Making It Home For Christmas?

"What do you want to do while the truck charges?" Devon asked her, planting a kiss before she could answer.

"I know what I want to do, but it's a little too daylight out here," Emily said with an arched eyebrow. "Can you bundle up? You can take me for a walk; this area still has a bunch of great Christmas decorations to gawk at."

"I think we will have a few more days for other things once we get you home." He collected another kiss. "A walk with you sounds nice. Anything with you sounds nice. Have I told you I love you today?"

"Yes, but I can't count it; your cock was inside me. Neither of us can think straight while that is happening."

"Well then, I love you, Emily Parker." He announced loudly. Dev received a couple of odd looks from others on the street, but most morphed into smiles.

They got out of the car and walked, gloved hand in gloved hand on a brisk, clear winter afternoon. "How did you know I didn't want to be called Julie anymore around my family."

"A fifty-fifty guess." He said with a laugh, then shook his head and got serious. "You never asked me to call you Julie. I was just following your lead."

"You guessed right. You are really something, Devon Rogers. How was I so lucky that you were single?"

"I am game deficient and a bit of a homebody. I guess something just put you into my life." Devon stopped her beneath some mistletoe on their walk.

"Was it an accidental semi-truck?" Emily nearly jumped with a start as Sawyer Calvin walked out of the toy store they had stopped in front of, a large box of toys in hand. "I knew I had a good feeling about you two."

"M... Mr. Calvin?"

"Yes, Emily Parker, once Julie Kingsley?"

"How did... how did you know?"

He shrugged and started walking down the street. The couple couldn't help following for just a moment.

"I knew a very good girl and a very good boy that needed something special for Christmas. Lucky enough, it was each other. How has my insurance company taken care of you, Devon Rogers?"

"Ver... Very well Sawyer Calvin."

"Isn't it odd that they only had an electric car for rent that you had to take a little extra time driving home? That you couldn't find airfare out of Denver?" He paused with a quizzical smile. "Don't you feel better now that you two have had so much time to talk about things?"

"Yes..." Emily stammered, trying to shake off growing disbelief.

"I expended an awful lot of magic on you two. I am glad you managed to save each other." Did she imagine things, or was snow swirling around just him?

"How... How did I save him?"

Mr. Calvin looked around. "I usually don't let people in on my tricks, but I am a couple of days late heading north." He set down his box and pulled a piece of newspaper from his pocket. It was a report of an accident from two towns over from Emily. Fire and rescue were pulling Devon's truck from a hole in an otherwise frozen lake. "I can only go against the fates so much. The rest was up to you. Devon's truck had to be destroyed that night. He had to be pulled from a body of water three days later. You saved him from an icy grave. I couldn't completely get rid of the plunge; I'm sorry, Mr. Rogers."

"How did I save her?" Devon had wrapped Emily in an embrace from behind.

"Emily was not in mortal danger, at least not immediately. Emily, if you didn't make it home this year, you were never going to forgive yourself for what he did." Something dinged on his wrist. "Uh-oh, I am almost out of magic. Keep treating each other right. Try and stay off the naughty list, but not too far from it." Mr. Calvin suddenly jetted down an alley and disappeared in a poof of snow.

"I think I know where AJ's toy came from now," Devon said, holding Emily close to him.

"We saved each other's lives?" She turned around to stare up at this perfect man. The thought that he could be dead instead of ever meeting her sent a chill down her spine.

"It sure seems like it. I love you, Emily."

"I love you, Devon."

Devon -- Six Months later

The June heat felt warm but not oppressive as he leveled his camera and took in a brilliant landscape arrayed before him. He heard a few people walking along the trail behind him, but he had scurried into a copse of trees before he could be seen. He was no doubt breaking the law, but this trail was usually so deserted. He also had connections to the local law enforcement. This shot took a bit of work to get to, so he doubted that it would pop up on many area views. "It's clear, you two. Let's get a move on if we want to get to Bill and the camp before sundown." Came a voice between the pines. Artie was playing their lookout. Emily grabbed his arm and pulled him back out onto the trail.

He doubted he would ever tire of her perfect ass, especially the way it peeked out from under her backpack. Its magnificence was multiplied as she stepped into the sunlight. He let her get a couple of steps ahead and then snapped a picture of its awe-inspiring look.

"Half your pictures are going to be my naked ass." Emily looked back with a confident grin.

"Maybe. But damn, it looks good." He hustled closer to grab her offered hand. Devon still found it surreal that Emily let him take pictures of her naked after what had happened with her first fiancé. She trusted him to keep her anonymous. He shared the encrypted online archive they were stored with her so she could delete them at any time. Her beautiful eyes were just for them. Someday, he would be entering a few of her trailside nudes into a contest or two, but not without her full consent.

"Just remember, I know where you sleep." Emily stopped to pull him into a kiss.

"You make it very hard to forget."

"No sex on the trail, you two," Artie said and shook his head. That party was headed toward the summit; we could make it back quickly if we moved.

They walked back down the mountain, hand in hand as Artie shepherded them, keeping them safe from prying eyes. Bill was doing much better, but he still had issues if he tried to climb a mountain. He was content in camp, fly fishing out of a mountain stream.

Standing atop a summit nude was an incredible rush, compounded by his soulmate beside him. It was a little challenging when the summit was above the alpine line, but there were still rocks to hide behind if Artie saw something.

Devon had to stay for an extra week at the beginning of the year; though, he had to work from Artie's coffee shop while another snowstorm socked them in. It was another week to reinforce his love for Emily. When she got him to Denver International to fly back to Sea-Tac, he already had a return trip planned for March. Emily upgraded her home internet as swiftly as she could. She thought Artie was getting tired of her using their front room to have dinner on a nightly basis. Bill didn't seem to mind that she paid for the access with a home-cooked meal several nights of the week.

When the nightly talk started taking place at home, Emily rarely wore clothes. Devon would join her most nights, though it took a little getting used to for his roommate. When he returned in March, again one week became two, then three. She had the bandwidth for him to work from her home, and they were deeply and madly in love. He didn't want to jump in too quickly, but he did so with a Diamond ring in his luggage when he returned in May. He was supposed to have been dead and in a lake, and Em had saved his life.

On a warm day, she took him on a naked hike for the first time. Dev couldn't take another minute of not waking up beside her; when they reached a beautiful vista, Devon made to change the lens on his camera. Instead, he got out the ring. Dev waited until she got impatient and turned around to see what was up and barely got out the proposal. His hand was shaking so bad that he thought he was going to drop the expensive diamond over the side of the cliff. Emily said yes with zero hesitation and a tear in her eyes. It cut the hike short as they had to quickly go back to town to tell Bill, Artie, and their families the good news.

In early June, Devon went back to Seattle one last time to clean out his apartment and send his stuff with movers. Emily refused to let him go driving in the mountains in a truck alone. She flew in that weekend to have company driving his new SUV back to his new home. He ended up with the same model of electric SUV that they had taken to go meet their families. A lengthy test drive was good enough to convince him that it would make the drive to Kansas without problems, even if it meant they had to make a pit stop at a particular hotel in Goodland every time they went.

Right before the Christmas party this year, Emily would be walking down the aisle with Devon. Neither had any desire for a prolonged engagement this time. Their families were excited to come to see where they made their home. They planned to build a bigger place in a year or two when they decided to have a family, something they both really wanted. Devon had sent a couple of letters up far north, hoping that the jolly old man that had brought them together could make their wedding. Summer may be the most popular tourist season in town, but Christmas would always be the most crucial time of year for them.