A short and sweet chapter this week. I hope you enjoy it. Thank you for all the enthusiasm and support, and a special shoutout to my Guest reviewers, especially Cruise1213 and ChaCha, whom I cannot answer individually. I'm glad you're all as in love with this story as I am.


Since Valentine's Day fell on a Tuesday, it was a low-key night for everyone. Lanie and Alan hadn't yet officially moved in to their new apartment, but they took a picnic supper with a bottle of wine to their new apartment and dined by candlelight on a blanket in their living room.

Although they had originally agreed that their green Honda Odyssey minivan would be their Valentine's Day gift to each other, Kevin brought home a bouquet of Jenny's favorite flowers, and Jenny surprised Kevin with his favorite dinner, a homemade Valentine's card that she made while Sarah Grace was making one for Kevin (she made one for Jenny at school), and some new lingerie in his favorite color, blue.

Rick and Kate got all dressed up and went out for dinner. They were debating where to go for the upcoming weekend babymoon they wanted to take, a weekend being all they could spare between working on the nursery, Kate's City Council campaign heating up, and the final edits and revisions for Rick's latest Nikki Heat book.

Shortly after arriving at the restaurant, after Kate returned from the ladies' room, she found a black velvet jewelry case tied with a red bow sitting on her plate, since the waiter hadn't been by with their menus yet. Smiling, she resumed her seat, untied the ribbon, and gasped when she saw the necklace inside: a crescent moon covered in diamonds hanging from a delicate silver chain which held four platinum stars. Kate looked from the necklace to Rick. "When I was thinking of what to get you for Valentine's Day, the first thing I thought of was that I wanted to give you the moon and stars. This is as close as I could get, and a lot less dangerous and heavy, since I figured you wouldn't want to wear a chunk of moon rock and a flaming hot gas particle around your neck." He reached across the table to lift the necklace from its black velvet bed. "May I?"

"Yes," Kate replied. She held up her hair as Rick rounded the table and then put the necklace on her, carefully fastening the chain.

When he returned to his seat, Kate had pulled a small black velvet box from her clutch purse. Holding it out to him, she said, "I thought a lot about what to get you for Valentine's Day too. What do you get for the man who has everything? And this is what I came up with. Happy Valentine's Day, Rick."

Rick eagerly pulled the box from Kate's hand and opened the lid. His eyes widened when he looked at the contents. He stared at them hard for a long moment, then looked back up at Kate, who was beaming at him. "What do you get for the man who has everything?" she repeated. "The two things you know he doesn't have, and that you feel with all your heart he deserves: the moon and stars. Or star, in this case."

Kate's gift to Rick was a set of cufflinks, one of which was a crescent moon, the other of which was a star.

"You..." Rick began. He coughed, then swallowed hard. "You amaze me, Kate. Every day."

She smiled at him then, her entire being radiating happiness. "I don't think anyone ever said I amazed them until you. I'm glad that's the case."

Rick leaned across the table, and Kate leaned in as well, their mouths meeting in the middle in a sweet, tender kiss. They stopped kissing when the waiter discreetly cleared his throat. "My name is Edward. I'll be your waiter this evening," he said as he handed menus to both Rick and Kate.

"Could you give us a few minutes?" Rick asked as he and Kate accepted the menus.

"Of course, sir," the waiter replied, leaving just as quietly and discreetly as he had arrived.

Kate opened her menu, and Rick was just opening his when he felt Kate's stocking-clad foot rubbing slowly up and down the length of his calf under the table. "If you keep that up, dinner is going to be very short," he told her.

"And the problem with that would be?" Kate inquired, but when Rick looked up from his menu the innocent tone of Kate's match in no way matched the smoldering look in her eyes.

"No problem at all," Rick replied as he signaled their waiter. After they had ordered dinner-salmon steak with roasted new potatoes and asparagus for Kate, and a porterhouse steak with a baked potato and roasted green beans for Rick—Rick asked, "Is this that second trimester thing?"

Kate and Rick had both been reading What to Expect When You're Expecting, and then comparing notes on what they read, so she knew what he meant by "that second trimester thing": with the morning sickness and fatigue gone, most moms-to-be see a significant increase in their libido in the second trimester. They had both wondered if they would experience "that second trimester thing," and the way things had been going for the past couple of weeks, it looked like they were indeed in what Rick referred to as "that lucky...or rather, that getting lucky percentage."

"I think so," Kate replied. "You know what else I think?"

"What?" Rick asked raptly.

"I think a bubble bath for two would be incredible when we get home," Kate replied.

Further conversation was halted when their dinners arrived. They kept flirting with each other, Rick slipping off his own shoes under the table and surprising Kate by playing footsie with her and then giving her the sly grin and raised eyebrow look she remembered from the day Montgomery told her she had a fan and she turned around to see Rick standing there in Montgomery's office door.

After they had finished eating, Rick couldn't get their car from the valet fast enough. They made it home in record time, and it was a race to the bedroom and into the bathroom, he and Kate laughing and teasing and kissing in between shedding their clothes and filling the tub.

They made love in the tub until the water turned cold, and then they filled the tub again and enjoyed a leisurely soak.

When they were in their pajamas in bed, Kate suddenly pulled a face. "Kate? What's the matter?" Rick asked anxiously.

Kate splayed both her hands over her growing baby bump. "This is definitely your daughter, Rick," she said. She looked at him with a combination of amusement and disgust. "I have this intense craving for Potato Chip Fudge ice cream that just hit me."

Wearing a pair of flannel pants, Rick hastily pulled a t-shirt over his head and said, "I'll get it!" before rushing out of the room. Kate had just finished towel drying her hair when Rick returned carrying a tray with two bowls, two spoons, a fresh pint of Potato Chip Fudge ice cream, and the ice cream scoop.

