Plus One for Christmas
An AU Caskett Christmas meet-cute
Walking up to the festively decorated, olive green siding-covered duplex in Elizabeth, NJ, Kate Beckett sighed aloud and wondered what the hell she was doing not for the first time that day—or that week. There she stood barely outside the shadow of the Newark Airport on Christmas Day about to celebrate the holiday with the extended family of a boyfriend she didn't even like all that much.
She had lost her mind.
Kate didn't "do" holidays, particularly not Christmas. She didn't "do" them with her own family, and she sure as hell would never have considered doing them with a boyfriend she had only been seeing about five months, but yet there she stood unable to escape due to her damn moral conscience.
For the past few weeks, she had honestly been thinking about breaking up with Jason. Their relationship had been nice at the beginning; he was a few years younger than her and had the exact care-free attitude she was looking for to compensate for the stressful, serious nature of her job. Then, in more recent times, he began to get a bit clingy for her taste. He complained they didn't see each other enough when they saw each other as much as her job (and need for some personal time) allowed. When they didn't see each other for a day or two, he texted—a lot.
Finally, more annoyed than happy in the relationship, Kate planned on taking the opportunity presented to her when he invited her to his family's Christmas celebration (something he'd been dropping hints about for weeks) to not only side-step the holiday, but the relationship as a whole. Then, tragedy had struck.
Jason's family's dog—a fifteen-year-old blind mutt named Oscar—had died suddenly. While trying to explain the situation to her, Jason had dissolved into tears over the fact that Christmas just wasn't going to be the same without the beloved pooch. Knowing she could not be the asshole that broke up with a man crying over a much-loved childhood pet, Kate grudgingly agreed to join him for their family Christmas slash Oscar memorial service.
Since they had been together nearly half a year, Kate had a reasonable knowledge of Jason's family. He had two siblings, though one had a spouse in the military and lived in another country (though she couldn't recall which). His brother lived locally, though. At least one of those siblings had a son, because Jason talked about his nephew. As for the rest of his family, he had mentioned several different aunts and uncles, but she hadn't gained a full scope of which side of the family they were on until they were crammed onto a New Jersey transit train with all the other holiday travelers.
"We're going to my grandmother's house—my dad's mom—and it's usually a pretty packed house," Jason had told her after she asked approximately how many people would be at Christmas dinner. He then went on to say that his dad was one of six children, though at least one of those siblings would not be coming for Christmas as he'd had a falling out with the family when Jason was still a baby.
Jason went on for several more minutes talking about aunts, uncles, and cousin she had no hopes of remembering the names of, when Kate posed her question again. "But how many people will be at dinner?"
"Oh, gosh, I don't know. Maybe like twenty? Twenty-five?"
"Okay," she had replied weakly, her regret ratcheting up tenfold.
After getting off the train at the Elizabeth station, they walked westward for ten minutes before cutting south onto a residential street where, after another few minutes of walking, they arrived at Grandma's house. Er, "Mimi's" house, as Jason referred to her. When Jason opened the front door and ushered her inside, Kate's senses were assailed with two unexpected things: holiday music playing at an ear-splitting volume and a blast of heat rivaling that of an iron forge. She immediately began stripping off her coat, which Jason took from her before pointing her towards stairs leading to the basement. Hoping it would be slightly cooler in temperature, Kate grabbed onto the rickety handrail and began her decent.
The basement, which seemingly had not had its décor updated in more than a few decades, was mercifully cooler than the upstairs, but that was about the only relieving factor about it. At the base of the stairs sat a three-foot-tall fake Christmas tree that looked like it hadn't been dusted or vacuumed since it's purchase several years earlier. To her left, against the back wall, sat a couch that was covered in a plaid fabric made up of gold and maroon tones that looked straight out of the seventies. On either side of the couch, forming a half circle, there were metal folding chairs, all pointed towards the right wall of the basement and the flat-screen TV that played a football game.
Though most of the basement seats were taken, no one gave Kate as much as a passing glance as she hurried across the main seating area so as not to block the television for longer than necessary. Trying not to cough as she breathed in the musty, unpleasant scent of the room, Kate folded her arms over her chest and stood awkwardly behind the metal chairs, unsure of what to do since Jason had not yet appeared in the basement. She turned to face the game, not sure of what else to do, when to her left she saw another group of folding chairs surrounding a coffee table. These chairs were empty save for one. A red-headed girl Kate guessed to be about nine or ten years old sat reading a book with her back to the television.
