Return To Maine Chapter 8
A/N: Fan fic authors Garrae and Pen 2 Paper have given me a great suggestion that I'd like to follow up on. I know that a few of you want to see Kate and Rick's response to the boy's meddling in their business and you're right. Kate and Rick deserve justice for that. Hopefully, this chapter will set this up. More on that in a bit. My heartfelt thanks to them and to all of you for your support. You guys are a beacon of light to me.
For the guest reviewer from Florida, I pray that all is well with you. Keeping all the victims of Harvey, Irma and the wild fires in the west in my thoughts and prayers
Kate lay with her arm draped across his waist, resting with her head pillowed against his chest after their third round of intense love making.
"So you enjoy being outdoors and communing with nature, right?" Rick asked, drawing lazy circles with his fingertips up and down her arm.
"Yeah. Don't you? " she asked sleepily.
"Yeah. I mean, I enjoy taking Alexis camping, but that didn't happen until a few years ago . When she was 10, Alexis was invited to go on a weekend camping trip with Paige and her family so I let her go after I met Paige's parents. They went up to Beaver Pond in Harriman State Park."
"It's beautiful up there." she said, her eyelashes brushing against his pec as the stroke of his fingers were pulling her toward sleep.
"So, you've been there before?"
"Yeah. We used to camp out there before my dad bought our cabin. So you've taken Alexis camping there every year?"
"Yeah. I love that place. Anyway, Alexis came home full of stories with the tales of ghost stories and roasting marshmallows around an open campfire, the swimming they'd done, the hiking trails, the points of interest they'd taken in. "
There was a heavy pause before he continued and asked, " Does it make me a bad dad to say that I was so thankful that she was getting to experience the things that I never did and yet be so envious of her for it?"
God, it seemed so unfair that he'd had so little when she'd had so much more during her childhood. The simple things and joys that for the most part, seemed normal to most kids had been denied to him because he had never known his dad and had missed all the things a dad would have taught him. A child needed both parents. It was just so sad.
"No! It doesn't make you a bad dad, but know what it does?" she asked, now fully alert.
"No. What?"
She snuggled into his side. "It makes you human and the best of dads."
"You really think that?"
"No. It's not a matter of what I think, but what I know. I've seen you with her, Rick. You two adore each other and she loves you. In her eyes, you probably hung the moon and set the heavenly bodies in motion."
That dopey grin that she loved so much came across his face, his eyes dancing with amusement. "You mean I didn't?"
She laughed. "Oh, stop. You know exactly what I mean." she said, playfully slapping him on the chest.
"Yeah, I do. Anyway, it sounded like she had so much fun and enjoyed it so much and I was so sorry that I couldn't share that simple childhood joy with her, so I got this wild notion in my head that I could give it to her. So I went online and watched some You Tube videos on how to do the most basic of things like pitching tents and how to essentially build a campfire and then ordered all the equipment and supplies I thought we'd need and surprised her with an unexpected trip to Taconic State Park."
"That must have been fun."
"It was. It was a learning experience. In spite of the You Tube videos I watched, Alexis still had to teach me how to pitch a tent, how to start a campfire, how to bait and cast a line. Things that I never had the opportunity to learn without a dad, whoever he is."
"That is NOT your fault."
"No. It's just embarrassing that my 10 year old daughter was more adept at these skills than I was."
"So you never were a boy scout or anything?"
"Sadly, no. We never lived anywhere long enough for me to join. I wanted to do those things, go to summer camps, but because of our situation and with money tight, I never asked to join in any clubs or groups."
Kate lifted her head from his shoulder and propped her head on her hand and gazed at him. " Look. It doesn't matter who taught you or when. What matters is that you learned those skills and shared an amazing experience with your daughter. You made beautiful memories with her that neither one of you will ever forget. There's nothing for you to be ashamed of, nothing to feel guilty about. I love you no matter what and I love and appreciate the fact that you shared this with me. Thank you for being so open and honest enough to share this with me."
