Charlie IV
Chapter 25
It is one month later; late September
Instead of driving home since she knew no one, not even Charlie, would be there given that today was a work day for everyone, Kate drove to her parents' office.
Jim and Johanna were actually starting to earn money which was a good thing. They couldn't live off of their savings forever. They had even acquired a new client today.
Then Charlie, who had been lying in his doggie bed that Jim had gotten him, jumped up and barked his way to the front door. "Someone's here," Jim commented.
"My money's on Katie." Not that Jo didn't do the same for Rick. It was just Rick shouldn't be off work and back in town just yet. Unless something really bad happened.
"No bet here." Jim wasn't going to just throw money away since his money was on it being Katie as well.
"Hi, Charlie!" Kate barely made it in the door and was down on her knees to pet him, hug him, and kiss his furry head. Since she had been gone FOREVER Charlie had no intention of really stopping to try to get her to pet him. She needed to pet him like forever to make up for her being gone for days and days.
"So how are your classes going?" Jo was curious. She really didn't know what it took to be a veterinarian.
"I'm not really sure what some of my classes have to do with wanting to be a vet." Kate listed her class schedule for the week to remind them what they were. "Psychology of Personal Adjustment, English Composition I, General Biology I, Animal Science, and College Algebra."
"Sounds like a well-rounded vet to me," Jim offered.
"Maybe." Kate wasn't convinced as she kept petting Charlie who was eating it up. "Where's your ball?" Kate asked him. She wanted to get him off of her so she could stand up again and watched him take off in search of it.
"How is the car?" Jim inquired.
"Old and smelly even with air fresheners hanging from the mirror. But it does the job so I'm not complaining. Just don't expect me to keep forever," Kate replied.
"I should hope not. I don't suppose you stopped at the house to collect the mail," Jim questioned her.
"I'm sorry, I forgot." She had screwed up. They had worked out that Black Pawn was sending Rick something seemingly every month. If his book was still on the best sellers list they would send him a check. However, that wasn't the news they wanted to hear. They wanted to know if a box containing the edits for his latest book had arrived.
"Would they even send that via the Post Office," Kate asked. "I mean I would want it signature required and use overnight FedEx or something."
"That only leaves them sending it home, here, or the UPS building where Rick works," Jo pointed out just as Charlie arrived with his ball, dropped it, and took off running. He was practically at the back door by the time Kate was ready to throw it. So Charlie wasn't chasing it, he was catching it.
Only he didn't catch it and came charging back, barking all the way. He slid on polished concrete before hitting the door.
"Must be Rick," Jim said since he was the only one left. So Kate put her nose against the glass to look.
"I don't see him. But I do see a FedEx truck. And he's stopping!" That had Kate opening the door; Charlie was the first one out and waited at the side of the road for the driver.
"I need a signature. Hi, Charlie." He handed the box to Kate after she signed his little gizmo. She watched him open the door to his truck, reach in, and come out with a doggie treat. "Here you go, Charlie! See you two later."
Kate was all smiles. The box clearly came from Black Pawn and Charlie was just finishing his doggie treat. It didn't hurt that Charlie was well known in this town. Charlie went to the hospital, all three assisted living facilities, the town hall, and practically every park the town had with or without his Therapy Dog vest and greeted everyone he saw.
Kate went back inside and held the door open for Charlie since something or someone had his attention for a moment. "It's from Black Pawn. Hand me the scissors, please." Kate set the box down on the edge of her mother's desk and held out her hand.
Jim raised an eyebrow. "Should you be opening that?"
"I'm his girlfriend. I can open his mail for him." Kate got the scissors and started cutting through the tape.
That was one additional thing about Kate and Rick. They weren't hiding the fact that they were dating. They kissed in front of everyone and told the other they loved him or her nearly constantly. They were, however, very careful about just when they made love to each other.
Kate had learned that she was not just vocal when making love, she was VERY vocal and couldn't seem to prevent it. What Rick did to her body was still magical even to this day.
"Besides I want to see what they did." Kate put the scissors down and saw her dad standing next to her while her mother was standing and leaning over her desk. They wanted to see too.
Kate found a letter on top and handed it to her mother to read while she lifted out the large bundle of papers that were bound on one side and began flipping through them.
"Oh, boy! Rick's going to be so busy." It was all in red and while some of it had lines through it or were simple corrections to typos, others had whole sentences added and these little Post-It notes were stuck everywhere. It looked like one big mess to her eyes.
"Oh, my!" Jo had read the letter. "They want it back in a month. They want his book out in time for Christmas sales."
"A MONTH!" Kate's mouth dropped open. She had seen what they had done to his book. "Rick has to fix this in a month? I may never see him again." Yes, she was exaggerating but she had a very high sex drive now that they were lovers and she needed to make love to him pretty close to daily at a minimum.