My kind of girl, Kate thought to herself. Before she could approach the girl and get a look at what book she was reading, Jason brushed his hand against her shoulder, kissed her forehead, and then introduced her to the family members in the basement, most of whom just grunted in response to the introduction. Jason then offered her a beverage, but the only alcoholic options in the basement's small refrigerator were a brand of beer she didn't like. He told her there were other choices upstairs—in addition to snacks—but before she could respond, she heard a distinct, "Ho, ho, ho!" coming from the stairs.
Kate turned her head to see a man descending the stairs with a tray of drinks in his hand. He wore a traditional Santa hat and had a horribly fake looking white beard strapped to his face but was otherwise dressed normally in a green and red plaid button-down, dark jeans, and black shoes. Kate presumed this to be another one of Jason's relative—or perhaps the significant other of a relative—and anticipated an introduction, but none came. Instead, Jason began speaking to one of his cousins sitting in one of the metal folding chairs beside them.
The Santa man walked around the seating area with his tray, offering drinks to each person in turn, but no one partook as they were all already holding beers. When he offered one to her, she took it mostly out of politeness; eggnog was certainly not her favorite drink, but she had a feeling that any alcohol would be welcome that day.
After she took her drink, the man walked over to the girl sitting with her book. She heard him ask, "Are you doing okay, Pumpkin?" to which the girl confirmed she was. The man then told her that, unfortunately, all the eggnog had already been spiked with alcohol, but she could have soda if she wanted.
"I'm okay, Dad; thanks," she replied. After this exchange, the man took his tray of drinks back upstairs.
Once he was gone, Kate nudged Jason and asked, "Who was he? The man with the drinks and Santa hat?"
"Hmm? Oh—no idea," Jason said, and then continued his conversation.
Kate stared at him confused for several moments, wondering how it was possible how he didn't know the Santa man, but then thought maybe it could have been the date of one of his cousins, so she shrugged it off.
For several more minutes Kate stood beside Jason as he talked to his relatives, unsure of what to do. She always felt so awkward at large family gatherings, both because of her general lack of experience with them and because there was something about being the new person around people who had known each other for their entire lives that made her feel so out of place. Even as a child when she would go and visit the extended family of one of her parents—a group of people she saw once, maybe twice a year—she would feel very awkward around them, not knowing where to sit or what to say. Granted, at that point in her life she was generally shier than she was at present, but still a level of discomfort remained. She supposed that if she were to regularly spend time with a significant other's family, her comfort level with the situation would improve, but…well, that would involve her admitting things about herself she was not yet prepared to do.
Not having much interest in trying to nudge her way into the conversation Jason was having about the New York Jets, Kate wandered over to where the red-headed girl sat and gestured towards the empty seat beside her. "Mind if I sit here?"
"No."
Kate sat down and was finally able to see that the book the girl read was Little Women. Kate smiled inwardly, feeling even more like the girl was a kindred spirit. She fondly recalled one Thanksgiving when she was not much older than the girl beside her and had read a book during nearly the entire duration of their meal, despite her grandmother insisting she put it away. Her parents didn't mind, though, and that was all that mattered to her.
It was only after Kate was seated that she remembered the glass of eggnog she held. She took a drink from it and immediately coughed as it had more alcohol than she had been expecting. After swallowing hard a few times, Kate cleared her throat and then looked down at the glass. Figuring the alcohol could only improve her experience, she drank again, though with a bit more caution.
Almost ten minutes passed before Jason came to find her again. He asked if she wanted to go up to the main floor for some food and drink and, since her nog was long gone, she quickly agreed.
After ascending the stairs, Jason guided her into a room to the right of the entryway, which had two sofas covered in a plastic slipcover, a chair draped in a few throw blankets, and, on the floor against the wall, a dog bed filled with toys, photo frames, and a few unlit candles. In the largest photo in the center of the display, Kate saw a white dog with a few brown spots, who looked reminiscent of a Jack Russell, but clearly with notes of other breeds mixed in. This, she presumed, was Oscar and the bed was now a shrine to his memory. Kate had never owned a pet, and thus was unfamiliar with how it would feel to grieve such a companion, but this did feel slightly excessive.
Before they moved past the Oscar dedication area, a confusing thought hit her and she asked, "Wasn't Oscar your parent's dog?"
"No—Mimi's," Jason corrected. "My parents watched him while she traveled, though, so we had him pretty regularly."
