Bishop

"I'm yours," she whispered with a sigh of satisfaction.

"Damn right you are, don't ever forget it," he teased, his heart so happy he was almost giddy.

"And you're mine," she smiled, turning and curling into him so he could spoon her.

Laughing, he pulled her close and held her to his chest as she let out another breath of satisfaction.

"I could live right here in this moment," she told him happily.

"That's doable," he rumbled, getting comfortable.

Bishop didn't leave the next day, or the day after.

When he finally left that weekend, she rode with him and helped him pack up his few things, then sat in the passenger seat of the little moving van as they rode back to their house.

He did tend the trees and get the orchard up and running again, but he opted out of canning anything. Instead, he started his own line of Hard Cider and Apple Mead after he started raising bees too.

'Bishop's Choice' became a local household name and 'Sabina's Whimsy and Wonder' got its own storefront that featured tastings when she had art shows that featured local artists.

Stavos came out to one of her art shows exactly one time. Sabina never knew what it was that Bishop had said or done to him, but Stavos never tried to contact her again.

Her father came out several times to first her shows and then later to their house. He joked a few times about kids, but Bishop and Sabina always changed the subject, making it clear that wasn't something they would talk about with him.

Sabina finally saw her brother and his wife and teenage daughter at her fathers funeral years later, but she didn't speak to him. She and Bishop left as soon as it ended and never looked back.

He took her to Tehran, then up to Chalus and rode her up and down the Chalus road a good dozen times on his bike in the fall. He took her around the world, going all the places they both wanted to see, but neither of them were really happy unless they were at home in their little cottage, sitting by the fire and enjoying the magic that came with just being with each other.

When Knight passed, they went to the shelter and adopted a Queen and when she had a litter, they kept one and called him King. When he passed, they adopted a Pawny and when she had a litter, they kept another Rook.

No matter how many years passed, the magic stayed for them.