Young at Heart
She set the alarm for the next day. They want to get to EPCOT and go to the pool in the afternoon which means they need to be up in the morning at a reasonable hour. But when the beeping starts, Kate turns over and pulls the pillows over her head.
"Go away," she mumbles.
"Me or the alarm?" is the return.
Kate narrows her eyes, invisible to him under the pillow. "Alarm. Make the alarm go away. Please," she draws out.
She feels him reach over her and hit the Snooze. His arm flops onto her back, teasing up the t-shirt to dance along her spine. Her body doesn't want to get up and function. What she wants is to roll over and cuddle into his arms and go back to sleep for another day. Maybe two.
"You gonna get up, Kate?" he whispers into her ear, hand brushing her hair back from her face.
"No." He laughs but she's not joking. "Give me another ten minutes."
The mattress dips as he gets up and she can hear him walking toward the bathroom. Just ten minutes and she can act semi-human. Maybe all she needs is coffee. Mornings never were her thing. Kate shifts onto her stomach, burying her face into the pillows so that her hair blocks out the little light filtering into the room.
Castle touches her shoulder, fingers pressing lightly into the skin. "Should we get breakfast?"
"Mmm, yeah," she responds. "Be out soon."
She can hear Al wake up, alert immediately, and the sound of the two pairs of feet on the carpeting are muffled as they head into the kitchen before she closes her eyes and goes back into the dark of sleep.
The next thing she feels is the bed bounce as Al jumps onto it, clambering over to Kate's body and flopping on her back. "Mom! Wake up!"
Kate groans, reaching back to shove Al off her. "Not listening to you."
"Will you listen to me?" Castle asks.
She doesn't open her eyes but she knows he's right there, right next to the bed. "No. Wanna sleep." He picks her up, cradling her against his chest. Kate slaps a hand against his shoulder as she squirms, trying to escape. "Let me down! I can walk on my own."
"Apparently not since you're still in bed after half an hour."
"Half an hour?" she shouts, nearly hitting him in the knee as she fights out of his grasp. "I said get me up in ten minutes, not thirty!"
He follows her into the bathroom, stopping at the door that she closes behind her. "Kate, you needed the rest obviously. Listen," he says, resting his cheek against the wood, "Al and I will head to the pool. Go back to bed and meet us there once you're awake. Not a big deal."
Castle can hear her sigh then the door opens. "Okay."
"Okay?"
Kate nods, tangling her fingers with his for a quick squeeze. "Okay. Go to the pool. I'll be down in an hour."
He ducked his head to kiss her. "Love you."
"I love you too!" calls Al from the bed.
"Love you both back," Kate says quietly. "Go get to the pool. Save me a chair."
She gets tired of sitting on the cool tile floor of the bathroom after she hears Castle and Al run out the front door. Her stomach quit rolling ten minutes ago but Kate didn't dare move in case it started somersaulting again.
Kate finds her swimsuit in the drawers, changing from the pajama shorts and tank she had slept in into the purple bikini she knew Castle was looking forward to. She ties the strings behind her neck and digs for the soft grey sarong to wear on the walk to the pool and a pair of flipflops.
The walk from the room to the main pool is shaded, the sun not quite at the peak of its travel and the breeze plays with her hair. They're supposed to be at EPCOT, traveling around the world. Maybe this afternoon they can go back to Magic Kingdom and see Wishes instead. Make it an early night, order pizza, and get to the park to see the fireworks before bed. Good plan.
The pool is loud despite it only being ten in the morning. Kate pauses at the entrance, eyes scanning for her husband and daughter. Al has a green and pink swimsuit that she should be able to pick out from the blacks and neutrals, loud and vibrant like the girl.
"Hi, Mom!"
She turns and see Al running across the pool deck, waving her arms over her head. "Hey, kid. What'd you do with Rick?"
"Tried to drown me a few times, actually." He wraps his arm around her waist, pulling her back against him to press a kiss to her neck. "She failed."
"Darn. Still stuck with you," Kate sighs, turning her head to touch her lips to his jaw. "Where're our chairs?"
