7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Kate reached down and opened the back door, and Castle maneuvered them inside the house without running her into a door or a wall. He would normally be congratulating himself for that, but both of them were too busy laughing at themselves.

"We've been together for two and a half days…just the two of us, non-stop." Castle said with a big grin, "We haven't had an argument yet, and we're having fun. Stupid, silly fun. And that grin on your face is as big as the one on mine. You loved being goofy."

He planted a solid kiss on her lips before he eased her into a standing position, and she stayed close enough to him to stretch her arms around his neck and return the kiss in kind.

"You didn't expect goofy, did you?" she asked, teasing.

"So you admit it?"

"Yep. I can be goofy…and love it." She followed her statement with a ridiculous face that included crossed eyes, her tongue sticking out, and her mouth twisted in an odd direction."

Castle laughed out loud and asked "How can anybody look that silly and still be that sexy? Detective Beckett, you would fit right into my family."

"Your family wasn't all that goofy while I was there. But all of you could probably pull that off."

"So, you think I'm sexy?"

"That's what you got out of that exchange, huh? But I do wonder how in the world do you manage to hide all this at work, even under those jackets." she said, running her hands down his arms to his elbows and up over his chest appreciatively.

Taking her hands in his and holding them against his chest, he answered, "Too much of that could put chivalry in serious danger again."

"Sorry. I wasn't thinking."

"No need to be sorry. A man's ego can always handle another compliment."

"Somehow I think chivalry is safe with you." She stood on tip-toe to leave a little peck on his lips. "And I think I probably am, too. You're a good man, Richard Castle." She squeezed his hands before letting them go and backing away. "We should probably clean up and put on some actual clothes…rinse the salt and sand out of these suits."

"You go ahead and take a shower. I'll call and order something for dinner, then I'll get cleaned up, too. I should be done by the time the food arrives."

After dinner, Kate asked again about the chapters he needed to finish.

"I really don't want to be the reason you don't have time to turn it in the way you usually do."

"The first one is ready to be proofed. Alexis usually does that for me. I just leave out anything I don't want her to read and go over those parts again myself before I turn it in. She's good."

"But, since she isn't here, you have to do it yourself? If you want to get back to it tonight, I don't mind reading while you work on it. I didn't quite finish my book…well, your book."

He looked at her speculatively for a moment, then asked, "Would you be the least bit interested in proofing the finished chapter while I take another look at the other one?"

She looked delighted. "I get to see it before anybody else? Your unpublished work?"

"You're not planning to spill the beans to anybody, are you?"

"Of course not!"

"Then, yes. You see it first."

"So what do you want me to look for, grammar, punctuation, and typos?

"If you want to comment on something, jot that down, too. You don't mind doing this?"

"I'll feel better if I contribute to getting it done on time." She paused a short moment and added shyly, "And I'm kind of excited about it."

He smiled at that and stood, "I'll go and print it out for you, then."

She stood and followed him to his study, taking the pages he gave her to her chair near the window and sitting down with a pencil. After reading through the chapter once and making a few corrections, she went back and read it again, afraid she might have been lost enough in the story to have missed something.

Castle sat at his desk making adjustments to parts of the other chapter and was satisfied with all but one paragraph. He looked up and caught Kate staring at him. "What?" he asked.

"I told you I'd stare at you again sometime when you were paying attention," she said mischievously. "Since I've finished proofing, now was as good a time as any."

"You're staring at me while I do paperwork. Lots of firsts on this trip." He was sure she could tell he was pleased. "You've finished?"

"There wasn't a lot to correct. I even went through it a second time while you were working away over there. There are a couple of comments in the margins. I hope I didn't overstep." She took her completed assignment to him and kissed his cheek as she left the pages on his desk. Noticing the annoyed look he was giving the computer screen, she observed, "You look like something doesn't suit you."

"Just this one paragraph. Otherwise I think I'm satisfied enough to turn it in."

"Which one?"

