“I’ve always done my job well, Sarah. This time was no exception.” He paused, walked over to the Christmas tree, touched the snowflake he’d put there the day after the On-the-Square Festival. “The problem is, I thought I had to go back to that life to be myself again. That if I didn’t, I’d be letting that IED steal my life the way it had stolen my friends.”

She watched him tighten his fingers, then flex them.

“Maybe I needed to prove to myself, to everyone, that I could still do my job.”

“That’s what you did?”

He nodded. “Lukas has offered me my pick of assignments.”

Sarah bit the inside of her lip. She was happy for him, but…

“Congratulations, I think.”

“I told him I had reconsidered my position at iSecure.”

“What?”

“I don’t want to be sitting in some desert on a stakeout, Sarah. I want to be here, at Hamilton House.”

What was he saying? Why were her insides trembling?

“You do?”

He nodded. “Think you have a room for me?”

Her head spun. “You want to stay at Hamilton House?”

“If you’ll have me here.”

“Of course. That’s fine. I…how long do you plan to stay?”

Rather than answer, he walked to where she’d put the quilt back on the rocker. He picked it up as if it were something precious, then moved to where she stood. He smiled down at her with something in his eyes she’d never seen before, something that stole her breath and made her knees shake.

“How long do I plan to stay?” he repeated. Taking the quilt, he wrapped it around her shoulders and pulled her to him. “Forever.”

Forever? That’s what shined in his eyes. Forever.

“You going to use that mistletoe?”

Sarah held up the green twig over their heads as he pulled her into his arms.

Epilogue

Epilogue

“Something borrowed,” Ruby said, fastening an emerald bracelet around Sarah’s wrist. “My Charlie gave me this for our forty-fifth anniversary.”

“Something old,” Claudia said, adjusting Aunt Jean’s wedding veil on Sarah’s head.

“There she goes talking about you again,” Rosie said half under her breath while eyeballing Maybelle.

“Shush your mouth, woman,” Maybelle ordered. “Can’t you see we’re getting ready for a wedding here?” Maybelle turned back to Sarah and placed a velvet box into her hands. “Something new. These are from all of us, even from your something blue over there.”

Sarah eyed her bridesmaids, not a one of them under sixty-five, and fought getting too emotional.

She could not cry. She’d ruin her makeup and they didn’t have time to repair it. She had a very important date to meet her father in just a few minutes.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you,” she told them, opening the box.