Life at Christmas
Chapter 16
David Murphy had only been hoping, not expecting for Kate call him the very next day. He needed to generate a contract for her and as soon as he got it back signed he would start work immediately.
He was going to include the suite expansion into the work and get the same contractor to do both since he was going to have to modify not just the architecture, but also structural, mechanical, and electrical. He needed to verify that she was connected to the city sanitary sewer system as well as her water line size and water meter. He was only adding one little bathroom, however his plumbing guy was going to want to verify that her pipes were adequately sized.
His first job for himself was to find out who owned that vacant land across the street and whether it could be purchased.
Kate was done kissing Rick and made sure he was ready to dig up all of his confederate bills so they could hide them where the contractor wouldn't find them.
What Kate needed to do was figure out just where that place was. Her room wasn't all that secure. Housekeeping had a key to it so they could clean and change the sheets and towels.
"Where to hide, where to hide?" Kate tried to think. "Why not in here? I have the only key, I think, and if I don't I can make sure that I do." She looked around her office to decide just where would be best. "Maybe I can put something Christmasy over them so that no one will move that."
Kate was satisfied so she went out to the front desk. "You two and your friends win. I'll let him remodel and provide a suite for me to live in." She suddenly found herself being hugged. TWICE!
"We knew you would see it our way." Judith had to answer the phone while Adam answered the bing on the reservations computer.
Kate went off to the mechanical room to tell them her decision. She just didn't know exactly when and could only tell them what the architect had told her.
"And this beast is leaving us as well?" Franklin asked her.
"This entire room is leaving us. Something about I would have to be able to afford putting sprinklers in the entire inn and I don't have that kind of money. What we'll end up with none of us will know until the design's done. So try and keep this place running for a few more months, please!" Kate asked them and went somewhere else.
"Popcorn." She stopped in the kitchen to see if they had popcorn and naturally they didn't.
She got on the computer in her office to look up popcorn making machines. Preferably one that had its own cart. Then she checked out popcorn to pop, butter, and popcorn salt. It might take three weeks to get it but at least it was all ordered.
After that she was back out front. "Spread the word. I need a lift to the closest grocery store. It'll only take a minute or two. I'll be in my room changing clothes." Kate had a date to get ready for.
She might be doing this backwards but that sounded like her. Falling for the guy before they even have their first date and even this date they weren't even going anywhere. Mostly because he couldn't go anywhere.
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"Popcorn?" she questioned as Kate picked up a box of her favorite microwaveable popcorn, ACT II. Jen didn't get it but Kate was the boss.
"I've ordered a popcorn machine for the TV room, too. It might take three weeks for it to get here, but we're making popcorn," Kate said gleefully.
Kate dropped off her box of popcorn in her room then changed clothes again back to her period dress and kept the tennis shoes. Then she went back out to work.
A strange sound had her going to the front door and looked out to see it raining. "This is so not what I needed." The only silver lining she saw was that her dad wasn't going to get here for a few more days. It needed to stop raining and not turn into ice or at least to melt away.
Then it occurred to her that this rain would delay digging up Rick's Confederate bills so she could hide them. She still needed something to hide them under though. She could do that tomorrow when it stopped raining.
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It had been an hour so she went into her office and brought up the bank account for the inn and put in her login and password. Immediately she saw an extra $890,000 that didn't used to be there. She sat there wondering if the next auction would do just as well. If it did that would give her over 1.6 million dollars. That had to be enough to do what she wanted to do, right?
Say it took a month to get the drawings. Another month to select a contractor. Maybe six to eight months to build it. It could be done before Thanksgiving or even earlier.
There was no doubt that if the next auction did this well things were going to change around here.
Kate just kept looking at the balance and couldn't believe what it might look like a week from now. And she had another four Confederate bills in her possession at the moment. She just didn't know what to do with them except hang onto them for now.
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Kate made her way to her room after Paul showed up for the night shift at the front desk. She was sure Rick had done something but no one had complained about it so they either didn't notice, didn't care or had already worked out that it was their ghost.
She was taking her shoes off and letting them fall to the floor. "You can come in, Rick," Kate called out and was instantly rewarded with him showing up at the end of her bed still dressed in the same old suit.
Kate dropped her second shoe and got to wrap her arms around his neck. "We're rich. Four of your bills sold for $890,000. I've got one more auction that happens on January 1st so it's possible I might get the same amount for them. I'll be able to fix the hot water problem and increase the size of my room. All thanks to you." Kate kissed him.
"What's wrong?" He wasn't kissing her back very enthusiastically.
"Me being a thief got the money." He'd already had this conversation with Abigail but she couldn't get him to feel better about what he had done.
"Rick, don't. Please don't. That Confederate money is going to help the inn. That in turn gives all our guests a place to have a good time during their vacations. Without you this inn wouldn't exist. Think of all the people you have touched in a good way. Yes, stealing's a bad thing and I don't ever want you to do it again. But a lot of good's coming from all those bills. And I still love you." Kate searched his eyes which still looked sad.
