Chapter 19: Love Me Dead
He woke up and almost felt surprised by Kate's head leaning heavily into his shoulder. He tried not to startle her, but he couldn't help but wake up with a bit of a jolt. He is still amazed by how much of your identity sleep can take away. It puzzled him when he was younger, but he really became conscious of it when he had Alexis. He could wake up and just for a brief second forget who he was. Then he would feel Meredith wrap her arms around him and Alexis would cry or come running in and jumping onto their bed, and he would wonder how he had forgotten all of it. But waking up to a baby screaming or a toddler literally jumping on top of you, that's quick; now, it can take him much longer to become fully aware. It doesn't help that Kate isn't a close sleeper. They normally fall asleep facing each other, but while sleeping pull away. So when he wakes up and Kate is leaning on him, he wakes up with a start, coming to way faster than usual. He likes this better, because he feels so lonely in that blur sometimes. Once he relaxes again he smiles and places his hand back around her shoulders and his other hand on hers, on top of his chest.
He almost falls back asleep, but then is pulled back by a rummaging noise. He opens his eyes and looks over to the sound, as much as he can without waking up his sleeping partner. It takes him a moment to spot the source of the sound, which turns out to be Lux. She is opening one of the chests on the bookshelf and shuffling some papers around, then moving to another chest. He lies back and taps Kate's shoulder to gently wake her. She slowly opens her eyes, then squints at him, but smiles, coming out of her own dream state. "Hmm?" She hums in a questioning tone.
He quietly sits up, so she does the same. He points to the bookshelf, so she too sees Lux looking through Castle's office desk. She sits up, keeping a blanket tucked under her arms. She holds her head in her hand and squints as she questions, "Lux?"
Lux slams the door shut, straightening to look for the origin of the voice. She eventually looks in through the bookcases and meets eyes with Kate.
"What are you doing?" Kate asks, tiredly suspicious.
"I-I was looking for my papers," Lux stumbles.
Kate frowns as if she may not be awake enough to understand the English language, "Your papers?"
"I mean my last English paper," Lux corrects.
"Why would it be in Castle's desk?"
"Or on the bookcase?" Castle adds.
"I looked everywhere else already," Lux answers, still a little bit flustered.
"Did you find it?" Kate asks, still skeptical of Lux's riffling.
"No, not yet," Lux shakes her head, "but I haven't checked upstairs yet."
"You didn't start upstairs?" Castle asks, referring to the fact that that is where Lux's bedroom is.
"Yeah, you should probably start there considering that's where your stuff normally is," Kate says trying to keep from laughing at her.
"I'll be sure to do that," Lux says, before running up the stairs.
They both listen to her run up the stairs, before Castle says, "What-"
Kate shakes her head and looks back at him, " I have no idea."
...
Kate walks into the kitchen, where Lux is riffling through cabinets, only settling when she finds a box of chamomile tea. Kate takes a seat on one of the bar stools. When Lux turns around, she smiles at Kate then goes on with her business.
Kate interlaces her fingers in front of her and smiles a cunning smile, "Lux?"
"Yup," she perks up at, like a dog with a whistle.
"What were you doing this morning?" Kate asks, trying and failing to keep the interrogation tone out of her voice.
Lux raises her eyebrows, ready to play, "What were you doing this morning?"
Kate purses her lips for a second, not letting her get a rise out of her. "Ha ha, nice try, I'll ask again. What were you doing this morning?"
Lux melts into a serious expression the same way it does when she's in trouble, "I-I told you I was looking for my papers."
"School papers?" Kate asks, still confused by Lux's morning thought process.
"Yeah," Lux nods. She quickly moves on. "Did you want some tea?"
Kate stares at her skeptically, before pulling her hair to the side to flop over her shoulder and answer, "No, thanks."
…
"Hey Alexis?" Lux asks, popping her head into Alexis' room.
"Yup," Alexis answers.
"Can you help me with something?"
"Sure, what is it?"
"I want to surprise, Kate and Castle with something, but I don't know how to do it."
"What is the something?" Alexis asks, coyly knowing that Lux purposely left that detail out.
Lux walks over and gently sits at the foot of Alexis' bed. "I want to ask them to adopt me."
Alexis lights up, "Really."
Lux reflects the enthusiasm at only a slightly lower degree, "Good to know you're excited, but I have racked my mind for the last two days on how to surprise them."
"Okay well my dad is harder to surprise, than Kate. You will surprise her by just asking in the first place."
