Chapter 3

It was late, and though it'd been through an ordeal, Rick's body didn't seem to care. He'd turned off his bedside lamp and lasted all of fifteen minutes before he had it back on again and a book in his hand.

He was a good man. He didn't doubt that, and he'd asked Kate to come and to stay with only the purest of intentions. He just hadn't realized how it would feel if she actually took him up on it, to have her that close and yet still so painfully out of his reach. It felt like a thing he hated: a great book with the wrong ending.

After unintentionally reading the same paragraph four times, he tossed the book aside. It didn't matter. It was one of his own. He was a good man, yes. He was also a vain man. For the second time, he extinguished the light, sank into the pillows, and pretended to be tired.

He spotted Kate not long after. In the virtual darkness, she didn't know she was being watched as she tiptoed along the bookshelves in his office, her phone in hand acting as a makeshift flashlight on her adventure. She wasn't tired either, apparently. She'd simply chosen to be more honest about it than he.

Rick let her be for a time. He couldn't help but find it sweet, whatever it was she was up to, like she was a child snooping for hidden Christmas presents. Eventually she crept past his open bedroom door, stopped on the far side and, after a moment, pulled a book from the shelf.

When she came by again, he finally spoke up. Unsurprisingly, he just couldn't help himself.

"Did Goldilocks find just the right one?"

"Jesus, Castle." Kate jumped, lost the book and her phone to the floor, set her palm over her stunned heart. "You scared me. I thought you were asleep." His light came on again as she was bending to gather what she'd dropped. When she stepped into full view, he had a smile on his face. "I guess you weren't."

"Nope, and I sure am glad about it. Nice robe."

It was Martha's. She'd insisted Kate have it for her stay, against Kate's attempts at a kind turndown. It was spotted like a leopard and screamed of its owner. Of its wearer, not so much.

Kate glanced down at her body and noted again how truly silly she looked. It was the robe and the workout clothes and the combination of the two. The result probably would've turned out better if she'd reached in and grabbed three random items from a closet blindfolded.

"Shut up, Castle. Like you can ever say no to your mother." She slid her phone into one of the robe's pockets. The book, however, she was stuck holding. "I was just… I couldn't sleep. I thought if I tried reading it might help."

"No, I get it," he said, nodding at the book beside him on the bed. "Didn't work for me." The smile returned because he could see exactly what was in her hand. "And what did you pick from my library to take to bed with you, Beckett?"

It was Heat Wave. Embarrassingly, she couldn't help herself, either.

"I told you, Castle. I needed help falling asleep. I figured what better words than yours?"

"Now that's not very nice." He wasn't at all offended, rather amused. "Would you like to come in?" Her lips that'd been closed parted ever so slightly. "Okay then," he followed when she made no move.

Kate stood there an awkward moment before speaking up. "It's late. I should-"

"Why aren't you at Josh's?" She hummed inquisitively, though she'd heard him. "You're here. You were considering going to go to your dad's. I'm just wondering why you didn't go to Josh's."

"Why does all my business have to be your business, Castle? It's not like you're some big sharer."

Rick raised his cast-free hand with her tone. "Okay, take it easy, please. I was only asking. If you don't want to tell me, don't. Excuse me for being a curious friend."

The only person who found that statement more ridiculous than she did was him.

"Yeah, I'm sure that's what you're being," she mumbled.

He straightened up in bed. "Fine, you want me to share? Go ahead, Beckett, ask me something. I'll tell you anything you want to know." Silence was all he heard. "Right. Okay, how about this? Speaking of books, how about I tell you what meeting you was like. Would you like me to share that? Good, here goes."

Kate tried to jump in, to offer him an out, because the tone of the conversation had taken a definitive turn for the worse, but he stomped all over it. "You don't have to-"

"It was like I was just going about my life," he began, cutting her off, "walking down some quiet street, whistling, minding my own business, when suddenly this old bookshop appeared, and in its front window was a single book, a book so beautiful that I couldn't just keep walking by. I had to go inside and see it up close. I had to touch it, hold it, smell it, everything. But when I did, I discovered it was locked. It wouldn't open. Now I couldn't leave it, though. I didn't know why, but I had to have it, like only I was supposed to. Like only I was supposed to have walked by that window and seen that book."

"Castle..." Kate's eyes were focused on the floor, not on him, because he would've seen. He would've known.

"So, I took it with me, and it wasn't easy, but eventually I managed to get through the lock, and I then started to read it. I found all these incredible words on its pages, words I'd never seen before, and the strangest thing happened, Beckett. Every time I thought I'd reached the last chapter, a new one would appear, and I could never put it down." He paused. That's when he won her eye. "I don't ever want to put it down."

Faced with a divulgence far heavier than she'd been ready for, she tried to take the cheap way out. "Books with magically appearing chapters, Castle? You definitely had too much to drink." Only she feigned amusement.

"You weren't supposed to meet someone," his heart lamented.

That was it. It seemed the unspoken, three-year dance they'd shared was over, and he was lucky. He was already sitting. Kate, on the other hand, suddenly and desperately wished she were.

