Bab 74: 74. Chapter 74
"You didn't replace that dress," he says, brushing his hand over her elbow.
Kate leans against the bathroom sink and wipes the rest of her makeup off, closing her eyes to rub off the mascara. "So?" She opens her eyes, rinses out the soft cloth.
"Why didn't you?" He watches at her in the mirror.
She laughs. "If I remember right, your son interrupted our shopping trip by busting open his head."
His grin matches hers, his hand slipping around her waist as he leans in to kiss her cheek. "Ew," he mutters, wiping at his mouth. "Soapy."
Kate pushes his face away from her. "Let me finish."
He wanders off, back into the bedroom, and she runs water in the sink, then leans over and fills her cupped hands, splashing it over her cheeks and chin, running her thumbs through her eyebrows, rinsing off the face-soap.
She feels Castle at her back, fingertips trailing up her spine, sees him getting his toothbrush out of her peripheral vision. She wipes water from her eyes, still over the sink, feels him push the towel into her fingers.
She takes it, pats her face dry, lifts up to look at him. He's brushing his teeth, smiling around his electric toothbrush, boyish and clever and pleased. She leans in and kisses his cheek, patting him on the back as she goes.
Kate pulls on a pair of boxer shorts, a ratty tshirt with holes along the collar. Used to be his, long time ago, but she's the one who's worn it out. She heads back into the bathroom, forgetting why the moment she gets in there, sees her husband, Castle, the broad shoulders and those thighs, the thick arms. So good. All of him, the picture he presents, the force of his presence, the body she knows so well-
"Ogling me?" He turns and lifts his eyebrows, then pivots back to the sink and spits. Loudly.
She shakes her head at him. "Not now, I'm not."
"What you need?" he says, putting his toothbrush back.
She could go with the embarrassing answer - I don't know - or the better answer.
"You."
He laughs, but wipes his hands on the towel, turns and takes her by the elbows, tugging her against him. She sways into his mouth, a hot kiss, going with it, but he gentles her, fingers at her neck, stroking behind her ear.
"Dress," he murmurs into her mouth.
She breaks away, looking at him. "I am dressed."
His laughter, rich and warm between them. "Yeah, no. I want to take you shopping, now that Alexis and Rafe are here."
"Hm, you want to take me shopping without the kids?" She raises an eyebrow at him. "Why does that sound so. . .dirty, Castle?"
He grins, eyes crinkling up at her, nudging her back to the bedroom. She goes before him; he flips the light off and tries to herd her to the bed. She knocks his hand away, grabs her ipad from the dresser as Castle gets into bed.
"You'll go shopping with me?" he says, sitting up against the headboard.
"Sure. So long as Allie and Rafe don't mind."
At the look on his face, she narrows her eyes, climbs into bed next to him, ipad on her lap.
"Castle."
"Yeah, yeah. I'll ask."
"You honestly have a problem with Rafe?" She turns on her side, the ipad sliding to the bed between them. His face has soured a little, his hands are restless. As she watches him, he leans over and picks the laptop up from the floor. "Castle. You can't possibly. We've known Rafe for two years."
"As her friend."
"Rick." She moves the ipad, lays her fingers over his arm as he opens the laptop. "Tell me you're just being melodramatic."
He fiddles with the power cord, then looks over at her. He's not. He's not?
"Castle. Seriously. This is a problem. You have a problem."
"I know."
"She's not a little girl. She hasn't been a little girl. I thought we worked through this."
"It's just. . .she is though. She's mine. And-"
"She's not, baby. She's not." Kate brushes her hand through the hair at his temple, sighing at him. "You're a great dad. You're beyond great. But now, being a good dad to her means wanting this for her. Don't you want Allie to have this?" She gestures between them, then lays her hand over his heart, thumb stroking his shirt.
He swallows; she can sees his adam's apple bob. "This?"
"I want her to have this. I want Dash to find this too, and Ellery. And I'd never, not in a million years, keep them from it. No matter how old, how young, how awkward, how-"
"I get it."
