February 14, 1975

I turned around when I heard running coming from the hallway and gave a confused look. I stood up from my seat at the kitchen table and walked to the doorway of the room. "What is that?" I mumbled to myself.

I started to laugh at myself for getting nervous when I saw KJ running to me. He was still in his pajamas and he was smiling- like always- and carried something in his hands. When he reached me, I got down on my knees so he could reach me easier. When he got to me, he jumped to hug me, trying to wrap his little arms around me. When he let go, he held out what he'd been carrying in his hands. "Happy Val-n-time Day, Mama," he smiled.

I smiled and gently took what he had in his hands. I picked him up and walked over to the couch and sat KJ down next to me. What he handed me was a heart cut out of red construction paper. It had a drawing of three stick figures- a man, a woman, and a small boy- and Happy Valentine's Day written in Keith's handwriting. "Wow," I smiled, "Did you make this, KJ?"

KJ smiled proudly and nodded. "Yeah."

"Did you draw these people?"

"Yeah… me, you, daddy." He pointed to each stick figure as he said who was who, then pointed to the words. "Daddy did that."

"Did Daddy help you cut the heart?"

"Yeah, Daddy did that. But I did the pitcher." He had tried to say picture, but it came out pitcher.

"Aw, thank you, baby. I love it," I smiled. I kissed KJ on the side of his forehead, which made him start to giggle, which then made me smile.

A moment later, I nearly jumped out of my skin when I felt someone sit down on my other side. I looked to my left and saw Keith holding back a laugh, obviously from making me jump.

Some things never change, I swear. But in this case, I don't care one hundred percent that part of him never changed.

"Happy Valentine's Day," Keith smiled and kissed me. I kissed back and smiled when I pulled away. We both looked at KJ, who covered his eyes with both of his hands and had his tongue sticking out. Every time he would do that- or nearly everything he did, actually- I would either smile or chuckle. I couldn't really figure out why I would, it just happened. I always thought "oh, probably cause he's my son" or something, I don't know. I'm just odd.

Keith went over to the end table and took something out of the cabinet. I have a confused look as he came back and sat back down next to me on the couch. He held out his hand and there was a red envelop. "It's not as creative as KJ's," he said, "But it ain't terrible."

I took the envelope, opened it and took out the card. On the front was a heart drawn in a crayon and Happy Valentine's Day written in the same handwriting as KJ's paper heart. I felt bad about it, but still chuckled at how everything was pretty much written in crayon- that is how children will affect you, I promise, there will be more crayons that pens in the house. I opened the card and a bunch of printed photos fell out onto my lap.

I picked up the photos and began to look through them. All the pictures were labeled by year and some of them also had the month and- depending on certain events- the exact date. There was a picture from every Christmas that we had been going out for when we were teenagers, every birthday, and everything else in between. A lot of the pictures were even from before Suzie ran off with a whole group of hippies.

Suzie had ran off with the hippies once her brother was seriously injured in Vietnam. It happened in either 1968 or 1969. All I can remember that she wasn't at our wedding cause she had ran off by then, so she had gone with them before August 1969. But since her brother had been seriously injured, she started to really question the point of war and started saying that it did no good. Then with time, since he hadn't really gotten better at all, she started to talk badly about people who were in the military, both in other countries and in America. Not long after that was when she packed her bags and met up with the local hippies, who were going to California. None of us had heard from her since, and every time there was something bad about hippies on the news, we always got a bit worried that maybe she had got hurt. Even though none of us agreed with the hippies way of thinking, she had still been our friend for a long time and we still worried about her- especially cause she was only about eighteen or something when she ran off.

I continued to look through the pictures and found some from when we were all little. We had most of the copies of these pictures, but Soda had most of the photos since he was the one who took up taking pictures of everything and knew how to handle them best out of anyone. "I'm guessing you got some of these from Soda?" I asked, just to be sure. He just chuckled and nodded in response. KJ looked through the pictures along with me, asking who was who in each one and acting shocked when I answered- I guess it was hard at the moment for him to see all the adults he knew as kids.

I then looked at what was written on the inside of the card:

"Rain,

Thank you. Thank you for everything since we were kids. To be honest, if someone had told me when I was fifteen and you were thirteen that I'd end up marrying you, I'd probably freak out and start saying how we were like brother and sister and it would be weird. That was when I was fifteen so don't go by that now. I know I'm a handful sometimes but thank for dealing with me- by choice! - for the majority of our lives. I love you and Happy Valentine's Day.

P.S.- KJ helped me decorate the front of the card."

I chuckled at the card, then looked at Keith and smiled. I placed the cared and the pictures on the coffee table and went to the bedroom and took the card I'd gotten him. I also dug around in the small jewelry box I had that sat on my bedside table. When I found what I was looking for, I put them on and went back to the living room.

