She started in the kitchen and began giving orders, thankful everyone was here to help and thinking maybe it wouldn’t take too long after all. “All the food needs to go. You can leave it in my parents’ fridge and cupboards. The dishes will stay here. I’ll go through the rest of this and see if there’s anything I want to take. Guthrie, you can box up my clothes. I’ll take all of them with us.”

“Got it.” He took a couple of boxes down to her bedroom. Ethan and Jasper unloaded her fridge and all the food from the cupboards.

She directed Duncan and Cearnach to help pack up all of her financial files and office supplies. She and Heather went through the rest of the house, collecting keepsakes that Calla would leave at her parents’ home for now and taking anything else that renters didn’t need for a comfortable stay.

Packing everything up that would go to her parents’ house first would take a lot longer than she’d thought. The men figured they’d get it done quicker if all six of them started hauling everything over to her parents’ place while Calla and Heather stayed at the carriage house and continued to pack.

The men would leave all the boxes in Calla’s old bedroom, knowing that her parents would not rent her room out, and she’d come back and sort out everything later. Some of the boxes were going into a storage unit on the property, and the men would need a little time to put away all the food.

Heather smiled at Calla. “I’m so glad you mated Guthrie. We’ll have to have a grand wedding.”

“Nay,” Calla said. “After what your pack had to do to help my parents and me out, I want something really simple. We can dress up. And that’s it. Someone in the pack can take pictures, and our honeymoon will be enjoying family here.”

She realized then that she would be spending Christmas with her new family. “Can…can my parents come to the Christmas celebration?”

Heather hugged her. “Aye, of course. They are family now too.”

Calla let out her breath. “This is all so new to me.”

“You’ll get used to it right away. If Guthrie ever gets to be a problem, you just tell me. I’ll let his mum know. End of trouble.”

Calla laughed.

They both sat down to wrap her fragile decorations—family pictures and other mementos—in paper, then tucked them into a box. It seemed so strange to be packing up her stuff like this and not needing her home any longer. Living in the castle was bound to be more fun, though—seeing everyone and having more people to bounce ideas off—and she really looked forward to another open house with crafts and games and a holiday bazaar like they’d had this year.

Heather smiled at her. “You’ve made everyone so happy. We all worried about Guthrie after his last breakup. I didn’t really care for the woman. But the two of you are just perfect for each other. I’ve never seen Guthrie so sure of this being the right move to make.”

“With the other woman, he thought she was the right one too, didn’t he?”

“As far as his ego went, aye. She fell all over him and, well, he thought if the woman adored him that much, they had to be right for each other.”

“Then she left him for her old boyfriend.”

“Aye, but before that, she started belittling him in front of others. We all like Guthrie. He’s a good man. She had no business putting him down like she did. She just made up stuff to complain about.”

“I didn’t know that,” Calla said, shocked. She shook her head.

“Then there you were. He was fighting with himself, trying so hard not to share the same space with you.”

“Because of the last girlfriend.”

“Aye. But then he couldn’t help himself where you were concerned. The two of you have a common interest in finances. Not everyone has a good head for numbers. And…well, any of us who were decorating the tree… When it was suddenly knocked over and Guthrie rescued you and you kissed him for such a gallant deed—we knew where it was headed.”

Calla chuckled. She hadn’t thought of it in either of those ways. Before she got to know Guthrie, she had assumed he was going to be the Scrooge of the family. She would never have guessed that she would end up planning an event like the holiday bazaar with him. And the kiss? Only an impulsive, exciting, and reckless bit of fun. Or so she’d thought at the time. She’d treasure that special moment with Guthrie forever. She could just imagine some of the MacNeill kin saying to the kids she and Guthrie would have someday, “Did you know that your mum and dad were caught kissing underneath the Christmas tree way before you were born?”

She smiled at the thought and wrapped another picture.

The back door suddenly creaked open. Both Calla and Heather looked in that direction, but they couldn’t see who was there, if anyone.

Calla couldn’t imagine why anyone was using the back door. The men had all left through the front door, and Guthrie had locked it on the way out. She had some patio furniture out back, but she had no plans to take any of it with her. She was going to leave it there for the prospective guests. Beyond that, trees lined another cobblestone drive that led to the back side of the property.

Concerned, Calla rose to her feet. Just as Baird came into view.

With a soft gasp, Heather jumped up and backed toward the front door.

“Don’t move,” Baird warned Heather with a threateningly deep voice.

“Go,” Calla said to Heather, her voice firm and angry as she continued to stare Baird down. He looked angry, tense, and determined. “This is between Baird and me. Heather has nothing to do with it.” Besides, she knew Heather would go for help.