"I see."
"Plus, we were over here all the time, you know? He's…he's been around since I was—was e-eleven and…" Jason's emotion-filled voice trailed off and he covered his face with his hand.
Kate reached up and gave his shoulder a solid squeeze before running her fingers across his upper back. "I'm sorry; it is hard to lose a pet."
After a few moments, Jason cleared his throat and wiped his eyes and then beneath his nose with the sleeve of his weather. Then, giving her a bit of a forced smile, he took her hand and led the way into the next room, where the dining area was set up. In addition to the standard eight-seater table, a long and narrow folding table had been set up which doubled the available seats. Tucked along the wall in the corner of the room was a smaller folding table, which Kate assumed to be for the kids.
As they stepped into the room, a door at the opposite end of the room swung open and a woman entered carrying a stack of plates and utensils. She didn't notice them at first, but when she did, she squealed out Jason's name with glee. She put the plates down on the table so aggressively Kate half expected one of them to break, but it didn't. She then ran over and gave Jason a tight hug. A moment later, he introduced the woman to Kate as his mother, Sharon.
"It's nice to meet you," Kate said, holding out her hand as a greeting.
Sharon, who was a solid six inches shorter than her and had a short, curled hairdo so covered in hairspray Kate doubted a hurricane would put a strand out of place, ignored her hand and pulled Kate into a hug. "I've heard so much about you, Kate; I'm so glad you could join us for Christmas!"
"Oh, um, thank you." Once again feeling the awkwardness of family time, Kate stepped back and held up her empty glass. "Is that the kitchen in there? Should I…?"
"Oh yes, of course, dear. Just put it by the sink; that's where we're collecting the glasses. And get yourself something else while you're in there."
Kate thanked her then left Jason to have a moment alone with his mother.
Immediately after pushing open the door to the kitchen, Kate regretted her decision. The room was so full of people, she didn't think she'd be able to step inside! Doing her best, she slipped around the open edge of the door and sidled her way between the large table set up in the center of the room and the sink. She managed to put her glass down as instructed but found it impossible to travel back through the room to the dining area, so instead she just continued forward, where there was a small breakfast nook that led out to an outdoor deck, where several men sat smoking cigars.
Not entirely sure what to do next, Kate tucked herself against the wall at the edge of the breakfast nook and took in the scene. Two middle-aged women stood at the counter preparing a large salad, a much older woman—Jason's grandmother, perhaps?—stood at the table in the center of the room piling dinner rolls from a large bakery bag into smaller serving dishes, and a man stood in front of the stove, shaking his behind to the beat of Jingle Bell Rock which played on an ancient-looking radio on the counter, which was thankfully playing at a reasonable volume. When the man turned towards her, she saw it was the same one who had delivered the eggnog to her twenty minutes prior.
"These mashed potatoes are about ready to come off the heat, Mimi."
"Okay, Rick, thank you. I'll be there in just a second."
"What else can I do?"
"We need another platter for the rolls. It's there—that cabinet; top shelf."
"You got it!" he responded cheerfully.
As Mimi's shaky hand pointed in the direction where Kate stood, she quickly tried to move, but inadvertently bumped into one of the men, who was returning from the porch. Feeling a bit like a bumper car, Kate tried to move to her left, but by that time ran into the Santa man's arm.
"Woah, careful," he said kindly, using his large hand against her bicep to steady her.
"Sorry, I…Sorry. I feel like I'm in the way."
"No worries! Let me just scoot past you a second here." Despite his large stature, the man danced around her quite elegantly. After grabbing the requested dish, he placed it on the table in the center of the room as Mimi had requested, then turned back to Kate. Planting his fists at his hips he asked, "Can I get you something? Another drink?"
"Oh, um, yeah, that great—oh, but not more eggnog," she said in a slightly apologetic tone.
He winked at her and said, "Understood. Well, the fridge has some Miller Lite or I can get you some wine."
"Wine would be great, thanks."
"Absolutely!"
As the rest of the men were departing the porch with their remaining haze of smoke, Kate pressed herself against the counter and held her breath as they passed. By the time they moved to the dining room, the Santa man had returned and was passing her a glass of white wine. "Thank you."
"Sure. What's your name?"
"Oh, sorry, I'm, um, Kate? I'm here with Jason."
The man shook her hand warmly. "I'm Rick and—Oh!" He gasped when a loud crash was heard behind them. They turned to see that Mimi had just knocked one of the platters of rolls onto the ground, leaving shattered glass and bread strewn about everywhere.
