When it took her too long to say anything, he panicked.

“Crap!  If you don’t like it, we can have it exchanged.  All of them.”

“No!”

His face lost all its color and he took a deep shuddering breath. “No what?”  He asked her softly.

Mandy smiled at him sweetly and lifted her hand to stroke his cheek.  “No; the rings are perfect.  All of them.  And yes; I will be your girlfriend.”

Hearing her soft words warmed him, his whole body and soul filling up with the most glorious happiness he could ever imagine.

Mandy was completely lost to the complete peace and joy on his face, radiating out from him in waves and for the first time in a very long time, she was absolutely happy.

Only half aware of what he was doing he slid the ring onto her finger, very happy to feel that it fit almost perfectly.  Tyler did not know how long they sat there staring at each other, but he was brought back to the here and now when his mom impatiently wanted to know if they were going to be pitching up like he said they were.

[We’ll be there in a few minutes.  Is everybody else there?]

[All ready and waiting for you to show up.]

[Alright, we’ll come right through.]

“I’d better get you home before everybody starts harassing me.”  Even though he said the words, he made no move to start the car and it was only when her cell phone beeped that he broke out of the spell.

Still in a daze, he slowly drove the car onto the pack grounds to where their families where waiting for them.  He had to shake Mandy gently to bring her from her thoughts and he silently laughed at her confusion when she saw they had not stopped at either one of their homes.

Instead they were parked in the section where a couple of new houses have gone up.  Her confusion left as soon as she saw the people through the window to one of the houses and she willingly took his hand when he helped her out of the car.

Tyler kept hold of her hand as they walked up to the door and Mandy was unable to keep a happy smile off of her face.  As soon as she and Tyler walked into the house, her father and mother shot her a quick glance; and seeing her radiating her joy, they both relaxed and smiled at the both of them.

“So happy you could take the time to join us.”

Tyler pretended to frown at his little sister and swatted at her playfully.  “No need to be so cheeky missy.  I am still older than you.”

“Yeah, yeah.”  Ellie replied as she rolled her eyes at her big brother while everybody else laughed at them.

“So, whose place is this one going to be?”  Mandy asked as she took a peek into the kitchen over the counter top dividing the open plan lounge and dining room area from the kitchen.

When Alex cleared his throat, she glanced back at them in time to see Alex hand a small box to Tyler.

“What?”  She asked as she noticed the looks of anticipation their family members shared.

“Actually Mandy,” Tyler said as she shortened the distance between them; “I still have to give you your birthday present.”

Her hand with the ring on wrapped around the three rings dangling on the chain around her neck.  “This was not my present?”

“No.”  Tyler folded one hand around hers over the rings.  “This is something I should have done a long time ago.”  His mouth twitched before he smiled at her brilliantly.  “Your birthday present is a different kind of ring all together.”  He opened the box and took out something and held it to her on his open palm.

With a puzzled frown she looked at the silver key ring on his palm.  “A key ring?”

“Yes.” Tyler nodded as he put his palm out closer to her, silently urging her to take the key ring from him.

With an unsure smile Mandy took it from him and twirled it around her finger.  “This one will have to be re-sized.”  Everybody bursting out in laughter made her frown.  “What is going on here?”

Tyler ignored her question and held his hand out as he spoke to her with a soft smile on his face.  “If we have this one re-sized, it will be too small …” three hands put keys into his outstretched hand, “for these.”  Completely confused Mandy accepted the keys he held out to her.

“I would really like to know what is going on now, please.”

Tyler half groaned when he saw that his family was not going to give him any privacy to do this in, and he almost regretted his decision to have them here; until he remembered the reason why he wanted them here in the first place.

“Mandy …” He swallowed loudly.  Why was this so difficult?  He had for all practical reasons already told her he was going to be asking her to marry him one day.

“Mandy,” he started again, “these keys are for this house.”

The slight smirk on her lips and a delicately arched eyebrow told him that she had already figured that much out by herself.

He smirked right back at her.  Perhaps his next words would surprise her a tiny bit.

“This house was built on my request.  It’s going to be mine and yours one day.”

The range of expressions on her face was almost comical, from utter stunned disbelief to a near hysterical excitement.  A squeaky nervous giggle broke free and she quickly hid her mouth behind one hand while her eyes sparkled brightly.  Then she quickly tripled out the door and everybody inside heard her quietly laughing.

When she had stopped laughing and she had not come back in again, Tyler got a bit worried and when she still did not come in, he went looking for her.  He found her, still with a silly grin on her face, as she impatiently waited for him to reach her.

“Mandy?”  He asked her, not knowing why she had come out here in the first place.

Shaking her head at him, she fought against the excitement bubbling up in her.  Planting her hand in her hips, she shook her head at him again before smacking his arm.

“You were supposed to carry me over the threshold.”

