by Vaughn, Ann
As they made the neighborhood stops, Riley began to think of the future. He liked Jenna's house, but it wasn't big enough to raise a growing family. They would have to move into a larger house and he wondered how she would feel about leaving this neighborhood.
"OK, ready to head to Grandmother's?" she asked Cam when they'd delivered the last cookie box.
"Yep. I'm hungry!"
Jenna laughed and Riley felt it spread through him like warm, sweet honey. They were almost to her parents' house when his phone rang. He checked the number then raised it to his ear, seeing it was the police station.
"Stanton," he answered.
Jenna and Cam sobered, Riley's tone alerting them that something was up. He didn't speak much, was listening, but then they heard him giving instructions to assemble the SWAT team.
"Riley?" Jenna asked, concerned.
"Got a call-out, babe, I gotta drop y'all off and head out."
"But, it's Christmas Eve," Cam said, alarmed.
"Lot of people get crazy on the holidays, bud. Got a hostage situation at a jewelry store. Gotta get there in case negotiations go south," he told them, pulling into her parents' drive. "I'll be back as soon as I can, OK?"
Jenna and Cam both sat frozen for a moment. Jenna's heart was pounding, fear nearly robbing her of her speech.
"You'll be all right, won't you, Riley?" Cam asked, his voice small and scared.
Riley turned in his seat to meet Cam's gaze.
"Ninety-five percent of the time, the negotiators talk these people down and we never even get involved."
"But, at the convenience store, you were the one doing the talking," Cam said.
"That was a different situation. I got there before the negotiators. They're already at the jewelry store. It's going to be fine, but I have to go, OK?"
Cam nodded and opened his door and scooted out. Riley turned back to face Jenna, pulling her to him to give her a quick kiss.
"I love you, Jen. I gotta go."
She nodded, her brow pressed to his, fingers on his lower lip.
"You come back to me, Riley Stanton."
"Always," he promised.
She kissed him again then got out, standing with Cam and watching him drive away.
"He'll be OK, right, Mom?" Cam asked, eyes huge.
"Of course he will," she said brightly, putting on a brave face for him. "He's good at what he does, we have to remember that. Come on, let's go inside."
They went to the door and rang the bell, holding tight to each other's hand while waiting for someone to answer the door. Her mother came to the door, a bright smile on her face until she saw their faces.
"Jenna? What's wrong?"
"We need to turn the news on," Cam said, pushing past his grandmother.
"What?" her mother asked, watching Cam rush into the living room.
"Riley just got a call out. There's a hostage situation at a jewelry store in town. He had to go," Jenna explained as she followed her mother inside.
"What's going on?" Jackie asked, nodding toward Cam as he was frantically flipping through the channels looking for news coverage.
Jenna explained, watching Cam surf the news channels. Nothing was on TV as of yet and she knew there was a good chance it would not be. Not every time the SWAT team was called out would be on TV, she knew that. It didn't help her nerves any, though. She realized that if Riley was going to be in their lives, she would have to get used to this...unless she could talk him into giving it up.
"So, Riley is part of the Springfield SWAT team?" her dad asked, breaking her thoughts.
"His uncle is the Chief of Police. Riley agreed to help train the SWAT team and work with them on an as-needed basis."
"Aunt Jackie, do you have your laptop?" Cam asked, "I want to see if any of the news channels' pages are saying anything."
"Yeah, sure, honey, it's on the dresser in my room."
Cam scrambled up the stairs to retrieve the laptop. Jenna took several deep breaths to try to calm her racing heart and carried the bags with her parents' and Jackie's gifts over to her mother's Christmas tree to put them underneath. When she stood, her mother was there and pulled her into her arms.
"Try to relax and trust that everything will be all right, sweetheart."
Jenna nodded, returning her mother's embrace. Her mother really seemed to like Riley, which both surprised and bewildered Jenna.
"Mom! Here it is!" Cam exclaimed, drawing Jenna back into the living room.
She had an eerie sense of déjà vu, watching the helicopters circling the scene. She spotted the SWAT team, but in all their gear and with the overhead view she had no clue which one was Riley. It was just sobering to see them in full gear, rifles in hand.
"That's at Goldstein's," Jackie said, mentioning the popular local jewelry store. "Oh, wow. Can you imagine? Someone tried to rob a jewelry store on Christmas Eve?"
"Couldn't have been a local," Ramsay said, "Everyone knows how their security doors automatically lock if the alarm is tripped."
"Riley said that having cameras watch when the SWAT team was called out wasn't the norm, but this is twice in a month," Jenna said, her voice barely above a whisper.
"It's a jewelry store on Christmas Eve, though," her dad said, "it's a big story."
They listened to the coverage and learned that three suspects wearing Santa suits stormed in the store an hour ago and that there were roughly twenty hostages. She could see that the SWAT team was starting to spread out, guns trained on the front of the store. The on air reporter announced that they were being asked to pull their cameras back, making her heart pound all the more. Not being able to see what was going on closely was torture.