"Maybe I should just do that then," Lux says, looking for the way out.
Alexis is sure that Lux is not one for surprises of any kind, a 'life has enough of those on its own' type mentality. So she tries to find the in between, not even, if anything it tips generously into Lux's favor. "Do you have the papers?"
"Yeah, I found them this morning."
"When do you get out of school tomorrow?"
Lux's face deflates at the possibility of some grand gesture, "Two-fifty, why?"
"You could surprise her at work. I could pick you up and drive you to the precinct."
"And?" Lux asks, still waiting for the punch line.
"Surprising her at work seems like enough."
"Really?" Lux asks, still used to the theatricality and seemingly thrilled with the lack there of.
…
When Kate comes into the bullpen she immediately spots Lux. She steps away from the boys and Castle. "Lux, what are you doing here?"
"Visiting, thought maybe you could use a break."
Kate smiles a quick smile, then glances at Castle. She turns back to Lux, "That's very sweet, but we were actually about to head home."
Lux's smile suddenly melts into an anxious expression. "I actually needed to talk to you," Lux confesses.
A little nervous now, Kate crosses her arm and softly agrees, "Okay."
Lux sits down in Castle's seat, swinging her backpack around to rest it against her shins. Kate follows her lead and sits down at her desk, turning in her chair to face her daughter. She knots her fingers together and places them on her lap, "What's up?"
Lux looks up from her backpack. It seems to take her a moment to decide what to say or where to start. "So… It's going to be my birthday again."
Kate smirks, allowing her to stall, "Look, Lux, I already got all your presents."
"No, it's not that. Well it's kind of that. I mean, I was just wondering," Lux pulls a manila folder out of her backpack as she continues, "If you could get me something."
Kate is about to make a snarky comment, somewhere along the lines of 'how is this not what I thought?', but Lux hands her the folder with a serious face on so she resists. She takes the folder from Lux and suddenly gets a sense of déjà vu, which gives her a sharp ping of fear. She opens it cautiously, but is happily surprised to see what the stack of papers is. She only pulls them out about halfway, before a smile spreads across her face as she puts the packet down on her desk. She lets out a soft huff, "Lux…" She puts her head in her hands and it takes her a minute to collect herself, before she can ask, "Where did you get these?"
"Fern gave them to me a couple of months ago, for when I was ready."
Kate looks up from the papers, giving her puppy dog eyes. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah," Lux smiles a quick smile, then frowns, "Are you?"
"Yes, definitely," Kate quickly lets out, squeezing Lux's hands tightly. Her expression suddenly switches from overjoyed to lighthearted, "They're the papers aren't they?"
Lux scrunches her brow, giving Kate an amused smirk, "Yes, they are in fact adoption papers."
Kate laughs as she lets go of Lux's hands, "No, the papers you were looking for."
"Oh, yeah," Lux answers, as she gets out of her chair to stand next to Kate to look over the papers with her. "I looked it over and it's really straight forward, but I don't know it we need to make a copy or if one is okay." Kate scrunches her face in confusion. "For Castle," Lux jokingly reminds her.
"Right," Kate smiles as she looks away and back to the papers. She flips through a couple of the pages and quickly says, "Yeah, I think he might need his own, but I can copy them for you."
Lux finally lets herself relax a bit and stands straight up. "And give them to Castle."
Kate scrunches her nose, "No… I think you should do it. I think it would mean a lot to him." Kate smiles at her in a way that makes it clear that it really is just a suggestion.
Lux smiles, "Yeah, okay."
…
Castle pouts at his own boredom, keeping his eyes forward. He spaces out at the doorway, while he waits for Lux to find the draft of her most recent English paper. When she finally finds it he quickly perks up. He flips through the pages, surprised by the amount, "How many pages is this?"
"Five, but it's supposed to be six," she says, with only the smallest lack of confidence.
"Okay," he nods, "You can do other homework, if you have any, while I proof read."
"Okay, sure," Lux nods.
As he reads, she shuffles through her backpack and presumably finds her homework. He isn't paying much attention to her as her reads through her paper. She's getting pretty good at controlling her rambling. In fact, he only has to circle a couple of things for her to fix. Her spelling is still a little under her age level, but he can still see a clear improvement.
When he's done, he looks up to see Lux quickly snap her attention to him, as if she was waiting for him to finish. He shakes off the odd feeling and says, "You did pretty good. We need to add the words disenchanted, presistant, and unrelenting to your binder." She had a list of words she had misspelled on the cover of her binder, so she could see them on a regular basis and eventually learn how to spell them.
