Jess looked up at the sound of not one, but two vehicles approaching. She was sitting at the little dinette table going through the shots she’d taken this morning. She’d captured some great ones and was thinking about sending them over to her contact at Outdoor Magazine. She still had quite a bit stashed away in her savings, but she had a feeling that working wasn’t going to be on the top of her priority list over the coming months. She was already preparing to go into mourning after Sully left.

She looked up again at the sound of first one and then another car door closing. It was him! But he wasn’t alone. The guy getting out of the second car could only be someone he worked with. Normal guys just didn’t look that serious, or carry themselves that way. Maybe this was it? They’d had enough of his absence and had come to take him back where he belonged? She plastered a smile on her face. She wasn’t going to make it hard for him. She’d already decided that three weeks was a decent enough interval and as long as she could go before she’d just have to pass through Sacramento and they could maybe have dinner or something.

She hurried to open the door to the camper; she didn’t want them coming inside. She didn’t want to remember that man in here coming to take her Sully away. “Hi,” she greeted them a little too enthusiastically. Maybe she needed to tone it down; they were both no doubt trained to spot a liar.

“Jess.” Sully came to her side as she stepped out. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “This is my boss, and very good friend, Manny Alvarado.”

She couldn’t help but like the older guy as he smiled and held his hand out. He had kind eyes; she hadn’t expected that. “Jess, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I’ve heard so much about you.”

That caught her even more off guard. She’d imagined that Sully wouldn’t have said anything about her to his work people, she was more like his dirty little secret. Or so she’d thought. “You have?”

Sully shrugged and gave her an apologetic smile. “Sorry, I can’t help talking about you.”

“Oh.” She didn’t know what else to say.

Manny smiled his kind smile, with his kind eyes and she couldn’t help but feel he was on her side. Which was weird! “I won’t keep you. I just wanted to meet you. I wanted to thank you for doing what we couldn’t do.”

“And what’s that?”

“Helping this guy open up his eyes to the life he could be living.” He checked his watch. “I need to get back.” He nodded at Sully. “I’ll see you on Monday.”

Jess’s heart sank. So this was it, then? He was going back to work.

Manny turned to her. “And I’ll hope to see you again soon.”

She nodded. She’d never see him again; she knew that, even if none of them wanted to say it. He surprised her by leaning down to give her a hug, and it was a real hug—a bear hug. She felt tears prick her eyes, grateful at least that Sully had this good man in his corner. “I hope so,” she squeaked. Then he turned and got in his car. He drove away without ever once looking back.

Jess didn’t want to make Sully have to say it. He didn’t want to hurt her; she knew that. “So, I was thinking, if I leave in the morning, I can be on my way to Yellowstone. The park should be quiet now that the heavy tourist season is over. They don’t get much fall color up there, but if I hurry…”

“Jess?”

“I know it’s a bit sooner than we said, but…”

“Jess?” He closed his arms around her, but she pulled away. She couldn’t let herself fall into the safety of his embrace. It wasn’t safe at all. He might feel like home, but her home was about to be snatched away from her.

“I have to go, Sully!” She turned away, trying to hide the tears that were streaming down her face. That wasn’t fair. He didn’t need to see that.

“I was hoping you’d stay.”

She froze. “What?”

“I was hoping you’d stay. Here. With me.”

She slowly turned around. “But you’re leaving. That’s why he was here. That man, Manny, he came to take you back. You have to go. And it’s okay. I’m just being stupid. I know you have to do what you have to do. I want you to be happy.”

“Then make me happy. Say you’ll stay here with me?”

Jess shook her head. He wasn’t making any sense.

“Manny didn’t come to take me back, Jess. He came to help me find a place I could stay. A place I can work from.”

She stared at him. Did he mean what she thought he did? “You mean, you, work here? Live here? What? How?”

He smiled. “Yes. That’s exactly what I mean. I can do contract work for the Bureau.” He shrugged. “Contract work. Remotely.”

Her heart had leaped up to somewhere in her throat, and she was finding it difficult to speak around it. “So, you’re staying? And you can do what you need to do and still…have a life?”

He nodded. “And I want you to be a part of my life. If you want to?” For the first time, she saw uncertainty in his eyes. “If you think you could handle settling down here, making a home together?”

He was finally getting through to her, and the happiness was bubbling up in her chest. “I can’t promise I won’t need to take off sometimes. Just take my camera and go.”

He nodded again, the corners of his lips turning up into a smile.

“And I can’t promise I won’t drive you nuts by forgetting things or not knowing what day of the week it is.”

He chuckled. “That doesn’t drive me nuts; it’s part of the reason I love you.”

The tears were streaming down her face now. “Could you say that again? Just the last three words will do.”

He looked deep into her eyes. “I love you, Jess Archer. I love you with all my heart. Please say you’ll stay with me?”