At Riley's request, the news cameras were pushed back. The last thing he needed was for Jenna to see his work unfold on camera yet another time, especially after he'd assured her the last time that it was a rare thing. Upon arriving on scene, he was fairly sure this situation would resolve itself without the use of the SWAT team, but he also knew that you could never just make blind assumptions. Any situation could escalate at any given time. But the negotiators were doing a good job and the request for the SWAT team had been more of a theatric ploy than actually needing their services. Riley could see from the suspects' faces that once the SWAT team arrived, it wouldn't be much longer before they surrendered. They were fairly young guys and wanted no part of the ten rifles trained on them. It was just a matter of waiting them out.
"Sorry to call you out on Christmas Eve," his uncle said, coming to stand beside him.
Riley shrugged. "Happens."
"Lainey tells me you've met someone...and that it's serious."
"As a heart attack," he said, eyes trained on the lead perp.
"Didn't you just meet her?"
"On Black Friday."
"And she has a kid?"
"Ten-year old son."
Riley watched all three perps place their guns on the ground and stand with their hands up in surrender. He moved in, rifle trained on the lead perp while the officers rushed in to cuff them. As soon as the last one was cuffed, Riley put his rifle down and then went back to his uncle.
"Asking her to marry me later tonight, if this hasn't scared her off."
"Really?" Gavin asked, surprised.
"She's the one. Not wasting any time."
"Obviously. That's great, kid. Happy for you."
"Thanks. I just hope this hasn't scared her off. The convenience store thing shook her up pretty bad."
"If she's the one, this won't matter," his uncle said, clapping him on the shoulder. Riley could only hope that he was right.
"It's over!" Cam said, turning to smile at Jenna. "Riley didn't even see any action."
"That's a good thing, Cam," Jackie said.
"Yeah, I know, but seeing him in action would be cool."
"Bite your tongue, Cam Blackwell," Jenna said, getting up to go into the kitchen. She was glad it was over but her nerves were shot.
"Here," she
heard her dad say from behind her. She turned to see him holding a snifter of brandy out to her. "You look like you could use this."
She took it from him, swirled the little amount of liquid in the glass a moment, then closing her eyes, downed it in one gulp, gritting her teeth at the burn that filled her chest.
"Thanks, Daddy," she said after a moment.
"Hold on, baby," he told her, kissing the side of her head. "You've found a good man with a lot more valor and backbone than Wade Blackwell ever thought of having. It's not going to be perfect, smooth sailing. Nothing ever is. But you hold on to this one with all you've got."
She met her father's gaze and held it a moment. He'd never really said much about Wade one way or the other. She knew he didn't care for him, but he'd kept his feelings to himself, letting her mother be the one who voiced her concerns and opinions.
"I plan on it, Daddy," she told him. "It's just...I know that he went through a lot in the SEALs. He has scars from bullets and razor wire and other things that I'm afraid to ask him about. And him being part of the SWAT team, even on a part-time basis...it scares me. I want him to be around to see Cam grow up and get married. I want him to be around to see any kids we have together grow up."
"Tell him. See what his thoughts are and then together work on a compromise."
Her mother came into the kitchen, checking on the food.
"How long do you think it will take Riley to get back?" Elise asked her daughter.
Jenna sighed. "I don't know. It took hours last time, but that was because he was directly involved. He didn't really do anything this time so I have no clue how long he will have to be there."
Elise nodded. "Well, we have another thirty minutes still before everything is ready, and then it can sit for a while, too, if need be."
"Thanks, Mom, I..." she stopped when her phone rang. She pulled it from her pocket, seeing that it was Riley. "Hey," she answered and there was a ton of relief poured into that word.
"Leaving the station now," he told her.
"Coming straight here?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"OK."
"Jen...I'm sorry that ruined your day, I..."
She cut him off. "It hasn't ruined my day. You're on your way back. That's all that matters to me."
"Are you OK?" he asked, reacting to the tone she knew he'd heard in her voice.
"I'm fine. Just get here, Riley," she said, and then to his surprise, she hung up on him.
"Shit," he cursed, feeling his stomach clench. This was not good.
When he got to her parents' house, she was outside and coming to him as soon as he got out of the truck.
"Baby, I'm sorry, I..." he began but stopped when she slammed into him, leaping into his arms and sealing her lips over his. He held her tight, returning her kiss with equal ardor. They were standing in the middle of her parents' driveway in what he was sure was a pretty conservative neighborhood and yet there he stood with Jenna held tight in his arms, her legs wrapped around his waist and his tongue halfway down her throat, and he decided he didn't give a damn what her parents or the neighbors thought. He'd been so scared that she would be angry that he didn't care about anything now that he knew she wasn't.
"You don't have to apologize to me for doing your job," she told him when they finally ended the kiss. "All you have to do is come home safe to me."
"You're not mad?"
"No. I won't lie to you, though. You being part of the SWAT team terrifies me. Not that I don't trust that you know what you're doing. It's just the nature of it. I want you to be around for the next fifty years or more."
He kissed her again. "I told my uncle that I was done," he told her. "Told him the guys are well-trained and don't need me any more. I'm going to stick to my work at Orion and no more SWAT ops."
"Oh, my God! Really?"