She nods, "Will do."
"Other than that it's pretty good." He looks back up at her to see if she's listening. She is looking down at her hands on the table in front of her, tugging on her sleeves. She was listening, but a little distracted. "Is something wrong?"
She straightens, "No." She picks up the sheet of paper in front of her, and holds it out to him. "I was just waiting."
"Waiting for what?"
"Waiting to give you this." She hands the paper to him. "It's a game that I- well Alexis and I… mostly Alexis made."
Castle laughs as he takes the paper from her. He looks at it for a second to understand the game, and tries not to question why he is being given homework by his kids. He looks over at the bookshelf then to Lux, "Should I?"
"Yeah, go," Lux encourages, pretending to go back to the nonexistent leftover homework she has. Though she was sure and rightfully told by Alexis that he would catch on to the game quickly, she was positive it would still take him a rather long time to unscramble the message. The way that the game is set up is that he was given an author's last name, a page, line and word number. And it took him no time at all to start rifling through his bookcase.
Lux watches from the dining room table, as she slowly pulls out her binder. She's trying to pass off as if she isn't in anyway concerned about what he's doing. So she pulls out her binder and distractedly writes down her three words. She does it so slowly and in such a methodical way that she stretches out the time it takes her to look up the spellings on her phone and write them down. In fact, she times it so perfectly, that she loops the 'g' of unrelenting just as Castle puts down the last word from the books over there. She specifically planned it so that the last two words would be in a book that was on the table in front of her. Still she knows he has to know where this is going, because even with the missing two words his sheet will still reads, 'Thank you for being my family when you didn't have to be, but I want to make it official… so will you _ _?'
She watches him, at first just from the corner of her eye and then straight forward as he takes a moment to read what he has so far. He slowly stands up from his kneeled position in front of the last book, which was on the lowest shelf of his bookcase. As he slowly walks into the dining room she can see he has a peacefully pressed smile. She didn't think she was unsure about his response, but when he slowly walks over to her with a soft grin on, she can feel the confidence pour in.
He looks up at her, "Lux, of-"
"You have to finish the puzzle," she stops him.
He cocks his head to the side with an amused look on his face. "I'm not changing my mind," Lux insists.
Castle walks over to the table, grabs the book, and flips to the correct page. He quickly finds his last two words, first 'adopt' then 'me.' As soon as he writes them down he places the paper in front of Lux, who smiles at the solved puzzle. Then she looks up at him.
He is smiling back and gently answers, "Of course, I will adopt you."
…
Castle sits at the island, watching as Kate, in the kitchen, beams with amusement as she calls Fern. It only takes a couple of rings, before Fern answers, "Hello, this is Ms. Redmund."
"Hi Fern, it's Kate Beckett."
"Oh, hello Kate," she sounds a little preoccupied because there is a moment of rustled silence. She asks, "Is something wrong?"
"No, actually just the exact opposite," Kate slows her speech as she says, "I was actually wondering what the first step would be to adopting Lux."
Fern is muffled as she says to someone that must be on her side of the line, "Wait, can you take him for just a minute." Her voice then becomes clearer as she obviously starts talking to Kate, "I'm sorry. I have a five year old meeting perspective parents today."
"Oh well, if you can't right now we can talk another time."
Fern pauses before responding, "No, now is good because I actually needed to talk to you about that."
Kate looks to Castle and pouts not liking the sound of that, "About us adopting Lux?"
"Yes," the way Fern holds out the yes, makes her think that she has a right to worry.
"After Castle went missing, Social Services flagged your case, recommending for CPS to look at it. When you try to unmark a case the system brings up all the reasons it was flagged to make sure you are aware of and have assessed the issues…"
"But I got Lux back shouldn't that mean that the issues have been assessed?"
"That's just it, it wasn't just flagged because of Castle's disappearance, but also because of you and Castle's history of being quite…" she pauses to find a better word than reckless, "accident prone."
"What exactly came up?" Kate asks, her voice turning ever so slightly from concerned to defensive.
"To start, Castle disappeared, you've been shot, you and Castle have been fugitives at one point or another, you've had an apartment blow up, which is one you maybe should have warned me about. And that is just what I can think of off the top of my head.
Kate's expression must have given away her shift in mood, because Castle comes over to stand next to her, to listen to Fern as well. She lets him do so ignoring the fact that she could just put her phone on speaker. She asks, "Are you telling me they could take Lux away?"
