'The Captain and his wife, for sure. I'd look like an absolute asshole if I didn't invite him when he was at Ryan and Honey-Milk's reception.'
'Kristof, and Robina, of course.'
'Will Kristof bring his wife?'
'I don't know. How many are we up to?'
Esposito scooped up vanilla ice cream as he studied the chart paper Meredeth had dragged into the kitchen. Since they'd asked Castle and Beckett to be in the wedding party almost two weeks prior, they realized they needed to sit down and compose the rest of their wedding party, as well as the preliminary guest list. He'd already told his parents that they, along with Lili and Cam, would be the only members of his family coming, as inviting the rest of the clan would put their guest list well into the seventies and they had no desire whatsoever to have a circus of a wedding. Esposito, knowing his family well, knew that many relatives could cause serious problems, not to mention making it very lopsided on his end of the invitation list. When they'd explained this to his parents, Alejandro and Rosalita both had grumbled but grudgingly agreed that it would be for the best, as there was bound to be sniping and in-fighting over why there were none of the cousins in the wedding party or why they weren't having it at the family's church.
When he and Meredeth had gone home that afternoon, Meredeth had the inspired idea to use her easel of chart paper to create their list of the wedding party to keep their heads from spinning, and to visually draft ideas so they could officially put it in the wedding binder and begin the other things; Esposito had begun to mentally associate dominoes with getting their initial plans organized.
Of course, she'd sweetened the deal with ice cream topped with her homemade honey-glazed dessert croutons. That always made everything better.
'Okay,' he told her, 'let's recap this. We've got you and me, bride and groom. Father Paolo is officiating. Ryan's my best man, and Castle, Gil and Ike are the ushers. You've got Honey-Milk, Beckett, Lili and Lanie as your bridesmaids but not a maid of honour yet.'
'I can't decide between Lili and Lanie, and it's eating me up. On the one hand, Lili's your sister and we're really close. On the other hand, Lanie's been a friend to me since the moment I met her and she was my rock in April.'
Esposito absently scratched his arm, the quarter-inch scars on either side of his bicep a constant reminder of what they'd gone through just two and a half weeks after their six-month anniversary. 'It's your call on that, Mere, but this is strictly a numbers-crunch right now. Who else?'
'Your parents, Cam, Momo and Terrence, Martha and Chet, because according to you it just isn't a party without Martha Rogers.'
'Not if Castle's around.'
'Lanie's boyfriend Dave, Robina and TJ Kelley, Alexis and a guest, Chin and her husband, Anna and Christina, Carol and Tim Thornton.' Meredeth paused to take a scoop of her own ice cream. 'The Captain and his wife, and Kristof and his wife Hilde. Oh and Dell, of course, but I kinda lumped him in with his parents. How many are we up to?'
'Including the wedding party, and Dell as a guest, thirty-two.'
'That's a good number. Nice and intimate.'
'All right, I better go get dressed. Gil's a stickler for punctuality to the ball-park, especially when his Y-'
'Don't say it.' Meredeth held up a finger. 'We don't say the Y-word in this house during playoffs, not when the Red Sox still have a chance.'
Esposito only shook his head; his woman was a born and raised New Yorker and somehow was a Bo-Sox fan. The universe did love its little games. Instead questioning the cosmos he rinsed his dessert dish in the sink, gave her a kiss and headed upstairs to change out of his work clothes. Downstairs, Meredeth continued to study the chart when a knock sounded on the front door, which had Arturo scrambling up from under the kitchen table and racing to see who had come to visit. Meredeth answered and was a little surprised to find Robina on her doorstep. 'Hey, I thought you weren't coming by until after dinner.'
'Anthony picked TJ up early,' Robina explained with a slightly bitter edge to her voice, referring to her ex-husband. 'He and the redheaded bitch are taking him to the Keys for the weekend to visit her family. Like he has any real interest in his son, he just wants to show him off like a prize pig at the county fair.'
'We'll start with double-barreled brass monkeys.'
