Their lives settled into a normal routine as a married couple. They got together with friends some new some old acquaintances, and they were enjoying this time of their beginning. Candee was indeed pregnant just as she had thought and their baby was due in February.
Everyone was delighted with their news, Anne was ecstatic, Julie happy to be getting a playmate for Katie, even if it was a boy, she said. Starke was absolutely over the moon on the prospect of becoming a father, it was almost all he talked about, and planned for, they discussed the new house so much making all kinds of plans and changes. Besides the lovely garden areas around the house he now was planning a special play area for a young child an area which he could expand as the child grew.
Candee was planning the nursery, because as her husband aptly put it, the sky's the limit for their child. And so she planned to bring in a muralist to create Disney's It's a Small World on the walls and to have the music playing as the mobile over the crib turned, or simply piped into the room over the sound system she was going to make it beautiful, and fitting for either a boy or agirl.
Candee and Julie found the perfect corner shop in town and with Candee's financing of the project the two women turned it into a cozy, cheerful place for the clients to pour over books, and discuss the wedding of their dreams, the wedding that these two ladies would make happen for them.
Julie promised Starke that she would not let Candee overwork in the shop or on the site of a wedding, and he made sure he hired any outside help they may need; all they had to do was let him know that man power was needed and they magically seemed to appear. As well as disappear when the task was done, they knew these men were somehow on his payroll, because they never saw a bill for whatever work they had done.
Starke and Cameron were working on a case together, and he still used his computer in the evenings or his days off occasionally to surf the web and chat rooms, but most of his focus was on the house and getting it done so they could move in, and get settled before the baby came.
Because they had many friends now, and they had become close with Ed and Sally and Gloria and Chad and of course Julie and Cameron, when they were able to join the couples, who didn't have their child sitting problems, Anne was often available but they didn't want to take advantage and so they missed many of the outings, such as picnics on the lake, dining and dancing till dawn etc.