Castle knew he shouldn't have opened the door. He could sense the bloodsuckers were down the hall, he knew better than to ignore his 6th sense. However Alexis was at her friend's house so he had no reason not to deal with these two. Gina and Paula had been going back and forth about the new book release. They wanted to send him on a tour ending in New York. They weren't really letting him get a word in but it wouldn't make a difference anyways. They had been at this for over an hour, he went over the details with them but they wouldn't let it go without him saying yes.
"Look I don't know my schedule in a couple months let alone next week!" He was standing across the room from Gina and Paula, his hands were flailing in frustration.
"What do you mean you don't know about your 'schedule' Rick. You have no schedule, you sit around and play with your toys while you procrastinate." He could hear the bite in Gina's voice when she said toys.
"I'm talking about Alexis it's her summer; I can't just leave her and don't want to drag her around with me."
Gina interrupted him, "No this is not about Alexis Rick, not entirely." Paula and Rick looked at her shocked. "How long have I known you Rick? This is about a girl. Don't try and deny it I've seen that look before." They both knew it was how he used to look at her.
His silence said everything, as did his face.
"Okay fine Rick, we'll drop this for now but you better figure things out with this girl because this tour is happening," with that they left. Rick shook his head, he had a feeling he wouldn't ever be able to figure Kate out.
Kate had finally given in Lanie's attempts for girl's night that is how they ended up in Kate's kitchen with an almost empty bottle of wine.
"So I heard you had a visitor at the precinct the other day?" Kate wasn't surprised that Lanie brought Rick up but she was surprised that it took her this long. She hadn't talked to her about Rick yet but word got around in the precinct, especially when one of your detectives had a crush on Lanie.
"Where'd you hear that from? Espo?" Kate raised one eyebrow and pursed her lips.
"Yes. We'll get to that in a bit, you aren't going to avoid this forever."
"Remember when I went to baseball game with my dad? Well I was headed to the bathroom when…" She went on to tell Lanie about meeting Rick and the events from the other day. She kept his last name a secret, she knew Lanie would freak out when she learned who Rick was and she wanted to wait until they met in person and Lanie put together herself.
"Good for you, I've been telling you, you need to go out and have some fun."
"You should take your own advice and stop leading Esposito on. You know you want to."
"I know that, and you know that but he doesn't not need to know that."
Kate chuckled and shook her head she heard her phone ringing. She saw it was Castle, hesitated before answering. She wanted to answer but with Lanie in the room, who knew what he wanted. She looked at Lanie out of the corner of her eye that was a mistake. Lanie saw her hesitance, "Oh just answer it, already."
She thought to herself for another moment and decided to just go for it, "Beckett."
"Hello detective I hope I'm not disturbing you."
"Yeah actually, I'm standing in the middle of a crime scene so make it fast."
"Really?" She could hear the excitement in his voice, "What's it like? Can you describe it? Is the body in seedy motel? Or in a creepy place? How were they killed?"
"Woah woah slow down there, I was just kidding. Who knew you would get so excited over something like a crime scene? Should I be worried about you?"
"Hey I only kill people in my books. I'm mystery writer remember?"
"Yes I remember, what do you want c-Rick." She almost said Castle but didn't want to alert Lanie, "I do have company over."
"Oh, okay sorry I'll let you get back to your date…" She heard the disappointment in his voice.
"That's not what I said, not that it's any of your business but it's girl night. As I said earlier what do you want?" She heard the relief wash over him in the phone. Why would Rick care if she was on a date? Why did want him to know she wasn't on a date? Why did she care? No, she didn't care; she had only met him a couple days ago, sure they had seen each other recently but his daughter was there both times. She knew they had a few moments but this is Richard Castle she's talking about, the known bachelor there is no way he could want her.
"Well I was wondering what your plans were for the night after tomorrow? I wanted to take you out on an official date. This time without my daughter." Well she got her answer. Richard Castle wanted to take her out. Did he like her? She couldn't think about that now. He was waiting for an answer and Lanie was still watching her.