"You're taking English Composition. So offer to proofread after he finishes each chapter. Because they want it out by Christmas means it can't come back with still more corrections." Jo offered her some compensation.
"I can do that, I guess. ...But only a month?" Kate flipped through the pages again and saw lots and lots of work ahead. Her classes typically, much like today, meant coming home with homework. You would think each teacher would think his or her class was the only class that student had.
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"How's it going?" Jo spotted Rick walking into the kitchen and he stopped at the refrigerator to find something to eat or drink.
"Getting there. It's not quite as bad as the first book. Though it's the questions they ask that make it difficult. They don't just fix my spelling errors or choice of words I select. No, no, no. They want to know WHY.
"If the bullets went through walls, why didn't they go through glass? Why was this one a through and through and not that one? Why did that lucky bystander not get shot but the unlucky one did?
"It's probably my fault. I know it in my head but didn't explain it all on paper. I'm just somehow expecting the reader to know what I know but doesn't know because I didn't explain it well enough. I do, but not always. Something I need to get better at is all." Rick had what he wanted and turned to leave.
"How is Katie doing," Jo asked him before he could leave.
Rick chuckled. "Fixing the mistakes neither of us caught. She's almost just as bad. Rick, what about this? Or what about that? Makes me wonder if she should be an editor instead of a vet."
"Just don't let Charlie hear you say that," Jo teased him.
"God forbid!" Rick left and headed back to his room where Kate was likely waiting for him in addition to Charlie. He had two weeks left to fix this mess, send it back, and pray he didn't get anything in return. He left a chuckling Johanna in his wake.
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"You didn't have to do this, Mom." Kate didn't think it was necessary.
"It's what mothers are for. Scrambled eggs, bacon, toast with Violet Jelly that I got at the Farmers Market, and coffee to wake you two up. AND one doggie treat." Jo fed Charlie his as well and his was gone before Rick or Kate had even finished one piece of bacon or even sipped their hot coffee.
"Just remember to tell us what Biloxi is like. Maybe I can talk Jim into going there. Just leave everything and I'll clean up later. I'm going back to bed. The sun isn't even up yet. Have a good time." Jo kissed her daughter's head and left them.
"Remind me where we're going again," Kate asked him.
"It's an RV Park called Majestic Oaks. Supposedly the place is full of oak trees, a few of which are hundreds of years old," Rick explained. "We'll be there Saturday and Sunday and the park is providing a catered lunch for all their guests. They only had back-in spaces available so we get to test working together to back into our space."
"That should be fun." Kate grinned at him before sipping her coffee. She knew they sucked at that.
"Free coffee each morning, free TV, free WiFi, free use of the business center, free casino shuttle service, pet friendly, and an outdoor pool. And just 5 minutes from the beach. They have 95 spaces in total and all hookups in each space so we don't need to dump our tank." Rick liked the latter the best.
"Happy Days!" Kate laughed at the look Rick gave her. They both remembered well the fiasco they'd gone through connecting to the dump tank on their last trip.
"You're sure you can make this trip," Rick asked her again. "I know you have homework."
"I can manage. I plan to do some of it during the trip itself even if I have to stay up half the night suffering from a sunburn." Kate laughed at herself.
"I haven't been to a beach in for so long. Neither has Charlie, have you?" Rick reached out to pet Charlie.
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"Kate!?" Rick knew he had to get off the Interstate somewhere.
"Sorry!" She was still working on her homework. "Take the exit to State route 98 and go east, followed by south on State route 49. Stay on 49 for a while," Kate told him and then went back to her homework.
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"Exit onto 67." Kate was done with that portion of her homework and was now paying attention to where they were going. "Are you paying attention, Charlie?" Kate petted him since he was back up, putting his head between them, and watching where they were going now that the sun was up. He could finally see something.
"Interstate 110 south," Kate said as she looked at her map. "This will take us straight into Biloxi all the way to the coast road."
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"There! Right onto 90," Kate indicated and went back to looking at her map.
"Watch for a right onto Rodenberg Road," she warned him.
"Left on Pass Road. There's a Pizza Hut." Kate was watching. "It should be just up here on the right. ...There! Majestic Oaks." She watched as Rick pulled in and went really slow.
"Office." Kate pointed to her left. She stayed with Charlie while Rick went inside and waited to find out where they went now.
Rick came back and handed everything to Kate. "Where are we? OH!" It was marked on the map. "Number 25. Go straight past the pool. There's a doggie park, Charlie." Kate saw it on the left. "24, 25B and 25." Rick went past it just a little and stopped.
"You stay, Charlie." Kate hopped out. Now they got to practice their hand signals and Rick got to try and turn the wheel the correct direction to back into their space.
"Not bad, Babe. It only took you two times." Kate greeted him as he got out and kissed him.
