Chapter 30

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"Hey," Kate said, "I thought your mom was gonna be here, too."

"Are you kidding?" answered Natasha, Lanie's older sister, "Lanie could try on all of the wedding dresses in the store and our mother would still insist there's a better one out there."

Natasha held the door open so that Lanie and Kate could enter the bridal salon, all three of them instantly glad to be out of the stifling August heat.

"She's still trying to guilt me into wearing my grandmother's old wedding dress," said Lanie, "My grandmother's."

"All right," Kate laughed, "Maybe it is better that you only have two opinions."

At that moment, a consultant walked over to greet them. "Hello ladies," she said, giving all three of them a quick blink-and-you'll-miss-it once-over before directing her wide smile at Lanie, "My name is Rachel. Are you looking for a wedding dress today?"

"Yes," Lanie replied, "I'm getting married in February – Valentine's Day—"

"—Oh! How sweet," said Rachel.

"—well, it's probably a little clichéd," Lanie said and then grinned devilishly, "But, at least this way, my fiancé has no excuse for forgetting our anniversary."

Rachel chuckled and then led them further into the store where there were couches and tables covered with magazines. "May I get you some beverages? Champagne, perhaps?"

"Could I just get some water?" Kate asked.

Rachel nodded, "Cucumber water okay?"

"Uh, sure."

"I'll take some of that champagne," said Lanie.

"Now are we talking about slices of cucumber? Or just cucumber-flavoured?" Natasha asked, face as serious as she could manage it. Kate had to bite her lip to keep from laughing.

"Fresh cucumber slices, of course," Rachel answered, completely oblivious.

Lanie elbowed her sister and then said to Rachel, "She'll take a glass of champagne, too."

.

Kate had happily agreed to help Lanie find the wedding gown of her dreams but four hours, many glasses of champagne, and countless dresses later, Kate's patience was wearing thin.

"All of these white dresses are starting to look the same," Natasha said.

"I know," Lanie replied, starting to get a little frustrated herself. "At least be relieved that I've narrowed it down to four."

"Oh, we are," said Kate, sitting cross-legged on the couch, stilettos having been removed a long time ago.

"Well, you look fabulous in all of them," said Rachel.

"I know!" Lanie whined, "That's the problem!"

"Wow, vain, are we?" said Natasha.

"Oh, shut it, Nat," said Lanie, "Or I'm gonna make sure your maid-of-honour dress is unflattering as hell."

Natasha rolled her eyes, knowing her mouthy little sister didn't mean it.

"All right," said Lanie, stepping carefully off the little podium in a dress that had a massive train, "I've made a decision."

"Oh, thank god," said Natasha

"No," Lanie glared at sister, "I've decided how I'm going to decide."

"Well, that's a step in the right direction, at least," Kate said.

"You two are going to model them for me," Lanie said.

"Say what?" said Kate.

"Yeah, what the hell will that do?" asked Natasha.

Even Rachel looked dubious. "Your sister and your friend have dissimilar body shapes from yours – the dresses won't look the same on them as they do on you."

Lanie nodded, "Well, it won't fit the same but I already know they look good on me. I just want to be able to look at them from an outside perspective. You know, see how some of the details look up close when they're being worn."

"You're crazy," said Natasha, rolling her eyes.

"Hey, I'm the one who has to decide," said Lanie. She turned to Rachel, "Now, can you make that happen?"

Lanie sat relaxed and content on the couch, sipping champagne, while Natasha and Kate got a sense of how it felt like to have been Lanie for the past four hours. If they didn't know better, they'd have thought she was doing this on purpose.

"Okay," said Lanie, inspecting the back of the dress her sister was wearing, "I think this one's out. I don't like how the lace at the back looks from far away. But," she turned to Kate, "I still like this one. Even though, I'm sorry to say, you clearly can't fill out the sweetheart neckline like I can."

Kate slapped her friend playfully on the shoulder. "Rub it in, why don't you?"

Lanie grinned and then clapped her hands, "I think we have our final two contenders." She had already vetoed another dress from the first pair that had been tried. "Nat, do you think you can put on Kate's? And Kate, can you put the princess gown you had on before?"

Kate gave her friend a wry smile, "Lanie, you owe us—"

"—big time," Natasha finished.

While the two of them disappeared back into the changerooms, another sales associate walked excitedly up to Rachel. Lanie felt no qualms about eavesdropping.

"Sonia," said Rachel, "What's up?"

"You won't believe who just walked into the store!" Sonia didn't even pause to let her friend respond, "Richard Castle!"

Lanie almost choked on her drink and then narrowed her eyes. Javier had to have sent him to get the scoop on things. Him, Ryan, and Castle were worse than children.

Meanwhile, Rachel had been chiding her friend, "I guess it's your dream come true," she said, "Isn't he on your list of five—"

Sonia poked her friend in the arm, "He has a girlfriend! Oh! I wonder if that's why he's here!"

Rachel looked over her friend's shoulder, "Don't look now," she said with a smirk, "He's heading this way."

Lanie had already stood up, hands on her hips, when Castle entered with a huge grin. "And how's my favourite M.E. doing?" he said and then held up a bag of doughnuts, "I brought provisions. Though, I have to admit, I thought you'd be trying on dresses right now."

