AN: Like always, tell me your honest opinion/thoughts on this chapter or the whole fanfic. Enjoyy xx


Chapter 7


The past three days had been a rollercoaster ride for her emotions. She was about to meet Alexis and Richard Castle for a movie night… at their house. What the hell had she been thinking?

She might not be Alexis' teacher but she was a teacher after all and she should keep her distance and not fall for the first single parent that she met. No matter how good-looking and caring he seemed to be, or how charming he was and how perfect his shirts fitted his upper body... she shouldn't be doing this.

Right after dismissing her class on Friday, she went right back home to get herself prepared for the evening.

For the past few days Kate had been thinking about how to get out of this arrangement but all ideas she had come up with would have left a pretty upset Alexis behind and that she didn't want to be responsible for.

Dressed in a casual pair of jeans and a perfectly fitting purple blouse and her favorite black leather jacket, she arrived at the address little Castle had given her the day before.

She stood right in front of their door, taking a moment to prepare herself mentally. 'Last chance to back down, Kate...'

Inhaling deeply, she knocked once and waited. After what felt like an eternity but was only a few seconds, the door was been opened by a happy and excited red-haired bundle of energy who pulled her into the loft.

„Miss Kate! You came!", she exclaimed while throwing herself into Kate who was caught of guard but found her footing back quite quickly and hugged the little girl back.

„Daddy is getting started on dinner! We can play with my dolls and Monkey-Bunkey now."

„Your dad cooks?" Kate was surprised. She had been pretty sure that people like Richard Castle who maintained a playboy lifestyle would not be spending time in the kitchen. But again, she also hadn't known that he had a daughter that he obviously cared about. Maybe this playdate in the loft wasn't that bad after all. It would give her the perfect opportunity to get to know the real Richard Castle some more without getting too close to him. Not that she wanted to get to know him of course...

„Oh he does, Daddy loves cooking", she chatted happily while pulling Kate further into the loft.

Kate was looking around in amazement, she knew that Castle was well-off but this loft was enormous. And he had decorated it quite well, a woman, probably his mother, must have had some saying in that, she supposed.

„Miss Kate, we might have to check up on Daddy at the end. Last time he was cooking alone, he burned our food and we had to order in.", she giggled which caused Kate to laugh.

„Oh we don't want that, Alexis, do we?" Right then, Richard Castle appeared wearing a cute apron with the inscription 'Kiss the cook'. Of course he would choose such an apron to wear.

The sleeves of his wine-red shirt, which fitted him perfectly and emphasized his muscular upper arms, were pushed up to his elbows, making him look even more attractive to her.

„Alexis, what are you telling our guest? It happened once! And only because your grandma was supposed to look over the pot while I had to take a call! It was her fault!" he pouted.

„ , just make sure it doesn't happen again. We don't want to order-in, do we?" Kate grinned sassily. Where did that come from?

"First of all, it's Rick and second, I have many talents and cooking is definitely one of them. Just wait until you taste my famous Mac n' Cheese a la Castle. You will be praising me all evening long", he smirked teasingly, but she kept the game on.

„In your dreams, Rick.", emphasizing the `ck´sound.

"Look at my life, my dreams come true." He smirked, causing Kate to blush and hastily look down to avoid looking at him.

Alexis was obviously bored watching the two adults battering back and forth and ignoring her in the process. She grabbed Kate's hand again and pulled her towards the stairs.

„Okay Daddy, that's enough! We have to go now! Do your cooking and don't burn anything."

Alexis pulled Kate up the stairs and lead her towards her room which had 'Alexis' written on it in pink letters. There were several of her drawings hanging on the door too.

"Come on Kate, look, this is my room. We can sit here on the floor. Do you know how to play tea-party?

Kate was looking around. Alexis' room was decorated beautifully. She had quite a lot dolls and stuffed animals sitting on her bed and on her small princess-couch. Some of her stuffed animals were wearing tiaras while others had some wings on them. She had everything a little girl could ask for. There were some more of her drawings pinned on her wall.

"I actually love to have teaparties, I used to have them with my Dad and my favorite stuffed elephant named Jasper when I was your age." she said and could literally feel Alexis' excitement sweeping out of every pore of her body.

"Ohh, Grams and Daddy play teaparty and princesses with me. But Daddy always refuses to wear the wings, so I have to force them on him. That's no fun." Alexis pouted adorably causing Kate to giggle.

"Don't worry, we will get him to wear his wings and the tiara. He can't attend a teaparty without both items, can he?", she high-fived Alexis who seemed to be pretty content with her answer. She was dying to see playboy extraordinaire Richard Castle all dressed up in fairy wings and a tiara on. And just to see that happening, she would gladly come back for another teaparty any time.

"You can sit here, next to Monkey Bunkey and Princess Snow-White. You already know Monkey-Bunkey, he will take good care of you!", she guaranteed her in the cutest way. Never would she have thought that Alexis could be any cuter, but every time she was convinced of the opposite.

They played tea-party for quite some time until Rick called out for Alexis, telling them that dinner was ready.

While descending the stairs Kate was thinking about ways to get out. This did not feel right, she had played with Alexis but having dinner and watching movies with them was too overwhelming. What had she been thinking?

Richard Castle had already set the table and placed his famous Mac n' Cheese right in the middle of the sleek and expensive looking oak table. Alexis ran right towards her dad and hugged his waist tightly. Castle gently stroked her hair before she let go of him and returned to Kate's side again.