"Oh heck!" Mimi proclaimed. The two middle-aged women behind her immediately jumped in to help and clean up the mess. It appeared Rick, too, was going to assist, and as much as Kate did not want to leave the mess, the space was so tight she genuinely felt she would be more of a hinderance than an aid. Instead, she used the opportunity to escape back to the dining room, thinking maybe she could help set the table instead.
"What's going on in there? Did something break?" Jason asked when Kate returned.
She nodded. "Yeah, your grandmother broke some glass but there's a bunch of people helping her."
"Oh good, that's good." Jason nodded. He then said he was going to get a drink and made his way into the kitchen leaving Kate alone with her wine glass, but she didn't mind. The dining room was empty as that moment, so she was grateful for the break from socialization.
Over the next fifteen minutes, the occupancy of the duplex seemed to double, however impossible that seemed. More aunts, uncles, and cousins arrived with crying children in tow. Most of them congregated in the sitting room and dining room. While Jason gravitated towards the center of the fray, Kate had begun to feel claustrophobic and escaped to the nook off the kitchen hoping for a break. She sat down at the table, which was covered in the meal's pre-prepped desserts, and nursed the remnants of her wine for several moments before she became startled by the stringent noise of the legs of the chair beside her scraping against the floor. She turned to see Rick sitting down beside her, wine bottle in hand.
"Can I refresh your glass?"
"Uh…I should probably wait until I have some food in my stomach." She was teetering on the edge of feeling a bit lightheaded, though that may have also been due to the extreme heat, which was surely causing some dehydration in addition to the alcohol.
Giving her a sly look, Rick reached for the nearest tray of iced sugar cookies, peeled back the plastic, and said, "I won't tell if you won't."
She laughed. "Well, I appreciate that, but I think I'll wait. I guess I should have grabbed some of the cheese and crackers out there but…"
He nodded knowingly. "You seem a bit overwhelmed. First time here? I don't remember seeing you at Easter."
"Jason and I didn't meet until August."
"Gotcha. Do you have a big family?"
"Um…medium-sized, I guess? I don't have any siblings, but I have a few aunts and uncles, and cousins. We never really had huge holiday get-togethers like this, though."
"Same. I don't have any siblings and I never knew anyone on my father's side of the family, so this is a lot for me too. Well—us. That's why my daughter is sitting in the basement reading a book."
"Can't blame her," Kate said with a laugh. "So how-"
"Kate? Oh! There you are—c'mon. Mimi's going to say some things about Oscar." Jason, who had poked his head into the kitchen in search of Kate, beckoned her aggressively to join him in the main room. Kate smiled apologetically at Rick and then reluctantly got up and followed her boyfriend into the sitting room.
All things considered Oscar's memorial wasn't too excruciating. From the way it sounded, the dog had lived a pretty full life and had been quite spoiled by his owners. Evidently, he and his littermates had been rescued from a dumpster (hence the Sesame Street character reference in his name) and he came to live with Jason's grandmother not long after. Though the memorial itself was a somber, weepy affair, it was over rather quickly and then the family moved on to what everyone was looking forward to the most: the meal.
When Kate asked Jason where they should sit, he merely shrugged and made his way towards the table. Kate's forward progress was interrupted by two children stopping in front of her and roughhousing with each other. By the time she stepped around them, Jason was seated in the middle of the main dining room table, but the seats on either side of him were taken. Confused, Kate tapped him on the shoulder and asked, "Where should I sit?"
"Oh, um, you can sit across from me." He suggested.
Annoyed at the fact that he hadn't saved her a seat, Kate walked around the end of the table only to find that the seat directly across from Jason was already taken, so she sat down beside that person. With her hands in her lap, Kate stared down at her empty plate and reviewed the last hour in her mind. She did find it slightly confusing that Jason had ignored her a large portion of the time she was at his grandmother's house. He didn't really try to bring her into the conversations he was having or attempt have a one-on-one conversation with her, which she found odd. Did he expect her to just…socialize with his family the way she would have with strangers if she went solo to a party or a bar? Perhaps it was her lack of experience spending time with her partner's family's showing again, but she found it off-putting and disappointing. Also, confusingly, it seemed counterintuitive to his overcommunication when they were going about their day to day lives. Then again, she supposed it didn't much matter since she had intended to break up with him before the Oscar-dying incident. She only had to get through that meal and maybe one more date and then things between them would be over.