"This one." He pointed it out on the screen. "The content is okay, but I don't like the way it reads. Something's wrong with…"

Kate was reading over his shoulder as soon as he pointed it out. "What would happen if you took the last phrase of the second sentence and moved it here?" She pointed at the screen. "Then you could…"

"Do this," he said excitedly, reworking the middle of the paragraph exactly the way she was about to suggest.

Looking up at her and seeing the surprised look on her face, he asked confidently, "That's exactly what you were going to say, wasn't it?" She nodded. "So we're good at this together, too," he stated with a touch of triumph in his tone.

"Looks like it. Do you want me to proof that, now?"

"Not now. I thought we could watch a movie. No book involved. Snuggle on the couch, maybe?"

"Sounds nice."

"Go pick out a movie. I'll save this and be right there."

After deciding on one of Kate's movie suggestions, they watched it, commenting now and then as they sat cuddled together through most of it. When the movie ended, Castle clicked it off with the remote and turned off the television, but neither of them was in any hurry to move from where they were.

"I don't want this weekend to end," Kate said softly.

"Neither do I."

"I think I like being honest with you, but it takes a lot out of me. I'm fighting myself all the way."

Castle kissed her head, and knew she could feel his smile as he lingered there.

"Seems to me we've done remarkably well for two non-communicators," he observed. "How is hopeful going for you?"

She moved so she could look at him. "We both know we aren't ready to make any big commitments yet, but I think hopeful looks pretty good. How is it going for you?"

"Looking better all the time."

"You know I don't care about the big beach house or the money or the private beach, don't you? If we were both living on civil servant pay and had to rent a place near a public beach on the Jersey Shore to have a couple of days at the ocean, I'd enjoy being with you just as much."

"I think I already knew that, and I think it's one of the reasons my family likes you so much. They could see it, too." He took a few seconds of feeling wary before he asked, "Knowing that I'm hoping… Knowing I can see a family in… I don't want to get too far ahead of… Do you think you can see any of what we talked about…with me? If you can't, please tell me now."

She touched his face as she answered, stroking her thumb back and forth slowly across his cheek. "I don't see it right away. Sometime in the future… But I've never seen it this clearly with anybody else. It feels good being here with you. It does feel right. I'm so glad you gave me another chance."

He held her tighter and sighed contentedly into her hair. "Yeah. Hopeful is looking better all the time." They sat for a long moment, and he said quietly, "Sleep with me tonight."

"Castle…" she began as she moved away.

"Not what I meant, Kate. Just sleep …but close to me. I don't know when we'll see each other after tomorrow, and I don't want to miss any of what we have left. Sleep beside me tonight."

"Next time I'm here will be different. It's going to be planned for nobody but us. The first time we make love, I don't want the shadow of anybody else hanging over us. Does that make any sense at all?"

"Perfect sense. Didn't I already tell you that you made the right choices?"

"I'll go change for bed."

"I'll lock up and meet you upstairs."

Castle changed into pajama pants and a T-shirt in his bathroom, not wanting to push Kate too far if she got there before he was ready for bed. She came in wearing cotton knit pajama shorts and a tank top.

"Which side is yours?" she asked, standing at the foot of the bed.

"The right," he answered, "unless you have a strong aversion to the left."

"Looks like we work well here, too," she agreed with a little smile, and both slid under the covers on their respective sides, meeting in the middle and being close, nothing more.

Castle kissed her goodnight, she turned away from him, and he spooned against her back, wrapping his arm around her waist; and both of them fell asleep peacefully in no time.

When the sunlight was bright enough to rouse them again, it was Monday…their last day together for a while…and they lingered in the bed in that gauzy, befuddled state between sleeping and waking. Neither of them was in a rush to face the reality of the day, both of them content in the little bubble they had created for themselves. Now and then one of them would mumble something that sounded somewhat like the need for packing, or breakfast, or getting back to the city; and eyelids fluttered open and then closed again, hands wandered lazily over backs, and lips kissed shoulders or arms off and on.

