Chapter 9

Kate pulled her robe from the hook on the back of the bathroom door and slipped her arms into the sleeves, left the ends of its sash hanging at her sides as she stepped up to the sink.

It was him looped clamorously in her brain, and each punch of the improbability struck mightier than the last. She'd seen the initials memorialized on the game's screen inside that pizzeria Tuesday morning, wondered-albeit doubtfully-if they could be his, but now she knew for sure, straight from the mouth that'd just transported her body to some unfamiliar height. R.E.C. was Richard Edgar Castle, a man she didn't know less than a week before as more than a scribble inside a book cover and a curious observation, but who'd since crashed into her life and begun to turn it upside down.

Twisting only the right knob, she let the cold water fill her cupped hands and splashed it over her face. "Dammit," she hissed when she carelessly dragged her fingers across the raw wound on her cheek. Reaching for the hand towel that hung beside the sink, she patted her eyes dry, opened them to find Rick's face in the mirror over her shoulder.

"Are you okay?" He reached around her for the towel, turned her body by the hips to face his, gently dabbed the tumbling droplets from her face. "Did I upset you?" She'd left the bed and the room with barely a word. His revelation had sucked the air from her lungs.

He'd put on his boxers but nothing more. His skin was the color of warm and his hair still stood this way and that from the occupation of her avid fingers. He looked like no dream she'd ever had.

Kate leaned back against the curve of the sink, wrapped her hands around its edge. "No. I'm sorry. It's just, this isn't me. I don't do this. All these things have been happening and I don't understand why, how."

Rick tossed the towel aside, and with his thumb swept away a stray bead from the ridge of her collarbone. "What things?" Even as he spoke, his mind raced with all the things that'd happened. Lady Raven's every seemingly insignificant word had come to pass, and in wondrous fashion. She'd pointed him the way of love. Standing there in that moment with Kate, he believed that. "Come here," he said and moved in for her when she gave no response.

Absent objection, he remained there with his arms around her, his skin pressed against hers. He could have remained there for hours, days, forever. "Are you actually here? Are you real?" Her lips tickled his shoulder when they finally moved.

He angled his head, kissed her neck, pulled back to meet her eye. "Did you feel that?" Moments ago, she'd asked the very thing. "You're the dream here, not me." She smiled softly. "Hey, what do you say we continue this conversation over some noodles? Detective, have you ever eaten lo mein the way it was meant to be eaten?"

"How is that exactly?" she asked dubiously.

"I'm so glad you asked. That would be straight out of the carton, with chopsticks, in the company of a sexy, world-famous novelist who thinks you're the most incredible woman he's ever met… also you're both naked."

Kate bit at her lip, tugged it lightly between her teeth, and sent him to fetch the menus.

xxxx

Rick reached out, lightly trailed his fingers across Kate's heart and down along the exposed skin between her breasts, following the vee of the floral robe of satin that hung loosely there. If only to heighten the anticipation of what was sure to follow, they'd traded naked dining for that with a smidgen of modesty, remaining in but one article of clothing apiece, and that decision-unspoken though it'd been-was indeed quietly serving that end well.

"I love this part," he remarked admiringly, his eyes locked with hers as he melted her with the compliment. "Don't get me wrong. I love all the parts, but I especially love this one."

"I bet you say that to all the cops," Kate kidded to a chuckle.

"Yeah, you should've seen how Officer Cole blushed when I laid it on him at the station the other day."

They were sitting beside one another on the floor in front of her couch with pillows beneath them, Rick's legs outstretched, Kate's tucked up to the side. At some point, she'd come around to face him and hadn't shifted back. The pleasure of the view had been too tempting to let pass.

Some of them empty and some not, cartons from their carpet feast were lined up between them, but the pair had long been finished with food, and for the better part of an hour had been enjoying conversation about simple, uncomplicated things and each other's company.

They didn't know it, but simple and uncomplicated was about to change.

"Have you ever thought that something was nothing but then nothing turned out to be everything?"

Kate crooked her head, narrowed her eyes in confusion. "Is that… Are you riddling me? Are you expecting me to be able to figure out what that means after all the food I just ate?"

"It's not a riddle. I'm asking because it's happening to me, with you." Rick settled his hand on her knee, began to caress it with his thumb. "Kate, I had a very bizarre experience this past Monday, and I'd basically written it off as a waste of time the minute I'd walked out, but being here with you now, I can't not believe it. It's exactly like you said about things happening that you don't understand."

Her heart thumped in her chest when his words wrapped themselves around it and squeezed.

"Believe what? What're you talking about?"

"Okay, I'm sure this is going to sound ridiculous, but my birthday present from my daughter this year was a visit to see a psychic. I know," he threw in preemptively, "but in my defense, I've been considering it for a while as research for a potential character in one of my books-mostly. Anyway, I went to this shop Alexis found and I met this woman with crazy-colored hair and fingernails like knives and she basically shouted words that meant nothing at me for fifteen minutes before she kicked me out."

Kate's body had tensed to the point that she had to force her jaw to unlock so she could get out the single word she was still trying to process.