She leans in and kisses him softly, touches her tongue to his closed mouth until he softens and opens. She scratches his chest and leans back.
"Can you do this, Rick? Because he's going to ask her. Soon. Probably while they're down here with us."
He rubs a hand over his face on a sigh, then turns to look at her. "I can do it. I. . .you're right. I think I am being melodramatic. And I should stop. It's almost instinctual though. When she was in his lap, I just-"
"You do realize that they. . ." Kate trails off, biting her bottom lip, but maybe total immersion is the way to go. Shock treatment. "They've had sex, Castle. They sleep in the same room." She brushes her hand over his arm, down to his wrist, takes his white-knuckled grip off the laptop. "They live together. He touches her. She touches him-"
He lets out a low noise.
"Castle. He loves her. She told me that they're best friends, and she asked me how I knew, when I knew, between us, that it was love. Because she loves him too."
His eyes open, flutter really, and look to her. "What did you say?"
She smirks at him. "What do you think?"
"I think that it's always best to let you answer these kinds of questions for yourself," he says cheekily.
She laughs, rubs her thumb along the back of his hand. "Hm, probably true." She laces their fingers together. "I actually told her that you were the one to convince me of it. Of what I already knew and was too afraid to accept." Kate lifts her eyes to him, smiles. At least that's easy enough. Now.
He grins back at her, shuts the laptop again. "Yeah?"
"You know that's true."
"I recall you saying something about being in love with me. . .back when I apparently threw it all away and spent my summer with Gina-"
"You didn't throw it away, Castle." Kate slides past her ipad and curls up at his shoulder, bringing their hands up between them, kissing his fingers. "Timing wasn't right."
"Did it hurt?" He says softly, sounding curious. Novel fodder, most likely. She's used to that now. Doesn't even mind it, because everyone already thinks that the things Nikki and Rook go through are theirs.
"It was a long time ago."
"Well, yes. But-"
"Of course it hurt," she says softly, chiding him. "But I don't. . .it's not now."
"Oh, I know." His face is innocent when he looks at her. "I believe you. I'm still adjusting to the whole, you were in love with me that second year, thing."
She leans back from him, thumping his shoulder. "I was at least in lust with you, Castle. I'm not sure I'd classify it as-"
"Oh no." He shakes his head. "You can't take it back now. You said-"
"I know what I said," she growls at him, rolling her eyes. "Your turn. Truth."
"I'd rather do a Dare."
"Truth," she insists.
"Okay, fine."
"When you asked me to go to the Hamptons with you, what was your real intent?"
"For you to go with me," he says easily, shrugging at her, smiling a little.
"Come on, play the game," she grouses, staring him down with what she hopes is her best detective glare. Those almost never work on him anymore.
"What you're really asking is when did I fall in love with you. Aren't you?"
She hums at him. "Maybe."
"Well. You're not going to believe me when I tell you."
"Oh, come on. Truth, Castle. I'll believe you."
He grins. "Well, then, under the sacred honor of Truth - I fell in love with you over the interrogation table."
"When was that?" She tries to remember what little interrogation - so many over so many years now - could possibly have triggered-
"My interrogation, Kate. The day I met you."
She laughs, but oh holy crap, he's serious. He's serious about that. "Castle."
"You don't believe me?"
She closes her mouth, blinks at him. She has to believe him. "But. It - you were - I mean, yeah, you flirted like crazy, but you weren't any different with me than any other woman. Conquest," she says, lifting her eyebrows at him.
"That's what you think."
She sits back, giving him a long look, and has to admit that if he thinks this is true, then it. . .it has to be true.
"You said, not like this, right?" He says now, gesturing between them. "And that's the same for me. Nothing's ever been like this. And it wasn't then either. It was puppy love, sure, the kind I easily fall into-"
"Better not be falling into any kind of love with-"
He silences her with a hard kiss, taking her breath, breaks off to stare her down. "You know better."
"Mm," she mutters, but yeah. "I know better."