Once she was fully awake, Kate propped herself up on her elbow. "I need to pack. And I need you to take me to rent a car to drive back. Everything happened so fast I hadn't thought about that."

"I'm going to drive you back," he answered. "I'll hand deliver the chapters first thing Tuesday morning as a peace offering for Gina…try to calm the waters. It's much easier to work with someone with whom you can carry on a civil conversation. More importantly, it gives me more time with you."

"But you'll still be spending the summer here?"

"I need to work on the book, and it's easier here. I've told Black Pawn to stop expecting more than one book a year; so when they tell me what they want for a release date, I feel the need to deliver. They want this one out for the holiday season, and…"

"So your helping with my job is limiting yours?" There was a sound of distress in her voice.

"My choices again, Kate. I had done enough research for this whole series when I left last summer, but I like working with you and the guys. It gives my life more purpose. I feel like I'm contributing more than mystery novels. And I like being where you are. You make my day better."

"You make my day better, too." She looked thoughtful and hesitated before saying quietly, looking down at the covers, "You never know how you may touch somebody. For some people they're more than mystery novels."

Seeing her hesitation, Castle turned toward her and propped himself on his elbow, too. "Are you one of them?"

She nodded. "My mother was a big fan. She wanted me to read your books so we could talk about them; but I was a bull-headed teenager who was into much more serious stuff. I couldn't understand why a lawyer, a woman as bright as my mother, would be all excited about murder mysteries. After she was gone, I found them on her bookshelf and read them because they were things that made her happy. And she was right…as usual. I enjoyed them a lot. They made me feel closer to her, left me with a momentary feeling that justice might happen for her someday, like it did in the books. You did that for me when I needed her…and an escape and a little hope."

"Come here." He drew her next to him and held her tight. "I never imagined my books would do that for anybody. I'm glad it was you. Was that after your dad…?

She nodded against his shoulder. "I found them between Stanford and the summer semester at NYU. I didn't have anybody to turn to right then. So, you've been helping me longer than you knew."

"So, that charred around the edges copy of In a Hail of Bullets on your bookshelf?"

"That was hers. After the explosion I couldn't bring myself to throw it away."

"I wish…"

"No. I was a bigger mess then than I am now. It's better this way. And just to keep your ego going…and don't expect that to keep happening as often as it has this weekend by the way…the man is much better than his books."

"The man is happy when he's with you. It's enough of an ego boost that you want to be with him."

She kissed him gently, several times. "It's nine-thirty. I should pack. What time do you want to leave?"

"Want is a strong term. Is there a time you'd like to be back home? You have to be at work tomorrow morning."

"Before ten? The traffic will probably be terrible again, won't it?"

"Probably. We should leave around five. That should get us back by ten even if the traffic is at its worst."

"If I pack now, all we have to do is pick up my bag and leave when we're ready," she said, swinging her legs over the side of the bed."

He caught her hand before she stood and asked, "You're planning to come back here when you have time, right?"

"Yes. Did you think I might not?"

"No. Hopeful, remember? I was just thinking you should leave your clothes here. This morning, you can take care of washing anything that needs it and put it away in your room. When you come back, most of what you need will already be here."

"That makes sense."

"When can you take some time off again?"

"Theoretically I'm not working or on call the last weekend this month, but you know how that goes if we have an open case."

"Then we'll plan on it."

"If the case load works out, maybe I could get a couple of days off before the weekend. Could you stand an extra couple of days of me?"

"Any time…the whole summer."

"You do know this no arguments bubble is going to burst sometime, right? Sooner or later, we're going to get back to annoying the hell out of each other periodically."

"Yeah, I know. But we always get over it."

"Okay, Mr. Hopeful. You have my clothes living in your house without me, a promise that I'll be back as close to the last weekend this month as I can, and most of today left before I have to head back to reality. Anything else keeping me from the increasingly necessary trip I'd like to make to the bathroom?"

"That'll do for now," he conceded and laughed as he released her hand and she hurried into the master bath. He got up and went downstairs to start the coffee and was getting out things for breakfast when she came downstairs with her laundry.