"Psychic?"

"Believe me, when I left there, I thought she was anything but. I mean Lady Raven? That should've tipped me off right away. That was her name. I could've strangled Alexis. But then…"

Kate could feel her skin draining of color, becoming more and more pale, starting with her toes and working all the way up. And then he kept talking.

"These things she said, Kate, the words that meant nothing to me at the time, they started to make sense, and somehow they ended up leading me to you-the paint getting scratched on my car, and then filing the report about it at the 12th precinct where it turns out you work. She specifically told me the number twelve. And now tonight I find out that your new case was at Big Anthony's? I think Alexis and I are the only two customers that place has had in years. And it has the Pac-Man game, with the ghosts! Lady Raven said ghosts were chasing me. How could I not think the universe is telling me that being here with you is exactly where I'm supposed to be?"

She didn't know how, but Kate found the strength to stand up and then the voice to speak. "I think you should go, Rick. I can't do this. I need to-I need you to leave."

He got up, too, wanted to reach for her, but quickly understood from her posture that he shouldn't. "Can't do what? I'm sorry. Can you tell me what just happened?" She backed away. "If you want me to leave, I'll leave, but I don't want to leave like this, not after the night we've had."

"We don't have anything," she snapped. "We don't even know each other."

His chin dropped for a few beats before he looked up again. "Right. So, I guess nothing turned out to be nothing then."

He went off to the bedroom and dressed, left the apartment without another word, and when the door closed behind him, the immediate ache she felt inside was far from nothing.

xxxx

He'd called. He'd texted. Kate had expected neither, responded to none.

It wasn't because she hadn't wanted to. She had. The want had eaten at her all week. Every time his name had popped up on her phone-it'd been many-her mind had flashed to his smile, to the way his brilliant blue eyes had devoured her naked body, to that intoxicating rumble in his voice, and it'd taken every bit of self-restraint for her to leave it be. Want was a problem only because she had so much of it. Unfortunately, the same was true of fear.

"I just brought out the whole damn bottle if you're going to be mopey like this all night," Lanie announced, appearing from the kitchen with it tucked under her arm and a glass with a generous pour in each hand.

Like Rick, Kate hadn't talked to her all week either, but had stopped at her place after work Thursday night on the way home. Of course, as always, her best friend knew something was up. Radio silence wasn't their norm, even in their most hectic of weeks.

"I'm not mopey, I'm tired. It's been a long day, okay?"

"What, like I sat around all day in my jammies and ate bonbons? Every day's a long day, for everyone. Talk about tired. That excuse is tired." She swallowed down a good sip of pinot noir. "Are you going to tell me what's going on, why you've been avoiding me, or am I going to have to guess? Neither of us'll enjoy that game, I can promise you that."

Kate hadn't told her about Rick. Any of it. The last thing Lanie had heard was that he'd been invited to dinner. That felt like a lifetime ago.

Kate fiddled with the base of her glass, spinning it back and forth, shoved a hand through her hair. "Lanie, have you ever been sure about something there's no reason you should be sure about?" Lanie eyed her with the puzzlement the cryptic inquiry warranted, which Kate noted. "I mean, have you ever just known something somehow, but you can't explain why you know it?"

"Okay, first, I'm glad I brought the bottle. And second, what're we talking about here? You've said the same thing twice and I still don't get it. Spit it out. Use words a kid would understand."

With an inhale, Kate tore off the Band-Aid. "Rick. I slept with Rick."

"Rick who?"

"Rick, the mailman. What do you mean 'Rick who?' Rick Castle."

Lanie held up a single finger, chugged her glass nearly dry. "Yeah, I knew. It's just fun watching a control freak lose it for a sec," she smirked around a heavy breath. "So, sex with the writer-man. What happened to just dinner? And more importantly, you waited almost a week to spill this? Girl, what in the-"

"There's more. There's a lot more."

"Oh, there better be a lot more. When? Where? How? I've seen the man. I definitely know why." That curled Kate's lip. "Was his bedtime story as good as his Scooby-Doo mysteries?"

Kate slid her a look. "You know, sometimes I really do wonder why I like you so much." Lanie batted her lashes. "It was that night, the night he came over for dinner. We just ended up eating dinner a little later than I thought we would. And yes, because I know you'll never shut up about it unless I say it, it was good. It was… very good."

Lanie poured some more wine in her glass to wash the news down with. "All of this sounds good, very good. What's the rest? And what exactly are you sure you're not sure about or not sure you're sure about or whatever that mess was?"

"You won't even believe it when I tell you." Kate leaned back in her chair, shook her head. Even after a week, it was still beyond her comprehension. "We were sitting there after, Lanie, just talking about nothing, and he started telling me about the birthday gift his daughter just got for him, about how his wanting to go was mostly about book research and a new character maybe and how he thought it was all BS at first-"

"Are you writing a book here? Lord in heaven, woman, please."

"Rick was at Lady Raven's, Lanie. A couple of days after we were there, he was there, and everything she told me was the exact same stuff she told him. Every word. And now…"

Lanie just burst into laughter.