As the family began to pass serving dishes of food around the table, Kate found herself pleasantly distracted by the meal, which was quite tasty. As they were passing around plates of turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, and various vegetables, the woman to Kate's left struck up a conversation with her. She introduced herself as Gloria, Jason's grandmother's eldest child. Her husband had died a few years prior, and all of her children were married and spending the holiday with their spouses' family, which was why she was alone at the meal that day. She asked Kate about her job and her family and though Kate's responses were on the vaguer side of things, she didn't mind having someone to talk to while she ate.
Not too long after they began eating, Kate heard what she thought was the front door of the house slamming but didn't think much of it until she could tell there was some sort of commotion in the front room. She leaned back in her chair, trying to see what was going on, but there were simply too many people in the way since she sat on the side of the table closest to the kitchen. She did distinctly hear someone yell, "Well, it's Christmas and I'm here, so she's going to have to deal with it!" and felt her gut clench from the aggravated tone. Instinctively, her hand reached for the holster on her hip, but of course she had not brought her service weapon with her on Christmas Day!
Jason's grandmother, who sat just in front of the kitchen door and furthest from the yelling, pushed her chair back and began to make her way towards the other room. She only made it about halfway before her walk became a run and shrieking began. "Out! Out! I said you weren't welcome here and I meant it!"
"It's Christmas!" a female voice said with extreme annoyance. "I'm not—Rick?"
"Woah, Rick?" A male voice with an intense New Jersey accent chimed in. "You mean your ex, Rick? What the hell is he doing here?"
"He was invited—unlike you!" Mimi snapped.
"Well, that's ridiculous! I'm the one that's family."
"Not anymore!"
When Mimi spat out those two words with surprising vitriol, Kate grew concerned. "Um…what's going on?" she asked, directing her question towards Jason, but it was Gloria who answered.
"I'm not entirely sure. The woman who just walked in is my brother's eldest girl, Samantha. She's always been a bit of a black sheep. I guess that guy she brought with her is her new boyfriend."
"So it would seem," Kate muttered mostly to herself.
When Kate looked back towards the opposite end of the table, Rick was standing up by his chair, his hands out defensively, Samantha was yelling at both her grandmother and another woman, and the boyfriend was standing beside her looking progressively angrier. After another few moments, the boyfriend turned to Rick obviously looking for a fight, because he yelled, "What are you looking at?" along with a few obscenities.
Rick balked immediately saying, "Hey there's no need for that language; there are children here."
"Don't tell me how I can talk, Dickbag!"
"Nick, stop," Samantha chastised. Then, turning to her family she announced, "I'm staying and he," she stabbed her finger towards Rick, "needs to go."
"No, YOU need to go!" Mimi shouted.
By this point, Rick's daughter had stood up as well and was now standing behind her father, tugging on the sleeve of his shirt. Kate's heart broke for her; she could only imagine how scared the girl must have been.
"You know what? It's fine. We're just going to go." Rick tossed his napkin down on his chair and pushed it in to the table despite a chorus of protests that rang out from most of the guests.
Samantha, now looking proud as a peacock, began to walk around her grandmother. Nick followed her, sneering at her family members, and, whether inadvertently or not, bumped solidly into Mimi's arm as he passed. Jeers rose up from the table, including one from Jason, who shot to his feet and said, "How dare you hit my grandmother!" He lunged for Nick and Nick pushed him into the general direction of the kids' table. Jason stumbled and nearly landed atop a five-year-old girl, who immediately began to cry.
More shouts and anger filled the room, and Kate immediately decided that she needed to remove herself from the situation lest she be at the center of a family brawl. She slipped out of the room and caught sight of Rick and his daughter putting on their coats in the entryway. Wanting to make sure they were okay, she tried to get to them, but was thwarted by all of Jason's family members standing up from their seats and descending upon the disagreement between Samantha, her boyfriend, Jason and his grandmother
Kate got bumped around in the mele but thankfully was able to escape unscathed. She hurried to the front door, pulled it open, and found Rick and his daughter standing at the bottom of the stairs, still pulling on gloves and hats. "Hey—hey wait, are you guys okay?"
"We're fine, Kate; thank you."
"Are you sure? I'd be happy to call a cab if you—whoa!" Kate yelped when her boot slipped on the last step, which was covered in black ice. Thankfully, Rick was just a foot away, and caught her around the waist.
