Wine Not Coffee

Chapter 23

Two days later and Kate wasn't sleeping all that well. Even worse, she hadn't taken it upon herself to go over to his place and spend the night. Maybe almost as bad, Rick hadn't called her. Yet she had asked him for time. She needed to think and she was still thinking. But she had reached one conclusion with Rick's help.

"Got a minute, Mom?" She found her in the kitchen dining room and watched as her dad walked their way with a bowl of ice cream. He was apparently splurging since he didn't eat ice cream all that often.

"I actually have several minutes. What's on your mind?" Jo asked her as Jim sat down and paid attention to this conversation.

"I've made a decision. I want to attend law school in Lausanne since it's the closest. I can drive my car there and back each day. I just need to find out where to park it while I'm at classes," Kate told them.

"I knew you would make a wise choice, Katie." Jo reached across to hug her.

"You're not angry that I'm not learning about wine?" She was thinking Rick might be right. She could learn later.

"No, you're nineteen, Katie. You have lots of time if that's what you want to do. Do we want you to learn eventually? Yes, we do. We would like to keep this place in the family but we have time. Having a lawyer that knows Swiss law might be helpful in the future." Jo wasn't angry.

Jim added his 2 cents. "We want you happy, Katie. Yes, we want it to stay in the family but Jo's right. You're only nineteen and we have time. Maybe it's not the job you wanted it to be. Could be anything. Just watch those grades."

"Thanks. But I've got one more. I don't know what to do. I need some advice." Kate knew her mom would give her excellent advice.

"Okay." Jo waited while Jim ate his ice cream.

"I like Rick and I'm finding that after he moved back that I miss him. I even miss Alexis. He, I mean we… Rick asked me if I wanted to move in with him." The hidden message in that statement was yes, they were lovers.

Jim stopped eating his ice cream while Jo grinned a little. Apparently her plan had worked better than she had thought. But moving in with him was a really big step. Maybe too big for this moment.

"You've known him for a few short months and how many dates have you been on together?" Jo questioned her.

"Four maybe five at most." Kate realized her mother just answered her question for her. It was too soon. Maybe far too soon. They didn't know each other enough. She was falling in love with him but she wasn't in love with him yet.

Kate answered her own question. "It's too soon, isn't it?"

"You're a smart woman, Katie. I like Rick and I love Alexis. But you're only nineteen years old. Now after you finish one year of school and come back here and tell both of us that you love him and love Alexis and can handle poopy diapers that you still can't handle, then I think you just answered your own question. He comes with a baby.

"But Katie, I am glad that you found someone. Rick's a lot better than some of the guys you've found. You had us worried a couple of times," Jo told her.

Kate nodded. She just needed advice before she did something stupid. If she moved in too early it might not work out when it could have if she had just waited.

"So go date him and when you can change a poopy diaper you'll know you're getting closer. You tell us that you love both of them and can't live without either of them then you'll know." Jo told her.

Kate got up and hugged her mother. "Thanks, Mom." She still had to solve missing him and getting a sound sleep but maybe she could figure that out as well.

"Now call the University and find out if you have to drive down there and arrange for your classes. Find out what classes from Stanford can be transferred, where you can park your car, and what it costs. We'll pay for your tuition and your books. The rest is on you, which means you need a job.

"So guess what?" Jo questioned her.

"I get to sell more wine," Kate guessed.

"You're smart! Show up either in your leathers or driving clothes and I'll send you places. Including taking another case over to Rick. His remodel really is something else. Maybe we'll have to advertise his place at ours in our wine tasting room. You can ask him if he has something," Jo said.

"Thanks, Mom." Kate got up and began to leave them.

"And tell him to bring Alexis over here. Your father and I will be happy to babysit," Jo called after her.

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Kate had to drive to Lausanne to find the college and make arrangements for everything since classes started in less than one week. February 18, to be precise.

It took her most of the day to get her classes from Stanford transferred over so they could find out how many could be transferred so she got credit for them. Find out where and how to park. Start selecting classes that she had a choice over. Several were mandatory and she had no choice but to take them. Used her parents' credit card to pay the tuition. It was CFH14,663 for one semester. This was the total estimate including costs of transportation, books, meal card, eating out, and other things. The actual tuition was half the cost.

She still had to come back in two days to find out when each of her classes for each day started. She needed to know that because she had to drive to school now. Before she lived in a dorm and simply walked everywhere.

She still had to park and do a lot of walking since the campus consisted of thirty plus buildings, big and small.

Instead of driving home she drove to see Rick. "HI!" Rick hugged her and kissed her. "Come in. What have you been doing today?"