"But you know what I mean. I put it out there because I wanted it. I wanted you, so I went after you. I asked you to the Hamptons on the entirely slim and barely there hope that I'd get to make love to you, yeah. I did."
Her whole body flushes, hot and ready, and she kisses him this time, no less intense than his own. When she pulls slowly back, lingering over his mouth, he strokes her neck.
"You certainly did."
"I wore you down."
"No one wears me down," she shoots back, kissing him again. "But you definitely made yourself vulnerable, put yourself out there."
"You saying I rolled over and bared my neck?"
She chuckles at that, imagining Castle like that, and really, she can't. "No, not exactly. You just. You believe in love. You think it will work out. No matter what. You have a wide-open heart, Castle."
He looks like he doesn't know how to take that, but shrugs at her.
"Dash has the same," she adds, tracing a finger down the side of his neck, watching his pulse. A little faster since that last kiss. "Wide-open heart."
"Yeah," he says finally, on a sigh. "He does."
"It's a good thing. I'd rather he have your heart than mine."
He squeezes her arms, shakes his head at her. "Don't say that. Your heart is fierce, and loyal, and intense, and deep. Ella has that heart. Mine is so often shallow-"
"No." She brushes her fingers over his mouth. "No. Yours is not shallow. It takes a courageous man to love a heart like mine. A man with patience, and conviction, and faith."
For a moment, those words hang between them, crystal and sharp and solid, and then he grins at her, brings her in close for a kiss, something quick but certainly not chaste. "That was rather poetic, Kate Beckett. Or was that Kate Castle?"
She snorts at him, pushes him back. "Write your novel, Richard."
"Oh, really? It's Richard now. Hmm, why exactly did you choose that name? My mother calls me that."
"Because you're being an idiot. And I am a mother."
"But not mine," he says, his voice dark, sexy as hell like that too. She takes a breath but picks up her ipad. Sometimes his too, the big baby.
"You need to work. You haven't written anything in a couple days now."
"Slave driver. Jeez."
"You write a few scenes for me, stud, and I'll reward you. That's no slave driver."
He laughs, but she catches the heat that flares up behind his eyes. Of course, the moment he gets into writing the novel, she'll lose him, and probably whatever heat is there will go right out into a scene.
Oh, but this is Felix. Maybe not. She lifts her eyebrows and scoots back down in their bed, propping the ipad up on her knees, opening up her book.
"What are you gonna do while I write?"
"Read. Now hush. Rook is about to propose. For the first time."
His fingers reach out and glance across her cheek - he's not looking at her, just touching - and then he settles his palm at her shoulder, squeezing. "Thanks, babe."
"Don't call me-"
"You said if I managed to catch a wave, I could call you babe. Well, if I remember right, I caught more than one wave. So babe it is."
"I meant you could say it one time in celebration. Not carte blanche, whenever you feel like it."
"Too bad. You should've drawn up a contract."
She glares at him, shrugs his hand off her shoulder. "Write-"
"Hey," he says suddenly, his fingers hovering over the keyboard. "You know. . .you know I'll be okay. About Alexis. It'll be fine. I'll be fine. I do like him. Despite everything, I do."
She feels something in her relax, nods at him. "Good. You should hear Allie tell their story."
"Their story?"
"He's been in love with her, Rick. For a long time."
His face stills, his eyes pinned to hers, something going on there. And then he nods and looks back to his computer screen, but she can tell it's not over.
"I - uh - I get that."
"I thought you might. He waited for her, for the time to be right. Just like you waited for me."
He nods, and she knows he's got to process this too, has to let it sink in to that wide-open, fiercely protective heart of his. His words, when they come, are soft. "I waited for you because you are so worth it. More than worth it. So how can I dislike any man who feels the same about my daughter?"
Kate slides her ipad away again, wraps her arms around him, her mouth at his neck in a gentle, gentle kiss. He's made her heart so tender towards him. Towards their kids. All his fault she feels like this. "Yes, baby, that's exactly it."
He hugs her back, tightly, his chest rumbling with a little laugh. "Baby."
And damn, she's calling him baby now, isn't she?
She never meant to.
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