"I'm telling you that I only found out all of this because I was looking to see what kind of battle I would be facing, when I thought all I had to deal with was Castle's missing two months and your risky job." She takes a breath to calm herself, obviously trying to keep her frustration at bay. Kate wonders if she's more frustrated with Kate or with the system. "What I'm saying is if you want to keep Lux, for now at least, just press pause on the adoption thing, until I can informatively go to bat for you. Okay?" She asks, as if not asking if Kate understands, but if she is doing okay.
Kate smiles a soft smile, "Yes, I understand."
"Trust me, Kate, I am on your side, but as of right now this is the right option."
"Yeah, no, I get it."
Fern uses a pitiful voice as she says, "I'm sorry Kate, but I really have to go. We'll be in touch."
"We'll be in touch," Kate nods, then hangs up the phone. "Damnit!"
…
Kate lightly knocks on Lux's door. It only takes a couple of seconds for Lux to open it. Kate is surprised to see Lux looking genuinely happy to see her. Kate shifts her stance a bit, which gives Lux enough of a clue that something is off. Her joyful glow dissipates almost immediately, "What?"
"Can I come in?" Kate asks.
Lux opens the door wider to invite her in, but quickly asks, "What's wrong?"
Kate sits down on the edge of Lux's bed. She hasn't been in her room in a long time. Lux has hung up some posters and a couple of pictures. Lux stands in front of her. She pulls at her sleeve for a second before tucking her hands in to hug her ribcage. Kate can see it just for a second she can see what everyone else sees. She gives her a soft smile, before biting into her bottom lip. "I talked to Fern yesterday about your birthday present."
"Oh," Lux lets out, wrongfully finding some relief in Kate's news.
Kate sighs, "She said that between me and Castle- Social Services flagged our case file. They flagged it for CPS to review if you should continue living with us." She pauses to see what Lux is feeling. She silently stammers as if trying to find her voice to ask a question, but eventually just gives up and closes her mouth, so Kate continues, "Fern said that no one would probably see it if we don't give anyone a reason to look…"
"Like trying to adopt me?"
Kate looks down at her lap for a second, before managing to find Lux's gaze again. "We could still try, but Fern thinks we should wait until she can figure out how to make it work, otherwise we risk them taking you away."
"So we're going to wait?" She asks, her tone quirking in curiosity.
Kate moves her hands through the air as she tries to explain, "Well, I thought that should be up to you."
"Why?" Lux asks, wondering why this seemingly important decision was put in her hands.
Kate huffs, trying to remember why she and Castle had decided Lux should make this decision. "Because I want you to have what you want. If you want us to adopt you, Castle and I, we will fight like hell to make that work. If you don't want to risk it, that's okay to," she shrugs, "Nothing changes. Plus you'll be eighteen in a year and it won't matter that much anyways."
"It would still matter," Lux says, calmly. Kate gives Lux a weak smile. Lux's eyes flicker as if reading all the options in front of her, then looks to Kate after just a couple of seconds, "I still want to try."
"Really?" Kate asks, trying to keep the shocked look off her face. She didn't mean to but she is kind of surprised by Lux's determined attitude. Well it's that and she is a little concerned about the decision. She was willing to fight for this, but there is the chance that she could lose Lux over a piece of paper.
"Kate, I know this is all still new to you, so this arrangement or whatever might be good enough for you, but I've been here. Hell, I've been further down this road and it still didn't work out. I want to finally feel like I have a home and as great as this is, it isn't enough for me."
Kate bites her lip as she gives Lux a small grin. She shakes her head knowing there is no arguing with that and that's all she wants for her to feel too. She stands as she agrees, "Okay, then I'll call Fern, tomorrow, if you're sure."
Lux gives a confident nod, "I'm sure."
…
"What did she say?" Castle asks as soon as Kate walks into the bedroom.
She sighs as she sits down on the bed next to him. She shyly answers, "She said she still wanted to be adopted."
"You sound like that's a bad thing."
Kate lets herself fall back on the bed. "It's not a bad thing. It's… risky."
He looks down at her with a grin on his face, "Katherine Beckett, since when are you scared of a little risk?"
She gives him a weak smile then puts her knuckles over her eyes. She combs her fingers through her hair. It takes her a moment before she looks at him again. "If I lose her, Castle…" She shakes her head a little bit and looks away from him.
"I know."