Castle nudges her toward a row of lounge chairs that are partially shaded by a grove of palm trees. There's a pile of towels on the chairs, marking them as taken. "Got a good view of the pool so you can keep an eye on Al while she swims."
"Who says I'm not gonna swim too?" she asks, unknotting the sarong and draping it over the back of the chair. Kate grins when his mouth drops a little. "Let me go jump in then I'll hold the fort here."
Al runs ahead toward the shallow part of the pool and Kate takes the moment to turn up on her toe tips and tug his head down to hers. His fingers tighten on her hips, pulling her closer in the shade of the trees. He gives her a half a second to breathe before his mouth is back on her, stealing her air while his tongue flirts into her mouth.
"Rick," she sighs, breaking off and letting her heels hit the warm concrete, her forehead against his chin. "You think this will ever stop?"
"I hope not," he says on a grin. "That is, if you are indeed talking about you wanting me."
"What else would I be talking about?" She shoves him, walking off toward the pool. "I'll be back in two minutes."
What she wants to do is dive into the deep end, skim along the bottom of the pool, and then spend the rest of the morning on the lounge chair as she watches the man-child she married and their girl splash one another into exhaustion.
Instead, Kate finds Al along the stairs into the pool and holds onto the warmed metal of the railing. The water laps at her feet as she steps into the pool, slower than Al who runs into the shallow end before she trips and falls into the water with a splash.
"Come in, Mom!" Al shouts, ducking her head under the water and soaking her hair.
The girl shrieks when Kate splashes her, sputtering angrily. "Not fair!"
Kate shoots off to the side as Al swims after her, grabbing for her mother's feet. "Everything's fair, kid. It's the rules of the pool."
"Rick! Help me get Mom!" Al says, waving at Castle from the pool. "She's being mean!"
He grins but shakes his head, sitting on the edge of the chair and folding the towels. "You're on your own."
"Come on!" She's breathless from chasing Kate in circles.
"Fine, fine," he says, giving in and getting up from the chair. "Just this once."
The water swells up as he cannonballs into the pool. When Kate pokes her head from the water, pushing the dark locks back from her face, he's right there in front of her. "Hey, pretty woman."
"Rick, don't you da – " she manages before he dunks her.
Kate grabs his knee and yanks, pulling him off balance so that he flails his arms out and falls onto his back in the water. Al's giggling behind them, watching as Castle finds Kate's hips and drags her under the water with him. She aims a kick at his stomach, twisting away as his fingers search in the water for her ankle.
She gets back to the surface and finds Al sitting on the stairs, eyes bright with humor as she watches the two. "You're funny," she calls.
Al points a finger over Kate's shoulder a moment before Castle leaps onto Kate's back. She shifts from under him and watches as he hits the water, swimming back toward the stairs before the man can emerge from the water.
"Make sure he doesn't hurt himself," Kate tells Al as she gets out of the pool, squeezing the moisture from her hair.
"Can do, Mom," Al says with a little salute.
Castle is glaring from the pool, his hair plastered all over his forehead. "I'll get you back for that," he yells, pointing his first two fingers at his eyes then back at her. "I'm watching, Kate. Always watching."
"You make a good Roz, Rick," Kate says, grabbing a towel from the pile and rubbing it over her arms.
Al pushes off the floor of the pool and attaches herself to Castle's back, making him topple forward into the water. She sits on the lounge chair, swinging her feet up, and digging into the tote bag Castle brought down for her paperback. Not one of his – something that still irks him after he saw her pack it in the carry-on.
She scoots back on the chair, leaning back against one of the folded towels. Her stomach is flipping as she thumbs through the pages for her bookmark. The dip in the pool, even with the unwanted wrestle session with Castle, should not have made her this nauseous.
Something else has to be up, she thinks, placing the scrap of paper that she is using as a placemarker in the back of the book. The last time she felt this out of balance had been…
No.
With one hand holding onto the book, her thumb in the pages to hold her place, Kate traces a finger around her belly button, the water droplets clinging to the pad of her finger. Not possible. They were careful. Always careful because as much as they want children, they wanted a year for just the three of them to settle into life.
