Playing Hard to Get
Chapter 26
Kate was still trying to explain her ultimate wedding location. How it looked magical, filled with flowers and lots of chandeliers. Seemingly every table had one, and there was blue sky. Then her cell phone rang. She wasn't even on call for two days. It hadn't taken Internal Affairs more than about an hour to clear the shooting, so she had her weapon with her, just not on her at the moment.
Kate hadn't looked at the caller ID. "Beckett."
"Girlfriend! Why didn't you tell me you caught your mother's killer? I had to find out from Javi, not my best friend!" Lanie was really upset with her.
"It did all happen pretty fast, and then Internal Affairs got involved, and it slipped my mind. Sorry." But Kate knew she had a point.
"So where are you? I'll bring the wine even if it is still breakfast. I think they drink wine in France for nearly every meal of every day." Lanie didn't care if it was breakfast.
"The loft," Kate told her and waited for Lanie to yell at her.
"You're with Castle? Do you need company, or is Castle naked?" Lanie's grin was very wide, not that Kate could see her.
Kate rolled her eyes at that. "No, Castle isn't naked."
Rick could hear her – he yelled, "I CAN BE!" And Lanie had heard him.
"You better do something about him, Kate. That man won't wait long for you to take your head out of your ass." Lanie honestly didn't understand why she was holding out. Castle was fun, and Kate really wasn't.
"Can we talk about this later?" Kate didn't want to tell her over the phone that finally, she was engaged. Besides, her speaker might not survive Lanie's excited screams.
"Fine, but we are talking about this, Kate. Now go, have some fun with Castle before he decides you're not worth it. And call me if it all gets too much for you," Lanie told her.
"I promise, Lanie, bye." Kate hung up on her.
"You didn't tell her," Rick said quietly, somewhat hurt that she hadn't.
"Lanie's my best friend," Kate reminded him. "She deserves to hear about it in person, not over the phone."
"My apologies." Rick got back on the topic of her having two days off. "So, Christmas shopping or something else? You could help me and Alexis decorate for Christmas. Or would you like my laptop so you and Alexis can search for wedding venues and everything else?"
"I think I'll pass on shopping." Then Kate shook her finger at him. "And I don't want anything for Christmas."
"Right! Not get you something for Christmas. You do know who you're talking to here, right?" Rick argued.
"I already have a puppy, thanks to you, so I don't want a pony or a car. Or new furniture or a new apartment or anything else expensive." Kate knew she couldn't stop him, but maybe she could at least calm him down from something far too expensive.
"I'll think about it." It was the best Rick could offer. "Laptop." He left her and headed for his study.
"CASTLE!" She was pretty sure he wasn't listening to her.
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Rick was still in his study. And Kate was still in the kitchen when Alexis and both dogs came charging down the stairs. Well, the dogs were anyway. Alexis was only walking.
Alexis chose to sit next to her, and she planted her laptop on the countertop and plugged it in so that the battery didn't die on them. "Any idea where you want to get married? Beach, mountain top, farm, indoors or outdoors, and when? Winter, spring, summer, or fall? Each has its merits." Alexis was ready to help and get started. The sooner these two got married, the sooner she had a real stepmother.
"I don't know exactly. If it's indoors, I guess I don't care when. Outdoors, I don't need everyone sneezing their heads off. Aside from that, where doesn't really matter." Kate didn't want to be fussy over where she got married.
"You know, you two are perfect for each other. Dad's probably already researching some of the largest, grandest places he can find, and you would be happy to get married on a bus." Alexis ignored the look Kate gave her for that comment.
"Alright, New York City or something outside of the city? And why am I asking you, Bus Lady?" Suddenly Kate was being a pain in her ass. So Alexis tried to get a reaction out of her. "You could get married on a beach naked. Have all the guests show up naked."
"Alexis!?" Maybe she was being too easy to please, but naked?
"Clothing optional beach," Alexis pointed out.
"That means you'll be naked too, you know." Kate tried that psychology.
"Good point. Plus, I burn too easily." Alexis tried again. "What does your dream look like?"
