Chapter 37
The manager of the restaurant recognized them immediately
"Ahh yes, our lucky couple is here!" he exclaimed and shook hands with Rick. He led them to a closed off booth in a quiet cozy corner of the restaurant, where the lights were turned down low, and the soft Italian music only added to the great ambience.
After the waiter had taken their orders and poured them their preferred wine, Castle shifted closer in the booth to Kate, and put his arm around her
"Beautiful" he exclaimed
"It is." she said, "this place is perfect"
"I was talking about you" he said, and she turned to look at him. when she realized how close his face was to hers, her gaze immediately shifted down to his lips, and then back up to his eyes, he was smiling. She closed the negligible distance between their lips, making full use of their privacy to give him a kiss like never before. Her lips brushed and tongue tasted and played, and when she pulled away, he was left breathless and wanting more.
"You are an amazing man, Mr. Castle" she said.
"Why thank you Mrs. Castle, but I have to say, all credit goes to you."
"oh, I know" she said smugly as she took a sip of her wine. He laughed.
Soon enough, their dinner arrived and they ate together and indulged in sweet, intimate conversation. It felt like they were doing this after ages, spending a night out together, just the two of them. So they allowed themselves the luxury of whispering sweet nothings in each other's ears, Castle took a moment to tell her just how lucky a man she had made him by marrying him, and how much he appreciated her, he took her hand in his, and kissed it softly and it made her blush.
Kate was floored by his honesty and sincerity, the way he kept wooing her, being his charming self, he never allowed that giddy smile to leave her face throughout dinner, and she couldn't help but observe, how it had been so long since they'd actually spent time this way. She was grateful for the moment, and she being the one who was a little less talented when it came to words, chose to show him how much she appreciates his love through warm, slow, long, sweet kisses.
When the waiter brought their desert to the table, they had just pulled away from a long kiss. While Kate was lost in her after-kiss-bliss, Castle noticed the 4 envelopes on the tray that held their desert. The waiter placed their desert on the table, laid the envelopes down in front of them and smiled and walked away.
Rick looked at the envelopes questioningly. Kate picked one up, and it had Jamie's name on it, Rick looked at the other 3 and right enough, it had Avril, Alexis and Kaylee's name on each.
"What is this?" Rick asked while he watched Kate open up Jamie's envelope.
"I don't know, let's find out" she said, and pulled out a folded, white, handmade, greeting card. she was looking at the back of a card, she turned it over and the image before her brought happy tears to her eyes.
At the top of the card, written with crayons, probably by her 1 year old son, with the help of a guiding sister's hand, was 'Happy Anniversary!" and below it was a picture that was taken the day he was born. It was a picture of Kate in the hospital bed, holding new-born Jamie, and Rick beside her, kissing her temple.
She opened the card to find something scribbled inside with crayon. The words were hard to read, clearly, someone had guided his hand to write it, but Kate could see that stubborn little Jamie had managed to make the words really shaky. She laughed and Rick chuckled too when they saw the handwriting.
"Thank you mommy and daddy, for all that you do for me. I love you" it read, and below this, towards the right hand corner of the card it said "with love, Jamie"
But the letter 'e' of his name seem to continue into a line of scribbles and finally off the page.
"He must have got excited with the crayons" Rick said.
"I can imagine" she replied.
Kate made a mental note to find that mark of crayon somewhere on the floor. Rick began to open Alexis' card and he couldn't help but notice from the side of his eye how Kate very reverently put Jamie's card back into the envelope.
"This one's Alexis'" Rick said as he very impatiently got the card out.
Her card was handmade too, an intricate design of flowers made with quilling paper that looked like it must have taken hours to get right. It looked fit for a wedding invitation or a work of art to be displayed at an art gallery
"I didn't know Alexis knows the art of quilling" Kate said.
Rick looked just as stunned at her "I didn't either, look at this, its perfection."
He opened the card to find a short sweet paragraph written inside in the most beautiful cursive handwriting.
"Mom, dad, there's nothing I wish more for you than to always have each other no matter what. When I look at the two of you, all I can see is pure, unadulterated love, and you make me believe in the magic of love. Mom, dad was a loser before he met you. (No offense dad) but we all know too well, that he would be miserable had you declined his offer of marriage, and I can't help but feel overly grateful to you for coming into my dad's life, because not only did you make him a better man, you gave a young red headed teen a mother to look up to. So thank you. Dad, I wish you nothing more than a long life with mom by your side. She makes you happy, and you are the world to her, and for as long as that fire of love is still burning within you two, this bunch of four children you've got here will always love and honor you two.
Happy anniversary mom and dad! Love, Alexis."
Kate looked to the side to see Castle's reaction to the card. She found his eyes reading it all over again, and he had this warm smile on. Kate put her hand on his and lightly squeezed, he looked at her
"She's really something you know" Kate said.
"I know" he said "she surprises me all the time."
Rick was still staring at Alexis' card while Kate got Kaylee's card out. It looked so similar to Jamie's, except that the crayon handwriting was more legible.
There was a drawing at the front of the card, stick figures standing in front of a house. 6 of them. A man, a woman, two young girls of the same height standing beside the man, a short little girl holding the woman's hand, and a tiny little boy holding on to her hand. And below the picture was written in a bold yet shapeless handwriting "my perfect family"
Kate put the card down and Rick looked at her.
"What's wrong, don't you want to read what's inside" he asked.
"Rick…" he noticed her wiping tears that had just begun to form in her eyes.
"Hey... What's wrong...? Kate..." he grew concerned. This looked like more serious than a little overwhelming joy.
She finally gathered up some composure and said "Rick… Kaylee was.. Kaylee was the part of our family I almost lost because of my stubbornness, she'd hate me if she ever came to know what I had done, and here she is making these little cards and I'm sure she's singing my praises in there but I can't help but feel like a horrible mother to her. I don't deserve all the sweet things she's written in this.
Rick pulled her in to his arms and she hid her face into the crook of his neck and let out a few tears that were threatening to fall. He knew what she must be feeling, even though they were completely over it, there were still times when Kate's great memory would bring back moments from that time to her head, and she'd feel horrible all over again, for coming this close to losing their baby. Rick understood.
But he rubbed soft circles on her back and said
"Kaylee never has to know what happened, and even if she did know, she'd never hold it against you Kate, she loves you too much. Have you seen the way she clings to you? How she comes running in search of you when she has a bad dream, or how she hides under your robe when she sees a new face and feels shy or threatened, you know why she does these things? Because she trusts you to be her protector. your arms are her safe place. Right from the time you first held her and made your promises to her, she's felt that protection you provide her. And that should tell you, that she will never see you as anything less. In her eyes, you're her fortress. She sees you as a dragon slayer, a strong mother who fights down evil, who loves and adores her children and that's what you are Kate. Nothing will show her otherwise. Kaylee would never hate you. She adores you too much"