Wine Not Coffee
Chapter 22
Jim and Jo had one of their delivery trucks and Kate was driving her own car. They were all going over to Rick's B&B, that didn't actually serve breakfast but was still officially a B&B, because his remodel was done and the contractor and decorator were gone. Kate was out in front because she knew where to go since neither Jim nor Jo had ever been there before.
"Love the train cars. Too bad there are only two of them." Jo was wondering what the interiors looked like.
Jim looked at the train station. "This building is old."
"Rick said something about 1860s," Kate said.
Kate went in first and almost stopped the second she did. She had seen what it looked like before. It looked nothing like that now. There were even a few black and white photos of trains on the wall.
"Kate!" Rick was up and ready to wrap his arms around her and kiss her senseless when in walked Jim and Jo so he came up short of her.
"Wow, Rick!" Jim knew his mouth was hanging open. He closed it and tried to look everywhere.
"Yeah, I like this a lot better. It makes it look like a real train station. I even have a ticket counter, kinda." It was what he sat behind during the day. It had a wood base, a wrought iron barrier above that all the way to the ceiling and a space to slip money through and get a ticket in return. It was just that it was narrow and you could walk around it easily. And there were two lights on either side that looked like gas lanterns.
There were benches to sit on that were padded in black and white instead of those orange chairs that had been there before. There was a wood accent wall and a pair of windows on one side behind his station window counter. There were even burlap bags that looked full that said things like Rice, Sugar, Beans, and Flour piled up next to one of them.
"You have a railroad crossing signal." Jim walked up to it. It had a white cross that said RAIL ROAD CROSSING in black letters and there were two red lights on either side of the pole. "Does it work?"
"Press the button." Rick let him search for it till he found and pressed it. Suddenly both red lights started blinking. They even alternated with one on and one off and it even went DING, DING, DING, DING, DING, DING, DING.
"Nice!" Jim liked it.
"Lea found most of it for me. It was a broken down piece of junk till it was painted and new lights were installed and the contractor hooked it up.
"And what's this?" Kate was standing in front of a train set. It was in a box with a glass front and mounted to the wall over one of the benches.
"It's the oldest train set that Lea could find. She tells me that if you take it out and set it up it will actually work. It's not the train that used to run here but it's old." Rick liked it.
"Come on, I'll show you the residence. Let me grab my baby monitor." Alexis was in her bedroom and Rick would run when she started crying. "Oh, you walked right past one other thing." Rick pointed at it.
They all turned to look and just at the door they saw a bell mounted to the wall that had a train engine mounted above it. It was a piece of flat metal and the train looked a little Christmassy but it was cute.
"The bell works, too. This way." Rick opened the door that could be locked if he wanted it to be. "This is home now."
"Rick!" almost all three of them said at the same time.
"New wood floors, wood accent walls. They took down two walls and put up metal beams for structure. Old world chandeliers, the kitchen is new but looks old save for the range and oven. I could have gotten something from like the 1920s but I didn't think it would look right so I went with brand new instead.
"New furniture, paintings, and lamps, and art work." Then Alexis began crying. "She refuses to go to sleep for some reason." Even he was having trouble sleeping the last couple of days.
"I'll get her," Kate offered and headed for the stairs since she definitely wasn't down here.
"This is really nice, Rick. Really nice. Windows on both sides. Split system. You even hang some of your pots and pans and the knives are attached to a pair of magnet strips on the wall." Jo and Jim were walking around looking at everything. She even opened what she took to be the refrigerator and freezer. There was even food in it.
"What's your problem?" Kate saw Alexis in her crib and she looked unhappy. "You better not have a poopy diaper. I still don't do poopy diapers," Kate told her. Nope, you're clean." Kate lifted her up, patted her back, and started bouncing her. She immediately stopped crying."
Naturally everyone downstairs heard all that over Rick's baby monitor.
"So maybe you don't like being up here all alone. I don't blame you. I've been feeling a little lonely myself the last couple of days." Kate took her downstairs and saw the three of them looking at her.
"What?" She was simply holding Alexis. She had done it countless times. Then she watched Rick hold up his end of the baby monitor and a blush rushed up her neck and into her face. "Maybe she doesn't like being all alone up there."
Kate sat down on the sofa and sat Alexis on her knee and bounced her. "I forgot her pacifier and a toy." She had been focused on Alexis and not other things.
"I'll get them," Jo offered and went up the stairs.
"They did my bedroom and the only bathroom upstairs also," Rick told her and that had Jim following her. Rick sat next to Kate.
"So what did I say up there?" She remembered a little and hoped she hadn't embarrassed herself too much.
"Just that you aren't sleeping well," Rick said.
"I'm not. …I've gotten used to you sleeping next to me. My bed feels big and empty now." Kate lowered her voice. "We haven't made love in two days." God but she needed him to fuck her so very badly.
