Abigail and Frank had also decided to go to Calgary for Valentine's Day, only they had chosen to attend an annual Valentine's Day banquet instead of dinner at a restaurant. Frank had taken Abigail to this banquet on their first date way back in 1911, just a few months before William Thornton was born. Even though they went every year, nothing could beat that first date for Abigail. Cody and Becky were staying behind at the café where Bill and Carson had promised to keep an eye on them. After dinner, a slow song played in the background. Frank held out his hand towards his wife and smiled, "May I have this dance?"
Abigail grinned and took his hand as Frank led her out to the dance floor. The couple wrapped their arms around each other and Abigail whispered in Frank's ear, "I think you know the answer to that by now, Pastor Hogan."
Frank chuckled lightly and squeezed her hips. They swayed back and forth in time with the music before Frank asked, "Remember what I told on this night nine years ago?"
Abigail smiled. Of course she remembered exactly what he had said to her, but she decided to downplay her memory for fun, "It was something along the lines of how pretty I looked," Frank laughed quietly to himself. He knew exactly what Abigail was doing, "Remind me again what you said exactly?"
Frank tucked a lock of brown hair behind her ear and said, "You were wearing that beautiful light blue dress and I told you that you were the prettiest woman in all of Canada. And you still are to this day."
"Frank…"
"What, it's true," stated Frank innocently, "But there are some things I didn't tell you that night. Or any other night for that matter."
"Like what?" she questioned, raising her eyebrows.
"Well, like when I first laid eyes on you, my heart whispered 'She's the one'. I knew the first time we saw each other that you were the woman I was going to marry. I knew I was going to win your heart, even if that meant getting hustled in darts to do so. And the first time I brought you here, I knew it was only a matter of time before you became Mrs. Abigail Hogan," said Frank proudly.
"Well, the following year, you did propose. And I gave you an enthusiastic yes," said Abigail. She kissed him and smirked, "I guess I don't have any regrets," she joked.
Frank chuckled as they continued to dance, "Neither do I, Mrs. Hogan, neither do I."
Back in Hope Valley, Jack and Elizabeth were enjoying a pleasant evening at the saloon. The couple had thought about going further away for Valentine's Day, but they decided with three young children, plus the fact that they wanted to take a nice trip for their anniversary that year, they decided to just stay in Hope Valley. Jack couldn't help but just stare at his beautiful girl, so Elizabeth decided to interrupt his thoughts, "Jack?"
"Huh, what?" he asked, bringing himself back to reality.
"You're staring at me," she chuckled at him.
Jack kissed her hand and said, "Just can't get over how beautiful you are," Elizabeth smiled appreciatively and blushed, "Can you believe we'll have been married ten years this July?"
Elizabeth sighed, "Not in the least. But it's been the most wonderful ten years of my life, thus far. Our wedding day, our honeymoon, the births of our children, waking up next to you each day. Even though we've had trying times, I wouldn't change these last ten years for the world."
Jack smiled, "And these past ten years have made me fall in love with you more and more every day," Jack glanced over at the dart board and asked, "Shall we play a round?"
"Jack, you know how terrible I am at throwing darts!" she mocked jokingly.
"Well that's the point, Lizzie, that way I know you won't hustle me," he smirked and planted a kiss to her cheek.
"You mean like Abigail did to Pastor Frank when they first started courting?" chuckled Elizabeth at the memory of Abigail telling her that story.
"Hey, I only saw Rosie here and there until after Father died and Constable LeVeaux was stationed permanently in Ottawa from Montreal. She had pretended for years to be terrible at throwing darts and shooting guns so I thought she was just naturally that way. Boy was I wrong," he sighed.
Elizabeth chuckled, "I wonder if Lee has ever found that out."
"He has I'm sure," said Jack, "Probably the hard way."
After they had finished their game, to which Elizabeth won easily, Jack stood there stunned, "Oh, by the way, I might have gotten a few pointers from Rosie," she smirked and rubbed his chest.
"Wait a minute? You just successfully hustled me in darts?" asked Jack.
"Maybe," Elizabeth grinned coyly, "Are you mad?"
Jack smiled and shook his head. He kissed her and smiled, "That's my girl."
Elizabeth looked at the time and said, "You know, we did tell Molly we'd be there by nine and it's only eight. What do you say Constable? Want to finish this date?"
Jack kissed her again and smiled, "Always, my sweet Elizabeth."
It had been a quiet evening for Faith and Shane at Abigail's café. They had technically brought Phillip along with them, but he had gone to play with Cody and Becky so they could eat alone. Shane noticed Faith hadn't been her usual perky self lately, "Honey?" he asked softly and Faith looked up at him, "Is something wrong? Is it the food? Do you feel sick?"
Faith shook her head, "No I feel fine, well physically, and the food's alright."
"Then what's the matter?" asked Shane.
Faith sighed, "Shane, do you think Phillip is suddenly…treating me differently ever since we told him that I was going to legally adopt him?"
Shane thought about it. He couldn't really see a difference, but maybe it was when he wasn't around, "What do you mean, sweetheart?"
"Just," Faith played with her food, "He still loves me and he'll still listen to me, but sometimes I wonder if he feels that by having me adopt him, that we're replacing his mother?" she whispered quietly.
Shane sighed. The two of them had discussed all of the possible outcomes, but they never knew what they were really going to run into until it happened, "Listen," he grabbed her hand, "I'll talk to him a little and see what he's feeling, but we should also have another conversation as a family."