"I would love to," a small smile formed on her lips, Rick could hear it in her voice.
"Would you, how about that. Well I will let you get back to your girls night, don't get too wild." She could hear the smirk in his voice. She hung up the phone and sat back down next to Lanie.
"What would you love to do?"
"It looks like we need to go dress shopping tomorrow."
They had gone to two stores, looked through every dress they could find. There was nothing. This was why Kate hated shopping, She wasn't a high maintenance girl, she was proud of that. All she needed were a good pair of heels, pants and a good jacket. She didn't even spend lots of time on her makeup usually, just a light lipstick and some eye liner. Despite her typical low maintenance personality she liked getting dressed up and looking her best, which is how she found herself in the third store after searching for the last 4 hours for the perfect dress.
"This man must really be something if you are going to all this trouble to find an outfit," Lanie pointed out, she was on the other side of the clothes rack flipping through the clothes. They each had a few items on their arms for Kate to try on.
"I just met him Lanie, this is our first official date. Is it wrong for me to want to look I own more than just professional clothes?"
"No but you never looked this hard, and you know some of those outfits earlier would make any man's heart stop."
Kate looked at her she debated for a minute. She didn't want to tell Lanie who it is but she knew she had to give her something or she would not stop. Well that's not entirely true, she knew if she really didn't want to talk to something Lanie wouldn't push it.
"Rick is unpredictable, he's not like any of the other guys I've gone out with before."
Lanie nodded, "I think we got enough for you to try on now so let's go see if there is a winner."
Kate tried on the first few dresses Lanie picked out; none of them were what she was looking for. She really didn't understand why she was trying so hard. This wasn't like her. She couldn't think about it right now, she would file it away until she could think about it later, along with why he asked her out in the first place. She tried on yet another dress when she turned and looked in the mirror she knew. This was the one.
Kate stood in front of the mirror her hair was curled and flowed down her shoulders, her eyes had the smoky look brining out the green in them her lips had just a little lip gloss that was a nude color but shimmered. There were a few butterflies in her stomach but they weren't nervous butterflies they were excited. Okay well maybe they were a little nervous. She was just putting on her heels when she heard the knock on the door.
She opened it up and there was Rick, standing in slacks, a blue button up shirt and a black jacket. Semi-formal attire but still no clue as to where they were going. According to the way he was dressed she was neither over nor under dress. She looked up and saw him staring at knew that this was the right dress to wear.
Rick had the car wait downstairs; he took the flowers and headed up the elevator. He was a few minutes early, he tried to stall as long as possible because one thing he's learned from his past is that girls are never ready on time. He stood in front of her door for a minute or two before knocking, he would've stood longer but didn't want one of the neighbors to see and think he's a stalker.
What seemed like minutes but was merely seconds when the door opened. He stared at her, forgetting all about the flowers. She wore a little black number that hit mid thigh, showing off her legs but still leaving some to the imagination and imagine he did. One shoulder was open showing off her collarbone and the other had a sleeve that flowed down her arm. It was the perfect combination of flirty, sexy and teasing. He had to remind himself not to stare.
"You look beautiful," he said taken back. He held out the purple daisies, "Here these are for you."
She gave him a smile, "I'll just put these in the kitchen, come on in."
He followed behind her, he noticed her apartment looked pretty much the same as the other day when he was here. Well duh it would look the same it was only a few days ago, he really needed to get together if this date was going to go well.
"So where are we going?" She stood next to him with purse in hand ready to go.
"No way, this is a surprises. My lips are sealed." He zipped is mouth shut with his fingers and turned them like he locked them shut.
"You do realize I'm a detective. I have ways of making people talk when they refuse to."
His eyes widened for a split second before turning them into a smirk so she wouldn't miss his meaning, "I'm sure you are very good at getting people to do what you want them to.
She rolled here eyes and walked ahead of him, "Come on let's just go."
He quickly caught up to her, linked his arm with hers and led her to the car.
A/N: Any ideas on the date? If someone guesses right I will post the next chapter early :) Tell me what you think please!
