"So," Castle pauses as he goes to grab his coat off the back of his chair.
Beckett turns her head from the computer to look at him. "What's up, Castle?"
He looks down at his hands fumbling a little with the lapels in his hands. "Well, my mother is cooking tonight."
"Sounds good." He lets out a little laugh.
"You wouldn't say that if you had ever tasted anything she made." He then glances back up at her and the fumbling stops. He takes a deep breath in and says, "What I wanted to say — or rather ask — is if you would like to come for dinner?"
"You want me to taste how bad Martha's cooking is?"
"No, no, no! God, no, I don't want to put anyone through that. It's just that whenever my mother cooks, we end up ordering enough take-out for a small army." He shrugs.
"Oh," she shifts in her seat, "I'd love to come but I shouldn't impose on family dinner." She knows how little time he gets to spend with the two women in his life. They have such irregular and late hours most days. Seeing your friends or family more than two hours in the same week is always counted as a win in her book.
That's why she had agreed to meet her dad at their regular diner tonight when he had called her last weekend, complaining about how he missed seeing his little girl. He had proclaimed that he was sure she must have grown at least 2 inches since their last meal together. It had made her laugh and they had set up a date to be able to reassure him.
"No, you're not imposing!" Her attention whips back to the man in front of her. "It's not a big deal or anything like that. Mother just got it in her head that she wanted pasta carbonara and that her best option was to make it herself. I am predicting a lot of egg on the floor and the smell of burnt bacon."
She winces at the picture he is making of the mess. "I see why you would order in after that, then."
"So, you're coming?" Castle looks at her with so much hope shining through his eyes.
"Yeah." She turns back to her computer to save the report and then proceeds to turn it off.
As she goes to grab her purse and jacket she asks, "Can we get Thai?"
"Absolutely. And let's get some Italian, too, because now I actually want pasta carbonara."
As he clearly tries not to skip to the elevator, she takes out her phone and sends off a quick text to her dad: Hey, dad. It looks like I'm not gonna make it tonight. Breakfast at the diner tomorrow?
The reply comes quickly: Sure, sweetie. I'll be there at 7 :)
The next morning, she steps through the doors of the diner and spots her dad at their usual spot. He already has two cups of coffee in front of him. Bless him.
She steps up to kiss his cheek and he drops the paper he was reading to give her a proper hug. "Hey, Katie. How are you?"
"I'm good, dad. You?" She sits down across from him and immediately start gulping down the warm drink.
"I'm good." It's a beat before he asks her, "So, did you get to close the case that kept you at the precinct so late?"
Kate's cheeks turn pink and she chooses to look at her cup instead of her dad. She thinks back to last night, laughing with Alexis when Martha finally gave in and let Castle press 'order' on the take-out form he'd had prepared for the last hour.
"Er, it wasn't a case."
That's all she needs to say for her dad to understand.