A/N: First, thank you to anybody who reviewed/followed/favorited. It means a lot to me. Now, this second chapter is super short because, in my opinion, 1x02 doesn't have a ton of subtext material, but hopefully you'll like it anyway. I'm hoping that as I go on, there will be more material for me to write, and we all know the subtext only gets thicker, so if you'll excuse me these first few. Again, review please. Now enjoy! (This scene is when they go to the park to find Chloe, the other nanny and start talking about marriage.)
"What?" Castle was looking at her, confused. She wondered what her face looked like.
"Nothing. I just never figured you for Mr. Mom." Wow, did she really just call him 'Mr. Mom'?
"Some of the best days of my life." His voice was devoid of sarcasm, and Kate could tell that he was telling the truth. His face changed when he talked about his daughter. It was endearing.
"It's actually kinda nice." For once he wasn't being the wisecracking jackass. Sincerity suited him, she thought, but then he ruined it.
"Tell me about it. Do you know how many lonely single mothers there are on a Manhattan playground?" She gave him a look of disdain that he ignored. "And there I was, between marriages." It was almost as if he was proud of that fact. She was curious, so she asked.
"Exactly how may times have you been married Castle?" In truth, she had always steered clear of that particular section of his About Me page on his fan site.
"Twice."
"That's it?" Somehow she'd figured that number might have been higher, bust she surprised herself by being glad it wasn't. Why did she even care?
"Isn't that enough? How 'bout you?"
"Me? No never been." Kate did not like where this was headed.
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"You'd be good at it. You're both controlling and disapproving. You should really try it." Of course, she thought, that would be his interpretation on wives. For a second she thought that he just hadn't found the right woman yet, but that led down a dangerous path, s she pushed it aside.
"I'm not an 'if at first you don't succeed' kind of girl, Castle. When it comes to marriage I'm more of a one and don type." Why was she telling him this?
"Hmm, any serious candidates?" Castle was looking at her intently and she wasn't sure of his motive for asking. Was this about his book, or was he genuinely interested? Either way Kate really didn't want to answer that particular question. Her love life was private, and she definitely wasn't going to spill everything to him just so he could drudge it up to lend an emotional side to his character, not that she didn't want whatever character he was writing to have an emotional angle, just not one that ripped her privacy to shreds.
She looked around desperately for some distraction, any way to get out of answering the question. That's when she saw the red vest they were looking for.