"Oh gosh, are you okay?" he asked quickly.
She laughed as she righted herself and pulled her sweater back down into place. "Um, yeah. I'm fine. Thanks for, uh, thanks," she added, knowing her cheeks must have been turning a bit pink since she felt a little foolish.
"No worries—and we don't need a cab; we actually drove here."
"Ah, lucky," she commented as her eyes drifted back towards the house, where Jason remained. Assuming he wasn't going to be taking a trip to the emergency room due to being pummeled by Samantha's boyfriend, she supposed the needed to return to Manhattan together at some point after the Christmas festivities concluded.
"We, can…well, you probably want to stay for the rest of dinner—or, or not." He laughed, presumably at the look of horror that had crossed her face.
"I think I'm pretty much done with Christmas, to be entirely honest."
"If you're really leaving, we'd be happy to give you a ride, though…did you have a coat?"
"Yeah, but I'm honestly thinking about leaving it behind."
Rick laughed again. "Well, I've certainly experienced colder Christmases…but I don't think I'd recommend not having a coat if you need to do any sort of walking."
As she had begun to notice tingling in her fingertips, Kate knew that Rick was right. Besides, she really only had one good winter coat; she didn't actually want to leave it behind at Jason's grandmother's, especially since she was now considering breaking up with him by text message after his behavior that day. "One second," she said, holding up her index finger as further indication she would be returning imminently.
She carefully walked up the stairs and stepped inside the foyer. There still seemed to be a great amount of yelling coming from the dining area, so she opened the closet by the door and moved around the haphazard assortment of coats until she found hers. Then, without anyone even noticing her exit, she escaped and immediately felt a weight lift off her shoulders.
"Okay, I'm ready," she said as she descended the stairs, using the handrail that time so she wouldn't slip again. When she reached the sidewalk, she noticed Rick eying her suspiciously. "What?"
"Are you sure you're okay to leave your boyfriend like this?"
She shrugged. "It's fine; I'll just text him."
"Daaaad!" Alexis whined and tapped her foot impatiently against the sidewalk.
"Okay, okay—we're going. The car's parked half a block that way," he said, pointing south.
Kate nodded and followed. "If you could just drop me at the train station, that would be great."
He turned back to her as he stripped off his Santa hat and beard, which he had shockingly still been wearing despite the fact that he had also been eating. "You headed into Manhattan?"
"Yeah."
"I'd be happy to take you all the way; that's where we're going."
"Oh, um, I…" Kate's voice drifted off when she saw Rick's face sans holiday costume for the first time. He looked so…familiar, but she couldn't quite place him. "Wait, do I know you? I—oh!" she gasped when the realization hit her. "Castle—Richard Castle?"
He grinned. "That's me. Have you read my books?"
Kate let out a bark of laughter. Had she read his books? Yeah, she'd read his books…all of them…multiple times. She'd even met him two years prior at a book signing—but of course she didn't need to let him know that. She was simply shocked she hadn't realized who he was before. Then again, most of his face had been obscured, plus what were the odds of running into him at a random Christmas party in New Jersey?
"Ah…yeah. Yeah—one or two."
He eyed her curiously for a second, but then shrugged one shoulder. "Well, I'm always happy to meet a fan. So…Manhattan?"
"Sure!"
"Awesome. Here we are—the silver Mercedes."
Kate chuckled to herself as they all climbed inside the vehicle. She was honestly going to turn down his invitation to drive her all the way into the city. Her cop instincts always made her pause when accepting rides from strangers, though rationally she knew that a man traveling with a small child was not likely to be a threat. Despite the fact that she didn't find Rick dangerous, she wasn't sure she was up to the potential awkwardness of riding in the car with strangers for an hour, particularly not after the disaster that was Mimi's Christmas meal. Knowing that this man was one of her favorite authors, however, totally changed her mind.
"So…I'm sure you must have some questions about what happened back there," Rick said once they were on the road and heading north."
"Oh…that's really none of my business," Kate promised demurely.
The writer scoffed. "Well, it's not how I saw Christmas going, that's for sure."
Kate heard a soft, "No kidding," from the back seat, which made her smile, but she said nothing.
