Since the Plums celebrate Christmas, I wanted to have this chapter up before the real Christmas. Thank you to everyone for reading, I hope you enjoy it.

My mother was thrilled. I'd gotten a call from a report a few days earlier who wanted to interview about Plum Lingerie. The paper had published the interview a few days earlier and my mother bought five copies. The interview was about local businesses who had started up in the area. There was a nice photo of me, and they'd even included my website details.

"You're a role model now," she told me. "You need to make sure you eat all your vegetables and brush your hair and don't swear in public."

"Ma!" I said, wondering what she thought I usually went around doing if that's what she felt she needed to warn me over. I mean, she was right on the vegetables one though, I should probably do more of that.

It had increased local sales and I'd added a free local delivery for the pre-Christmas rush orders. I'd just finished dropping off orders and had stopped at my parents' house to see Mom and Grandma and get some cake.

Val was picking the girls up from school. She and Morelli seemed to have worked things out after the Terri Gilman incident, but she hadn't accepted his proposal yet. My mother wanted to know when they'd get married and when Val would move into his house. Morelli seemed content to wait and had started working on installing a half bath on the lower floor of his house. Since he and Bob only needed one toilet between them, I was assuming he was hopeful that Val would accept his proposal.

Val and I had been at a local cafe a few days earlier, treating the girls to an after school milkshake, when Angie Morelli and Grandma Bella had walked past. I'd looked away but Val had accidentally made eye contact through the glass with Grandma Bella and before we knew it, she was tapping on the glass. I swear that I saw Angie Morelli roll her eyes.

Grandma Bella came into the store, Angie trailing behind her.

"You! I saw you in my vision!" she said.

"Grandma Bella, this is Val. You know Val. Joe brought her to dinner last week," she said.

"I had a vision of Joseph having children with a blonde woman! It was you!" Grandma Bella said. "You will have six bambinos, all boys!"

Angie Morelli sighed, and my niece Angie sighed at the same time. I looked at them. Angie Morelli was a sainted Burg housewife who had the unenviable role of looking after Grandma Bella, and Angie was a perfect little Burg housewife in training, who had Mary Alice to look after. It was possible they were kindred spirits.

"It's nice to see you again, Grandma Bella. How are you?" Val asked politely.

"Tired! Having a vision always makes me tired! I need to go and lie down," Grandma Bella said, and Angie Morelli said goodbye politely as she ushered her out.

"So, six bambinos, hey?" I said to Val.

"Well I'm halfway there," she said, kissing both her girls on the head.

School was closed, so Val wasn't coming into work. I'd arranged for the RangeMan install to happen, so was doubtful that I'd get much work done anyway. I'd cut off orders until after Christmas, so I had a few local deliveries to get done, and then everything else could wait until after.

I was getting ready to pack up the last orders when there was a knock on the door. Ranger stood there, dressed in his black cargos and work shirt. Another man in a Rangeman uniform stood behind him, holding a workbox – although this Ranageman was Hispanic like the majority of the workers I'd seen, he had a thin build and that combined with the tear drop tattoo under his eye made me guess that he wasn't military.

"This is Hector," Ranger said, introducing him.

"Hello Hector," I said, waving to him.

"Hola," Hector said.

"Hector doesn't speak English," Ranger told me. They came into the house and Hector unrolled the plans that Ranger had drawn up, and they talked together in Spanish. Hector gestured at the door and Ranger nodded. Before I knew it, Hector had removed the old lock and replaced it with a new one. Ranger handed me over a set of keys.

"Hector will do the install. I've got to go, but I'll be back before he finishes up. If you have any issues, give me a call."

"Hector scares me a little," I confessed to Ranger.

"You must be brave, because he scares the pants off me," Ranger said. Hector looked over and winked at both of us.

I went back to parking orders in the dining room. I could hear Hector moving around the house, drilling and installing sensors and other things in the house. At one point I took a break, and made a mug of hot chocolate. I didn't know how to offer to make one in Spanish, in fact my Spanish is embarrassingly limited, so I made an extra one up without asking and took it to Hector. I figured that I could drink it myself if he said no, but he took the mug from me and said, "Gracias, Estephania." I didn't know what to say, so I awkwardly waved and then went back to the dining room.

I had just finished the last of the packing when Ranger arrived back at the house.

"You left the door unlocked," he told me.

"What, you think anything was going to happen with Hector here with me? The bad guys would take one look at him and run away."

"That is what tends to happen," Ranger said mildly. I wondered what was the story behind those words.

"Hector called me Estephania," I told Ranger.

"It's the Spanish version of Stephanie," he said.

"I liked it. It makes my name sound sexy," I said to Ranger. His eyes darkened as he looked at me.

"Hector's gay, Estephania."

"That's not fighting fair," I told him. He'd taken information that I'd told him, then used it against me.

"I'm a mercenary, what's your point?" he asked, stepping closer. We were only a footstep apart from each other at this point. I looked up at him and licked my lips, a nervous habit. Ranger looked like he was going to move and close the space between us, but we heard footsteps on the stairs and Hector appeared. "Saved by the Hector," Ranger said, and moved away. He and Hector had a conversation in Spanish, then Hector walked towards the kitchen.