"There you are! Get ready for the best Mac n' Cheese you've ever tasted, beautiful ladies. Your taste buds are going to explode from this magical food experience". He grinned at Kate while taking his apron off causing his shirt to ride up for a second exposing some bare skin. Kate tried her hardest not to keep staring at him. Look at him, he was already flirting with her, showing off his playboy persona... apparently Page Six wasn't exaggerating that much.

Alexis pulled her towards a chair right next to hers. Too late, she couldn't get away now.

Castle handed her a plate of homemade Mac n' Cheese. She had two pairs of ocean-blue eyes watching every move of her now. She took the first bite and had to try very hard to suppress a moan. He was right, this was soo good!

"It's okay, thanks for not burning it.", she tried to play it down, but Castle who seemed to have looked through it just started grinning.

The dinner went by quite smoothly, thanks to Alexis, who was happily telling her father how much fun it was to play tea-party with her.

After dinner Alexis pulled Kate towards the living room, leaving Rick back to do the dishes. She plopped down on one corner of the long and comfy couch.

"What movie do you want to watch? Daddy told me that because you are the guest, you get to decide."

"Sweetheart, I'm not picky, you can choose. We will just tell your Daddy that I've chosen it!", she winked at Alexis who giggled while moving towards their DVD collection. The Castle's seemed to own every single children movie that had been released in the past 10 years.

"Can we watch Frozen? Daddy hates watching it because he thinks we have already watched it too often but I haven't watched it in forever! Pleaseeeee?", Alexis looked at her with puppy eyes.

"Of course, we can. Tell you what? I haven't watched that movie yet! And you can't watch a Disney movie 'way too often', not possible."

She grinned at Alexis who jumped up and down in joy, putting the disc into the player and returning to the couch.

"I've got some ice cream for all of us! No movie night without some snacks or ice-cream", he said while placing the bowls into the waiting hands of a hyperactive Alexis and an amused Kate. "What movie are we watching? Toy Story? Snowwhite and the Huntsman? No, Bambi!", he exclaimed excitely.

Kate hadn't seen this childish side of him before. He had let it slip once or twice while they were having dinner but most of the time he was either listening to the stories Alexis had to tell or trying to flirt with her.

Alexis and Kate grinned and pointed towards the big, curved flat-screen TV which was displaying the title of the movie they were about to watch in huge letters. As soon as he noticed which movie they would be watching, his face fell and he started pouting.

"But Alexiiis, we watched this movie like a million times already...", he crossed his arms in front of his chest like a nine-year old who was about to throw a tantrum and let his body plop onto the couch, having Alexis sitted between Kate and himself.

"Deal with it , Castle!", Kate countered sassily while taking a scoop of ice cream out of her bowl and eating it slowly. Alexis grinned at her father and added.

"Yeah, Daddy, deal with it! Kate hasn't watched it and you said she could choose the movie!"

"Alright, alright! How can I win against this!", he gave up and gently tickled Alexis. "But next time it's my turn to choose!"

They got comfortable on the couch while the opening of the movie was playing, each of them enjoying their ice cream in silent.

Kate was still surprised that Richard Castle owned that many different kinds of ice cream flavors.

Some minutes into the movie, Alexis turned towards Kate and softly put one hand over Kate's.

"You can hold my hand when you get scared. I don't mind! I've watched this movie a lot of times with Daddy, I don't get scared anymore. I'm a big girl now.", she said proudly. Kate turned her hand around so that she was holding Alexis' hand now, giving it a gentle squeeze.

"Alexis, what about me? Who's going to hold my hand when I get scared?", Castle started pouting and faked some sadness.

"Daddy, don't be silly! You are a big boy now, you can handle it!"

"Yes, Rick. Man up, nothing to be afraid of", Kate countered teasingly.

"I don't like you girls teaming up on me, that's not fair!", he kept pouting.

They watched the movie in silence. Once in a while Castle would try to imitate Olaf, making Kate and Alexis laugh in process. During the whole movie Alexis refused to let go of Kate's hand and found herself snuggling even more into Kate. Kate put her arm safely around Alexis, being careful not to brush Castle's arm, which was lying on Alexis' lower leg, drawing little patterns on her leg. At the end of the movie Alexis was fast-asleep. Kate and Rick sat in silence for several minutes, neither knowing what to say. Rick didn't want to push her away by asking if she would like to stay some more and Kate didn't know how to get away without making it any more awkward.

"I'll carry my little sleepy Princess into her room", he said and moved forward to lift Alexis up. During this his fingers gently brushed her upper arm, sending shivers down her spine. How could a simple touch like that be so electrifying?

With Alexis safely in his arms, Castle ascended the stairs, leaving Kate all alone in his living room. What should she do now? Would it be weird to wait for him? She had agreed to meet Alexis, not him... But if she just got up and left, wouldn't it be unpolite?

Several minutes were passing and Kate's panic started to grow. She got up and slowly put her jacket and shoes on.

'If I leave now, he won't even notice and we can avoid the awkwardness.'

She was about to open the door to let herself out when a hectic, out-of breath voice called out for her.

"Wait, Kate... Would you like to stay for a glass of wine?"


AN: Ohh what is Kate about to do? Will she open the door and run or will she stay? 'Love is an open door' after all... This chapter is named after a Frozen song actually, in case you haven't noticed. And I think the title of that song suits this chapter in every possible way, think about it hehe

I'll be back next week. Stay safe.