Robina took off her shoes, wandered into the kitchen. 'Hubby to be still here?'
'He won't be for long, his friend Gil is taking him out to a Y-word game.'
Arturo began barking again, letting Meredeth know Gil had arrived. She opened the door and grinned in spite of herself - Gil looked like the ultimate fanboy with his Clemens jersey and cap. 'I don't know if you can cross the threshold without making my autographed David Ortiz photo burst into flames.'
'Eh, you got no taste in baseball, Mere.' But Gil did take off his hat along with his shoes as he stepped inside. 'He ready to go?'
'Almost. Late getting off shift today, so he was late getting home,' Meredeth explained as they went to the kitchen. 'Oh, this is my agent, Robina Kelley. Robina, this is Detective Gil Mazzara.'
Robina, who'd pulled out her Blackberry in her friend's absence, glanced up. 'Nice to meet you, enjoy the game. Parre's had the hot arm this week in training.'
'Parre?' Gil bristled a little. 'Everyone knows Eddlestein's going with West, he's the got the vicious slider.'
'I hope you mean hamburger, because his slider has barely reached the strike-zone in the last four games. Besides, he's not starting. Parre is.'
'How would you know that, if you think West's slider is a burger.'
Robina looked at him like he had sprouted a third eye. 'Because I'm representing him for his book deal with Action publishing and he told me when we had lunch together today.'
'Like that means anything, sports line-ups change thirty-seconds before they hit the field for warm-ups.'
'Children, teacher hasn't had enough alcohol yet tonight to break up this squabble.' Meredeth began pulling bottle of liquor from the cabinet to mix drinks for herself and Robina.
'Mazzara, let's go!' Esposito hollered as he came down the stairs, zipped into the kitchen to kiss Meredeth. 'We'll be lucky to get there for the first pitch. Love you babe.'
'Love you too, drive safely.'
When the men had left, Robina shook her head. 'Could he be any more arrogant? Oh wait, he's a Y-word fan. Guess not. Do me a favour, if he's at the wedding, don't seat me next to him.'
Esposito arrived home, yawning hugely. The game had gone to extra innings but thankfully one of the players on the home team crushed a triple deep into left field, giving them the go-ahead and winning runs to make it a 3-1 victory for New York's favourite sons. He went upstairs to the bedroom, and wasn't at all surprised to find Meredeth in bed with a book and a glass of what was either electrified orange juice or original flavour Gatorade. As he'd seen the size of the pitcher of drinks the women had mixed before he'd gone with Gil to the baseball park, he guessed it was the latter. His mouth went a little dry, however, when he saw that she had the sheets tucked around her breasts which meant only one thing - they were the only pj's she was wearing.
'Hey baby.'
'Shh. No loud noises.'
'Brass monkeys jumping on the bed, I take it?'
'A little bit.' Meredeth set her book aside, sat up to kiss her fiance. 'How was the game?'
'Excellent. I asked Gil to be in the wedding, and he's so stoked. I think he's thinking it might be a chance to hit on some attractive single people, even though I pointed out to him, the only single people on the guest list at this point are under the age of twenty-one.
'About that.' Meredeth took a drink of her Gatorade. 'I think there was a little spark between Robina and Gil.'
'Oh?'
'Yeah they weren't in the kitchen together for thirty seconds and they were ready to rip each others throat out
'Ah, a little Clash of the Titans.' Esposito ran his hand over Meredeth's shoulder. 'Now that you're engaged and he's officially divorced, are you starting to play match-maker for Gil?'
'No, not at all. I just thought it funny how Gil who usually shrugs off any attack on his precious pitcher West and Robina says Parre's got the hot arm and he's going toe-to-toe with her.'
'That is interesting. You know what else is?'
'What?'
Esposito pulled off his shirt, tackled Meredeth to the bed. 'How I can restrain myself for so long, when you're here all hot and naked'
'I haven't a clue,' Meredeth giggled, as he tumbled her back against the pillows.
R&R&Enjoy.