"Chandeliers, lots of them, a wall of windows, glass chairs, glass tables, flowers hanging everywhere, tall ceilings," Kate told her.
"That sounds like the reception. What about the ceremony itself? We need to hurry, Kate. Knowing Dad, he's already on the phone talking to every castle in the States about wedding venues. If you're not careful, you'll end up in a medieval castle," Alexis warned her.
"He would, wouldn't he?" Kate looked at Alexis and saw her nod. That did it, and Kate got up and walked into the study. Sure enough, he was on the phone. "Hang up, and get your butt out here. ...NOW, CASTLE!"
"I'll have to call you back," Rick told the person at the Guggenheim Estate at Sands Pointe Preserve.
"You were right. Thanks." Kate gave Alexis a quick hug. Soon the three of them were looking for the perfect spot for a wedding.
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They had three for Rick and Kate to talk about after Alexis leaves them and goes back to her room and then came back downstairs to take Dahlia and Lilly outside. Those T-Bones might have sounded like a good idea and clearly the dogs had loved eating them, but they were doing a number on their guts.
They had three for Rick and Kate to talk about after Alexis left them, went back to her room, and then came downstairs to take Dahlia and Lilly outside. Those T-bones might have sounded like a good idea, and obviously, the dogs loved eating them, but they were doing a number on their guts.
One was the Weylin in Brooklyn, so it was actually close. It had the reception of Kate's dreams, but the actual wedding location wasn't, but it was still on the list.
Two was Haiku Mill on Maui, Hawaii. It was located just off the road to Hana. The wedding location was to die for, and the reception hit most of Kate's wants, especially if it was at night.
Three was Alder Planetarium in Illinois. It lacked her chandeliers, but it more than made up for it in glass everywhere, including the ceiling.
Then a fourth got added, the Hay-Adams in Washington DC. It could hold the most number of people, 350. It had sweeping views of the White House and the Washington Monument. Its only real problem was the place was broken up into five different rooms for the reception. The actual wedding locations also needed work. But it was on the list.
"I'm going to work on invitations, the sign-in book, and what to give those who come to the wedding. Personally, I'm thinking of however many books of Heat Wave. You could both sign them and put one on each seat." Alexis left them to think about it. "They would be collector's items. There would only be so many of them," Alexis added as she climbed the stairs.
"Dahlia, Lilly, come on, you two." Alexis wanted to free up Rick and Kate to do something together. "Oh, and I'm still happy."
Rick was smiling, and Kate was chuckling. Then something occurred to her. She had forgotten one of the most important people in her life. "I have to tell Dad!"
"Would you like company?" Rick inquired.
"Sure." Kate smiled ever so sweetly at him. "If Dad kills you now, I won't have to go through with it."
"Funny, very funny, Kate." Rick was pretty sure her dad wasn't going to kill him
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"Hey, Dad." Kate was happy to see him home instead of at work. Granted, she had called ahead, but something might have happened at work to call him away.
"Katie! Rick! So what do I owe the honor? You're not at work." Jim expected both of them to be at the Precinct today.
"No. We have a lot to tell you. A whole lot." Kate hoped part of it wouldn't drive him back to drinking again. But her other news might blunt what she had to tell him about her mother.
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"I think I'm lost. Just who is Dick Coonan?" And how did he fit into this? The man wasn't a gang member but was a drug dealer getting his drugs into the U.S. hidden in a DVD from Hong Kong, not someplace more popular like Mexico, Columbia, or elsewhere.
Kate tried to make it simpler for him. "He was ex-military and served in the Gulf War. Our best guess for now is that he got involved with the drug trade and found a way to ship it from Afghanistan to Hong Kong, where it got put into the DVD cases along with the DVDs and shipped to the U.S. Whoever hired him to kill Mom is a mystery still."
"We think he got hired to kill not just your wife but her entire staff. They all died in the same way, a deep thrust to the kidney." Rick used his hand to demonstrate. "Immediate shock and paralyzation. You're sure you don't know what she was into?" Rick asked him. "It definitely wasn't random."
"I've tried, really tried. Jo didn't talk about everything she was doing. But I have a question. How did he know where to find her? She was supposed to meet us, not be in that alley," Jim asked those two.
