Thank you to everyone who is reading, reviewing, following, and favoriting. This chapter covers the rest of April 2020. (More big things are coming up starting in May 2020.)


When they pulled up to Lyndhurst Castle, the sharp inhale of Alexis's breath was all Javier needed to know that this was where they would be getting married. Even Javier was impressed. Websites and pictures can be misleading, but Lyndhurst Castle was not exaggerating or lying outright: it was an honest-to-God castle, a gray stone exterior with turrets and towers and facades and all those other words used in fairy tales or books on medieval times. Oh sure, the wording described it in the Photo Gallery section as "The Mansion," but Javier knew a castle when he saw one, and this was a castle, no doubt about it.

"The pictures didn't do it justice," Javier said as he parked the car and turned off the ignition.

"Look at this place," Alexis said, sounding awed. "What a backdrop that castle is."

"Backdrop?" Javier asked, slightly confused.

"For the pictures," Alexis replied. "We can have the ceremony either in the castle, since it's a wedding party under 40, on The Great Lawn, or in the Rose Garden. The middle of August, it's probably better to have the wedding inside. Then we don't have to worry about the weather, whether it's hot enough to make people keel over from heatstroke, or if it would rain, then everything would be ruined. But after the ceremony, the pictures...As long as it's not raining, we could do those outside, with the castle as the backdrop."

"I guess I hadn't thought in that much detail yet," Javier mused. "But yeah, that sounds amazing. And we can have the reception right here too, I do remember reading about that."

"It's not a done deal yet," Alexis said.

"That's just a formality at this point," Javier replied. He reached across the console and took Alexis's hand in his. "This is where we're going to get married. I saw and heard the way you reacted when we pulled up. This is the place, Lex."

"Not if we don't talk to Susie the wedding coordinator, it isn't," Alexis said.

"Well then, let's go talk to her," Javier replied. He got out of the car, walked around to the passenger side, and opened the door for Alexis.

Susie the wedding coordinator was an overly bubbly, perky-to-the-point-of-annoying woman near 30, who felt that every wedding was an Event, with a capital E. Luckily, at least from Javier's point of view, she didn't seem to require much of him, and he realized that she was the type who thought that the wedding was all about the bride, and that the groom was an ornamental necessity approximately two steps above the flowers.

"August 15," Susie said, tapping away at her iPhone. "You're in luck. Four months is short notice, but we had a cancellation, so we do have the afternoon and evening free. You will be having the reception on site, of course."

Javier and Alexis exchanged a look. "Most likely," Javier replied.

"How about a tour, so we can see all of our options?" Alexis asked.

"Wonderful!" Susie exclaimed. "Right this way."

Javier and Alexis fell into step behind Susie. "She may not think you're important here, but I do," Alexis assured Javier, so only he could hear her.

"That's all that matters to me," Javier replied, taking Alexis's hand as Susie led them all over the grounds and the interior of Lyndhurst Castle.

When they concluded the tour, Alexis said, "This is the place."

"Definitely," Javier agreed.

"We want to have the ceremony inside the mansion," Alexis said, "in the parlor."

"Yeah, I think everyone will fit in there," Javier agreed.

"Pictures on the Great Lawn," Alexis added.

"And the reception under a tent in the Courtyard," Javier concluded.

"Exactly," Alexis agreed.

Susie was tapping furiously on her phone now. "All right," she agreed, "that's a start."

Javier squeezed Alexis's hand, and she squeezed his hand back. There would be a million more things to do, or at least that's what it would seem like, but it was definitely a start.


Jake waved his arms and kicked his legs. Having completed what Mommy, Daddy, and Grandpa Jim called "tummy time," now Mommy had scooped him up and laid him in his crib on his back. Daddy laid Reece down next to him.

Reece may have been born first, but Jake was the one always watching, always observing. And everyone around them—or at least Mommy and Daddy and Grandpa Jim, who they saw the most, and then Gram, Pops, Lily, Alexis, and Javier, who they saw the next most—was already commenting on that fact. They had a lot of aunts and uncles, and Jake was still learning which names went with which aunts and uncles.

