Life at Christmas
Chapter 14
Kate couldn't get out of the precinct fast enough. She'd even brought a suitcase with her and left it stored under her desk. It restricted where she could put her legs but she didn't care. She shut down her computer, picked up her suitcase, and was in the elevator 20 minutes early.
If she got a call that there was a body she would simply tell them she was on vacation. They would have to call her replacement. No one called her cell phone during her taxi ride to the train station. She was technically 30 minutes early but she still ran to where the train would be waiting for her. She had, after all, done this a few times. Though she did check the board to make sure she was headed the right way.
Her suitcase was in storage and her carry-on bag was with her as she sat there and willed for the train to get going. If it left on time and the drive to the inn was uneventful she might have close to 3 hours before midnight.
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Kate saw a waving hand and went toward who was waving while smiling the entire way. "Judith, I wasn't expecting to see you." Kate was just happy someone was there.
"Well, if we're on time I only have about another hour until my night shift at the desk so I volunteered." It was no big deal.
Kate smiled. "I'm happy to see you and in your work clothes." Judith was dressed for work.
"They kind of wear on you. You just wait until summer rolls around. Some of these dresses can give you heatstroke." Judith laughed at herself. "So how long are you here this time?"
"A whole week. I don't leave until January 2nd of next year. …Next year. Makes it sound a lot longer than it really is," Kate said.
"That's going to make a lot of people happy." She happened to be one of them.
"I talked my dad into coming out on the 31st. He might be leaving with me. I just have to figure out where to put him. One of us might be sleeping on a roll-away in the mechanical room." Kate chuckled since it was just possible she would be sleeping there.
"We'll think of something. Conference room at the very least. Something will come up." Judith tried to think positive. "Hey, maybe our ghost can solve the problem. Force someone out of their room." Judith laughed and got Kate to join her.
It also gave Kate an evil idea. However, she couldn't do that. Not to her guests and not to Rick. She would think of something else.
"Why are we going around downtown Holly?" Normally they went straight through town to reach the inn.
"During Christmas the street's full of tents that vendors have put up. Lots of it are homemade things that you can't get anywhere or any other time. Most of it are things but some of it's food and drink. Hot drinks are very popular. Even the ones that have a little something extra in them, if you take my meaning," Judith explained.
"My kind of drink." Kate was sorry she was going to miss it. It was just that she had other plans and a different kind of drink.
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"Thanks for the ride." Kate grabbed her bags, hustled to her bedroom, and unlocked the door. She slammed the door behind her and closed then locked it.
"Rick, get in here," Kate called out. She saw him standing at the end of the bed and in front of the fireplace. "Strip!" There was no time to waste. They had maybe 2-1/2 hours until midnight.
Kate didn't wait for him. She walked over to him and began unbuttoning the buttons of his vest. "Why do you wear so many clothes?" This was going to take forever! Instead of finishing what she had started she lifted up a little, since she was in heels, and kissed him. Kate pressed the kiss into something far more passionate and used her tongue to search his mouth. She was finally rewarded with his taste. She moaned into the kiss since he finally tasted like someone.
"We need to get this off." Kate went back to unbuttoning his buttons to get him naked.
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Rick was sitting naked on the floor with his back to the bed though he had taken a little of the sheet with him. Kate was lying naked crossways on the bed on her back, staring up at the ceiling.
Kate had never had this much sex in one night before. She was happy, tired, and beyond satisfied. She had gotten to taste everything that made Rick, Rick.
Rick knew he wasn't a virgin but Kate was really something else. It was the only time of the year when he got to taste things. So he had stolen a few things in the kitchen and eaten them even if he wasn't really hungry and was never going to be hungry.
However, it also meant that he got to taste Kate. All of Kate. He'd also learned that Kate was rather vocal during sex. Not so much that she screamed, since she hadn't. But that didn't mean she was quiet, either. Anything but, actually.
Kate found the strength to roll over and run a hand through his hair. He tilted his head back to let her reach anywhere on his head that she pleased.
"What am I going to do once you're gone? I won't be able to touch you, see you, or even hear you, let alone this." Eleven months without him was going to be hell.
"I'll be here. I'll always be here. Trapped and cursed, remember?"
"Will you please stop saying that?" She didn't want him trapped or cursed.
Rick found that his legs did indeed work as he got up and got up onto the bed and Kate moved with him.
"I'll be able to hear and see everything you do. I might even turn into a peeping Tom," Rick teased her which got Kate to burst out laughing.