That was when Rick figured out why he wasn't sleeping the night through Neither one of them were. Could it be that simple? He knew he was falling in love with her. But was Alexis so attached that he alone wasn't good enough for her now?
"JIM!" Jo had made it to the bathroom and he just had to see this.
"You know there is a way we could solve this problem," Rick offered, not sure if it was far too soon for this or not. They were lovers and he had missed her a lot the last two days.
"What's that? You're a happy girl, aren't you?" Kate cooed at Alexis who was smiling wide and reaching for something, anything to put into her mouth. Kate's face looked like a good choice to her so she was reaching for it.
"You could move in with me. Stay here instead of staying there. You haven't seen the master bedroom yet. It's a lot like yours. Save maybe for the closet. It's a lot smaller but still a walk-in," Rick said hopefully.
Kate stopped paying attention to Alexis and turned to stare at Rick.
Except Jo and Jim chose that moment to come back down the stairs. "You should go up and see his bedroom and his bathroom. His bedroom looks a lot like yours but that bathroom." Jo was in love.
"So is this all?" Jim asked him.
"Pretty much. I had all the windows replaced. They were made of wood and single pane. The wood was rotting and not very energy efficient. Now they're fiberglass that looks like wood and have been painted to match the existing wood ones along with double pane. They were special order so not exactly inexpensive," Rick said. "But I think the contractor and Lea did a pretty good job. If you need a remodel I know who to recommend."
"I can't think of anywhere. Except maybe the dining room but it doesn't really need it. The employee side might not equal the owner side but it's still nice." Jim had nothing.
"Thanks for the tour. It's really nice, not that I saw what it looked like before, but this is really nice. We need to get back, we have work to do. …You coming, Katie?" Jim had a lot of vines to tend to along with other duties as did Jo.
"I think I'll stay for a while." She needed to talk to Rick. He had broadsided her with his offer for her to move in with him.
"Suit yourself. You be a good girl, sweetie." Jo kissed Alexis and walked toward the door.
"Think the offer over, Katie. We're a winery, not a coffee bean plantation," Jim told her and left to join his wife.
"Offer?" Rick asked as soon as they were gone.
"I can either go back to Stanford, find a university here to attend, or follow Dad around and learn all about wine. They're trying to talk me into taking over when they retire some day far into the future," Kate explained.
"The place has been in your family for a long time. I can understand wanting to keep it in the family. It's what got me out here to this place even though I had never set eyes on it before. I'm not sure I even remember my aunt and uncle. Just that they were family. I want to give Alexis a family no matter how small it may turn out to be.
"Not to mention that Switzerland sounded exciting. I have to say so far being here has been very exciting. And beautiful." Rick was looking at Kate when he said the latter.
"I know. It's just I had a dream and going to Stanford was going to help me reach that dream. Now I don't know what to do." Rick had only made it even harder.
She wasn't yet ready to say she loved him. But she did miss him. It meant going back to Stanford was out and she had already reached that conclusion. That left the other two.
Kate had done some research and found out a number of things so she had options.
In order to become a lawyer in Switzerland, students must complete a three-year Bachelor of Law (LLB). However, in order to be admitted to the bar and enter practice, a subsequent two-year Master of Laws is also required.
Switzerland has no private institutions for training lawyers: all nine law schools are affiliated with the country's cantonal universities. These include University of Lausanne, University of Basel, University of Bern, University of Fribourg, University of Geneva, University of Lucerne, University of Neuchâtel, University of St. Gallen and University of Zurich.
Because of its global prominence in business and finance, there are plenty of career opportunities for lawyers in Switzerland, particularly within primary sectors, such as banking, finance and intellectual property rights.
The University of Lausanne was actually the closest and could be reached easily and still live at home. She could take a train or drive her little car. The next closest was a toss up but was close to two hours away.
"So study law here. Your parents aren't going to retire any time soon. You have more than enough time to get a degree and be a lawyer. Then when retirement starts getting closer, you can follow your dad around and learn all about wine. There's nothing stopping you from doing both.
"I run a B&B and write in my spare time. I have maybe another month to go before I finish my next book. I'll help you study. You can at least find out how many of your classes at Stanford can be transferred to here.
Which university is the closest? Please say it's not Zurich." He might never see her again if it was.
Alexis was done being bounced and was being ignored so Kate snuggled her into her chest and held her close.
"Lausanne, it's just down the road. I could drive my car back and forth easily. Day after day." Kate didn't mean to be whining about it, but she was afraid she was.
"If it's your dream, put in the work. Get up early in the morning and hop into your free little red car and drive. Everyone will still be here when you get back." That had Kate grinning. Her free car hadn't been all that free. Just heavily discounted from the original cost.
