Amanecer
For my favorite jetsetter. Siempre.
She likes to watch the sun rise.
A new day. A fresh start.
The first time she really watched it was in an airplane, sitting in the window seat for which she had jostled her father. Her face was pressed against the plexiglass even though Mom told her not to. Mom kept pulling at the back of her shirt to get her to sit back but Kate, the stubborn, rebellious thirteen year old that she was, swatted at her mother's hands until her dad just laced fingers with Johanna and let their daughter stick her nose right against the window.
Just as they dipped below the cloudline on their descent into LaGuardia, the sun peeked up over the horizon. It colors the sky orange and red, the warmth blending into the dark blues of the lingering night.
She's not in a plane now. Her mother's not sitting next to her, worried about germs on the windows.
She's in her garden, bare feet stretched out in the tiny hammock she managed to squeeze up on the rooftop. It's chilly, the breeze carrying the smell of garbage and pollution. Home. She pulls her legs up closer to the rest of her body, balancing the coffee mug on her knee.
"Found you."
His voice is rough with the morning and sleep. She sneaks one foot off the hammock, touches it to the cool tiles, and pushes off, setting the swing into motion. "I wasn't hiding."
He drags over one of the wrought iron chairs from her little table, turning it so he faces her. "What're you doing up here anyway?"
She gestures to the skyline, broken by the buildings around her apartment. "You'll see."
"Secrets," he sighs, fingers curling around the fabric of the hammock. "Don't like those."
And his face is so blank, so impassive that she shifts forward, touching his knuckles. "The sunrise, Castle. I'm here for the sunrise."
"Seriously?"
She levels a glare at him. "Go make me breakfast if you're gonna bash my morning rituals."
He quiets.
The sun's light leaks into the darkness, spreading fingers of gold between the buildings. The rays touch her skin, caressing her cheek and her bare feet. She tips her head to the side so it's balanced on the delicate edge of the hammock, a smile pulling at her lips as she turns into the sun. She can feel him looking at her, can sense it might be some mixture of love and wonder and so she has to glance down at him.
He's just as mesmerized as she is.
And she just needs to…
Kate sets the lukewarm coffee on the tiles of the rooftop garden and leans forward, fingers touching the soft ends of his hair, tripping over the curve of his ear. "See?" she whispers, not wanting to break the moment with loud words.
"It's magical," he returns.
She smiles, rocking a little in the hammock as she tries to shift her legs under her, laying out with her head closer to him. "Yeah, it kinda is."
As New York wakes up around them, they watch the newly-born sun trickle over the cityscape.
When she catches his shirt on a swing toward him and tugs his face down to kiss her, Kate can swear she tastes the sun.
