Til We Meet Again (12 page)

Katie sat up and saw light in the hallway.  She realized Dean must have gotten up and wondered what he was doing.  She grabbed her robe and wandered down the hallway and stopped outside her office door.  “Hey sexy, what are you up to?” she asked.

“Oh, just a little something to help us out with our wedding plans,” he admitted.

“Like what?” she asked as she walked over to him and slid his arms around his shoulders, pressing her palms into his bare chest.

He showed her what he had found on the internet about planning a wedding and then proceeded to show her the spreadsheet he’d designed. 

“Just have to fill in the blanks,” he told her.  He grabbed her hands and tugged on them so she had no choice but to round the chair and stand in front of him.  He pushed the keyboard tray in and let her lean against the desk.  “You are so beautiful,” he told her.  His hand found where the tie of her robe crossed and untied it, letting it fall open to reveal her still flat stomach and breasts.  He sat up straight so he could kiss her breasts.  “Will I ever stop wanting you this much?” he whispered before he claimed her mouth. 

He lifted her off the desk and carried her back to the bedroom where he sat her on the edge of the bed.

“I hope not,” she told him, “because I never want to stop wanting to show my love for you in such an incredibly special way.”

“Why don’t you stretch out and I’ll give you a backrub,” he invited.

She took her robe off and stretched out on her stomach. 

He began slowly rubbing lotion into her back and noticed her breathing slow.  He finished and looked at her face to find she had fallen asleep.  He smiled and got in beside her covering them both.  He snuggled up to her and slid his fingers under hers.  “I love you Katie,” Dean whispered before he fell asleep.

Chapter 11

The next several weeks went by fast and Dean and Katie managed to accomplish some wedding plans amidst busy work schedules.  Katie had been to the doctor for a check up and had received a due date of April 11
th
of the following year.  She seemed to be doing fine and the doctor was elated when she found out that Katie and Dean were getting married.

It was now Friday of the Thanksgiving long weekend, and her parents were due around eight that night. 

“Does that mean I won’t get to make love to you?” Dean asked sounding genuinely concerned.

“Well, we certainly won’t be able to be doing it all over the house at any time of the day we feel like,” Katie replied.  “But my parents can go stay at home if they don’t like that we’re having sex in
our
bedroom,” she told him.  “It’s not like it’s
that
far.”

Dean was in awe over how Katie felt about all of this.  He was more than willing to try his best to keep his hands off of her for a weekend and was startled when she reached for him.

“But, since they’re not going to be here for another two hours, we are going to make the very best of that time,” and she kissed him.  Again they made love several times and were sated but very innocent looking when her parents arrived.

“Hi honey, it’s so good to see you,” her mother said as she pulled her daughter into her arms for a long overdue hug.

“This must be Dean,” her father said. 

“Yes, it is, Dean, these are my parents, Maggie and Bruce,” she said.  “Mom, dad, this is
Dean, my fiancé,” she finished.

They all shook hands.

“Driving okay?” Katie asked.

“Oh it was fine,” Bruce said with a wave of his hand.

They sat in the living room while Dean carried their overnight bags up to the spare room and when he returned he offered to get everyone drinks.

“You don’t have to do that, come sit down for a few minutes,” Maggie chided him.

“I was thirsty and thought the two of you may be as well,” Dean said.

“Oh all right, I’ll have a spritzer, if you got any,” Bruce said.

“I’d love a cold glass of water,” Maggie said.

Katie didn’t say anything but wasn’t surprised when he brought her a glass of juice.  She smiled at him as a thank you and she moved over a little more so he could sit down.

“So how are the wedding plans coming along?” Maggie asked.

“Great, we’ve got the church booked, with a minister, and the reception location,” Katie said.

“’Location’?” Bruce asked.  “Not a hall?”

“Not really, well, sort of,” Katie replied.  “It’s this really great restaurant that Dean found that doubles as a place for this sort of thing.  It’s absolutely beautiful.  It has this gigantic fireplace in the middle of the room, and a dance floor and we can have all the flowers we want all over but it will soon be decorated for Christmas which is exactly what we want anyway.” 

“The invitations have been made and we’re getting them ready to mail out,” Dean added.

“You made the invitations?” Maggie asked sarcastically.

Katie rolled her eyes at Dean. 
Here we go,
she thought.

“Yeah, Katie found this really great stamp at the craft story when she went into town last weekend along with some terrific card stock and she’s been working on them all week,” Dean said with a wink at Katie. 

Katie smiled weakly at him obviously frustrated with her mother’s behaviour.  “Dean has been wonderful to though.  He’s the one who took the initiative to get the plans organized to begin with so everything could come together so quickly and easily.”

Dean smiled at Katie and took her hand.  “It’s truly been a team effort.”  He lifted her hand to his mouth and placed a kiss on the back of it.

“What about a wedding gown?” her mother asked.

“Already taken care of.  It was the first thing I found actually. In fact, I’d love it if you could help me try it on tomorrow,” Katie replied.  She was so excited about finally getting the chance to slip into the dress.

“You haven’t tried it on?  Where did you find it?” her mother asked getting more sarcastic with each question. 

“I found it in the attic,” Katie replied.  “It belonged to great-grandmother Grace.”

Her mother looked oddly at her for a moment and then at Dean who was nodding eagerly.

“You know about this?” Maggie asked looking directly at the young man who kept touching her daughter.

Dean nodded.  “I helped Katie bring it down,” he answered.

