Kate rolled her eyes when she saw Rick in the kitchen, looking at the food she was preparing for Thanksgiving. He dipped his pinky into the gravy then licked it off. "Castle!" she yelled. He turned to look at her, finger still in his mouth.
"Yeah?"
"I told you, no eating until Alexis and Grant get here." She swatted him in the butt. "Out of my kitchen."
"Does Grant have to come?" he whined as he got out of her way, sitting on a stool at the island.
She rolled her eyes. "Grant is her fiancé. Yes, he has to come. Luke is with my dad just so we can have a nice dinner without him screaming. Though, you're just as bad as he is sometimes."
"Cute," he said sarcastically when she compared him to their three year old son. "I just don't like it… Alexis is too young to have a fiancé."
"Please, she is 25. When you were her age, she was six years old and you had been divorced from her mother for two years."
"Exactly. Anyone under 30 should not make major life decisions. I'm proof of that."
"Alexis is not you, Rick," she said softly. "And Grant is a very nice young man."
"He's going to be a doctor," he said through gritted teeth.
Kate sighed. "He's going to save people's lives. You need to stop mindlessly hating everyone who's a doctor."
"Not everyone. Only male doctors. I watched all 10 seasons of Grey's Anatomy, he's going to be sleeping with nurses behind her back."
"That's like thinking just because I'm a woman working around a lot of men, that I'm cheating on you."
"That's silly though. Why would you cheat on me?"
"I wouldn't. I'm just pointing out, you have a double standard."
"I don't. I just don't trust men."
"And yet you are one," she said, rolling her eyes as she turned back to her cooking.
"Exactly."
She put down the spoon she was using to stir the potatoes and looked at him. "Are you admitting to cheating?"
He opened his mouth and closed it again. "Not on you. I'd have to be crazy to cheat on you."
She smiled and leaned over the counter to kiss him. "Your sanity can be questioned. But Grant would have to be equally crazy to cheat on Alexis."
"Thank you again for teaching her how to shoot a gun."
"Hey, I don't want my step-daughter living alone downtown unprotected."
"Most mothers would have just bought pepper spray."
"Yeah, well, I've only been doing this mother thing for a few years. Give me a break." There was a knock on the door and Kate smiled. "That would be Alexis and Grant."
Rick quickly began going toward the door, but she ran from the kitchen, cutting him off. "Be nice."
"I'm always nice."
She raised one eyebrow at him. "Castle," she said in a warning tone.
He sighed. "I'll try to not stab him with the carving knife." She let out an annoyed huff of air. "If the knife happens to slip from my hand and into his chest, it will be an accident."
"You really need to stop telling me your plans to kill people."
"If I stop, who will help me hide the body?"
Suddenly there was another knock on the door. "Dad?" Alexis' voice said from the other side of the closed door. "We can hear you."
Kate shot Rick an annoyed look before finally opening the door.