"Out you come, Charlie. You have to stay on a leash." Rick hooked him up and handed him off to Kate. Now they had to get set up. Electronically disconnect the truck as well as level the trailer, put out the awning, plug in the trailer to electrical, TV, water, and waste.
Kate got out the grill, chairs, and went inside with Charlie to give him some water and check the trailer to see if they broke anything.
"What's first, Babe?" Kate queried. "Besides taking Charlie for a walk, I mean."
"The shuttle is hourly till a certain hour. We stay late and we're on our own so maybe drive if we go. The beach is a minimum of 5 minutes depending on where we go." Then Rick broke it to her. "Except my research tells me that Biloxi Beach doesn't allow dogs even on a leash."
"WHAT! How stupid is that? So where do we go?" Kate couldn't believe that shit.
"Back the way we came and stay on 90, across the water to Ocean Springs Beach. We should even be able to take him off his leash at that beach." Rick had a solution to that problem.
"Then that's where we go. Stupid NO DOGS rule." Kate was still disgusted with that.
"How did the homework go?" Should they change and go to the beach or did she have to stay and do homework?
"One down, one to go. I can do it tonight," she said. "I vote we take Charlie here to the beach."
"The beach it is. You fill the cooler and I'll get the beach chairs, the umbrella, and the doggie stake in case we need it for some reason," Rick offered and they both headed to the bedroom to strip and put on swimsuits.
Kate was pulling out a bag of ice from their very large freezer to dump into the cooler when suddenly Rick moved in behind her, reached around, and cupped her breasts.
DAMN IT! He knew just how much she loved it when he touched her. She loved it even more when he initiated sex instead of her and her high sex drive. "Babe, you keep that up and we'll never reach the beach."
"Spoil sport." Rick nuzzled her neck anyway and then released her, allowing Kate to spin around and face him.
"I love you and we can make love after I finish my homework tonight. Beach first, Babe." Kate kissed him and knew she needed to stop before she finished what Rick had started.
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"Ocean Springs Beach." Kate pointed at the sign and now Rick just needed to find a place to park.
Kate had Charlie's leash in one hand and the cooler in both as she walked with a wrap and a towel. Rick had the beach chairs, umbrella, and a towel.
With the chairs set up and Rick putting up the umbrella, Kate got busy putting on sunscreen or she was going to burn. "Do my back, please." She turned her back to him and soon felt his big hands running over her skin. Then his fingers made it under her top and brushed up against one of her breasts.
"BABE!" If he kept that up they just might end up having sex on the beach.
Rick leaned down and whispered, "Just warming you up for later."
"I don't need to be warmed up. I'm already wet and I'm not even in the water yet," Kate told him. She got to listen to him chuckle. "You're being mean."
Kate did Rick's back for him and then slapped his ass. "That was for teasing me," Kate said tartly. From here they took Charlie out onto the sand and Rick got out a tennis ball since there weren't that many people and no dogs where they were.
"Charlie doesn't do water, I see." Kate watched the ball make it to the water and suddenly the ball was out of reach and Charlie just stood there and looked at it teasing him.
"He didn't do it in LA either. Sand is fine, but water? Not so much. You've seen him with baths. He just stands there totally dejected and lets you wash him, right?" Rick asked her.
"Pretty much the same when we brush him. He puts up with it but doesn't enjoy it," Kate replied. She went out into the water to retrieve his tennis ball, threw it down the beach, and watched him take off after it.
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Charlie had his own towel to lay on between Rick and Kate. They were sitting in their beach chairs under the umbrella eating sandwiches with one hand while the other hand petted Charlie.
"I'd forgotten how much l love the beach." Rick sighed as he sat there and watched the waves lap at the sand.
"So when or if we move out we should buy a house on a beach somewhere? That house in Key West doesn't count because it didn't have a beach," Kate told him.
Rick turned his head to look at her. She was talking about when they'd move, they'd move together. As in they were going to be together forever. It only reinforced what he was going to do on this trip.
"Cook tonight or eat out?" Rick asked her.
Kate answered that easily. "Pizza. We only have breakfast and lunch."
"Casino tomorrow?" Rick inquired.
"You really want to throw your money away? You did that last time. What's the draw at losing your money to a casino?" Kate shifted around to look at him.
"It's fun," Rick said and saw her shake her head.
"You need to think of something else. What else is there in Biloxi?"
"Um, I don't know. Biloxi has like 7 different casinos." Rick didn't have other plans. "More beach?" It was all he had.
"We definitely need a beach, Babe." Kate was sold on living on a beach.
"Not on a mountain somewhere?" Rick asked. "We could go skiing and have a really nice view. We could always drive to a lake that has a beach."
"You have some place in mind?" Kate was willing to listen.
Rick thought about it. "Lake Tahoe, perhaps?"
"Tahoe, back in California? Might be nice. What do you think, Charlie? Mountain or beach or both with a truck ride. I know you like truck rides." Kate petted him. She so loved Charlie and Rick.