…
The next morning Castle wakes up to see Kate, on her side of the bed, sitting pretzel style with one leg hanging off the edge. He squints against the light glow from the early morning that is darkly shadowing her. He sits up to see her better and sees that her phone is set out in front of her. "Whatcha doin'?"
"Trying to work my way up to calling Fern."
"I can see that."
"I let it be her decision, because that seemed like the right thing to do, but- what if I lose her?"
"Kate, we talked about this last night," he sighs with a somewhat patronizing look.
"Seriously, Castle, if they take her-"
"We will fight like hell to get her back," he finishes for her. "But that's not going to happen."
He seems to genuinely believe that. She nervously smiles, "I envy your optimism."
"Well you're kind of forgetting a significant part of all of this."
She partially rolls her eyes as she looks back over at him, "And what is that?"
"The only reason that that is a possibility," He sees her face quirk, unsure of where he's going with this, "Unlikely as it is, is because Lux decided that our familyis worth fighting for."
She nods, as if she is forcefully trying to shake the concern out of her mind, "Yeah, you're right." She somersault the phone one more time, before pausing to think for just another second. After a deep breath she quickly unlocks her phone and searches for Fern's contact.
…
Three days later, Fern was able to set up a meeting with them. She sits with them at the dining room table. Them being, Kate, Castle, Alexis, and Lux. "What exactly is going to happen?" Lux asks, getting a little lost in the terms she was explaining the already complicated process, to Kate and Castle, in.
"Well, Beckett and Castle, fill out this paperwork," she says, tapping the edges of the paperwork she has already put in front of them. "Then I file and process it along with my recommendation, then you are put on the docket in family court." She looks between the two girls seated on either side of their parents to make sure they are following along, before turning back to Lux to continue. "Now, in a normal case the judge would simply ask the parents if they accept the responsibility of a new child. Upon agreeing they ask the child if they want to be a part of the family and if they understand, basically what they're entitled to. That being said, it will be different in this case."
"How different?" Alexis asks.
Fern takes a deep breath, before continuing, "The judge will want to ask Lux more questions, like if she feels safe living here, why she wants to be here, things like that."
Even though she has a nervous look on her face, Lux says, "Well that seems easy enough."
"Be that as it may the harder part will be for Beckett and Castle." Fern adds. The two of them perk up at this. Castle signs his last page and slides it across the table to Fern. Kate follows suit shortly after. "What will we have to do?" He asks.
Fern turns to Lux, then Alexis, "Can you guys give us a moment?"
Lux seems to become more content in her seat, but with one insistent look from Castle, Alexis shuffles Lux along, "Come on, Lux, we'll give them some space." She reluctantly gets up and the two of them go upstairs.
Once they are about two-thirds of the way up, Fern starts, "Okay there is a chance that the judge will look at this at face value. Lux is safe with the two of you and not to mention your daughter. And it is true that the system does prefer a child to be with a biological parent. But, if I'm being honest there is a chance that the judge will push further than that and you need to be prepared for that." She pauses for a moment before continuing, "They might ask, why Castle has any interest to adopt Lux?" Castle stiffens at the harsh nature of the question. Fern turns to Kate, "Or why you gave her up in the first place, and what's changed since then?" She can tell that she has all of their attention now, so she pulls back a bit. "I know it's harsh, but you may have to defend your job, both of your jobs, your relationship, and your relationship with Lux."
Castle huffs a nervous laugh, "Do you have any recommendations?"
Fern smiles, lacing her fingers in front of her, "Be honest, because I know you and if it was in my hands I would give her to you right now and sleep peacefully tonight. Now, you just have to let the judge get to know you."
"That's all?" Beckett asks, raising her eyebrows. She feels that that really doesn't sound simple or like a greatest advice.
Fern is shuffling the papers into her messenger bag, so she doesn't quite catch Kate's sarcasm. "There is something else you could think about doing," she says as she stands to get ready to go. She takes a look at them sitting in front of her, their full attention on her. "You know what? Don't worry about it. Besides I know it's a sensitive subject, so don't worry about it. Just… do me a favor, when you do see the judge look at him like that, okay?"
"Okay?" Kate says, scrunching her face, unsure of what 'look' she was previously giving and what Fern was going to say. She and Castle stand, but she alone walks Fern to the door, parting with, "Thank you for stopping by to talk us through this."
Fern smiles, "I'm on your side. I promise I will do my best to help you."
