Page 61 of Castle's Cards

Izzy’s started in her room, Addy in hers, and me in the kitchen. She doesn’t really need all this stuff -- I have a chef and plenty of kitchen supplies, but I’m not going to approach that yet. We’re still operating under the assumption that they are going to be leaving as soon as Addy finds a place. Izzy and I are secretly hoping that she’ll give up at some point and just realize that being with me is where they belong.

I pull another red pot from under a cupboard, wrapping it in the paper before placing it into one of the moving boxes. We were able to get all this moving stuff with no extra charge thanks to my friend Andy who runs a moving company. It’s pretty profitable, all things considering. If I wasn’t throwing myself so deeply into the foundation, I might consider doing something like that.

“Hey, how’s it going?” Addy pops her head into the kitchen. I grin and gesture to the box.

“Going smoothly, Captain. I think I’ll have the whole kitchen packed in the next hour.”

Addy smiles with relief.

“Thank you so much for helping. You have no idea how much you’ve taken off my shoulders by doing this.”

I stand up and walk over, sliding my arms around her waist before pulling her to me.

“I can take even more off your shoulders. Maybe help you de-stress,” I murmur before putting my lips on hers and moving my hands down to her ass and squeezing.

“Um, gag, puke, gross,” Izzy says from behind Addy. i look around her and see Izzy staring at us, her brows pulled together. Addy giggles and turns around.

“Whoops, sorry Iz.”

“I know we’re moving out, but this is still acommunalarea. So if you could save the PDA for your bedroom, that would be so cool.”

Addy and I both laugh as Izzy grabs a stack of packing paper and makes her way back to her room. My phone starts ringing, and when I fish it out of my pocket, the name Johnson flashes across the screen.

“Oh, I have to get this. It’s the guy for the benefit.” I walk out the front door and answer the phone. “Carter Castle speaking.”

“Hello, Mr. Castle. Your charity has been officially registered as a non-profit. I’ve been working with your brother to set up the benefit to be hosted at Castle’s Corner. I have a checklist in front of me but wanted your opinion about an idea an intern had.”

I smile. Joseph Johnson is easily the best contact that my brother has ever set me up with. He’s smart, straight forward, and humble. The perfect combination for someone to run a non-profit. I want to be very involved, but I need someone reliable and trustworthy for the day-to-day, and he’s the guy for the job.

“Go ahead.”

“There’s an oncology ward at the hospital downtown. If we partner with them, we could potentially get a couple of cervical cancer survivors to speak at the benefit. I think it would be moving and really help the foundation get a good start right out of the gate.”

I mull it over, wondering what Elise would want before responding.

“That’s perfect. Approve the idea and call up the hospital.”

“Excellent, Mr. Castle. I’ll call you with an update later.”

We hang up and I grin. Everything is running so smoothly, it’s almost uncanny. I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a part of me worrying about that fact – that things were running almosttoosmoothly.

The last time I felt this good about my life, we found out Elise had cancer. Life is much healthier with a regular flow of ups and downs as opposed to an enormous high followed by an extreme low.

“Everything okay?” Addy asks, leaning out of the open door. I smile and kiss her.

“Perfect. That was Joseph Johnson, the man that I hired for the charity. He had the excellent idea to partner with the oncology ward downtown.”

Addy squeezes my arm and smiles warmly.

“That’s wonderful. You know, I haven’t gotten to tell you yet how nice it is to see you excited about this. I can tell you’re passionate about it.”

“I am. It feels like for the first time since Elise passed I’m finally doing something important with my life.”

I kiss her again then follow her back into the apartment to help with the packing.

“Wow,” Izzy says, looking up at my home with wide eyes. “I can’t believe I’m going to live here.”

I chuckle and turn off the car before getting out. Addy and Izzy follow suit as my brother Cade hops out of the moving truck behind me.

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