Til We Meet Again (6 page)

“Are you ready to order?” Paul asked.

Dean nodded and they told him they both wanted the chicken.

“Wise choice this evening, sir,” Paul said again and walked away after taking their menus.

“So now what?” Katie asked.

“We just sit here in front of the fire and drink our wine and get intoxicated, just as you wanted,” Dean answered as he picked up his glass.  “I would like to make a toast though.” 

Katie looked at him before she picked up her glass.  “To what?” she asked.

“Not ‘what’, ‘who’,” he replied.  “To you.  The most beautiful woman in the world,” he said quietly. 

Their glasses met and they each took a drink. 

“I love you Katie,” Dean said looking into her bright blue eyes.

“I love you too Dean, more than I thought I could love anyone,” she replied.

Just as she said that, an orchestra began playing on a small stage across the room and a number of diners were rising.

“Would you like to dance?” Dean asked.

“I would love to,” she replied and began to rise as quickly as Dean.

He led her to the dance floor and pulled her into his arms.  She pressed against him so tightly he wasn’t sure he’d be able to keep control.  He looked around the room and thought how wonderful it would be to have a wedding reception here. 
Now I’m starting to think like a girl,
he scolded himself.

“It would be a gorgeous place for a wedding,” Katie said quietly.

Dean felt a tingle up his spine as the last of her words reached him.

“What’s wrong?” she asked as she felt his body go rigid.

“I was just having that exact same thought,” he told her.

“Great minds think alike don’t they?” she said. 

Dean thought about that for a moment.  He had heard of married people who really connected that way, finishing each others’ sentences all the time.  He smiled down at her.  “I guess we’re just good at it,” he said as he pulled her tight to him again.  “You feel so good,” he whispered in her ear before he placed a tiny little kiss on her neck in a place he knew was her favourite.

“So do you.  I didn’t know you could dance this well,” she told him.

“I didn’t think I danced well,” he replied.

They left the dance floor but didn’t return to their table right away.  Instead they went and sat on one of the loveseats that faced the fireplace.  He pulled her down next to him and they sat quietly watching the orange and yellow flames leap in front of them.

“It’s so warm,” Katie said.

“You’re so beautiful,” Dean replied.  He hadn’t been watching the fire for long before his attention had turned back to Katie and he watched as the firelight lit up her face and reflected in her golden hair and blue eyes.

Katie turned and looked at him.  “I want you to make love to me right now,” she whispered.

Dean was having a hard enough time controlling himself, the invitation was not helping.  “I want to make love to you right now and every day for the rest of my life,” he whispered back.  He pulled her to him and kissed her. 
Do it right now,
his mind yelled.  He pulled away and took her hands in his own.  “Katie, I love you, you know that,” he began.

Katie nodded.  “I love you so much I want to burst sometimes,” she told him.

“I know we haven’t been together for very long but I can’t stand the thought of being apart from you.  This evening, dancing with you, sitting here with you, wanting you so badly, I can’t wait any longer,” he said.

Katie looked at him and her brow creased.  She didn’t know what he was trying to say.  She watched as he slid down onto the floor on one knee. 

“Katie, I love you with all my heart, soul and being.  It’s crazy I know but will you do me the honour of being my wife?” he asked.

She turned in time to see that all eyes were on them.  Even the music had stopped playing as everyone waited for her answer. 
Don’t think, just say ‘yes’,
something told her.  “Yes,” she said.  “Yes, I will be your wife,” she replied and threw her arms around him and kissed him.

They kissed so long and hard that Dean thought he wasn’t going to make it home before he had to have her.  He finally found enough strength to pull away and reach into his pocket.  He pulled out an engagement ring and held it out to her. “This is for you.  That’s where I went this afternoon,” he told her.  “I wasn’t planning on needing it right now but I had to ask you.  I couldn’t wait any longer.”

Everyone in the restaurant clapped while he slid the ring onto her finger.

“Oh Dean, I can’t wait,” she told him.

“Looks like our food is just arriving,” Dean pointed out as he stood and held his hands out for her.

She slid her hands into his and let him help her up.  She slid into his arms for another hug before he led her back to the table and helped her into her chair once more.

“Congratulations,” the waiter said as he set the plates down in front of them.

“Thank you,” Dean said as Paul walked away.  He picked up his wine and held it up to her.  “To you my love.  My only love, and my future bride,” he said.

She lifted her glass to his and they each took a sip and began eating.

“This is really good,” Katie said after she had swallowed her first taste.

Dean nodded as he chewed.

They ate quietly for a bit and when they were near finished, Dean was the first to speak.  “So any ideas on when and where?” he asked her.

“I don’t know but I’m thinking about here,” she told him.  “An altar set up in front of the roaring fire.  Tables for guests obviously, and then the dance floor,” she said. 

“I can see that too,” he replied looking around.

The maitre’d from the door approached their table a short time later.  “I understand congratulations are in order,” he said. 

Dean nodded and Katie held her left hand out for him to admire the ring.

“Very nice,” the man said.  “We have had wedding receptions here before so feel free to call us for a quote,” he told them.

“We were just talking about that,” Katie told him.

“See me before you leave and I’ll get you a brochure.”  With that he walked away and left Dean and Katie to look at one another.

Dean poured them each another glass of wine and they drank quietly as they waited for the dessert they’d ordered amongst the hustle and bustle of congratulations.

Katie raised her foot under the table and began running it up Dean’s leg.  She watched as his reaction turned from calm, to surprise, to desire.  She noticed how his blue eyes changed from a light blue to a dark blue.