When I to back to the living room, I sat back down between Keith and KJ on the couch. I handed Keith the envelope when I sat down and picked up KJ and sat him down on my left leg and he leaned into me. As Keith took the card, he looked closely at my neck and my wrist. "I didn't know you still had those," he chuckled.

I had put on the heart locket and the blue string bracelet from when I was seventeen years old. I did still have them, but I didn't wear them as much as I did when I was a teenager. I had never been too big on jewelry, but I wore them occasionally. Of course, even though I really didn't wear jewelry, I always had on my wedding ring. Even though I didn't really wear anything else, I kept everything in that box that I did not want to lose, even a few things from nearly ten years ago.

"My card's not as spectacular as yours or KJ's," I chuckled, "But it's a nice cared, if I say so myself. I made it, but KJ didn't help me."

"Cause I made that one," KJ said and pointed to his.

Both of us chuckled and he read the card. As he continued to read it, the phone started to ring. (A/N: ok, I never do this and I'm sorry, but I just want to say as I typed "the phone started to ring", my house phone started to ring and I found it creepy. Ok, read on.) I got up to answer the call, KJ following behind me to see who was calling.

"Hello?" I said when I picked up the phone.

"Rain? It's Candy," I heard in her voice, "Did I wake you guys up?"

"No, don't worry, KJ beat ya to it."

"Is he alright?"

"Yeah, he's fine. He's just real excited today is Valentine's Day and he likes to wake up early, that's all. So what's up?"

"I was just callin' to ask if we're all still on for dinner tonight?"

It was decided that Soda and Candy and Keith and me would have some sort of double date for dinner. We were all going to a restaurant in town. It was somewhat new, but now new enough to be considered "brand new". None of us had ever been there, but Darry and Marilyn had gone there with Danny and Sandy and all four of them highly recommended it. Thankfully, they said it wasn't tuxedo and gown fancy, and kids were allowed.

"Yeah, we're still on," I answered her.

"Great," she said, "Cause me and Soda have to tell you somethin' and we wanna tell you in person."

I let out a chuckle. "Alright then, we'll see you two tonight," I said then hung up.

I went back over to the couch and sat back down in my spot. Before I could say anything, he quickly kissed me before KJ looked up at us. "I love your card," he smiled. I smiled back then picked up KJ and brought him to his bedroom to get him ready for the day.

I went to the radio station in the afternoon like I did every day, excluding Saturday's and Sunday's unless there was some sort of event or contest. We had gotten new records and tracks to start playing the upcoming week, so both me and Andy had to stay a bit longer to sort through them and write them all down on the list of songs and records we had in the studio. The new records consisted of people like Elton John, David Bowie, Elvis Presley, Rod Stewart, Tom Jones and Billy Joel- not all the records were just released this year, a few were a few years old- which I liked. Then there was a Bob Dylan record, which totally killed the entire selection for me since I don't like Bob Dylan at all.

The struggles of working at a radio station: there will always be music by people you don't like cause you have to appeal to a shocking amount of people to get them to listen to the station. For me, one of those people were Bob Dylan.

Once five o'clock hit, Keith and I both got ready to meet Candy and Soda at the restaurant. I put on a pair of black dress pants and a whit button up blouse. I let my hair out and fall over my shoulders and back without curling it or straightening and left it natural- which wasn't unusual. I then changed KJ into a tiny pair of jeans and a red sweater.

Candy and Soda had gotten to the restaurant before the three of us and got a table. We all greeted each other and ordered our food. While we waited, we talked while KJ played with the toy car he had brought. "So, what'd you two have to tell us?" I asked.

"You two are the first to know," Soda smiled, "We thought it'd be best since you're like my sister and Candy's best friend, except me."

Keith made a face. "What am I? Chopped liver?" he asked.

"Yes," Soda joked.

"Aw, don't worry," I said to Keith, "KJ and I still love you." He smiled at that.

Candy looked at Soda. "Can I say it?" she asked him eagerly and he nodded. She smiled and looked at us, "We're having twins!"

Keith and I both smiled and congratulated the two, making KJ look up in alarm. I laughed, "Ok, don't take this the wrong way…"

"Ok…" Candy gave a weird face.

"But I knew you two would be the ones to end up having twins."

Awwwwwwww cute.

Ok so I apologize about the author's note in the middle of the paragraph, but I had to say that

Also, I'm sorry if you like Bob Dylan and Rain doesn't. I kind of fashion Rain after me, and always have, ever since I first started "To Love A Greaser" and "Before the Love"- and I don't like Bob Dylan. I can't stand his music, he sounds stoned to me in every song of his and a song of his was in my literature book and I literally sat there like "What are these words? What the heck" so yeah. I apologize if it offends you, but I don't apologize for my dislike of Bob Dylan. By the way, the rest of the musicians I named, I all love- especially Elvis Presley and David Bowie (who have the same birthday! January 8, mark your calendars)

Anyway, hope you like the chapter and have a Happy Thanksgiving! =^-^=