Reece's hand landed on Jake's arm then, and Jake looked at his brother. He wasn't entirely sure what a brother was, and he was even less sure what a sister was, even though he and Reece had two sisters—Lily and Alexis. But he knew he loved everyone and they loved him.

While Jake was more observant and liked to watch everything and everyone around him, Reece made more noise, and liked to "talk" all the time, to everyone, or even to no one. Jake, on the other hand, tended to reserve his "conversations"-cooing, vowel sounds, and baby babble, same as Reece was doing—to one-on-one interactions.

As they grew, Jake would be more like his mother in terms of personality and temperament, while Reece would take after his father more in terms of personality and temperament.

Reece was babbling a mile a minute, and Jake turned his full attention to Reece. He reached up to pat Reece's hand, then answered Reece back when Reece paused for breath.

Kate and Rick were standing in the doorway of the nursery, giving Reece and Jake their "twin time," as the books called it, as much to themselves as they could. "I wonder if they're going to have some kind of secret twin language?" Rick mused.

"English is fine to start with," Kate replied.

"Maybe they'll have your aptitude for languages," Rick said.

"What are Reece and Jake doing? Sleeping?" Lily asked then as she approached her parents, Grandpa Jim in tow.

"No, they're having their 'twin time,' Lily," Kate said.

"Oh, where they talk to each other," Lily said. "When are they going to talk like me?"

"Not for a while yet, sweetpea," Rick replied.

"When they're done with their twin time, can I talk to them?" Lily asked.

"Of course you can," Kate said.

Lily took her job as a big sister very seriously. She occasionally got mad at Reece and Jake getting so much attention from Mommy and Daddy, but Grandpa Jim had explained to her that since Reece and Jake were tiny babies, they couldn't do all the things that Lily could yet, and Mommy and Daddy had to do those things for Reece and Jake, like feeding them and changing their diapers because they couldn't feed themselves or use the potty yet.

Lily's reaction to this reminded Jim so much of Kate when she was a little girl. Lily definitely took after her mother in that she took responsibility very seriously, even though she was only three years old. After their talk, Jim had alerted Katie and Rick, and they did their best to make sure that Lily did not feel left out. Bathtime was always guaranteed Mommy and Lily time, and Daddy was the reader of bedtime stories, and Rick and Kate made sure that they each also had one-on-one time with Lily at least once a week, whether it was at home or they went somewhere like the zoo, the bookstore, the playground, the park, the library, or out for ice cream.

Overall, Lily's jealousy of Reece and Jake was at a minimum, all things considered, and although she refused to touch diapers, even clean ones, she talked to her baby brothers every day, and looked forward to when they were big enough to actually play with her and talk with her in a language she actually understood.

When "twin time" was over, Rick and Kate checked the boys' diapers, changed Reece because he needed changing, and then carried Reece and Jake into the playroom next to Rick's office. Lily watched eagerly as Mommy and Daddy laid Reece and Jake side by side on the rug. She knelt on the rug in front of both her brothers and leaned over them, letting them take turns holding her hands as she chattered to them about cartoons and toys, and about the beach, since this summer would be Reece and Jake's first trip to the beach and the Hamptons house.

Rick, Kate, and Jim sat nearby, Rick and Kate on the couch, Jim in the rocker recliner, to watch over the kids. "I'm going to miss this when I go back to work in a couple of weeks," Kate said. Her maternity leave was almost over, and she had already begun to ease back into her work routine with paperwork from a couple of the committees on which she served.

"It'll be an adjustment," Rick agreed, "but we'll be okay. I can bring the kids to meet you for lunch sometimes."

"I have more regular hours now, and I'm going to be able to take some three-day weekends this summer," Kate said. "Which will come in handy with everything we've got coming up: Alexis's graduation, her and Javier's wedding, and Lily has already started telling Reece and Jake about the beach."