"Shadowed her, stalked her. Since he was hired to kill them he likely studied all of them day after day. Mom went into that alley so he saw an advantage and took it. We just need to know what she was doing to get herself killed." Kate still didn't understand what.
"I can't help you there." Jim was stumped.
"Didn't your mother keep a ledger or something? A day planner?" Rick asked her. "Surely a lawyer took notes." He couldn't believe he hadn't thought of it before now.
"She did, but Mom had her own writing style. It's some kind of code." Kate had tried and tried to read it but couldn't.
"Jo called it her insurance. Should anyone ever search her office or issue a subpoena, they wouldn't get much unless they got her to talk. And your mother would never do that. Even I can't read it," Jim added.
"Where is it? If it's all right with you both, I could take a crack at it," Rick offered.
"It's at my place," Kate said, "in a box stuffed under my bed. That and some pictures and other things. I've looked, Castle, there's nothing there." He would be wasting his time.
"Never say never, Kate. I might know someone that can crack it if I can talk to him," Rick suggested.
"One more thing, Dad." Kate raised her left hand to show him her ring in case he hadn't already spotted it.
"I saw that earlier but wasn't sure what to think. Did you two..." Jim pointed at each of them and prayed that it was what he hoped.
"Castle gave it to me while we were in Amsterdam. Then, it was just a ring. We weren't engaged or anything. But that changed last night." Kate smiled since she was ready to be married to him.
"She got me to propose, and she said yes. Now we're trying to figure out where to have the wedding," Rick told him and prayed for his life or at least his ears.
"That's great! Katie is forever talking about you. She's never talked about anyone nearly as much as you that I know of." Jim was over the moon happy. "You're going to marry your mother's most favorite author."
"Favorite author?" Rick beamed and looked at Kate.
Kate raised an eyebrow at Rick. "We can talk about it later." Then she looked at her dad. "So you're not upset?" Kate asked hesitantly.
"Why should I be? I'll get to walk my daughter down the aisle and hand her off to a good man. So am I the first to know?" Jim really wanted to be the first.
"Alexis dragged it out of me this morning," Kate said. "But we came here first, Dad."
"Alexis was sorta just right there," Rick added.
"In that case, I forgive you. What did Alexis and Martha say, assuming Martha knows?" Jim questioned them.
"Alexis is over the moon. She's already trying to help me plan the wedding. I leave it all to her, and I might not have to do anything." Kate chuckled since she knew wedding planning was a tough task. "And unless Alexis told her, Martha doesn't know yet."
Jim decided to offer her something she could use. "If you need a dress, I still have your mother's wedding gown. It might fit you. You're a bit taller than she was and maybe a little thinner."
Rick grinned at her. "Thinner?"
Kate glared at him. "Shut up, Castle. We'll be talking about this later, too."
"Just don't kill him before you marry him, Katie," Jim asked her.
"I was thinking of maybe a broken leg or something." Kate smiled back at Rick. Jim started laughing. Rick was going to have his hands full with her, and Jim hoped Rick knew what he was getting into.
Jim looked from Katie to Rick. "We need to celebrate, so tell me when and where!"
"Montgomery gave me today and tomorrow off work, so maybe tomorrow for dinner. I just need to figure out where. The loft, maybe?" With good reason, Kate had an aversion to meeting people at a restaurant.
"Let me know when," Jim responded.
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"Told you Dad wouldn't kill you," Kate chided him and hip-bumped him in the elevator as they left.
"It's still early," Rick replied while trying not to wither under her glare. "You think Alexis has picked a place for the wedding from that list by now?" Rick thought it was possible. She really seemed to want them married.
That had Kate laughing hard. "She's a good kid Castle. I'm going to need her help to pull this off."
"So early lunch, shopping maybe." Then, Rick took his first shot at seeing her in a wedding dress. "We could go shopping for a wedding dress."
"Castle! Even you know it's bad luck to see the bride in her wedding dress before the wedding. I was thinking of taking Alexis, Martha, and Lanie to go dress shopping. I should be able to find something," Kate told him.
