laugh.
Or maybe not so internal.
“What are you laughing about?” Calvin asked – but he was laughing as well, sweeping her up in his arms and carrying her down the path.
“Nothing. Everything,” she said giddily, burying her face in his neck and enjoying his warm, masculine scent. “You. Me. Our lives together.” She raised her head, looking into the depths ofhis gorgeous dark eyes, noting the tiny smile lines that framed them.
I want to be the one to put more smile lines there.
The thought was almost overwhelming in its suddenness. But it was true. She wanted to spend her life laughing and having fun with Calvin. She wanted to get old with him.
And she knew, more than anything else she’d ever known in her life, that her wish would come true.
Epilogue
Two months later
“Okay. You make sure to keep your eyes closed.”
“I’mblindfolded!” Diana shot back, as Calvin guided her down the path leading to the play area behind the Girdwood Springs Pre-School.
“That was just to make extra sure,” Calvin laughed, his hands on her shoulders as they made their slow way down the path. “But it could slip off.”
“Okay, okay. They’re closed!”
Calvin smiled. He really wanted this to be a perfect surprise for Diana – after all her hard work fundraising for the materials, the time she’d spent planning out exactly what she wanted for the new playground, and then driving around finding the best bargains she could to make sure the money stretched as far as it could….
I want this to be her dream come to life,Calvin thought firmly.And it was my pleasure to create it for her.
Of course, he’d taken some leave from his job – now that he was moving to Girdwood Springs on a permanent basis,he needed some time to relocate, moving his stuff from his apartment to Diana’s house. Not that he had a lot to move, since he’d mainly thought of his apartment as a place to sleep. It was nothing like Diana’s warm, inviting, if slightly messy, home.
Luckily, his boss had been only too happy to let him have a couple of months away and then come back at a different location. Calvin had never been a big spender and his job paid well, so he had plenty of savings to draw on.
And it had meant he had all the free time he needed to build the playground of Diana’s dreams.
And to organize the grandest opening ceremony for it too!
Calvin trusted Diana when she told him she had her eyes closed, as he guided her around the last bend in the path, leading behind the main building of the pre-school. He couldn’t hold back the smile that spread across his face – not that he would have wanted to – as he finally saw what the other residents of Girdwood Springs had been doing while he’d been picking her up from their home – Diana’s home, that had become his home too.
He was still getting to know everyone in town, but he could recognize some of the parents of the children who attended the pre-school, milling around by the folding table that was absolutely laden with food that had been donated by local restaurants and bakeries for the opening of the playground. Sylvie the baker and her husband Gale were just putting the finishing touches on a massive platter of pink frosted cupcakes.
Up by the wooden play house he’d spent time building, he spotted Kieran with his wife Natasha, making sure the ‘GRAND OPENING!’ banner they’d made was hanging straight, draped over the play house’s front door.
And, to his surprise, it had turned out Kieran the griffin and Gale the unicorn weren’t the only shifters who’d decided to make their home in Girdwood Springs.
Henry the hellhound shifter was standing with his mate, Luna, and their dog, Fillmore, by the empty raised garden beds they’d helped him prepare, just waiting to be filled with the seeds for the vegetable and herb gardens that Diana had dreamed about growing with the children. Henry had been a huge help to him while he’d been building the playground, since as it turned out, he was handy with a hammer and saw and only too happy to pitch in and donate his spare time, despite the terrifying hellhound aura he gave off.
And Caleb the dragon had used his luck powers to get them a great deal on some repurposed lumber that was going cheap – just when they thought they’d missed out on it, they’d gotten a call from the supplier saying a previous buyer had backed out, and they were willing to sell it for an even cheaper price than before.
Everyone in the town had wanted to dosomethingto help Diana’s dreams become a reality, and give the playground a new lease on life. Calvin had felt his heart swelling every time he’d taken a phone call from someone asking how they could help with the project.
But most touching of all, he thought, as he quickly glanced around to make sure everything was perfect before he took Diana’s blindfold off and told her she could open her eyes, was the beautiful mural the children of the town had created out of interesting stones, bits of wood, old tiles, and even some dried leaves and flowers. The mural, next to the flower beds, read ‘THANK YOU MS. RAMOS!’in light-colored stones, and the children who’d made it were still standing with barely contained excitement next to it, clearly trying to stifle their giggles of delight as they waited for what they’d created to be revealed.