Kate kissed him deeply and realized that most of his taste was already gone. She looked at the clock. It was a quarter after which meant almost 3 hours of non-stop sex. It was a record for her, as were the number of orgasms Rick had managed to pull out of her. Even Rick, she was sure, had climaxed three times.
"Rick, what's going to happen?" Kate was suddenly in serious mode since her heart was involved. This place and Rick had made it to her heart. "If or when I figure out who killed you and I find your body, what happens then?"
Rick pulled Kate closer to him and slipped his leg between her legs and found two wet spots. One was on the bed and one was between her legs. "I'll be here. I want to be here. I need to be here. I'll yell, I'll scream, I'll even fight to be here."
Kate couldn't resist moving her body a little so that her core rubbed against his leg. She also placed her hand on his face and looked him in the eye. "I know it's fast and I don't know how, but I'm falling in love with you. If I solve everything and never see you again it's going to hurt." Kate knew her tears were starting.
Rick raised his hand to brush them away. "I don't really know what will happen, but I want to be here. I do. You know you could just leave it like it is now. One month every…" Rick stopped talking when her hand covered his lips.
"No, it's all of you or none of you. I'm not leaving you like this. There's a lot out there and I want you to see it. To live it and not just on TV." Maybe falling in love with him was a bit too little. She wasn't falling in love with him, she already was in love with him. And this inn.
"For a long time I've wanted to find someone to love and love me back. To just jump and know that that person will catch me and love me." Kate stroked his face.
"You've come to the right place then. I'll be happy to love you for the rest of both of our lives no matter what happens," Rick told her and got Kate to kiss him for it.
Then Rick pulled his head back. "Did I just propose?" It almost sounded like he did to him. It wasn't how he ever envisioned proposing to a lady, but this might pass for one.
Kate began laughing as she replayed what he'd just said in her mind. "You do it the right way, down on one knee with a ring in your hand, and I just might say yes." Kate kissed him again.
"Well until that time comes." Rick reached down and pressed a finger inside her and Kate gasped. He'd recovered some of his energy. It was time to see if Kate had recovered enough of hers.
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Kate talked Rick into joining her in the shower. He had after all worked up quite a sweat and she wanted him clean. Naturally she cleaned all of him.
She was in her new period dress that she had found at a different store. This one wasn't quite the same as the other one, but she was trying not to end up wearing ball gowns that she couldn't even get through the door in.
It was shoulderless with lace across the top that was pulled tight. It had a built-in corset that she had to ask Rick to lace her up from behind. "Not that tight, Rick. I'd like to be able to breathe." He had pulled just a bit much.
"Sorry." Rick loosened it a little then finished.
It was mostly white with blue flowers and more lace on the end of the short sleeves. Since she was going to be standing all day she went with the tennis shoes this time.
"What do you think?" Kate twirled in place. She actually wanted to feel gorgeous and for him to like what she was wearing.
"As beautiful as ever. I look forward to taking it off of you later," Rick grinned at her.
"You think you'll get to do that, do you?" Now that he'd offered she wasn't planning to take it off until he took it off her and made love to her again tonight.
"Don't forget. Haunt, not scare them to death. You have less than a week to make a name for yourself," Kate reminded him.
"Got it." And with that Rick vanished.
Kate thought about calling him back and telling him that her dad was going to be here in a few days. Then she thought about just shocking him about his arrival. She was even thinking of getting her dad in this room and then calling for Rick and presenting him to her dad. He was effectively her new boyfriend. He just happened to be a dead boyfriend.
"My life gets any more complicated and I'm going to shoot myself," Kate muttered and left her room to start the day.
The staff soon saw Kate in her new gown and loved it.
"What's with the flags?" Shawn asked her since there were a few of them spread out all over.
"No one touches them. Got it? No one!" Yes, she had a map but she needed those flags.
Shawn glanced out the window. "Here's hoping they're in the ground really good because it's snowing."
"No!" Kate went to the doors and looked outside. Sure enough it was snowing. It wasn't hard and it really wasn't sticking but she was thinking that the dig sites might have to be dug up like one of those dinosaur digs. Carefully using tiny tools and brushes. She needed his bones as intact and undamaged as she could get them. That meant using a backhoe to dig him up might cause damage so that was out.
She didn't know how he had died and neither did Rick, so she needed any body she found intact and undamaged. It was December so digging in any of these locations may have to wait until it was warmer. That might mean four months or longer.
"You don't like snow?" Kate was asked.
"NO. It meant someone, usually me when I was younger, had to shovel the damn stuff. Now I have to drive in it and not end up in a fender bender. I could live without snow, thank you very much. I'll take a beach over snow any day."