"That woman—Sam—I met her at a bar back in January. She was nice, sweet, and, uh, uncomplicated. She was tending bar while going to nursing school and we just sort of…hit it off. We were dating in March, and she invited me to go to Easter at Mimi's. Alexis was visiting her mother in California over her school break, so I thought why not? Sam and I broke up a few weeks after and I haven't really thought much about her since, but…well, Mimi is a fan. When I showed up at Easter, she was beside herself. I had promised to invite her to my next signing, so we exchanged numbers and she'd call me now and then. She's very sweet and…well, I don't have any living grandparents, so it was kind of nice."
As temporarily slowed to a stop, Rick lifted his hand off the wheel and skimmed his fingers over his chin before continuing his story. "About a week ago, Mimi called to tell me about Oscar's passing, and we got talking about the holidays. She invited me to Christmas. I politely declined since I didn't think it was appropriate, but she was really quite persuasive, and she promised me that Sam wasn't going to be there. I was on the fence about going, but our family is so small that Alexis has never really experienced a big family holiday. I thought it would be nice for her."
"Thanks a lot," Alexis chimed in from the back seat, her sarcasm notable.
Rick cleared his throat. "Yes, well obviously I did not see things going like this."
"I didn't either," Kate assured him.
"No, I don't imagine so."
"Do…do you know why Sam was banned from attending dinner?" Kate asked tentatively.
"No, do you?"
"Not at all."
Rick hummed. "How long have you been dating Jason?"
"Since the end of summer. I, um, well to be honest with you, I was going to break up with him before Christmas but then…Oscar died, and I just didn't think it was right."
"Don't imagine that meal changed your decision?" he asked lightly. Kate gave him a sideways glance and then they both burst out laughing.
Then, Kate groaned, and said, "It's really not funny. I honestly thought there were only family brawls at holidays in the movies. I guess I really shouldn't have left. I should have tried to help, but if I did and the cops came it could have been a whole thing since I would be out of my jurisdiction."
"Wait—you're a cop?"
"Technically a detective now, but only for a few months."
"Woah—that's awesome! And you look so young, too! I would have thought you were barely out of college."
"Nah, it's definitely been a few years," Kate said evasively. A few—or five. But who was counting?
Now grinning at her, he continued, "Well, thank you for your service. The New York streets are surely safer with you watching over them."
"Thanks."
They drove in a companionable silence for a few more minutes before Rick's daughter complained of being hungry. Kate couldn't fault her, as she too had only eaten a small portion of her meal and, now that the adrenaline from the chaotic situation was wearing off, she was hungry too.
"I know, pumpkin. We'll get some Chinese when we're back home, okay? I'll call the order in as soon as we get through the tunnel."
"You can just drop me anywhere once we get into Manhattan," Kate told him, not wanting to tread on his hospitality more than she needed to.
"Well not anywhere surely. Where do you live?"
"Tribeca."
"Oh, we're not that far away—I'll take you to your building…unless you'd like to have some Chinese with us?" he asked, a hopeful upturn to his voice.
"No—no that's unnecessary."
"You sure? After all, it's partially my fault that you didn't get to have Christmas dinner."
Kate laughed. "To be honest, I have no regrets about not finishing out the day there. Soup from a can will be quite welcome after all that."
Rick clicked his tongue with annoyance. "Soup from a can? You can't have that on Christmas! C'mon—have dinner with us. We have plenty of wine—the good stuff, not the cheap stuff that we drank earlier. And you are more than welcome to ask me any questions you might have about my books."
"We have cookies, too!" Alexis chimed in.
"Yes—that's right. Homemade sugar cookies. You can have a tree, a candy cane, or a jingle bell."
"She can have more than one cookie, Dad."
Chuckling, the writer corrected his offer. "Well yes of course—you can have one of each. Many of each! Take them all!"
Kate couldn't help but laugh at his silly tone. "Well, that is quite a convincing argument."
Grinning, he glanced over at her. "So, you'll have dinner with us?"
She felt her heart stutter inside her chest. What the hell was she doing? Had she once again lost her mind? She had just left a nightmarish family meal—she didn't need a second one in the same day. Yet, her gut was telling her this meal wouldn't be nightmarish at all. She considered her response for a few more second before ultimately the twinkle in Rick's bright blue eyes won her over. "Yeah, I guess so."
"Excellent!" His eyes twinkling a little bit as he spoke, he said, "Guess we're all going to have a good Christmas after all."
A/N: Thanks to Kristen (and the other sanity chat members) for the prompt
I also wanted to let everyone know that I organized my profile page to have links to all of my Christmas stories all in one place if you're looking for some more holiday cheer. on that note: Merry Christmas !