Lanie glared at him. "Oh, don't use food as an excuse. Tell me right now, writer boy, did Javier put you up to this? Spying on me when I explicitly told him he wouldn't be catching a glimpse of my dress until the wedding day?"

"Oh," said Castle innocently, "Is that what you told him? Funny, Ryan and I didn't hear anything about th—"

Lanie furrowed her eyebrows when Castle suddenly stopped talking. "Castle, wh—" And then she noticed that he was looking behind her.

"Castle, what the hell are you doing here?" Kate said in exasperation, although Lanie could see how hard she was trying to stop herself from blushing at the way Castle was staring at her. "Don't tell me you didn't end up taking Zoey to the doctor's office."

"No, I did," Castle replied softly. Lanie watched as Kate's eyebrows furrowed exactly the way hers had when Castle had decided not to finish his sentence earlier. His thoughts seemed to be elsewhere though. "You're beautiful," he breathed out.

"Oh my god," Rachel interrupted, "You're the Kate? The police detective Nikki Heat is based on? Richard Castle's muse?"

"I can't believe you didn't recognize her," Sonia whispered, not so quietly, in her friend's ear.

"Well, I'm not a stalker like you," Rachel hissed back.

"She's also my girlfriend," Castle replied, having regained his senses.

"Right, of course," Rachel said awkwardly.

"Um, hello?" Lanie said, "Bride-to-be here, still trying to decide on a dress."

Natasha, who had been observing off to the side, chimed in, "But this is more entertainment than we've gotten in the past two hours."

"C'mon, Nat," said Kate, stepping up onto the low podium again, "The sooner she decides, the sooner we can go get some food."

"I have doughnuts!" Castle said.

"Uh, Mr. Castle…" Rachel began.

"It's okay, Castle," Kate said, glancing at him with a small smile, "We're almost done."

"Sit down," Lanie ordered Castle, "And don't touch anything."

Castle took that as an invitation to fix his attention on Kate and the floor-length, silk taffeta gown she was wearing. It was a relatively simple dress: a v-neck that elongated and accentuated her neckline, some simple beading at the bottom, with the only real embellishment being the two-inch line of ruching at the natural waist. Somebody had pinned her hair up and the messiness only served to make the escaped curls brushing her shoulders that much more alluring.

Kate's eyes flicked to meet his before concentrating once more on her friend, who was finally pointing to the dress Natasha had on. "I think I'm going to go with this one," she said. Then, giving Kate a sly look, couldn't resist adding, "But, with the way writer boy is looking at you, I'd say you should seriously consider getting that one."

.

"Hey, what took you guys so long?" Alexis looked over her shoulder from her spot on the couch, "Did Lanie have that much trouble finding a dress?"

"No, she found one," Kate replied, "Thank god."

Castle locked the front door behind him, "We just decided to go out for dinner with her and her sister afterwards."

Alexis nodded, turning back to her task of French-braiding Zoey's hair. "I'm just getting Zo ready for bed."

"Hi mommy," Zoey said around the thumb in her mouth.

Kate flopped down on the couch beside her daughter. "Hey baby girl," she said, pulling Zoey into her lap after Alexis had secured the final elastic.

Castle sat down beside them and used Zoey's stuffed animal to nuzzle her cheek, making her giggle. Then, directing his attention to Alexis, he asked, "What have you guys been up to tonight?"

Alexis shrugged, "Nothing. Reading, computer, the usual." She pulled her legs up onto the couch, "I want to know what Lanie's dress looks like."

"Let's just say it's very Lanie," Kate replied.

Alexis laughed, "I can't believe she let you stay, dad."

"Oh, your dad is sworn to secrecy." Kate nudged Castle, "By punishment of a swift kick to his—"

"—hey, hey!" Castle interrupted, "I think everybody understands what the consequences will be." Then, Castle's eyes twinkled, "Besides, if I hadn't gone to check out the situation, then I wouldn't have gotten to see Kate in a wedding dress."

"You tried one on, too?" Alexis squealed. "What did it look like?"

Kate shook her head at Castle. "No," she said to Alexis, "I didn't try one on for me. Lanie had narrowed her choices down to two so she had me and her sister try them on for her."

"Still…" Castle started, looking into Kate's eyes, "She looked amazing."

"Aw, I wish I could have seen it," said Alexis, woefully.

"Uh oh, I think somebody's falling asleep," said Castle, gesturing down at Zoey.

"Not me," Zoey said, unconvincingly since she could barely keep her eyes open as it was.

Kate gently pried the stuffed dog out of Zoey's loose grip so that it wouldn't fall and then stood up, adjusting the little girl in her arms as she did so.

"You've got her?" Castle said.

Kate nodded. "Say goodnight to daddy and Lexi, Zo," she said softly.

"Goodnight," Zoey murmured.

Now that he had gotten Kate out of the room, Castle took out his iPhone and gave Alexis a devious grin. "I took pictures."

A/N: Okay dudes and dudettes, in (let's say) a few chapters, there is a point where I could logically conclude the story and (I hope) it wouldn't feel like I've cheated you all… HOWEVER, I'm still having a lot of fun with this so if y'all don't mind (and seeing as how I'm currently stuck on the logistics of that next story I was planning to write and am not motivated enough to start Part II of Tryst yet), I'm actually thinking of continuing with this fluff monster. So, uhh, who's with me? (Is this story getting way too long? Are you bored already? Let me know 'cause I aim to please! I aim to please…) –Violet.