But still, it feels like it did with Al. A little less frightening, knowing someone is standing next to her, ready to catch her if she stumbles this time around. Kate shakes her head, pushing the wet strands back behind her neck. Maybe she can find a test in the General Store and figure this out for certain.
She looks back at her book and tries to remember the details of the case that Alex Cooper and Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace were in the middle of investigating. Let the intricacies of the fake case distract her for a little while.
The book has dropped from her hands for a while now. It's on the ground, the spine cracked in a way that will drive her up a wall when she sees it. Her head is cushioned on her forearm, mouth open as she snores quietly. Her hair is curling wildly from drying in the sun and her back is probably going to be bright red with sunburning.
"Think we should wake her up?" she hears through the hazy of sleep.
"Nah. She looks too cute." There's the familiar click of his phone taking a picture and she knows it's of her.
Water drips onto her back, a cold spot on the heated skin, and there's a giggle. "Oops," Al says followed by the sound of her feet on the ground as she steps back.
Then she feels his finger press against the water droplet, dragging it in a swirl around her lower back. Kate keeps her eyes closed, focusing on the one spot of pressure. He's spelling something and she wrinkles her nose, trying to figure it out. S… Maybe an L. Double Es with the loop and tail of a P and a Y. She thinks he's done but his finger lifts up for a moment before starting a lower case H.
"You really spelling 'sleepyhead' on my back, Rick?" she asks, eyes shut but her fingers reaching back to snag his.
"Why're you tired, Mom?" Al's head pops into view, tilted on its side as she pushes her way onto the same chair as Kate.
Kate shifts, giving Al more room to cuddle against her front. "Cause you and Rick tuckered me out." She aims a look at her husband and is glad to see him blush just a little. "You two done playing in the pool?"
"For now. Want to head back to the room, shower, and find some lunch?" he says, letting his finger trail up and hook around the strings of her bikini top. "Then we can plan the rest of the day."
She swats his hand away, sitting up and pulling Al into her lap. "Sounds good. What do you think, kid? You up for lunch?"
Al pushes off from the chair, grabbing a towel and looping it over her head. "I want peanut butter and jelly!"
"Good thing we bought that yesterday at the store." Kate finds her sarong in the tote bag and ties it around her waist. "Where's my book?"
Castle hands it to her, grinning as she frowns. "What's wrong?"
She runs a finger over the spine with narrowed eyes. "Nothing." Kate loops her arm through his, giving him a tug toward the exit of the pool area. "Let's go get lunch."
"You're upset that your spine cracked."
"No," she protests quickly, taking Al's hand as the girl skips past her.
"You totally are. I can tell. We can tell, right Al?"
The girl turns, studying both adults carefully before shrugging. "Don't know."
"Good girl," Kate says with a smile. "You get dessert tonight."
"Yes!"
"You don't."
Castle's face falls when Kate speaks, turning toward her with his brows drawn together and his mouth open in shock. "You would withhold something sweet from me?"
She hipchecks him, shifting the tote bag up on her shoulder as they cross the street to the sidewalk along the bridge. "Only when you mock my love of books in pristine condition."
"Listen," he starts, taking her hand and threading their fingers together, "if it were one of my books, I'd be cool with your strange OCD-ness. But since it's one of my competitor's novels, I'll mock all I want."
"You know this means I might just go buy another copy so it looks nice on the bookshelf. That means she gets another bit of profit that you will be missing out on."
"Look!" Al runs ahead before pressing her face against the bars on the bridge. "The fountain's on!"
The water feature in the little pond along the golf course is spraying water up into the air, letting it arch back down into the stream. There's a few players on the green and Al waves, getting the men to wave back.
Kate yawns, covering her mouth with one hand. "At night it turns colors. Maybe we'll see it tonight when we come back from the fireworks."
"Fireworks?" Al says, spinning and wrapping her arms around Kate's waist. "I wanna see fireworks."
Castle taps Al's nose before starting back toward the room. "Lots of fireworks. But first, lunch, right?"
Al nods, taking Kate's hand again. "Right."
"And no dessert for Rick," Kate adds.
"Right," Al repeats. She smiles sweetly up at Castle. "Sorry."