Still she was delaying the bigger question. Move in with Rick. "I need to think about it." It was what she did. She had thought before they became lovers and really started to fall in love with him and she needed to think this through as well.
"I'm not going anywhere and neither is Alexis. Drive to Lausanne from the winery or from here and back again. In either case I'm still going to ask you out on dates. You move in and we could still go out on dates every week or two. Make it an official date night. Pending just how much homework you have," Rick said.
That had Kate grinning again. She did miss him and she even missed Alexis. She could drive to class from here just as easily. She did still want to go out on dates with him. She was falling in love with him.
Suddenly there was the DING, DING, DING, DING, DING, DING of a railroad crossing alert. Thankfully it finally stopped.
"That's my cue. Cute, isn't it?" Rick loved it a lot better than a stupid little bell. "Stay here with Alexis, she seems to be happy again." Rick kissed her cheek and hurried to the front lobby since someone wanted him.
Kate lifted Alexis away from her body to look at her. "You do look pretty happy. I still don't do poopy diapers so don't go getting any ideas," Kate told her.
"What am I going to do, Alexis? I had it all planned out and then Dad's parents up and died on him and I let myself get talked into coming way out here. I still feel like a fish out of water. Mom, Dad, Rick and even you are the only things keeping me above water.
"And I'm talking to a baby again." Kate rolled her eyes.
"Ba!" Alexis babbled and used her hand to swat at Kate but couldn't reach her.
"What? …Say that again. Say Ma Ma. Not that I'm Mama. I'm Kate." Instead Alexis tried, Kate thought, to slap her hands together but screwed it all up.
"Don't try and hit me. Say Ma Ma. Or better yet, say Da Da," Kate urged and didn't get much back.
Rick wasn't back yet and Alexis had spit out her pacifier long ago and wasn't interested in her toy. "I need to think." Kate adjusted a pillow on one end and laid down with Alexis on her chest on the sofa. It actually was a pretty comfortable sofa.
One of his guests had seen the Chateau as suggested and now needed somewhere else to go or see or do. "The Capital of Switzerland is Bern and it's about an hour and a half north of here through lots of little towns along the way. If you want to see the real Switzerland, drive to Bern. I've done it myself, though my girlfriend was driving at the time.
"Geneva is about the same distance to the west at the very tip of the lake. The south side of the lake is France. The French side is more sparsely populated yet still pretty. Telford has an IMAX if you want a movie. There's a large indoor swimming complex close.
"If you haven't been to the casino in Montreux I can highly recommend that place. Even if you don't like gambling they still have some of the best restaurants in town and it's right on the lake.
It will take you about six hours to reach Paris. From there a high speed train can take you anywhere you want to go. If it's skiing that you want, there are day trips to resorts such as Verbier, Gstaad, Leysin, Villars-Gryon, Les Diablerets, and the resorts of Les Portes du Soleil - all roughly an hour away by rail or road. Drive out have a lot of fun and drive back.
"I have brochures for all of them." Rick pointed them out for them.
Rick let them decide but stayed close in case they had questions. It sounded like the casino was next with a trip to one of the ski resorts tomorrow. They just needed to figure out which one.
"Thank you." They started to leave.
"My pleasure. You'll have to tell me about the skiing. I haven't had the time to visit any of them yet. Alexis is only five months old." Going skiing with her was pretty much out of the question.
Rick went back into his residence and found Kate lying on the sofa with Alexis on her chest. A quick look told him that both of them were sleeping. "At least someone is getting some sleep around here."
Rick went back to his desk, sat down, and fished out his cell phone to make a call.
"Richard Castle. What can I help you with? How do you like the changes?" Lea had left him alone to get used to it before calling him to find out if everything was alright.
"I need a favor. I need another chest of drawers just like this one if you can find it." If Kate was going to move in he was going to give her her own storage space and not have either of them use one of the spare bedrooms.
"Let me see what I can find and I'll get back to you. How is everything else working out?" She would fix it if it wasn't.
"Are you serious? It's gorgeous." Then Rick thought of something. "I do have a couple of things you can look up for me."
"Name them." She would try.
"I'm told we have lots of decorations for the major holidays, but to my way of thinking you can never have enough." Rick heard her laugh a little. "You probably can't find them now but maybe when those holidays get closer, try and keep me in mind. Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
"This may be Switzerland and these might be more American but enough of my guests come from there so if you can find some outdoor items I would be grateful," Rick told her.
"I will keep you in mind. Call if there is anything else." Lea ended the call and wrote down some notes for him much later in the year and put them on her desktop calendar so she didn't lose them.
Rick was happy, apparently Kate and Alexis were happy. But that left him with a question. "What does Kate have that I don't?" She was sleeping on Kate's chest but wouldn't sleep for him.