"I went to Lausanne and enrolled in college to learn Swiss law. The plan is to drive to school and drive home again. It may mean getting up pretty early and may not leave a lot of time for homework but it should work." She was sure she was going to be tired at the end of each day but if she wanted it she would do it.

"So you made a choice. That's good, I'm happy for you. Are you staying for dinner? You can feed Alexis," Rick offered.

"Sure, just let me call Mom so she knows where I am and not crashed on the road." Kate pulled out her cell phone and made a call. Soon she was holding Alexis and feeding her while she watched Rick cook. "You didn't tell me you knew how to cook."

"I don't. Never really have. I'm pretty much teaching myself as I go," Rick explained.

Kate frowned at him. "So I'm a guinea pig?"

"We both are. You can't order take-out here and have it delivered," Rick reminded her.

"Definitely not." Not in this little town. "Rick, I've decided not to move in. It's just too early for that. We need to date a lot more and get to know each other better first." She hoped he wasn't angry.

"When did you get so smart for a nineteen year old?" Rick wasn't pleased with her choice but she did have a point.

"I'd like to take credit but I talked to Mom about it. She's my best friend," Kate told him.

"So your mother knows we're sleeping together," Rick pointed out. She had just inadvertently told Jo something private.

"Oops!" Kate hadn't really thought about that till now. "Sorry. They didn't say anything, though," Kate mentioned. "So where are your parents?" She didn't remember asking him about them.

"Mother's an actress in New York City. She loves Broadway. I don't know who my father is. He was a one-night stand so all I had growing up was Mother but it was nice.

"I splurged when I got the advance for my first book and bought the Ferrari. The advance for the second paid for all this. I've got tons of ideas for a Derrick Storm series thanks to you." Rick leaned over and kissed her cheek.

Kate blushed a little. "I'm happy to help. So when's the next one done?" He should be close to done by now.

"Just one more chapter then I need to review it and send it. They want me to send it to the New York office instead of the LA office for some reason. But it should work out. After that we need to talk about the next book," Rick told her.

"Five minutes," Rick said.

"Can you delay it?" Kate didn't think Alexis would be finished.

"No problem. How long do you plan to stay?" Rick asked her since he had plans for tonight since she was here now.

Kate grinned at him. "All night."

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Kate had been attending her college classes at the University of Lausanne for a month and was finally in a routine. She had to get up ungodly early twice a week for her first class at 7:30 am. Otherwise her first class wasn't till 9:00.

Her little red BMW was getting put to good use and it had a parking sticker in the front windshield that got replaced every month at a cost. She also ate lunch on campus using her meal card at the main cafeteria where literally everyone ate. Unless they ate out which was easily done. A few were even on campus. She hadn't done that yet.

Some days she didn't get home till really late. She needed to put the library to good use so that made her unusually late.

When she had a lot of homework she went home, did her homework, ate in their dining room, got her mom and dad to look at her homework to see if she got it right, then crashed onto her bed and went to sleep.

When she didn't have much or any homework, and not having any at all hadn't happened yet so it was just a fantasy, she drove straight to Rick's place. She would finish her homework, play with Alexis while telling Rick everything about university life in Switzerland, then go upstairs and make love to him.

Take a shower, sometimes with Rick which so far meant sex in the shower, got dried, dressed since she had clothes there, and drove to school.

Today was one of those days that she needed her mom and dad. She put it on the table in front of them. "I need to write a paper. I need ideas. You two were lawyers once, what can I write about? Because I'm going to have to pick your brains for this. Everyone else is probably in the library or on the Internet but I want to be different. Show some imagination. It might get me a better grade." Kate was betting the teacher had read them all by now so she wanted to be different.

That had Jim and Jo talking till they came up with something which meant Jo was now free and Jim was going to have his brain dissected by his daughter who had run off to get pen and paper for this.

"So where are you going?" Jim was being abandoned to his fate.

"I'm going over to Rick's. I have a need to play with Alexis. She's still so incredibly cute. Maybe I can get her to say mama." Jo was hoping that if she could get Alexis to do that she would do it when Katie was holding her and playing with her. That should give her a shock.

Jo was walking out as Kate ran back into the dining room with lots of paper to write on so Katie knew nothing of her mother's plan for her.

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The downside of Kate and the class load she had given herself was that she had no time to go on dates with Rick. The only time she saw him was when she stayed at his place and ultimately made love to him.

There were days when she didn't have classes yet still had homework and yes, she could have agreed to go out on a date on one of those nights. Except she chose to study and get more sleep. If this new plan was going to work she needed to catch up.

Not all of her classes she had taken at Stanford transferred to this University so she was immediately behind everyone else. To catch up meant studying even harder and later every chance she got. The weather had gone from mostly just cold to simply cold but at least it was getting warmer. The highs were in the upper 40s to low 50s while the nights never made it to below freezing. Thankfully the lake and all the stone walls made those temperatures feel warmer still.