“But where would you have known where to look?” Bruce asked.

Katie wondered why this conversation was taking this turn.  What was her mother trying to do?  It was her wedding, it was a gown she found, she loved it and was going to wear it.  “I was just going through some of the stuff up there.  Mr. Grimshaw was the one to tell me all about Grace when he was helping me clean up around here.  I wrote down the initials from the trunks and he told me who they belonged to,” she told them.  She knew instantly that there was no way she would ever be able to tell her parents about her dreams.  She looked over at Dean who was smiling as if to commend her on her quick thinking about the neighbour man.

“How old is Mr. Grimshaw now?” Bruce asked.  “He must be somewhere in his eighties by now?”

“He’s almost 80 and he’s not doing that great, moving pretty slowly now,” Katie replied.  She looked at the old clock over the mantel.  “I should be getting to bed, it’s been a long day and I need to get some rest,” she said.

“It’s been a long day for us as well,” Bruce said.  “If you show us to our room, I can take our bags up.”

Dean quickly took the glasses to the kitchen while Katie led her parents upstairs.  He turned off the living room lamps and was about to follow Katie and her parents.  It was just as he turned away from shutting off the hallway light that he noticed a light still glowing in the corner of the living room.  He approached it thinking he would look out the window and see that it was a street light shining in that he’d never noticed before but when he looked out the window there was no streetlight.  It was on their side of the street and wouldn’t be shining inside.

“Hello,” he said then to the light.  He had a strong feeling he knew what, or rather who, it was then.

The form seemed to nod a hello.

“Are you Grace?” he asked.

The form nodded again.

“What are you doing here?” he asked kindly.

The form seemed to nod in the direction of upstairs.

“Katie’s parents?” Dean asked again only to receive another nod in reply.  “But why?  Do they want to hurt her?”

The form shook what was its head in response to that.

“I mean emotionally,” Dean replied.

The form nodded again.

“Do you think they’ll try to stop the wedding?”

The form seemed to kind of shrug this time.

“Do you think they’ll try to tell her that I’m not the right person?” he asked again.

The form again shrugged.

“Then what is it?  Is it the baby?” he asked.

The form nodded frantically.

“Is the baby going to die?” he asked.

The form shook its head.  “The baby will be fine,” it said finally in a raspy whisper.

“You can speak?” he asked.

“I can now that you are speaking to me and believe I am who I am.”

“Do I need to warn her?” he asked.

“Yes, you do.  She cannot tell her parents about the baby.  She especially cannot tell her mother.  When the others arrive she can tell them only but swear them to secrecy.”

“But…”

“There can be no exceptions.  Katie’s mother will not understand, she will upset Katie too much and then the baby
will
be in danger,” Grace told him.

Dean just looked at the figure and nodded.  “I’ll tell her,” he promised.  “Can I ask you a question?”

She nodded.

“How did you ever get over Donald?  I’m so afraid that Katie will get over me at some point as well,” he said.

“I never truly got over Donald, Dean.  I buried my feelings for him deep in my heart so that I was able to move on.  I had to move on.  You and Katie will be just fine.  You will live a long and happy life together.  You will have your babies and will love them and they will bring you great joy.  You will have some hard times as all couples do, but the two of you will persevere.  You are both strong and you both love each other so much.  You love each other as much as Donald and I loved each other.  We would have been fine as well, but I guess it wasn’t truly meant to be.”

“What if it’s not truly meant to be again?”

“It is this time.  I had to learn to grieve and move on.  I’ve learned that lesson, now I get to be with the man I love,” Grace said.

“So you are Katie now?” Dean asked.  He’d read about all this reincarnation stuff from the books Katie had found at the library but didn’t know all of the details about how it worked.

Grace nodded.  “I must go, I fear I may have said too much.  Trust in yourself and in Katie.  She will never stray from you though the temptations will always be there as with anyone.  Be there for each other Dean, love each other like there is no tomorrow and take care of your babies.  Tell Grace I love her and I’m sorry I missed her.”

“I could go get her quickly,” Dean offered.

Grace shook her head.  “I must go.”

“Goodbye Grace, and, thank you,” Dean said.

“You’re welcome.  Take care of yourself and Katie.  Goodbye Dean.”

With one last nod Grace was gone and Dean was left standing in the pitch black of the room.  Just then the hall light came on and Katie stood on the bottom steps looking at him.

“Are you coming to bed?” she asked.

Dean nodded.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

Dean nodded again.  “I have something to tell you,” he told her.

“Who were you talking to?” Katie asked as Dean finally approached her.  “I thought I heard your voice.  Were you on the phone?”

“No, I wasn’t on the phone, can it wait until we get to bed?” he asked pleading with her with his eyes.

“Sure, but, you look as though you’ve seen a ghost,” she said.

“To a certain degree, I have,” he told her.

He went to the bathroom while Katie went to the bedroom.  He brushed his teeth and made use of the facilities before he joined her under the covers.  He pulled her into his arms.  “Mmmm, you feel really good,” he said as he cupped her breast.  “But I really do have to tell you something first,” he said.

“What is it Dean?”

“When I turned out the light to come up here, I noticed a light in the living room.  I thought it was a street light shining through the window that I just hadn’t noticed before but when I went and looked out the window I realized that the light post was on this side of the street which means that the light wouldn’t shine into our window.  But when I turned, the light was still there and I instantly knew who it was,” he said.