"Thank you," Kate reassures. After she shuts the door behind Fern she turns around to face Castle. "That was odd," Kate says.
"It was… a lot, but I don't know about odd," he says, suspiciously squinting at her.
She wraps her arms around him and places her chin on his chest so she is looking up at him, "She was going to recommend we do something and then she backed off."
Castle frowns at her, smothering his grin on how she doesn't know what Fern was proposing. "Getting married," Castle says, as Kate closes the door.
"Excuse me?" she says, pulling away slightly.
"That's what she was going to suggest, to get married."
"Married," she says at the same time as him. "Right," she says looking down and trying to avoid the awkwardness.
"Kate…" he lets out softly, dropping his arms to his side.
"Look, Castle, we don't have to talk about it. It's fine."
"I want to marry you, Kate."
Kate looks up at him, shocked. It's not a shocking statement, it's just very blunt for them having had tip toed around the topic over and over again for the last seven months. "I know that." She steps closer to him again, as she adds, "And I want to marry you too, but-"
"But- you don't want me to marry you just for Lux."
"That makes it sound-"
"Selfish?"
"Stop finishing my sentences," she jokes, before adding, "But, yes."
"I love Lux, but I've wanted to marry you for a very long time. Watching you with Lux makes me love you more, but it's not the only reason I want to marry you. I want to marry you because I want to spend the rest of my life with you." He pauses as she looks down, "Kate, I know I hurt you, but I want to marry you because I love you and I love our family."
She looks back up at him and smile, "Me too."
"I'm sorry I hurt you."
"I know you are."
"How do we get past that?"
"I forgave you, so we just do. We just keep pushing on," she says with confidence, but quietly.
"We get married," Castle concludes.
She smiles her eyes big and bright, "Yes, we get married."
"Really?" he asks, as a smile spreads across his face.
"Yes, really." She slightly mocks then kisses him.
He sinks into it for a second, before pulling away and asking, "When?"
About Forty-Eight Hours Later
Lux runs through the yard; her bare feet, only slightly chilling, from the damp grass. It rained yesterday night until this morning, but now that sky is clear and warming up to be a cold thirty five degrees. She left her shoes in the car, last night. Alexis allowed her to wear her Converse if they were clean enough and if they matched her printed floral peach dress. They are completely white and by the looks of the ground, they wouldn't have been if she had worn them last night. Her booties were okay for walking the fifteen feet from the car to the house last night, but they weren't built for this level of moisture, so running through the lawn barefoot seemed like the best option. She ran into the house, up the staircase and down the hall. "Come on, come on," Alexis quietly urges, from one of the doorways.
"I got 'em," Lux huffs as she slows to a jaunt as she enters the room. She looks down at her feet, wet and a little dirty. "Is there towel in here?"
"We'll get you one as soon as Beckett is finished getting dressed," Alexis says.
"Lux, why don't you let your hair down?" Lanie asks, noting that Lux has pulled her hair up in a less than flattering ponytail.
"I'm having a bad hair day," Lux deflects.
"We can help," Lanie offers.
"No, she's right. I tried to fix it," Alexis counters.
"Hey!" Lux whines at the comment, as Martha takes it upon herself to try making her hair at least look a little more formal.
"Hey you guys aren't sisters yet," Lanie jokes.
Martha pulls Lux's hair back letting her long bangs fall out of place and pulling it back into a side pony that flops over Lux's shoulder. "See now that's better," Martha says standing in front of Lux.
There is a knock on the door, which leads to Alexis hollering, "Who is it?"
"Jim," the voice answers.
Alexis quickly opens the door. Jim thanks Alexis, then looks to Martha, "Your son wants you."
She twists Lux's pony a couple more times into one giant, makeshift ringlet, as she agrees, "Yes, well it is about that time."
"They're almost ready," Jim says, as Martha passes him. When she leaves, he closes the door behind her. He turns to the three girls, "And how about, Katie?"
And just as he finishes asking, she opens the bathroom door. She shyly smiles, "How do I look?" She is wearing an a line dress, with off the shoulder long laced sleeves and laced trim, so when she asked how she looked, there is a moment where no one says anything.
Lanie, who last minute found the dress, is the first to say anything, "You look beautiful."
"Amazing."
"Stunning."
Alexis' phone dings with a text. "Gram says they're ready, if you are?"
"Definitely ready," Kate says, as a grin spreads across her face.
I know I say it every time and I make a liar of myself every time, but I will try to get the las couple of chapters done soon.