Rory held on to the cliff’s edge as if his life depended on it. Which it did. He’d heard the girl’s screams stop moments after she’d fallen. He’d heard a slight splash, then nothing more.

He didn’t dare look down. Instead, he concentrated on holding onto the rocky surface he’d dug his fingers into. His fingers were half frozen, his bad shoulder was screaming at him, but still, he held on.

“Crystal, honey, do you think you can help me?” he called out, trying to sound calm.

He heard her cry out and move around. She smiled when her head popped out over the cliff’s edge.

“You didn’t fall?”

“Not yet. Think you can find something to help me up?” His feet were dangling in midair and he didn’t want to let on how much trouble he was in.

She disappeared, then a thick rope was dangled down and hit him square in the face.

He was using his good hand to hold onto the cliff’s edge and wondered if his bad shoulder would hold him if he grabbed the rope with it. After a moment of thought, he decided it didn’t matter, since he was pretty sure he was seconds away from falling to his death anyway.

Letting go with his left hand, he gripped the rough rope and called out. “Pull.”

He knew she was using all of her strength to tug him up, so he helped by climbing the crumbling wall with his good arm as he dug his feet into the dirt and rocks.

It took longer than he thought it would. By the time his body lay on the edge, he was completely spent. His arms shook, and he was pretty sure he’d messed up his shoulder.

He lay there as the snow fell on his face, breathing heavy in the dark night. White puffs of his breath floated upward into the dark sky. He could feel his hands bleeding from the rope and rocks, but didn’t move to stifle the flow.

Then Crystal was there, and all of his pain disappeared.

“You’re alive,” she cried, looking down at him. When she kissed him, warmth spread throughout his entire body.

“I love you,” he said, reaching up with a bloody hand and pulling her back down to him. The kiss was beyond anything he’d ever experienced in his life. He knew, without her saying a word, that she loved him in return. Love him as much as he loved her.

“Are you guys okay?” someone called out.

Rory glanced over and noticed the bright lights hitting them from more than ten feet away.

“Call an ambulance,” he said, not letting go of Crystal.

“Already called it in,” the voice came. “Stay put, I’m coming out to you.”

“Are you okay?” he asked her softly.

“I am now that you’re okay.” She smiled. “I thought…” He heard her voice crack and shook his head.

“Later,” he said softly as two men stopped beside them with flashlights.

“Holy cow,” one of them said. “There’s a lot of blood.”

“Son, go back to the truck and wave down the sheriff and ambulance,” the older man said. He glanced down at them. “Evan passes out at the sight of a drop of blood.” He rolled his eyes. “There isn’t too much, looks like just scrapes.” The man bent down and placed two heavy blankets over them. “Don’t want you two to go into shock.” He glanced around. “Was there another driver?”

Rory and Crystal glanced towards the edge.

The man stood and pointed his floodlight to the bottom. “Not much we can do to help her.”

“She tried to kill me,” Crystal said. The man turned towards her.

“Seems like you’re lucky to be alive, then,” he said, coming back to them. “If you can move, we’ll get you both into a warm car and wait for your ride.”

“It’s—” he started, but cried out when he moved his shoulders. “Dislocated,” he grunted, before passing out.

When he woke next, he was tied down in the back of an ambulance.

“Welcome back,” a young man said, looking down at him. He held a small tube in front of his nose and Rory almost gagged on the smell.

“I’m awake, put that god-awful thing away.”

The man laughed. “Your lady is in the cot next to you.” He moved over, and Rory glanced to the side as much as he could with his head taped to the gurney.

“Crystal?” he said.

“I’m here, are you okay?” she asked, reaching her hand out for his. He took it, then hissed.

“Yeah, might not want to use those hands for a while. You burned off the first couple layers of skin,” the EMT told him. “We’ll get you fixed up as soon as we make it through this snow.”

“I’m sorry,” Crystal said softly.

“We’re not going to do this again, are we?” he joked.

“Last time, I promise.” He could hear that she was smiling by the tone of her voice.

“Good, because I’d hate to spend the rest of our lives together always hearing you apologize.”

He heard her sigh. “That sounds wonderful.”

“What does? Hearing you say you’re sorry?”

“No, the thought of spending the rest of our lives together.”

“I know you’re not the kind of woman who agrees with marriage, but—”

“I do,” she broke in. “With the right man.” Everyone was silent for a moment. “And you’re the right man.”

He smiled as the EMT shook his head. “Well, this is a first. We’ve never had someone propose in our ambulance before.”

* * *

Crystal sat with Rory in front of the fireplace and watched Aurora across the floor. Rory’s good arm was wrapped around her loosely, since she was recovering from two broken ribs. He was holding on as if he never wanted to let go.

Their scrapes and cuts were almost healed, but they were still having issues with sore muscles and other aches and pains.

Yoga helped most days, but they’d taken to long hot showers and had talked about installing a hot tub on the back patio, so they could soak the pains away each night.

