Thankful for a Kick

Chapter 4

Kate ran to the door and found a tall blond young man with green eyes grinning down at her. Laughing the brunette hugged him as she pulled him into the main room where Jack and Kim were sitting in a sort of shocked state. When Kate and her "friend" came into the room Kim was looking at Jack whose expression was one of astonishment. Kate sat across from her brother and Kim her companion sat down next to her with his arm wrapped possessively around her waist, which surprised Jack who knew his sister's intolerance for over protective, overbearing men first hand. "Kate, are you going to introduce us," Jack asked archly as he glared at his sister whose smile didn't even waver for a moment.

Kate giggled which made Jack's eyes bug out, he had never heard such a girly sound come from Kate, ever. "Well, I suppose that would be the right thing to do," she said laying her head on her seatmate's shoulder. "This is my boyfriend, Jake. He and I met while I was overseas multiple times in different countries. It was funny, especially when we met in Japan that last time before we both came back to the states." (A/N: That's another story that I will post later on in the coming year.)

Kim then looked hard at the guy next to her boyfriend's older sister, and she gaped. Sitting next to Kate was her cousin, Jason! She was staring until Jack nudged her in her side to bring her back to her senses. "Jason Andrew Crawford, why didn't you tell me?" she hissed leaning forward in her seat.

Jake laughed as he saw his younger cousin sitting next to Jack, he had heard all about the budding romance from his high school buddy, who surprise, surprise was also the younger couple's karate sensei. "I didn't tell you short stuff because I didn't know that you and Jack would figure it all out this soon. Rudy told me everything."

"Wait, you know Rudy?" Jack stated in shock, blinking rapidly.

"Yeah, didn't Kim tell you about me, and my studying abroad program? I'm going to be co-sensei at your dojo in the coming year. Rudy tells me that some of his students are surpassing him and he needs to come up with more to teach them. So, the plan was for me to start during the summer, but because of certain students advancing faster than the others he wants me to start sooner." Jake shrugged as he squeezed Kate.

Then Kate smiled as she started to speak, "I didn't connect the dots until Jake told me that he had to cover for his younger cousin who was going to eat at her boyfriend's. That's why he didn't get here earlier."

"On that note did I get here in time for desert?" Jake asked as he looked down at his girlfriend.

Kate smiled as she wiggled out of his grip to get to her feet. "Actually, you are just in time to get in on the pies before Grandpa got to them. "

"I heard that Katie," the quartet heard from the door way to the home gym.

"You were supposed to, sugar fiend!" Everyone burst into laughter as they made their way to the kitchen. Kate then served them each a piece of one of the pies that she had on the counter. There was lemon meringue, apple, pumpkin, pecan, sweet potato, blueberry, cherry, and strawberry rhubarb. Alongside those were different types of cakes, puddings, and custards. Kim blinked at the array of sweets in front of her.

"Wow, how long did it take to make all this?" the hazel eyed girl asked as Kate took out a tub of vanilla ice cream from the freezer.

"Oh, she started at the beginning of the week. What is really amazing is the fact that all these survived until today with Grandpa and Dad around. Kate, how did you manage that?" Jack asked as she passed him a plate with two different slices of pie on it with ice cream.

"That was easy; I made them stick to the reject pies." At this Jake's and Kim's eyes widened in shock.

"Reject pies, what is this?" Jake asked gazing at the counter in awe.

"I spent all that time traveling learning different types of cuisine from the masters; do you honestly think that I would serve anything that didn't meet their standards?" Kate asked as she plunked down a plate piled high with sweets in front of her boyfriend.

"That makes sense, but how many rejects were there?" Kim asked as she settled in to eat some of the array.

"Let's just say that there was about six to each desert." Jack said as he stopped stuffing the pie into his mouth for a moment. Kim blinked again in awe. It was crazy, but the fact was that these were the best pies that she had ever tasted, not to mention that her grandmother prided herself on her apple pie recipe. Kate's was ten times better.

When Jack walked Kim home he asked, "Hey Kim, what did you think of my family?"

"I thought that they were all really nice, the funny thing is that your sister was the one doing all the cooking, let me take a wild guess and say that she made the soup that you brought over a couple weeks ago when I was sick."

"Yup, ever since she got home in August mom hasn't been allowed in the kitchen, which is a good thing considering that her food isn't that good."

Kim laughed and laced her fingers between Jack's. As she and he continued to stroll, her eyes looked up at the sky taking in the star speckled velvet. As she gazed up she let Jack lead her, her trust being absolute. Her eyes caught sight of a shooting star and she closed her eyes and made a wish out loud, "I wish that we'll stay like this forever."

At the sound of her voice Jack stopped and his eyes were drawn to the star that Kim had wished on, and silently he made a promise to that star, I'm never going to let her go.

When they finally arrived at Kim's house the two kissed and smiled standing on the yellow house's front porch. Then they touched their foreheads together. If one had looked above them they would see above the two hanging just over Kim's house was the North Star, the Christmas star.

Fin

Moon-chan: Please review, I love to hear what my readers think about what I wrote. Yes I plan on writing a Christmas story that acts a sequel to this one, so please look forward to that in the coming month.

Shade: she'll definitely write it considering the fact that she loves this couple so much, too cute right.

Kim: I don't think this would ever actually happen though you know. *blushing*

Jack: Awe, Kimmy you have a crush on me. *acting cocky to hide his own blush*

Kim: DON'T CALL ME KIMMY! *Punches Jack*

Jack: Ouch! I should've seen that coming.

Moon: Awe it is so cute, both of them are in denial.

Shade: No they aren't they just don't want you getting into their love lives.

Moon: Oh, be quiet, Shade. We all know that something in going to happen so there is no use swimming in the Nile. Any way until next time, Sayonara!