She nodded her head vigorously as she flung herself into his arms. “I’ll stay. I love you, James Sullivan. I can’t believe this!”

“If you’d told me three weeks ago that this was going to happen, I wouldn’t have believed you either, but I do now. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and I don’t want to lose you.” His face grew serious. “I’ll let you go if you feel trapped, you have to know that, Jess. I know you’re a free spirit. I’d never want to tie you down.”

She waggled her eyebrows at him. “Oh, and I was hoping we might get to that, I mean you must have handcuffs, right?”

He chuckled. “You know what I mean.”

“I do, but I don’t feel that way with you. I don’t want to run away from you; I want to run to you. We’ve only known each other a short time, but you are my home. And Hope Falls is such a wonderful place. I love it here, and I love you; there’s no reason I’d want to leave for good.”

“Do you want to come see the house?”

“The house? What house?”

“The house where I’d like you to live with me. That’s what Manny was doing here. He needed to know I’d have a suitable place to work from.”

Jess nodded. This was all a bit much to take in, but she was more than happy to go along with it.

She peered out the window as Sully drove them up into the mountains. The views got more and more beautiful the higher they climbed. It was amazing up here. And he was buying a house here and wanted her to live with him?

She gasped when he turned into the driveway. The place was beautiful. It was a log built home, its front shaped like the bow of a ship with huge windows looking out over the pine-covered valley below. She grinned at him when she caught sight of the falls. “Look!” she cried.

“I know,” he said as he cut the engine and climbed out. “I knew you’d love that.”

“Oh, Sully, it’s gorgeous!”

He nodded. “So, you think you might want to live here with me?”

“I’d love to!” She still couldn’t quite believe it. Just hours ago she’d been dreading saying goodbye to him, and now he was asking her to live with him, in this beautiful house, in this beautiful spot, in this great little town where they both had friends. It seemed he truly was her home.

He came to her and closed his arms around her. “I love you, Jess.”

“And I love you.”

~ ~ ~

A few weeks later they sat out on the deck with their friends. The weather was starting to turn now, and Sully had bought a couple of big deck heaters so they could still enjoy the views from the outdoors in the evenings. Jess’s favorite spot was the hot tub, but tonight she’d have to wait until their guests had left. Sully smiled to himself at the thought. She refused to wear a swimsuit. He adjusted his pants, but he could think about that later.

He paused in the doorway as he made his way back out from the kitchen with fresh beers. Eric and Jake were good guys. He and Justin had hit it off immediately. The rest of the gang were good people too, even if he didn’t know them as well yet. Jess had fit right in with the girls and had even gone along to their Book Club a couple of times. It didn’t sound to Sully that much reading got done; he thought it might be better dubbed Wine Club. But, hey, as long as she was happy—and he got to pick her up and drive her home.

He was slipping into this life much more easily than he’d anticipated. So was Jess. She took off with her camera some days, but she hadn’t felt the need to go off on any extended trips yet. He knew she’d need to at some point, but then he’d have to go off for work sometimes too. This life was working for her, it was working for him, and most of all it was working for them as a couple. As he stood there watching his friends chatting and laughing, he felt as though Patrick was close, and he approved. Sully swallowed hard and looked up into the starry night. “Thank you,” he whispered.

“Are you bringing those beers?” called Eric. “Or are you just going to stand there with them all night?”

Sully pulled himself together and went out to join them. “You need to learn some manners, Detective,” he said as he tossed Eric his beer.

“That’d be Chief to you,” Eric replied.

Sully laughed. “Nah, it’ll always be Detective to me!”

The others laughed, and Sully smiled to himself. Who would have guessed that his life would turn out like this? With good friends and a woman he loved, in a place he cared about.

“So come on,” Amanda turned to Jess. “You said you wanted to name the house, what are you going to call it?”

Jess turned to smile up at him. So she’d finally decided? She’d been talking about this for a while now. He raised an eyebrow. “I want to call it Hope Rises.”

Sully had to swallow that lump in his throat again. Her words took him all the way back to that first day when they’d hiked up to the falls. She’d said she’d rather it was called Hope Rises because it didn’t feel like a place where hopes would fall or be dashed. He loved that she felt that way about this house, about their home.

She got up and came over to where he stood. “What do you think?”

“I love it. But I love Hope Falls, too.”

“Oh, so do I. That’s what it’s all about. Because of Hope Falls, I have you. Because of Hope Falls, Hope Rises.”

Sully smiled down at her; he knew exactly what she meant, but he wasn’t sure anyone else would have a clue what she was talking about.

Tessa grinned at them both. “Since you two came here and fell for each other, my hopes are rising that we might have a wedding on the horizon?”

Sully looked at Jess, he’d thought it was too soon, thought he’d have to wait, but what he saw in her eyes was a resounding yes;