"Do what you need to do with that. I'll take care of breakfast this morning."

She went to take care of her task, and he turned back to the job at hand.

After the meal and the laundry were taken care of, they spent several hours at the pool. They swam laps in lieu of Kate's run, sat and talked for a while, and went in the pool again to simply enjoy it.

"Next time I'll show you the sights around here, and we can walk on the beach without avoiding anybody. We'll go somewhere nice for dinner, and we can go shopping if you want. With two ex-wives, a mother, and a daughter, I'm well-trained for that. So is my credit card."

"That should be fun, but I'll still be here to spend time with you, not your credit card."

"I know. Maybe I just want to show you off."

"Just so you're not trying to get us on page six."

"I'll do my best not to, I promise."

They enjoyed the rest of the afternoon, and reluctantly left for home a little after five o'clock. Arriving at Kate's building, Castle parked the car and took her small duffel bag to her apartment for her.

She let them both into the apartment and sighed, "Back to reality. Thank you for this weekend."

"Even if we hadn't made this much progress on us, it would have been worth it to see you so relaxed. You need that now and then. You work way too hard."

"You do, too. You're there with me for most of it, then you go home to be a dad and stay up all night writing. You come to work with us after some of those nights, don't you?"

"Once in a while," he admitted. "But you forget how many ways I know to procrastinate when the writing isn't going as well as it did for the last couple of days."

"What will you do tonight?"

"I'll go back to the loft and correct the things you found when you proofed the chapters. I haven't seen the one you did in the car on the way home, but those were good comments on the first one. We make a good team at a lot of things."

"Do you want something to drink before you go?"

"I should let you get some rest. First day back after a break is usually busy. And if I stay, you might not be able to get rid of me."

"That wouldn't be the worst thing that could happen."

"Thank you for giving me a chance to prove myself."

"Same goes here." She wrapped her arms around his waist and nuzzled her face against his neck. "I'm going to miss you," she said softly.

"I'll miss you, too," he answered, holding her close, They stood that way for a moment before he pulled away enough to kiss her several times. "I should go. I've been a gentleman all weekend, and I'd hate to disappoint you now; but temptation is getting harder to ignore."

"Yeah, it is," she agreed, kissing him another time or two.

"Check on those extra days off tomorrow so somebody else doesn't get them first."

"I will. I have plenty of vacation days piled up, and Roy reminds me of them off and on. He may die of shock when I ask to use some of them."

"I'll take these chapters to Gina first thing and get back to the beach house. And, Kate, if anything suspicious turns up on page six, please trust me, no matter how they make it look. I'm not interested in anybody else."

"Neither am I." She looked up at him. "Just so you know… I know they wouldn't intentionally give anything away, but I'm not telling the boys about this weekend, and I trust Lanie to keep it to herself. Next time we're together, we don't have to worry about being covert."

"Unless there's another mission?" he asked with a grin and his bad Russian accent.

"Yeah, that." Kate grinned back.

"Lanie. We owe Lanie a lot. I want to do something for her. Do you think a spa weekend would appeal to her? I can send her a gift certificate for the place Mother and Alexis disappear to sometimes. They rave about it."

"Yeah, we do owe her, and I think she'd love that."

"Then, I'll take care of that tomorrow, too," he promised.

"And I'll take her shopping and buy her something new to wear when she goes."

He kissed her again. "Going now. See you in about three and a half very long weeks."

"Goodnight, Rick." She kissed him once more and then reluctantly backed away.

"Goodnight, Kate," he answered as he left.

On his way out of the building, the doorman asked, "Did you and Detective Beckett have a good trip?"

Keeping up their pretense, he answered, "Each of us did. I drove her where she needed to go on my way to the Hamptons and drove her back on my way home." Leaning toward him as if to share a confidence, he said quietly, "Maybe a trip before too long, though. I think I'm finally wearing her down." The doorman laughed, and Castle waved without looking back as he walked out the door and called out, "'Night, Leon."