"I have decided there are some perks to dating someone who's rich and famous," Kate observed as she and the Castle trio exited Serendipity and paused on the sidewalk to wait for Rick's driver. Her lips still tasted like the frozen hot chocolate that the four of them had ordered at the trendy café they'd ducked into after the Christmas party at the Mother-Child Home. The surprised flash of delight in his eyes, accompanied by the equally elated grin on his face, had Kate rewinding her words to see what had given him such joy.

Ugh.

Dating.

Crap.

She'd said 'dating' and implied that descriptive to her relationship with Rick. No wonder he looked like a little kid who'd just opened his stocking on Christmas morning. Fighting the urge to flee – at least emotionally – she met his gaze and caught her breath at the dazzling tint of love that swirled in his blue irises. Oh, who was she kidding? Of course they were dating. How could they not be?

"Go on," Rick said, his voice low and soothing with a hint of flirtation behind the words. He tucked her hand into his palm and tweaked her fingers through their gloves. "I'm interested in hearing more about this – especially the bits about perks and dating."

"You heard that, huh?" She bit her lip to hide the smile that threatened and stepped closer to his warmth. She was vaguely aware that the town car had arrived, that Alexis and Martha were already inside, but she didn't care at the moment because Rick slid his hands inside her coat to pull her more snugly against him. He rested his touch at her hips, and his fingers found the space between the hem of her sweater and the waistband of her jeans. The shivers that quivered through her had nothing to do with the temperature outside.

"So… the perks?" he reminded her, swiping his index fingers along the skin he'd discovered.

"Well," Kate pointed out with a nod to the line nearby that wove around the street – all people waiting for their turn to sample Serendipity's wares. "We didn't have to wait in line, and we got excellent service. The waitress was practically falling all over herself to make sure you had everything you needed."

"Was she?" His eyebrow quirked curiously. "I honestly didn't notice."

Kate smiled, pleased more than she should have been. "She was. I did."

"Hmmm," he studied his profile in the storefront's window. "Probably couldn't resist my rugged handsome-osity."

"That's not a word, Castle."

"I'm a writer," he huffed with a wink. "I can make a new word any time I want to."

She rolled her eyes, though the twinkle in them gave her away. "And, just like that, the humility from earlier is gone."

Chuckling softly, he tilted his head to meet her gaze and his cheek dimpled. "And the thing about dating…?"

She tried to think of a good way to express what she was feeling – but she couldn't. Instead, she stood slightly on her tiptoes and brushed her lips across his, wondering if his skin was tingling as much as hers was from even the brief contact. "You're the writer," she murmured in his ear, feeling the thick swallow he gave in reply. "You figure it out."

Leaving him standing on the sidewalk – stunned into a gaping silence – she twisted her mouth into a teasing smile and spun on her heels to head for the waiting car. Climbing inside, she collapsed to a seat across from Martha and Alexis and watched as Castle appeared to clear his throat and look at the people around him with a satisfied smirk. He flexed his gloved fingers and sauntered to join his family, sliding in next to Kate and flinging a possessive arm around her shoulders. The door closed behind him, and he faced his mother and daughter with a boyish smile as the engine stopped idling and merged into the holiday traffic.

"Guess what?" he asked them, practically bouncing in his seat with unbridled joy.

"Dare we?" Martha parried, knowing he would ignore her.

He did. "Kate's my girlfriend now!"

Silence.

Then,

"Gosh, Dad. What are you? Fourteen?"
"Your girlfriend? Alexis is right, Richard, honestly… you know, for a writer, you have a very limited vocabulary."

"What?" he retorted, clearly flummoxed by their reactions. He glanced to Kate and saw that she was trying not to laugh at him. "What did I say that was so wrong?"

She covered her mouth for moment to tame her amusement, reaching out with her other hand to pat his hand reassuringly. "Not wrong. Just … juvenile. File it under 'things a high school boy might say'." At his continued look of confusion, she giggled and shook her head. "I'll explain it to you later, Castle."

He perked up, eyes only on her, attention focused so intensely on Kate that she felt as though she were the only other occupant of the town car. "Does that mean we'll be alone later?"

She felt the implications in a lightning bolt of heat that shot through her core. "Well… as you so eloquently put it, I guess I am your girlfriend now. And considering I've barely seen you all day, I'd say being alone later is a safe bet."

He lit up and scooted closer, tucking some hair behind her ears and letting his touch linger at her earlobe. "You know, while we're on the subject of being alone and high school – schoolgirl Kate is a new fantasy. Like two minutes ago new."

"Castle –"
"Dad! Ew."
"Richard, I thought we weren't going to be talking about your fantasies anymore."

Flushing bright red, he turned to his daughter and mother with an apologetic cough. "Sorry. Forgot there were others in the car."

Laughter accompanied his confession, and the conversation moved easily on to other holiday-related topics. His arm stayed around Kate's shoulders, though, and as she talked with Alexis about Christmas stockings she laid her hand on his knee. Reaching across with his free hand, he covered hers and held the clasped appendages together against the bend of his leg. Love welled up in him – for his beautiful daughter, for his quirky mother, and for the extraordinary woman who was giving him a chance, giving them a chance. Feeling overwhelmed at the depth of emotion pulsing through his heart, he leaned over and pressed a soft kiss to Kate's temple, capturing her lips when she turned toward him in pleasant surprise.

"What was that for?" she whispered shyly when he eased away, her eyes shifting to Alexis and Martha with mild embarrassment.

"For not shooting me when I first started shadowing you."

A startled chuckle gurgled in Kate's throat. "That was 4 years ago, Castle. You're just now thanking me for that?"

"Well," he shrugged, a smiling sparkle in his gaze. "You would have shot me if I'd kissed you back then." At her nod of agreement, he grinned. "There've been lots of times over the years that I would have gladly kissed you if I thought I could get away with it. File this under 'Things Castle will do to make up for lost time'."

It was her turn to grin – a sultry, come-hither, you-have-no-idea, next-time-without-the-tiger kind of grin. "As long as I get to make up for lost time, too."

He didn't know what to say to that.

His brain had ceased all function. His lungs weren't faring much better. The very thought that there had been moments when she wanted to kiss him – and that she wanted to revisit those moments and redeem them – made all the blood in his body head in a single direction, his mouth drying out so fast that his tongue literally stuck to its roof. Fortunately, he was saved from having to react coherently when Kate started a conversation with Martha about her acting school. She seemed quite in charge of her faculties – at least the words he heard made sense.

In fact, he had about concluded that she had forgotten about him altogether, when her hand rose to aid him in closing the jaw that had dropped in reaction to her flirting. She let her fingers trace the column of his throat, still talking with Martha, and finally brought her hand to rest over his – again at his knee, back where they'd started a few moments ago. She pressed her fingers to his and turned to him just long enough to shoot him a quick wink before shifting her attention back to Martha's excited ramblings.

She loved him.

He knew.