She canted her body, propped it up against the shelf that framed the doorway, thought back to that day when she had to watch as he walked off with Gina into the Hamptons sunset. "So, what, I'm not allowed to have someone? I was just supposed to be alone forever?"

Rick kicked the covers aside and pushed out of the bed, slowly crossed the room toward her. Her pulse spiked with his every step, her breaths shallow and too many. Her lungs were nearly screaming when he finally stopped, so close.

"No," he said in answer to a question that though just asked already felt ages old. He reached out and took the book from her hands-the book he'd written for her, because of her-and tossed it onto the bed behind him without even turning, impressive given it'd been his lesser hand. "I'm not drunk, Kate. I'm regretful and envious, but I'm not drunk."

There was a tiny piece of white thread stuck to his t-shirt at the chest, and it kept drawing her focus. It would've been so simple for anyone else to do away with, but not for her. A touch wouldn't have been just a touch.

"Go to bed, Beckett," he told her after he'd unknowingly cranked her to full charge, and it had her so piqued that she took a handful of his shirt in a fist, pulled him in, and kissed him hard. When she let go, he raised a finger to his lip, checked it for any remnant of her bite, but found none. "Are you going to regret that in the morning?"

"It is the morning," she said and brushed his lips again with hers in refutation. Then she plucked the errant thread that'd fixated her and dropped it to the floor, turned, and walked off.

xxxx

Kate was last to join everyone in the kitchen the next morning, and she felt a bit like a teenage girl descending the stairs on prom night when she did; all heads turned, all eyes watched, Rick's being the only pair that cut away before she ever reached the lower landing. She knew that because he'd instantly taken hold of hers, and they weren't putting up any sort of a fight.

"Good morning, darling." Martha was the first to greet her, impossibly cheery for the hour. "How about some coffee, hmm? Alexis, pour Katherine a cup, would you? Cream or milk for you?"

Kate and Rick answered in unison, which, apparently commonplace, didn't stir a response in anyone but the two. One corner of Kate's lip curved upward. Rick's brow popped as he muttered something to himself. Neither of the others even batted an eyelash.

Alexis slid the mug she'd filled, and Kate helped herself to the stool beside her, while Rick was tending to scrambled eggs at the stove, and with overly keen interest. He hadn't looked in her direction again for a second.

"Oh, Dad, I forgot to tell you. I won't be home until late. I have student council stuff after school."

That perked Kate up. "I was on student council," she said. "I'm pretty sure I ran for it on a dare."

Martha snickered. "And just look at you now, doing good for an entire city, rather than just a measly school. You know, I think I kissed a boy on student council once," she added, her mind working diligently to call up the memory. "Oh, yes, I certainly did."

"I beg of you not to tell us about it, Mother," Rick chimed in as he continued to push a spatula around the pan. "Text me when you're on your way home, Alexis."

"I know, Dad. I always do, don't I?"

Martha stepped up to the counter, passed over the milk, spoke to Kate like they were the only two in the room. "Did you get any sleep? I know being in a strange bed can sometimes be difficult."

Suddenly, Rick became quite interested. "Mother, can you-Maybe she just wants to have her coffee in peace."

Kate realized after what'd happened between them, he didn't know how to be, and she found that charming, and usable.

"I'm a big girl, Castle, thanks. She was only asking," she tacked on for fun, and he stared her down for it. "I got a bit, yeah. You guys have made everything really comfortable for me. Thank you."

Martha extended a hand, rested it on top of Kate's. "Darling, you stay as long as you need to. We're all happy to have you, and this house is better for it."

"Eggs are ready," Rick announced. Alexis swallowed what remained in her glass of juice and jumped up, headed for the door. Martha took her coffee and her bowl of fruit and went back upstairs, leaving he and Kate alone. "And I guess no one wants eggs," he thought aloud.

"Maybe I want eggs," Kate said around her first sip of coffee. It wasn't her usual. It wasn't her with a cup at her desk, doing what she did best, but it tasted heavenly.

"Maybe you want something, but you're not saying? Well, color me surprised."

She had to bite at the inside of her mouth to keep from laughing. It wasn't that she'd woken up brave or without doubts about what she'd done. It was that he was so clearly unsure about how the hell he was supposed to act around her in the light of day that she couldn't let pass without a playful nudge.

"Oh, so you're actually talking to me now. I wondered how long you might try to go without. Not so long, Castle."

"That's what she said," he retorted as he dumped the entire heap of eggs onto a plate for himself. "You look incredible, by the way, considering." He sounded pained telling her so.

"And you look like you didn't sleep at all. Maybe have some eggs, Castle," she ribbed. "Hey, I need to go over to my place this morning, see if I have anything left to my name," she said after a moment. "I'll get Montgomery to clear it. Are you and that ridiculous red cast of yours going to come with me?" Their eyes met. "I want you to."

"Then we are," he replied, raised a forkful with his feeble left hand, and missed his mouth entirely.