“Merry Christmas.” Rowan, Kayla, and Connor James entered the room together. Rowan and Kayla were both laden with packages.

Crystal smiled up at them, then gasped when she saw her sister, Genie, and her husband, Charles, walk in behind them.

It had been almost six years since they’d spent a Christmas together.

Crystal rushed to get up. When she cringed, Rory gently pushed her the rest of the way off the sofa.

She laughed as her sister wrapped her arms around her lightly.

“Not too hard,” Rory warned. “She still has broken ribs.”

“I’m fine.” She waved Rory off then wiped a tear from her eye. “You made it.”

“Yes, we thought our coming would be best as a surprise. We know how much you love surprises.”

“If I’d paid attention to the cards this morning…”

“I would have seen this coming,” Genie, Rory, and Serenity said at the same time, causing all of them to laugh.

“I’m not that predictable, am I?” She glanced around the room.

“Aurora!” Her sister finally noticed the little girl on the floor and rushed over to hug Serenity, then snatch up the girl, who immediately cried for her grandmother.

“She’ll warm up to you,” Crystal said, sitting down and letting her sister set the girl in her lap. “I still can’t pick her up yet.” She buried her face into her granddaughter’s hair. “Soon. Your grandmother is a fast healer.”

“I’m Charles.” Her brother-in-law shook Rory’s hand.

For the next few minutes, introductions were passed around, followed by a quick telling of what had taken place a few weeks ago.

“Now that we’re all here”—Rowan smiled and wrapped his arm around Kayla— “we have some news that can’t wait.” He glanced down to Connor James, whose smile grew.

“I’m going to be a big brother!” he called out.

For the next few minutes, they all hugged and cried as everyone congratulated Kayla and Rowan.

When everyone settled back down, Crystal was holding a very tired Aurora.

“Ben, Rowan, would you help them carry their bags upstairs,” Serenity asked. “I’ll go check on dinner.”

“I’ll help,” Kayla added, then kissed Rowan on the lips before following Serenity out of the room.

“So, was the girl the one who shot you?” Charles asked after Kayla came back into the room with a plate of gingerbread and hot tea for everyone.

“We’ll never know. They searched her place, but didn’t find a gun. She could have gotten rid of it,” Rory suggested.

“It could have been a woman on the video,” Kayla added. “But, I still say the figure was too tall to be Nichole.”

“What about Joe?” Serenity asked, coming back into the room. “Dinner is almost ready.”

“Joe was at the store. The surveillance footage there shows him leaving only two minutes before Rory was shot,” Crystal added.

Just then, Ben entered the room again. “Are we talking about the shooting?” he asked, sitting down next to his wife.

“Yes, we were speculating on if it was Nichole who shot Rory,” Crystal said.

Ben’s eyes moved around the room. “I have a theory on that.”

“Tell us.” Serenity leaned closer.

“Crystal had me doing some background checking after you were shot.” He glanced over at Rory.

“And?” she asked.

“I had your secretary, Gloria, look into some of your more recent cases. She mentioned that you were handling Senator Beranger’s finances.”

“What does Clark have to do with me getting shot?” Rory asked. A frown caused a small crease between his eyes.

“Well, normally, I would have thought nothing, but after hearing yesterday’s news… I’d think maybe the police would like to question him.”

“Yesterday’s news?” Crystal and Rory said at the same time.

For the past few weeks, they’d decided not to turn on the television, since most days, all they saw was their own faces plastered on the local channels. They were big news in that part of Maine. Everyone loved a happy ending.

“Ex-Senator Beranger tried to kill his estranged wife. He showed up at a restaurant she was dining at with her lawyer and pulled a gun on the pair of them. One of her recently hired security guards tackled him before he could get off a shot.”

“Oh no,” Rory said, sitting forward. “Clark.” He shook his head.

“Apparently, Beranger believed his wife would get everything in the divorce since he’d been the one caught cheating.”

“He stood to lose more than half,” Rory agreed. “He tried to get me to hide some of it, but…” Rory glanced at her.

“It could have been Beranger in the video,” Rowan added. “I can send the video along to the police handling his case.”

“I’ll go make a few calls.” Charles stood up and pulled out his cell phone.

“My father retired from the FBI,” Rowan added when his father left the room. “If anyone can find out, he can.”

“Dinner is probably ready,” Serenity said, standing up and taking Aurora from Crystal. Rory helped her into the formal dining room, which Kayla and Serenity had finished preparing for everyone.

Glancing around the room, she smiled. The last time it had been this full, her parents had been alive. She smiled and wiped a tear from her eyes as Rory’s arm wrapped around hers.

“Here.” Serenity held out the chair at the head of the table. “Mom, this is your spot.”

She looked down at the chair her father used to fill and glanced once more around the room. Rowan, Kayla, Ben, and Genie were all delivering the food to the table. Everything and everyone was perfectly in place.