"Not your mother's dress?" Rick thought she might look good in that dress, not that he knew anything about it.
Kate shook her head. "No, that was my mother's dress. Only she should ever wear that dress. I'll need one of my own."
"Okay, but I'm pretty good at picking out dresses for you to wear." Rick reminded her of the last dress he had picked out for her.
Kate smiled at him. "Yes, you are. I still have that dress, and that was very kind of you. But not this dress, Castle. You're just going to have to wait for the wedding."
Rick was bummed. "Spoilsport."
"It's Saturday, so no school. Do we stop for Chinese or pizza on the way home?" Kate queried.
"Home? Are you moving in with me? You can, you know. Alexis and Mother would love to have you. You do know that, right?" Rick looked at her and stopped on the sidewalk so they could talk.
"I'll create space for everything you want to keep, and if I can't, we can put it in storage. Or are you afraid I'll snore?"
"I already know you snore, Castle," Kate teased him.
"Take that back!" Rick demanded. "I do not snore. But, I do know that you make these really cute little noises while you sleep."
"Pizza it is!" Kate wasn't going to stand in the middle of the sidewalk and debate who did and didn't snore since she most definitely did not, and Castle most definitely did!
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"You're back! Good, because I have news. Come sit." Alexis patted the empty spaces next to her on the sofa.
"We brought pizza," Kate told her, just in case she missed seeing the boxes.
"I'd like a piece and a Diet Coke, please," Alexis told them and waited patiently.
So with pizza on paper plates and their drinks of choice on the coffee table, Alexis showed them her notes.
"First, the Hay-Adams, like all the others, is booked until next year, naturally." It was getting closer to Christmas, after all. "They're also the most expensive option, not including transportation. It's mostly because they can seat the most people. More people means more food which means more clean-up. So, 350 tops.
"Now, the Weylin. You didn't like the wedding venue itself but loved the reception. So I thought, pick a different wedding location, but use them for the reception if they'll allow it. It's actually the smallest seating of the four.
"The Alder Planetarium. There's a kitchen staff who will work with you to create the food choices you prefer. In addition, there are five different menu options to choose from, and hors d' oeuvres as well. They have four different events that can be added for a price. Three of them have theater seating. There's the Standard bar, Premium bar, and Luxury bar. It's $259 per person plus tax and gratuity. Oh, and every table does have a chandelier and all that glass. We must have seen a bad picture before. That's just for the food, though. The room itself is another cost.
"The site in Hawaii. You loved the wedding location itself, and the reception has a limit of 150 people. They have a kitchen, but you're responsible for your own catering staff. They have a list of people they've used in the past. The cost for them is about the same as the planetarium. The rental cost of the space is also a little more. In addition to the chandeliers, if you go at the right time, all the plants around you will be flowering. However, that presents its own problem. Those dates are booked solid for the next two years." Alexis broke it to them. "Just not the other dates. That means if you want flowers, you'll have to pay extra and then extra again to remove them after the fact. Plus, everyone will have to fly there and find hotels."
"That's all I know so far. I'm still working on the invitations and the sign-in book. Dad will need to talk to Black Pawn about the Nikki Heat books and where to ship them." Alexis was done and picked up her piece of pizza.
"Do I get to do anything?" Kate asked her, not that she was angry or annoyed. Far from it.
"Oh yes!" Alexis assured her. "We're only just getting started. We still need to decide all kinds of things. This list is nearly endless. Not to mention the big stuff like Dad needs a ring, you need a dress, Dad needs a tux, color scheme, photographer, music, plus all these blue items, and still more things."
"And here I thought just saying yes was the hard part." Kate sat back and groaned. "You're sure you want to do all this, Alexis?" It seemed like an incredible amount of work.
"It's a challenge, I'll admit, but at least Dad's going to marry someone I approve of," Alexis broke down and revealed.
"What do you mean, Alexis?" He had been married twice already. Granted, she might not know much about her mother, but he had no idea that she didn't like Gina.
Alexis sort of apologized for what she was thinking. "Sorry, Dad, but I still don't understand why you married Gina. All you two did was fight. She still drives you crazy even now."