"I don't ever want to see that scared look on your face that you gave me when I left. Not ever again."
"I love you so much," she cried, kissing him.
He kissed her, hard and then put her on her feet.
"Look, I was planning to do this later, and Cam's probably going to be pissed at me but I can't wait. I love you so much; I don't ever want to be without you. You and Cam...you're everything to me. I can't remember what my life was like before I met you and I don't want to ever be without you again." He reached into his pocket and then to Jenna's amazement, in her mother's front yard, Riley took her hand in his and went down on one knee before her. "Jenna, will you marry me?"
"Oh, God!" she gasped, when he slid the ring onto her finger. "Yes!" she cried.
"Yes?" he asked, smiling.
"Yes!!!" she squealed when he stood and wrapped her up in his arms, twirling her around.
Behind them, they heard applause break out and Jenna heard Cam whooping and hollering like he was at a football game. She began laughing and held on tight to this man that she loved more than she ever thought was possible.
The rest of the time with her family passed in a blur. Jenna couldn't stop looking at the ring he'd given her, his grandmother's ring, he explained to her. It was in a platinum setting and featured a square-cut diamond surrounded by several smaller ones. It was beautiful and meant all the more to her that it had belonged to his grandmother. When they went to his family's ranch, and Riley told his mother that they were now engaged, Paige screamed and threw her arms around Jenna and welcomed her into their family, then turned and announced to all her sons that she now had her first grandchild as she embraced Cam, which caused all the brothers to teasingly groan.
By the time they got back to Jenna's house, the three of them were on a high that she knew would take a long time for them to be able to come down from. Cam was only slightly disappointed at not getting to participate in Riley's proposal the way they'd talked about, but the excitement over knowing that Riley would soon be his step-dad had that fading away.
Riley built a roaring fire in the fireplace. Jenna surprised him by rearranging the stockings on the mantle and adding one with his name on it that she explained she'd had made for him last week. After Cam opened his customary Christmas Eve present, Jenna went to the tree and pulled out another small box and held it as she stood before Riley, smiling at Cam as she did.
"Cam and I wanted to get you something special. Something that would let you know how very much you mean to us. We looked and looked and couldn't find anything...until we realized what we really wanted to give to you wasn't something we could buy in a store, and it kind of goes hand-in-hand with what you gave to me earlier," she said, wiggling her ring finger. She pulled the lid off the box and held the opened box out to Riley. He stepped forward and looked inside; it was a key on a keychain engraved with Welcome Home, Riley on one side and Love, Jenna and Cam on the other. "See, ever since you came back from the Navy, you've either stayed with your parents or at one of your brother's places. But Cam and I talked, and we thought that the most special thing we could give you, was our love and the hope that you would finally feel you belong. So, that's what we wanted to give you: us, and a Home for Christmas."
Epilogue
Riley and Jenna got married on New Year's Eve. It was rushed for two reasons: one, all his brothers would be able to attend before having to go back to their respective duty stations; and two, they didn't want to delay their lives together any longer than necessary. They married in a candlelight ceremony at her parents' house with roughly thirty guests in attendance. It was small and intimate and everything that Jenna could ever have hoped for.
True to his word, Riley never went on another call with the Springfield SWAT team, but he continued to train them in his downtime from Orion, which became less and less as Orion Securities grew. The jobs he handled himself for Orion were no less dangerous than the SWAT ops; the difference was that Jenna remained blissfully unaware of all that he did on the job, which was how she preferred it.
Jenna began phasing out her own handling of cleaning houses, changing to being strictly the administrative s
ide of the business, which freed her up to spend time with Cam and Riley...and later, with their sons, Jace and Ryan and their daughter, Sydney.
Now, it was almost ten years after she and Riley met. Cam was twenty. Jace was eight, Ryan was six and Sydney was four. Jace and Ryan were bouncing off the walls, ready for the main event. She and Sydney were following along behind the boys at a slower pace, filing into their suite at the stadium. The boys were chattering away and going out on the balcony level seats to get a better view. Jenna spotted Riley leaving the staging area, clapping Wade on the back and giving Cam a brief hug before leaving.
The arena was packed to overflowing. Wade Blackwell was still a big enough draw, but everyone had really come to see Cam Blackwell. Cam had taken the professional Motocross scene by storm when he was just fifteen years old and five years later, continued to blow all the records away. Where Wade had been popular, Cam's popularity was off the charts. He had a fan base that rivaled that of big name NASCAR stars, and the world of NASCAR had taken notice, constantly trying to entice Cam to race stock cars. Cam was intrigued by the thought, but kept insisting that he was staying with Motocross.
"Cam has them eating out of his hands," Cam's step-mother, Mandy, said, smiling at Jenna as she walked in.
Wade had made a complete recovery and surprised Jenna and Cam both by taking a year off of the Motocross circuit to work on his relationship with Cam. It was because of that time spent on the local track with Cam that Cam's career really began to take off. He had the love and support of his mother and step-father and finally had the full support of his father and it made all the difference in the world. Wade began to see the joy in watching his son develop and when Cam raced against him in his rookie season and beat Wade in just his fifth race out, Wade couldn't have been prouder.