One month later and Kate didn't have much homework this time so she parked at Rick's, got out, and brought her homework with her. She had her own key now if she needed it but during the day the doors weren't locked so she walked in. "Hi, babe!" With her arms full, Kate walked up to Rick and kissed him.

She was also just in time to hear Alexis complaining over his baby monitor. "I'll get her." Kate dropped her stuff and went upstairs to find her.

"And how are you today? Besides unhappy about something." Kate tickled her, kissed her, and got a whiff of why she was unhappy. "Holy crap! So this is the greeting I get? I thought you liked me," Kate chided Alexis.

Kate took off her onesie she was wearing and unfastened her diaper. It wasn't much but it was the smell. "What has Rick been feeding you? Whatever it is he needs to stop. I'd open the windows but it's colder over here. Too far away from the lake and not enough stone maybe."

Kate dropped the diaper into a small plastic bag that was immediately going outside and into the trash. The two wipes she used went into the bag that got immediately tied closed to trap the smell and Kate proceeded to finish.

A now clean Alexis with a new diaper and a new onesie, just in case, got lifted up and kissed. And with Alexis in one arm, the bag in her other hand, Kate went downstairs and outside to dump the bag in the trash, then back inside and over to the sofa.

"Well CRAP! You have I don't know how many pacifiers and I don't see a single one down here. How is that even possible? What do you do with all of them?" Kate questioned Alexis who just smiled back at her and grabbed hold of her lip.

"So you're all hands today." Her play area was still all set up so Kate put her on the floor and sat down cross-legged to play with her. "How are you at crawling? Have you even tried it yet?

"You know Daddy is right outside that door. If I open it you can crawl right to him." Kate leaned down and gave her a raspberry through her onesie.

"So what has Rick been feeding you, anyway?" Kate got up and left Alexis on the floor and searched the refrigerator for baby food leftovers. "Unsweetened yogurt?" Kate threw that in the trash. "What else is in here?" Kate didn't find anything else in baby jars.

"We can open a new one." Kate rummaged through the baby food cabinet. "Do you want cod or mashed kidney and black beans? I'm betting cod since beans sounds like gas to me and we both know how much l like poopy diapers." Kate got that out and set it down.

Soon Alexis was in her highchair and Kate was sitting in a chair and cracked open her jar of cod. "Here, smell." Kate put the jar under her nose. Kate had worked out that when Alexis liked something she was ready to eat all she could get. When she didn't like something Kate practically had to force her mouth open.

"So you like cod, do you? Mom says you should be eating the entire jar by now so open wide." Kate scooped out a spoonful and started feeding Alexis.

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"All done." Kate gave the now empty jar a sniff. "Wow, glad you like cod. We need to clean your face, though." Kate cleaned her face which Alexis hated. She twisted and turned to avoid it but failed.

"How about some Cherrios as compensation for letting me clean your face." Kate got up, picked up the box, and watched Alexis smack her highchair's tray in excitement. "Yeah, you like Cherrios, don't you?" Kate scooped out half a handful and put them down. She watched Alexis do her best to get two or three but got one instead and stuffed it in her mouth.

"Do you know how much this box costs? These things are expensive over here. They come from Zurich, just so you know. And you're making a mess." Alexis didn't always get a Cheerio and ended up having some of them go over the edge of the tray and onto the floor.

Kate simply replaced them with new ones and would clean the floor later. Or get Rick to do it. "So are you full or do I open a jar of something else?" That was one thing she hadn't asked her mom. Finish the jar, yes, but only one jar or more than one jar?

"Maybe I should call Mom and ask." Kate nodded to herself then got out her phone.

"Mama!" Alexis announced.

Kate dropped her phone on the floor since she was in complete shock. "WHAT?"

"Mama!" Alexis announced again and smacked both hands on the tray of her highchair which sent Cherrios flying everywhere. "Mama!"

Kate tried correcting her. "Not Mama, Kate. I'm Kate."

"Mama!" Alexis smacked her tray again since this was definitely fun. "Mama."

"Kate."

"Mama!" Alexis repeated.

"Did my mom put you up to this? And I'm talking to a baby again." Kate shook her head.

"Mama!" Alexis really liked this word now. She was getting a reaction from Kate and it was a nice and easy word to say. Even if she had no idea what the word meant. She had two people paying attention to her and she liked both of them a lot. She even liked it when the other one came to play with her. That one had been saying this word over and over again.

"Mama!" Alexis insisted.

"I am so going to kill my mother for this." Kate doubted Rick had done this. He would want her to say Dada before Mama. She certainly hadn't taught Alexis to say this word so that only left one person.

"Mama!"