"Hector says that he's finished the installation and it's programmed with the code you chose. He also said that he'll leave the empty mug in the kitchen and to thank you for the hot chocolate. I should have warned you about giving my staff treats, they're only used to healthy foods and they may never leave you along if you feed them."

"Sounds like Bob," I said.

"They're fair better trained than Morelli's dog," Ranger said, grinning. "That dog is a menace."

When I got back from delivering packages, Dickie was already home. There was also a Rangeman vehicle in the driveway, with a Rangeman employee in it, and Tank standing in the driveway in conversation with Dickie. I checked my phone which had fallen to the bottom of my bag. Three missed calls. One from Rangeman, two from Dickie. Uh-oh. It must have rang while I was out of the car. Dickie did not look happy.

"I went into the garage and an alarm went off! And my key doesn't work! What is going on, Stephanie?"

"I told you that we were getting an alarm system!"

"You didn't say that it was from Carlos Manoso!"

"Yes I did! You just weren't listening to me. I told that I'd talked about it with Ranger. He's Morelli's friend. What's your issue with him?"

"He's a mercenary!"

"He's a security specialist, he was in the army," I rolled my eyes. "Anyway, he has a whole team of employees, it's not like he's going to be the one coming out here. He's too busy for that."

"He wasn't here for the installation?" Dickie asked.

"His employee Hector did the installation," I told Dickie, fudging the truth a little. It wasn't quite a lie, and since Dickie was being so annoying and unreasonable, I didn't feel bad about lying to him anyway. I was confident that Tank wouldn't rat me out. Tank was the strong, silent type.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you the alarm system was active. I didn't expect you home so early," I apologised.

"It's Christmas Eve! Of course I'm home early!"

"You weren't last year! In fact, you were-", I stopped, not wanting to get into this fight again in front of Tank. I took a deep breath, thanked Tank for the quick response, pointed out to Dickie how well the system worked, then took him inside, and showed him how the system worked. I also gave him a key to the house since I was feel generous and didn't really want to lock him out permanently.

Christmas Eve dinner was with Dickie's parents. I dressed formally for the occasion, knowing that Dickie would be wearing a suit. He'd picked out gifts for his parents, and I'd added a bottle of nice wine to have with dinner, and a bottle of scotch for his father for afterwards.

"Hello Richard, Anne," I said, giving Dickie's mom a hug as we came into the house. Dickie shook hands with his father and handed over the bottle of wine.

We moved into the living room for pre-dinner drinks, then into the dining room. Dickie chatted with his parents and told them about his plans to switch law firms. They were supportive of Dickie, but they always were. Richard Orr the second had been a banker, not a lawyer, but Richard Orr the first had been a lawyer, so Dickie was somewhat following in a family tradition. They didn't ask about my plans, probably because they thought I shouldn't be working and should be at home, tending to my hard working husband's needs.

The dessert was a Christmas pudding. It was okay, but not as good as pineapple upside down cake.

We exchanged presents after dinner. Dickie and I usually swapped gifts at this dinner. I'd bought him a new watch that I'd seen James Bond wear in the latest movie, so I was confident that Dickie would like it.

Dickie handed me a wrapped present. "Merry Christmas, Stephanie." I kissed him as a thank you, then unwrapped it. I was floored. They were diamond studs, large enough to rival the ones that Ranger wears.

"I got a big sign on bonus with the new firm, so I decided you needed something extra special. Do you like them?" Dickie asked.

"I love them!" I said, kissing him enthusiastically.

"It sounds like a great decision to go with this new firm," his father said.

"I think it's going to be the best one I've ever made," Dickie said, smiling. Then he looked at me. "After marrying Steph, of course," he quickly added.

We had a lazy Christmas morning, then got ready mid morning to head over to my parents' house.

Christmas at my parents was usually chaotic enough with my dad and Grandma Mazur yelling at each other, and my mom trying to placate them but giving up and going to the kitchen to sneak sips of the cooking brandy. This year we had Val, Angie, Mary Alice, Joe and Bob added into the mix. Probably Mary Alice and Bob were the culprits of all the extra chaos, what with the neighing and galloping from Mary Alice and having to constantly watch Bob to make sure he didn't sneak off and eat the Christmas pudding. Dickie was looking like he had a headache. Joe, coming from a big Italian family of his own, looked relaxed.

We decided to do presents before lunch, and most of the presents were for the girls. They were delighted with their new toys, clothes and books. Joe had obviously made an effort to get to know the girls, because he'd gotten Mary Alice a unicorn onesie to wear, and Angie a set of the Little House on the Prairie Books. Mary Alice squealed in joy.

"I'm not just a horse anymore, I'm a unicorn!" she said. "Thank you, Joe, I'm going get changed right now!"

"Wait just one minute, okay, Mary Alice? There's one more present to go," Joe said. Mary Alice was charging around the living room in excitement.

Joe pulled a small box out of his pocket. He knelt down on one knee in front of Val.

"I know I've asked before, but I'd like to make it official. Valerie, will you marry me?"