"I said, I love you," Kate tried again and finally saw the hint of a sparkle in his eyes. By and by she saw him smiling and gave him another kiss. "We need to dig up all of your bills before the end of December. I don't know where you buried them but I can't risk the contractor digging there so we need to move them. …After it stops raining and gets dark and…cold outside." Kate let her head rest against his chest. "This is going to be messy, isn't it? Does it weigh a lot?" She was only just so strong.
"We can handle them. Where are we moving them to?" They needed to be someplace safe and not easily found.
"My office. I'm going to put a Christmas tree skirt over them or more than one. Then put a Christmas tree on top. A small one. I'll wrap some presents and put them under the tree. No one would dare to think of looking under a Christmas tree. Not in this place." They still had Christmas trees all over the place and likely would for untold weeks still.
"Not bad." Rick liked it.
"Good, we can start whenever you're ready. Now strip. I want to make love to you. I'm getting on top this time." Kate gave him a quick kiss and turned around so he could unzip her.
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Kate was awake but she was on her back looking up at the ceiling and didn't see Rick for a change. Though she did feel something; she was about ready to explode in an orgasm. Looking down she saw a still naked Rick with his head between her legs.
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Then in the shower he shoved her up against the tiled wall and brought her to another orgasm as he climaxed inside her.
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"You're going to spoil me if you keep that up." Damn but if she didn't feel amazing after all of this morning's activities.
"I need to get in as much as I can before December's gone. It's December 29 and almost over," Rick told her, not meaning to make her sad.
Kate sat down on the bed before giving Rick a chance to lace her up from behind this morning. "You being gone really is going to suck." She was going to miss not having him around, she knew that for sure.
Then she perked up. "We're making love during lunch today. If I'm going to do without you for eleven months I want an overload of you. To the point that I can barely walk." Then she got to her feet. "Now lace me up." Kate patiently stood there and let him take some of her ability to breathe away from her.
"Have fun, babe." Kate kissed him again, exited her room, and locked the door.
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It was almost lunch and Kate was thinking about going to her room so she could get laid when suddenly her architect walked through the door. "Mr. Murphy, what brings you by?" He was just here it seemed.
"I brought you a contract to sign for my services for your project. I'll design a new mechanical room as well as a new suite for you and investigate whether that lot's available and what it will cost to purchase it. Once my drawings are almost complete we can bring in an engineering firm to design the mechanicals. All I need is your signature and a deposit. Final payment is due when my design's complete and meets your satisfaction," David explained.
"That was fast. We can talk in my office." Kate led the way.
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David was leaving with a signed contract and a check for her deposit. They had talked about how the timing was likely to work. He would need to show up and even though it was cold out, he and his staff would be out there taking measurements so that he knew just how much space he had to work with. First, though, he needed to find out about the adjacent property. If she couldn't purchase it then he would need to come up a very different design. Not that he knew just what yet.
Kate was happy since the timing was satisfactory. Once he was closer to being done with the floor plan design and site plan design they would talk about finishes and what she wanted to see in her new suite.
If all went as planned she should be all moved in before Halloween.
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"Rick?" Kate was in her room and was skipping lunch. The second she saw him, she said, "Undo me." She turned her back to him then once she was almost naked she helped him with getting his suit off.
She still couldn't taste him but she didn't care any longer. Just having him was enough.
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Thankfully one of her staff had a truck and you could still get just about anything that was Christmas in town. So now they were taking everything into her office and clearing out a corner. Her new comforter, tree, lights, decorations were all in the corner waiting for the crate and containers filled with Confederate bills.
Once that was dug up and in place they could get to work covering it all up with all the Christmas stuff to hide it. Kate was thinking that this just might actually work. Plus it got it all out of the ground.
She was sitting at her desk looking at something on her computer when there was a knock on her door. "Bailey, come on in. What can I help you with?"
"I hear that you hired an architect to design you a real suite to live in." Bailey was all smiles.
"He's designing a new mechanical room so I can solve the hot water problem. Rip out the old one and build a new one. And yes, he's also designing a suite for me."
"I knew it! I knew it! I knew this place would grow on you. So when are you moving in?" Bailey looked really happy.
"Roughly Halloween," Kate said.
"HALLOWEEN!? Why so long?" It couldn't be that hard to design and build her a suite for her to live in and move out here.
"I need a design, choose the finishes, buy the lot across the street since we'll be losing a lot of the parking lot to do this. Temporary hot water, contractor trailer, and a huge trash bin." Then Kate broke it to her. "If I can't buy the lot behind us and across the street for our new parking lot, maybe nothing happens."
"I knew I asked Santa for the wrong thing. Stupid Bailey!" Bailey spun in place then hung her head. Kate got up to hug her.