Faith smiled, feeling a little more relieved. The couple glanced over at Clara and Jesse enjoying their meal, "Remember when that was us planning our wedding?"
"Yeah," Shane smiled fondly, "I still look back on that day as one of the best days of my life. You don't know how much you mean to me, Faith Cantrell. God brought you into my life just when I needed you the most."
Faith smiled, "I love you Shane."
"I love you too."
Lee and Rosemary had just arrived back into Hope Valley from Calgary, so they stopped by Lee's office so he could pick up the final component of his present. Rosemary could feel her heart racing with anticipation and the butterflies in her stomach. Okay, maybe the fluttering in her belly was just baby Coulter moving around some more, but still she was excited. Her sheer grin quickly turned into a frown when she saw the only thing Lee had in his hand was a folder. That couldn't possibly be his grand gift, could it? Lee got into the driver's seat and handed the folder to Rosemary, "Hold that. Don't look at anything," he ordered.
"Why would I? It's probably just more building plans for the new house," she thought angrily to herself. Once they arrived home, Lee quickly took her hand and eagerly led her inside. He pulled her over to the couch and took the folder from her, "Lee, what's going on?"
Lee and she sat down and he took her hands in his, "Okay, Rosie, the reason I waited until the kids were at Dottie's was because I don't want them to know about their gift right now in case we have to have a change of plans."
"Why would we have a change of plans? For what?" asked Rosemary.
"Well, in your condition…"
"Lee, I'm pregnant, not an invalid! Sure, my back is starting to always kill me and my ankles are beginning to swell like water balloons, but that doesn't make me weak and fragile!" she shouted.
"I know," said Lee, "But still, I started planning this gift a little before Christmas, I meant to make this your Valentine's Day present, as in actually give it to you, but then I found I needed to save some more money, plus you told me you were expecting and I wanted to make sure everything was going smoothly and make sure you'd be out of the first trimester. I knew it would be a few months before you'd be up to traveling, so I had to alter my plans some when you told me about the baby."
"Traveling? To where?" questioned Rosemary.
Lee smiled broadly and asked, "Honey, what's the one place the kids have never been that has a special place in our hearts? A city we've been to many times when we newly married?" Rosemary thought long and hard. The kids had been to Lee's hometown of Edmonton, considering it was a short distance from Hope Valley and his parents still lived there. They had been to Montreal just once and Aaron had been an infant so he probably didn't remember it, "It's not a city in Canada," Lee stated.
Rosemary thought about it for a few moments and then her face lit up like a Christmas tree. She tore open the folder and skimmed the paperwork, "NO WAY!"
"All four of us, Easter week when the kids are off from school, New York City," said Lee excitedly, "Booked a room at the St. Regis Hotel, got tickets to the Giants opening day game, also got tickets to Cinderella on Broadway. We can take a stage coach to Edmonton and then take the train from Edmonton to Toronto then down to New York City. If we leave right after services on Easter Sunday, we'll arrive Monday night and have the whole week. Taking the train means you'll be able to get up and walk around so you don't get too stiff with the baby. It'll be great!"
"But…but…" Rosemary quickly did the math in her head, "I'll be 23 weeks along then. Will it be okay?"
"I cleared it with Dr. Shepherd. He says the second trimester is the best time to travel. And if God forbid something bad happens, New York City has some incredible hospitals," informed Lee.
"So the late nights and the working weekends…?"
"Making extra money," confirmed Lee, "One last big trip before the new baby gets here. So what do you say, sweetheart?"
Rosemary tried to remain calm, but soon her excitement got the best of her. She threw herself into his arms and he gently lifted her into the air before he quickly set her down again. She finally broke down in tears and passionately kissed him, "Ah, sweetheart, this will be like a second honeymoon. Only with two more little Coulters."
"That's exactly what I was thinking. We can do everything we both did on our honeymoon," he said.
"Well, almost everything," she batted her eyebrows jokingly.
Lee had to kiss her again, "We also might not want to let Lilly know that we're pretty sure she was conceived there during our first Valentine's Day way back in 1912."
Rosemary chuckled. Lilly Coulter: ever the dramatic one. The dear girl hadn't been planned in the least. Sure, Lee and Rosie had talked about children, but Rosemary hadn't quite gotten on board with the idea of children when she had found out she was expecting Lillian. On top of that, their sweet little girl had decided to make her grand entrance a full four weeks early at 36 weeks. After a heroic 23 hour labor, Lillian Naomi Coulter let all of Hope Valley know she had arrived. She had been small, 2.6 kg (5lbs., 12 oz.), but strong. Thankfully, Aaron had been planned on their part, had only been a week early, and arrived after 12 hours of labor, weighing in at 4 kg even (8 lbs., 13 oz.), "So when should we tell the kids?" she asked.
"Well, if you're positive you'll be up to going…"
"Oh I'm positive," she laughed and wiped the tears from her eyes.
"Then, I'd say tomorrow after church would be a good time. Tell Aaron where he gets to use his new baseball glove and where Lilly will get to wear her new dress," said Lee. He pulled his wife closer to him, their baby snuggled in between them, "Happy Valentine's Day Rosemary Grace Coulter."
"Happy Valentine's Day Leland James Coulter."
The couple kissed long and hard before Lee said, "I love you so much, Rosie."
"Then show me," she whispered.
"Gladly," he answered.