Kate settled herself in bed, and Rick placed the tray on her lap before climbing in beside her. "You did just want the ice cream, right?" he asked, putting one of his bare feet back on the floor. "You didn't mention anything else, but do you want toppings? Whipped cream, cherries, extra chocolate sauce, jalapeno peppers, anything?"

"Yeah, just the ice cream," Kate replied.

Rick settled himself beside Kate and dished them both up double scoops, and as Kate scooped up a big spoonful and ate it without choking this time, Rick grinned and addressed the baby: "That's my girl!"

Kate took a spoonful of ice cream from his bowl. "Less talking, more eating," she suggested through a mouthful of ice cream.

Rick responded by dropping a fresh scoop of Potato Chip Fudge into Kate's bowl. "Happy Valentine's Day," he said.

"Happy Valentine's Day," Kate replied before they shared a lingering Potato Chip Fudge-flavored kiss.


Javier and Alexis exited the movie theater hand in hand. "I love The Princess Bride!" Alexis exclaimed happily.

Javier grinned at her. "That's why I picked it," he replied.

"Wait, you knew I love it?" she asked, stopping on the sidewalk.

"I may have asked your grandmother what some of your favorite movies are," he admitted. "Other than Airplane! and Spaceballs. I thought it would still be a little awkward, going to your dad or Beckett with a question like that, although at least Castle doesn't look like he wants to punch my lights out whenever he sees you and me together anymore."

"He's adjusting," Alexis said. "Really, he's been better behaved with you than with any of my other boyfriends." She paused, mentally slapping herself upside the head for mentioning her other boyfriends. "Thank you for giving me the chance to see it on the big screen," she replied. "And the dinner was wonderful."

They had gone to a movie theater Javier found that showed classic movies and that served a full menu of fast food drive-in fare, so in addition to popcorn, soda, and candy, Alexis had had a burger and fries, while Javier had hot dogs and nachos, and they had split a giant soft pretzel.

"We'll have to come back here again," Javier said as they headed out into the cold February night.

Unable to wait any longer, Alexis dug into her bag and removed a red envelope. "I really can't wait any longer to give you your Valentine's present," she said. She handed him the envelope. "Happy first Valentine's Day, Javier."

Under the neon and marquee lights, Javier broke the seal on the envelope, removing a Hallmark card. A heart made of pink butterflies was on the white cover. He opened the card and two tickets fell into his palm. He read the message inside the card first: "Because of you, the butterflies are here to stay." Underneath that, Alexis had written, "All my love, Alexis."

Then Javier turned his attention to the two tickets in his hand. "Knicks tickets?" he exclaimed, surprised, looking up at Alexis, who was beaming at him.

"I thought you and Kevin could go," she said. "I really don't know much about basketball. Fencing, yes. Basketball, no. The game's a month from today, and the seats are at center court. I asked for the best seats they had, and that's what they gave me. Those are good seats, right?"

"They're incredible seats," Javier said. "Thank you so much, Lex." He leaned in and kissed her. "You're sure you're okay if I go with Ryan?"

"If you want to take me, I'll be happy to go, but I thought you'd enjoy it more if you went with Kevin because he knows basketball and I don't," Alexis replied.

"He'll flip!" Javier exclaimed. "We haven't been to a Knicks game all season. At least, not in person."

After he carefully put the Knicks tickets in his wallet, and Alexis's Valentine's card in one of his coat pockets, Alexis slipped her arm through his, and they made the short trek to Javier's car.

When they got in the car, Javier pulled a long rectangular box of black velvet out of his inner coat pocket, and held it out to Alexis. "I couldn't find a card that said what I most wanted to say," he confessed. "So I didn't get you a card. But I got you this. Happy Valentine's Day."

Alexis carefully opened the box and gasped at what she saw. "Javier," she breathed.

Inside the box was a delicate silver bracelet with two tiny silver charms dangling from it. "The heart represents me, and my love for you," Javier said, touching the tiny silver heart charm with the tip of his index finger. "And the Scales of Justice are for you starting law school and becoming a lawyer. And on all the big occasions of your life, and our life together, I'm gonna add a charm to this bracelet until it's so full and so heavy that you'll need another bracelet so we can keep going." Alexis looked from the bracelet to Javier, love glowing in her eyes. "There's nothing in the world like being with you, Alexis," Javier continued as he looked deeply in her eyes. "Every look, every kiss, every touch, every new discovery that we make about each other...and the best part is knowing this is headed someplace really great. That is the best and most incredible and most exciting thing to me. I love you, Lex. That's what I couldn't find on any card."

Alexis leaned across the console and kissed Javier passionately, overwhelmed with emotion at his gift and at what he had said. Breaking the kiss when the need for oxygen became too great to ignore any longer, she rested her forehead against his as they both caught their breath. "I love you too," Alexis said emotionally. "I keep falling more in love with you every day. And you're my best friend, which makes it all even better and more exciting." She pulled back to look at him, and gently stroked his cheek with her fingertips. "Whenever something happens during the day, I always think, 'I can't wait to tell Javier.' You're in my head and my heart every moment of every day, and you will be for the rest of my life. I can't wait to see what the future brings, because I get to share it with you."

Javier carefully removed the charm bracelet from its velvet case. "May I?" he asked.

"Absolutely," Alexis replied. She pulled up her parka and sweater sleeves and held out her wrist, and Javier carefully fastened the bracelet around her wrist, kissing her hand after the bracelet was securely in place.

"Since it's not too late yet, do you want to get a frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity?" Alexis asked.

"As you wish," Javier said, referencing The Princess Bride, before starting the car and carefully pulling out into traffic, his smile matching Alexis's smile.