His booming laughter shattered the peaceful afternoon.  “Really?”  He managed to ask between deep breaths as he tried to keep a lid on his elation that she was not freaking out about how fast he was moving right now.  At least as far as this was concerned; he would have to wait quite a while before completing the mating process.

All she did was nod her head and he started laughing again as he swept her up in his arms and walked with her to the door.  Just on the brink, he stopped and looked at her, his expression suddenly serious.  “Shouldn’t we be married first for me to do this?”

Mandy lifted one hand to his cheek, gently stroking his face with her thumb.  “Will being married make us more to each other than we are right now?”

“Only on paper.”  His eyes hid nothing and she could see into his soul as he spoke to her earnestly.  “I love you Mandy.  There is nothing on this earth that could ever change that.  You are the one who makes me whole.  The only one to see me, really see me.  No one else has been able to do that.  Not even my parents.  I will always love you and need you.  As far as I am concerned, we could get married today and I would be the happiest man alive.  Knowing that you will be a part of my future fills me with hope.  Knowing that you are willing to share your hart with me fills me with a peace so complete it almost scares the crap out of me.”

She laughed so quietly he could only feel it as he was holding her.  “That was so smooth Tyler.”

“Maybe, but you do understand what I am trying to say, don’t you?”

“Yes, I understand perfectly.”  Mandy said as she smoothed away the frown on his face for a change.  “I understand because I feel the same.  Sometimes I feel like you are the only purpose in my life and I do not want it any other way.  I agreed to be your girlfriend, and soon; I hope; I will say yes when you eventually ask me to marry you.  After that I will say ‘I do’.  I love you and I need you and I want to be a permanent part of your life so much it scares the crap out of me too.  But I wouldn’t want to change it for anything in the world.”

Mandy could hardly speak the last few words.  The intensity in his eyes and the increased pressure on her shoulder and legs were he was holding her made her breathless.  She did not even notice when he slowly let go of her legs and guided her down so that she was standing on her own two feet.  She only saw his face as it dropped lower and lower as he pulled her so close to him she was certain he could feel how hard her heart was hammering against her ribcage. 

Lightly he touched his lips to hers, lingering as he gently moved them along her mouth.  Trembling she stood still as he continued to caress her mouth with his lips until he softly sucked on her bottom lip.  The moment she gasped, he slipped his tongue between her lips, nothing more.  Her knees grew weak as he continued to taste her lips with his tongue and she clutched at his shoulders desperately to keep herself from crumbling into a heap at his feet.

The feel of her hands clawing at him broke something lose inside of him, setting free an inferno that raged within him and burnt away all his good intentions.  Now that he had tasted her lips nothing else would ever satisfy this unquenchable thirst.  He had only been able to imagine how much he would want her, need her; and what he felt right now, was so much more than he had thought it could ever be.  So much more, that the severity of this new sensation and emotions crashing around in his mind like a tsunami in a tidal pool frightened him; and he slowly released her lips while still holding on to her.

Waiting for his breathing and heart beat to slow down, he stroked her lips with his finger and he silently thanked his lucky stars that she had not changed yet.  If she had, he might not have been able to stop kissing her until she was his; completely.

“Perhaps it would be a good idea if we went back inside?”  Mandy spoke without really meaning what she was saying, and by the twitch of his lips, she knew he was aware of that as well.

“Yeah, we should.”  Tyler increased his grip on her shoulders and he felt it the moment she took the weight off of her feet; swinging her up into his arms the instant she was not relying on her feet to keep her standing up straight.  With a few steps he carried her in amidst loud applause from their relatives.

“Finally!”  Wade threw is arms in the air dramatically while his older sisters laughed at the pink tinge on Mandy’s face.

Tricia and Ellie both started off towards the inner rooms of the house; dragging Mandy behind them the moment Tyler put her down.  In one of the rooms, their families had set up what almost looked like a picnic.  The floor was covered in blankets with pillows of all sizes scattered around.  Everybody sat down on the pillows, leaving a huge continental pillow as Tyler and Mandy’s seat and Tyler dragged a willing Mandy onto his lap.

Before the silence could get awkward, Rebeccah stood up and fetched a present stacked against one of the walls.

“Happy birthday Mandy.  It is a little late, but we all thought that you would like this more.”  She handed the box over and took her seat while Audrey jumped to her feet eagerly to fetch her gift for Mandy.

All their brothers and sisters handed over their gifts in succession, having a lot of fun teasing Mandy as they went along.  Most of the gifts were something that she would be able to use in her new home like linen or crockery of some sort.  By the time all the siblings and their mates had handed over their gifts, there was only one wrapped gift left and Dinah got up to fetch it and she handed it to Mandy with a grin before she walked back to take her seat next to Rudi.

Mandy tore the paper off and uncovered a photo album and she immediately started paging through it; but there were no pictures of anybody in it though, and she frowned up at her parents.

“What’s this?”  She wiggled the album around.