“It’s time to go, right now,” he said huskily.  He raised his hand to Paul to indicate the cheque and they began to gather their things.  When Paul arrived a moment later with a small, leather-bound folder, Dean picked it up, placed cash inside it and handed it back to the stunned waiter.  “Everything was wonderful, don’t worry, we just have something to…um…do,” he stammered.  Dean slid Katie’s hand into his and led her out the door stopping quickly to take a brochure as they past the podium.

He drove quickly through the streets and made it to her house in record time.  He practically leaped across the hood of the car before he pulled her door open, took her wrist and led her up the steps to the porch.  She had taken her keys out on the drive back and quickly let them into the house where he turned on her as she closed the door behind her and locked it.  “Oh God I want you right here, right now,” he whispered before his mouth claimed hers.  He swept her up into his arms and carried her upstairs.  They somehow managed to get each other out of their clothes before Dean lowered Katie to the bed where he began touching her everywhere, followed by his tongue, just as he had promised.  She was writhing beneath him by the time he reached her mouth finished his promise and made love to her.

Dean watched Katie’s face as she rolled her head back, exposing her neck and he dipped his head to flick her there with his tongue.

“Oh, Dean, I love you,” she cried out as her entire body trembled.

He gathered her into his arms and it was a short time later that they fell asleep, with few words spoken between them.

Chapter 5

“Donald hadn’t planned on proposing when he did,” Mr. MacKay told Grace her first night at their house.

“Why did he?” Grace asked.  She wanted so badly to be a part of Donald’s life.

“He saw you enter that ballroom looking so beautiful, he just couldn’t stop himself.  All he wanted to do was love you for the rest of his life,” Mr. MacKay replied.  “He knew how your parents felt and he knew if he didn’t ask you that night, he would lose you forever.”

“I loved him too much.  I wasn’t going to give him up without a fight,” she retorted.

“I know and I would have loved to have thrown you a huge wedding had your parents declined,” Mr. MacKay said.  “I like you Grace.  You were good for Donald.  It was you he straightened out for although he wasn’t a bad boy.  He might have been if it hadn’t been for you.”

Grace shook her head.  She kept looking at the door wishing Donald would walk through it at any moment and tell her it was all a bad dream.  She hated going to bed at night.  All she ever dreamed about was their wedding and Donald making love to her after at the cottage.  She wanted to scream and cry and she wanted to kill the bastards who had done this to Donald and to her. 

Mrs. MacKay put her arms around Grace and they cried together.

Grace sobbed harder and harder.  “I hate this,” she said.  “I hate the world.”

“You can’t give up on life, you’re so young,” Mrs. MacKay said as she stroked the young girl’s hair.

“But I loved Donald.  My parents don’t even know about the marriage, they want me to marry ‘Mr. Well-To-Do’ and live happily ever after.”

“It’s been a long day and I think it might be best for Grace to get some rest.  I think we should go to bed, get some sleep and we’ll work things out as they happen, OK?”

Grace nodded.  She just wasn’t sure if she could handle this.  Losing a husband that nobody knew about.  Tears streamed down her cheeks. 

“What’s wrong?” asked Mrs. MacKay.

“I just keep wishing so many things,” she said.  As she continued she became more and more hysterical.  “I wish I could go back and have promised to stay the night, or that he would have spent the night with me at my house.  I keep thinking ‘what-if’ and all the different ways he may still be here with me.”

Mr. MacKay nodded and rubbed her back along with his wife.  “But we don’t know that Grace.  Whoever did this may have entered the cottage and done something to hurt both of you.  There is no way we will ever know,” he reiterated.

They led her upstairs and Mrs. MacKay stayed with her to help her get ready for bed. 

Grace was grateful as she was feeling very lost and lonely.  She could only think that she should be sliding into bed next to Donald who would make love to her and wrap her in his arms and they would fall asleep like that.  She could see the little cottage from her bedroom window and she couldn’t even look out it.  She was thankful when Mrs. MacKay closed the blind.

It didn’t take long for her to get into bed but she dreaded the nights.  If she closed her eyes, she dreamed of Donald.  If she lay awake, she could only think of everything that would never be. 

She drifted into a fitful sleep and spent most of the night waking frightened or tossing and turning.

“When you find true love keep it,” the words started to echo out of nowhere.

Katie woke and sat up in bed.  It was like watching a movie.  She looked at Dean who was still asleep and she slid out of bed and went to the living room.  “When you find true love, keep it,” she repeated to herself when she had taken the reincarnation book out of her tote bag.  She sat down on the couch, turned on the table lamp, and opened the book to the first page.

She read until she could read no more, turned the lamp off and went upstairs but she stopped at the guest room instead and closed the door.  She turned on the lamp in the corner to prevent too much light from filling the room and looked at all of Grace’s things.  “Why did I find this Grace?” Katie asked out loud.  “Why is it me that’s having the dreams?  Why didn’t anyone else in the family ever know any of this stuff existed?” she asked out loud.  Her thoughts went back to the pages in the book she had just read.  That souls stayed in the same family. 
Am I Grace?
She wondered.  From the other information in the book it was possible that Grace was just trying to pass a message to her.  “When you find true love, keep it.  Is that what this is all about?” she asked out loud once more.

She picked up the gown and had the sudden urge to put it on.  She took off the robe she’d put on when she had gotten out of bed and slid one foot, then the other into the gown.  It was heavy in comparison to the gowns of today but it felt brand new.  She managed to slide the zipper up and found it fit her perfectly. 
We are the exact same size,
she thought.  She turned to look in the full-length mirror and found that if she were to pull her hair back, there
would
be an ominous resemblance to her ancestor just like Mr. Grimshaw had said.  Her fingers trembled as she opened the ring box once again and looked at the ring.  She picked up the note and re-read it.