"So you're a beach bikini girl?" Shawn teased.
"I can't tease a guy dressed like this." Kate swiped her hands down her gown and went back to watching it snow.
"You can't make snow angels, have snowball fights, or go skiing on a beach," he argued.
"Good point." She did like to do all three of those or at least had liked to do them when she was younger.
Just then a woman came racing down the stairs. She almost stumbled and fell down them. She stopped at the front desk and tried to talk but mostly just did a lot of pointing.
Kate was next to her. "Is someone hurt?" Kate asked since that meant calling 911. Only she shook her head. "Is something wrong with your room?" At least that meant maintenance that she had. The woman nodded her head.
"Call maintenance," Kate told Shawn. "Take me to your room." Kate guided her toward the stairs.
Kate got taken to the second floor, toward the front that overlooked the fountain. Inside the room she found the lady's husband who looked a lot more calm. "What's the problem?" Kate asked him since his wife was still basically speechless.
He wanted to say his wife, but that would get him into trouble. Instead he took her over to their window that overlooked the fountain. "It's gone now but it sort of just frosted over and then we watched as a smiley face was drawn into that," her husband explained.
Kate tried to swallow a snort of a laugh. "Our ghost. He's harmless so don't worry about him. We do have another room available at the moment if you'd like to change rooms," Kate offered.
"A ghost!" The wife had found her voice.
"He likes to have a little fun from time to time. He really is harmless. He's just having a little fun. If you were a ghost what would you do?"
"Haunt someone else," the wife said flatly.
"I can move you if you like. However, he is a ghost so he has full run of the inn. He's had a little fun with the staff as well in the past. I can assure you he truly is harmless. We do advertise as being haunted in case you hadn't noticed," Kate reminded them.
"We knew, we just didn't think… I mean, my wife didn't think… We'll survive," the husband said just as a maintenance man walked in after finding the room without knowing just which room.
"False alarm. Thanks for responding, Kershaw." Kate saw him smile and leave.
"My offer still stands. Maybe next time you can ask him to draw something else." Kate smiled at both of them and left them to talk with each other.
Kate was smiling all the way to her room and closed the door. "Rick." She wasn't angry at him. He was doing what she asked him to do.
Rick showed up. "Sorry, it sounded funny at the time." But instead of her yelling at him she kissed him.
"We might end up on 60 minutes if you keep this up. Can you only do this in December?" If he could do it the rest of the year they just might make it.
Rick shook his head. "Cursed… Sorry." She had asked him to stop saying that.
"It's okay. Just keep it up as long as you can. We'll just keep explaining it away." Kate kissed him again before going back to the front desk.
"Just our ghost having a little fun," Kate smiled.
"He's never had this much fun before. Not until you showed up," Shawn said.
"You never know, maybe I'm the one that's cursed and not the inn." Kate smiled at them and went to the kitchen to check on how things were going in there.
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Kate spent the rest of the day looking at the books, trying to figure out if she was going to have enough money. Most of it depended on just how much was brought in. It was looking like they normally made a decent profit, part of which was her paycheck. Since she had a job she didn't need a paycheck from here so if she skipped that and put it back into the inn, she was looking pretty good.
Checking her email showed that she had one from the ground radar team that she had hired to tow their machine everywhere on the site that they could. They apologized but thanks to the weather she was better off waiting until the ground thawed. Meaning months from now.
"SHIT!" Kate shoved her keyboard away and suddenly there were hands on her shoulders massaging her muscles. There was only one person that would dare, still she took a quick peek then tried to relax.
"I'm trying to find your body but the ground's too hard. The cadaver dog gave me some spots to look, but I can't dig in this weather. Now the ground radar tech wants to wait until late spring." Kate felt defeated.
"I'm not going anywhere. It's not like someone's going to dig me up and move me," Rick argued.
"I know, but I need to solve this and I don't do well with waiting." It was one of her faults.
"You've done what you can. …Come to bed." Rick kissed the top of her head.
That had Kate smiling. "You just want to take advantage of me." She was looking forward to another round of sex. Or two, or three, or more.
"You started it," Rick countered. "I'm only being a gentleman and giving the woman I care about what she wants."
Kate spun around and stood up so she could put her arms around his neck. "In that case, we've already made passionate love. Now I want you to fuck me. I expect to find you naked in our room by the time I get there. I might even let you take this dress off me if you're a good boy then shove me onto the bed and take me from behind." Kate kissed him and then suddenly she was kissing the air.
"I wish I could do that." He was cheating since she had to walk all the way there.