Guilt? Honest? The mere mention of the words had his gut twisting into a knot and the guilt of having lied to her earlier. He shouldn't have hidden that fact from her.
His phone on the nightstand started pinging as Tom sent the footage from his security cam. Damn! He should have turned it off and left it downstairs after his conversation with Tom. But that wasn't even an option.
"Is your phone dying or something?" Kate asked'.
As much as he didn't want anything ruining this weekend for her, he had to tell her. They'd sworn to be open and honest with each other, no holding back and certainly no lying to each other anymore. He had to tell her.
"Uhh, no." She was not going to be happy about this and as bad as he hated ratting the boys out, for the sake of their relationship, he had no other choice.
The thing finally quit pinging and he snatched the device off the nightstand. "I am so sorry, honey. I was going to tell you, honestly I was. I was just going to wait until later. I just wanted us to have this one weekend…"
"Tell me what's going on. What's wrong?"
"Remember telling me earlier that you suspected that the boys were onto us? Well, it looks like they at least suspect something." he said, manipulating his phone, opening the file and showing her the screen.
"What is this?" she asked, taking the phone from his hand.
"My house in the hamptons."
She squinted at the screen. "Is that Ryan?" she asked in astonishment, her voice raised an octave.
"Yep."
"SON OF A BITCH!"
"I know. See now why I didn't want to tell you about this now?"
"Yeah. I get it, but you still shouldn't have lied to me about it. How do they even know where your house is?"
"I know and I'm sorry. It won't happen again. Remember a couple of years ago when I invited you to go to the hamptons with me and I showed you a snapshot of my house and you were planning a weekend away with Deming?"
"Yeah."
"When you turned me down I wasn't planning on coming back to the precinct. I gave Espo the photo and scribbled my address on a post it note and gave it to him, telling him that if any of you ever needed anything, that's where I could be found. I didn't know he still had it and would use it against us."
"So that's how they knew where to go. With them knowing, it ruins everything." she said.
"What? No. This ruins nothing! Look, they don't know anything. They only suspect that we're together and if we play our cards right, suspicion is all they'll have. I won't let them ruin us."
"I didn't mean that it would ruin us, babe. So what do we do now? Do we just let them get away with this? I don't want them to think they are getting away with this."
"Hell No! I don't want them to, either and they won't. Now, I lied to Tom and told him that yes, they were friends of mine and that I had invited them up for the weekend and got called out of town at the last minute and forgot to cancel so Tom wouldn't throw them under the jail , alerting Captain Gates an and that I didn't want to press any charges. Now, I asked him to tell them that I was sorry and that I'd catch up to them on my return. I'm pretty sure that they already suspected that I'd been called and that I know that they were snooping where they shouldn't have been. Now, they'll be contrite and apologetic, but I'm not letting them off easily."
"What are you planning on doing?"
"I'm not sure just yet and it's not just me, but what we're going to do. Together."
She smiled wickedly at him and leaned down to give him a sweet, chaste kiss. "Mmm, love that, but what do we do until then?"
"We relax and enjoy our weekend." he answered, trailing his fingers lightly up her thigh.
"I don't know, babe. I'm feeling very stressed over this. Got any ideas on how I can relax?" she asked, smiling suggestively at him.
"As a matter of fact, I do." he grinned at her.
She let out a squeal as he flipped her onto her back and claimed her lips in a long slow kiss.
"Show me." she giggled.
A/N: I had planned on ending this story at the end of their weekend on the Tuesday morning when Kate returns to work. But it was suggested to me that it would be fun to see Ryan and Espo get dealt with by Rick and Kate in a comedic sort of way. I like that idea. Thank you, Garrae. So here's my idea. If you have any thoughts and ideas on how this should happen, the funnier, the better, please PM me or leave it in your comments and I'll carry this through beyond my original ending and include all your ideas. This should be a lot of fun. Depending on the number of responses I get will depend on where this ends. Look forward to hearing from you.