"Relax, it's out of our hands for now anyway. So what did you ask Santa for?" Not that he existed and could make wishes come true anyway.
"And make sure it never comes true? No way. You're trying to ruin it, aren't you? Well it won't work and I'm not talking." Bailey informed her.
"Not talking, huh?" Kate suddenly had an idea to get her to talk. Since she was still hugging her she simply put her hands at Bailey's side and started tickling her. Instantly it was apparent that Bailey was ticklish.
Between laughs Bailey screamed, ran for it and slammed the office door closed behind her to slow Kate down if she chased after her.
Since Kate didn't even open the door Bailey came back to the front desk. Guests should start checking out soon which meant her day of cleaning rooms would be starting soon.
"So what did you ask Santa for?" Adam asked quietly.
"Promise not to tell?" Bailey would tell them but just not Kate.
"Cross my heart and hope to die. Especially if it involves Kate." Bailey watched both of them cross their hearts.
"I asked for a boyfriend for Kate so she would stay," Bailey whispered.
"Really! Well I've got news, she already has one. They've been meeting in her room for the last few days. Judith's pretty sure she saw the back of him in the TV room the other night. They were watching Forbidden Planet. She said if they got any closer they would be glued together," Melody whispered back.
Bailey clapped both hands over her mouth to keep from squealing out loud. Instead she started dancing. "Yes, Yes, Yes!" However, she said that too loud and clapped her hands over her mouth again.
She decided it was time to get out of there. "I'm going to start work." Bailey sang her way to the third floor. "Kate has a boyfriend, Kate has a boyfriend."
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Rick was unlacing Kate so she could get out of her dress. "What did you do today, babe?" Kate was curious because no one had complained the last couple of days.
Kate heard him chuckle. "I played checkers with this kid. His parents wanted him off his phone and doing something fun so I moved a checker and we played a game of checkers."
Kate was smiling widely and she spun to face him. "So who won?" She was curious. Except he wasn't answering her question. "Rick, who won?"
"He did." Rick let his head fall to his chest. Kate laughed at him. "He cheated! I don't know how but somehow he cheated." He had lost to a kid. It was embarrassing.
"My poor baby." Kate stroked the side of his face and kissed him quickly. "Now strip, we're making love again." She gave him another quick kiss and finished getting out of her dress.
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Kate woke the next morning to find him watching her again. Instead of complaining she kissed him. "I forgot to take my dresses down to laundry." Kate pressed her face into her pillow. She'd screwed up. They both needed to be cleaned so she was going to have to wear something else today.
"Can we dig up your bills tonight? Maybe that rain softened the dirt, making it easier to get to before the ground gets too hard to dig at all."
"Just get ready to get dirty," Rick warned her.
"We can take a nice hot shower after we're done," Kate said slyly.
"Well, you can. I won't get dirty." Rick saw the look she was giving him. "Ghost, remember."
"Trust me, I'm well aware that you're a ghost. After tomorrow I might not ever see you again." Kate felt tears well up. This was why she hadn't been willing to risk her heart again. If she didn't get Rick back it was going to hurt.
"I'll be here. …Did you put in what you wanted for Christmas to Santa?" Rick asked.
"Santa doesn't exist." Kate was all set to tell him that she didn't have a fireplace until she remembered what Bailey had told her. "No. He brings presents, doesn't he? He can't make you something other than a ghost."
"So tell him you want me as your present," Rick suggested.
"Christmas is over, you know," Kate pointed out since today was December 30, 2011 and not Christmas.
"You do remember where you live, right? Christmas never ends around here," Rick reminded her.
Kate growled at him. She hadn't written a letter to Santa since she was really, really little. Before she had decided that he didn't exist.
"You don't even have a stocking hanging on your fireplace with your name on it. No wonder he doesn't leave you anything," Rick teased her.
"Will you stop! I'm…I'm going to go take a shower before you say something like the tooth fairy or the Easter bunny exist, too." Kate pushed herself away from him and rolled out of bed.
"How do you know that…" Rick shut up when she glared at him and walked away, giving him a perfect view of her bare ass.
"Looking good, Kate," Rick said instead and watched her wiggle her bare ass at him.
"You could join me, you know." Kate shook her ass this time and disappeared into the bathroom.
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It was stupid and she knew it. It was just that too much of her heart was at stake for her not to try. She felt ridiculous but she signed it then even put on some lipstick and kissed it, leaving an impression of her lips behind. She folded it up, put it into an envelope, and addressed it, followed by putting a stamp on it that Abigail had left behind in a drawer.
She went out to the front desk. "Mail this for me, please?" She handed her envelope to Judith.
"A letter to Santa?" She was surprised.
"Don't give me any grief, just mail it for me, please." Kate retreated back into her office and closed the door.
"Are we seriously mailing this?" Judith asked Adam.
"Hell, no. We're delivering it to Santa personally. Where's Bailey? She knows who to give it to."