              Everybody laughed and Tyler peeked around her shoulder to look at the pages in the album.  When Rudi saw that Tyler was just as clueless as Mandy, he almost started rolling on the floor he was laughing so hard.  Luckily Dinah took pity on them.

              “Those are pictures of different lounge and dining room sets that your father and I thought you might like.  You and Tyler can go and have a look at them in the furniture store and decide on what you want and they will deliver it here for you.”

              “Wow.”  Mandy said breathlessly as she paged through the album with more interest while Tyler stared at Rudi and Dinah gratefully.  He had know that they did not have too much of a problem with Mandy being his; but he could never have hoped that they would be this enthusiastic about it.

              “Thank you very much.”  His words were as honest as his thanks and both Rudi and Dinah nodded at him.

              “Well,” Cassy said as Alex pulled her up; “let’s have a look at the rest of the house, shall we?”

              As everybody got up, Tyler and Mandy’s brothers and sisters picked up the blankets and pillows and said goodbye.

              “As charming as you both are, we have our own things to do.”  Wade said as he took the blankets from Tricia.  “Catch ya later!”

              Tyler only had time for a quick goodbye as he rushed after the parents and Mandy as they explored his new home.  He quickly caught up with them as they were coming out of the guest bathroom.  He took the hand Mandy held out to him and followed her around; eager to see her reaction to the house hoping that she would like it as much as he did.  It was not a very big place and would suit them well until they started their own little family.

              Two images sprang to his mind at that thought, the one of her moaning his name and the other of her young, beautiful body heavy and round with his child.  He desperately concentrated on the image of her round figure as he fought to keep himself from doing anything inappropriate.

              The feeling of Mandy’s body shocking to a standstill stopped his mind from wandering and as soon as he saw why she had come to a sudden halt; he understood perfectly well why she did.

              “Mom!”  Tyler protested loudly as he faced his mother.

              Cassy stood calmly waiting for him to finish his mini temper tantrum.  “It’s just a bed Tyler.  You will need one eventually, so I just got you one now instead of later so that Mandy would be able to furnish the rest of the house.

              “Just a bed!”  Mandy sighed as she looked around the room.

              Cassy had taken her along shopping one day when she needed to redecorate Audrey’s old room and the two of them had had a blast going through all the different color schemes.  They must have ‘redecorated’ the same room about a thousand times in their imagination before Cassy was satisfied.  Now Mandy realized that Cassy had paid very close attention to what her dream room looked like.

              “Thank you.”  Mandy said as she stepped up to Cassy and gave her a warm hug.  A hug Cassy returned enthusiastically as she flashed Tyler a knowing look.

              How could he stay mad at his mother when Mandy was so happy about the way the room was decorated?  Shaking his head in defeat, he glanced around the room.  It was tastefully decorated in soothing blues in all shades with some bits of yellow to add a bit of warmth.  Mandy grabbed his hand as she went to check out the bathroom.

              “Oh wow, just wow!”

              Tyler didn’t even bother hiding how pleased he was when he saw how much she liked the shower.  It was huge with frosted glass all around it with various heads that would shower down from different angles at a whole range of different settings.  She had once told him how much she liked walking in the rain and standing under the waterfall and he had spent quite a lot of time looking for the right type of shower for her knowing that she would love something like that.

              Mandy stood on her tiptoes and gave him a soft kiss on his cheek.  “You can be so darn sweet sometimes, do you know that?”

              [Tyler!  A call came in for you!]  Sean interrupted before he could give her a reply.

              “Crap!”

              His frustration was easily read on his face, but Mandy caressed his cheek and then gave him a hard hug before smiling at him.

              “Go.  The quicker you leave, the quicker you can be back.”

              “I suppose.”  He said reluctantly as he held her against him, unwilling to let her go.

              [Tyler?]  Sean asked for him.

              [Yeah, yeah, I heard you.  Give me a second, OK?]

              Sean didn’t bother him again as he said a quick goodbye to his and Mandy’s parents.  Then he gave Mandy a brief kiss on the side of her mouth before walking out.  He had taken a few steps out the door but rushed back in.

              “I forgot to give you this.”  Tyler handed Mandy a leather wallet and watched as she stood with it in her hands.

              When it became obvious to her that he expected her to look inside she opened it up and found a shiny brand new card in it.  She lifted her eyes up to him in question.

              “That card is linked to my account.  You just have to go to see Duncan at the bank to sign some papers and activate the card.”

              “But…”

              “But nothing.”  Tyler interrupted her.  “You are going to have to get a lot more to set this place up for the two of us.”

              Mandy frowned at him.  “It would be much nicer if you were with me.”

              Pulling her tightly into his arms he kissed the top of her head.  “I know.  If you really want to, you can look around at some stuff you might like, and when I am back, we could go look at it together?”

              He felt her nodding her head and hugged her tightly before letting her go.  “I won’t be long.”

              “I know.”  She whispered as he walked out.