Jim smiled. "Well, Grandpa's already started telling Reece and Jake about the Yankees," he said. "I know they're too young to go to a game at the Stadium, but you were Lily's age the first time I took you, so maybe she and I can take in a game sometime this summer at the Stadium." He looked over at the kids. Reece was babbling as Lily talked to Jake about the latest episode of Puppy Dog Pals. Jake seemed to be listening to Lily intently, and then he smiled at her.

"Mommy! Daddy! Jake's smiling at me!" Lily exclaimed.

That got all three adults up and hurrying across the room. Sure enough, Jake was giving Lily a big gummy smile that lit up his whole face.

Reece squawked then, and Lily laughed. "Reece, you sound like a chicken!" she exclaimed.

"He just wants to be in on the conversation," Jim said.

"Yes, Reece loves to talk. I wonder where he got that from?" Kate asked, looking at Rick with a mock glare.

"She's onto us, Peanut," Rick said, scooping Reece up and holding him against his chest. Reece let out a long string of baby babble.

"And don't you forget it," Kate said. She kissed Reece's cheek, and Rick's mouth, before moving across the room to scoop up Jake, who reached out to grab a fistful of her hair. "Starting the hair grabbing already, I see, Jake," she said with a wince as she gently pried his fingers open.

Jim, not wanting Lily to feel left out, swept her up and perched her on his hip. "So how do you like being a big sister, Lily Jo?" he asked.

"It's an important job," Lily said seriously. "Sarah Grace really helps me out with how to be a good big sister. She's been a big sister longer than me, so she knows things."

Jim grinned. "Lily Jo, you are your mother's daughter," he said.

She looked at him, puzzled. "Of course I am, Grandpa," she replied. "She's my mommy, and I'm her little girl."

Now Jim laughed out loud. "Grandpa, it's not nice to laugh at people," Lily scolded then.

In that moment, Jim threw back his head and roared with laughter, knowing that Johanna would be scolding him right along with Lily if she were here. He hoped she knew about their grandchildren, and that she somehow knew about this moment.

After Jim recovered himself, he said, "You're right, Lily. It's not nice to laugh at people. And your Grandma Johanna would be the first one to tell me I was in trouble for laughing when you said that. It's just that you remind me so much of her, and of your mommy when she was little, and sometimes I find it funny."

"Would Grandma Johanna love me and Reece and Jake?" Lily asked.

Jim and Kate exchanged a look. Then Jim replied, "Oh yes, Lily Jo, she would love the three of you more than anything."

"She sure would," Kate agreed, feeling the now-familiar pang at her mother not being here to see and get to know Lily, Reece and Jake. It was a manageable pain, and not something that consumed Kate as her mother's murder had, but her mother's physical absence from her grandchildren's lives was something Kate would always wish wasn't so.

Lily looked to her mother now. "Was Grandma Johanna a good mommy?" she asked.

"The best," Kate replied.

"No, Mommy, you're the best mommy!" Lily insisted.

"I agree with Lily," Jim said.

"That reminds me, we'll have to get to work on our Mother's Day surprises pretty soon here," Rick mused aloud then.

"You do remember that Reece and Jake are being christened on Mother's Day?" Kate asked Rick. It had taken them that long to get everyone and everything coordinated for the boys' christening, so that everyone who wanted to be there would be able to be there.

"So it'll be their day as much as yours," Rick replied. "We'll just have that much more to celebrate."

"We're going to surprise you, Mommy," Lily said from her perch on Jim's hip.

Kate looked around at her husband, their three little ones, and her dad. "You surprise me every day," she said, speaking to all of them, "and I wouldn't have it any other way." Rick and Jim returned Kate's smiles. Jake started fussing then, and Kate glanced at her watch. "Oh, it's almost lunch time," she said. "Okay, Jake, take it easy, we'll get you fed."When Reece began to fuss too, in Rick's arms, Kate said, "You too, Reece."

"Come on, Lily Jo, you can help me make lunch for all the rest of us," Jim said, setting her down and then taking her hand to lead her to the kitchen while Kate and Rick adjourned upstairs to feed the boys.