Exiting the bookstore, bag in hand, Kate couldn't help but be drawn towards the Castles who stood near the wall just to the right of the door. The excitement rolling off Castle and Chloe was nearly tangible as she saw the two of them bouncing up and down on the balls of their feet and chattering excitedly with exaggerated hand movements. Smiling slightly at the sight, Kate was nearly bowled over as Chloe noticed her presence and rushed over to her.
"Kate! Daddy and I need your help!" Turning her head away from Kate, she glared pointedly at Alexis before continuing. "Alexis won't say go for our race to the ice cream shop. You have to help us!"
"Why won't Alexis say go for you?"
"She says it's too dangerous to race to the ice cream shop." With a roll of her eyes and a wave of her hand, she grabbed Kate's arm and pulled her lower so she could whisper conspiratorially in her ear. "She has never said that before. I think she just wants to let you say go."
"Is that so? So, where is this ice cream shop you are racing to?" Following the invisible line from Chloe's pointer finger, Kate saw that the shop wasn't far and the sidewalks were relatively empty.
Going against her better judgment, Kate slowly nodded her head in acquiescence. With a squeal, Chloe ran back to Castle and set him up next to her, using a crack in the cement as a starting line.
From where Kate stood, she could hear Chloe's laughter ringing out in the night air as she and Castle playfully shoved each other, trying to push the other from their starting position. As a smile started to form on her face, the two racers settled into position and took their marks, waiting for Kate to release them.
"Kate! We're ready!"
Walking towards them, Kate put off yelling the word they so desperately wanted to hear just to see how long they could maintain their ready positions. While it only took a couple steps to reach them, Kate could see that in the time it took her to walk over the two of them were beginning to squirm, itching to get off the starting line. With a small chuckle, Kate took pity on them and yelled "Go!" to set them off running.
With a shout of "I'm going to beat you!" Chloe took off like a shot, taking the early lead.
As soon as Castle and Chloe started their race, Alexis started walking after them, leaving Kate little choice but to follow after.
Catching up with Alexis, Kate was a little surprised at the tense silence that seemed to fall between them; almost like Alexis was doing her best not to acknowledge Kate's presence. Placing a hand gently on Alexis shoulder and turning her, Kate effectively stopped both their forward progressions.
"Alexis? Do you not want me here? I know this is family time for you guys, and if you don't want me to intrude, I can tell your dad and sister that something came up and I can leave."
"No. It's fine. Chloe really wants you here and so does my dad."
"Are you sure? Just say the word and I will leave."
"I'm sure." With that, Alexis started walking again.
Not sure what else to say, Kate caught up with the girl and they walked in silence the rest of the way to the shop.
Catching up with Chloe and Castle, Kate smiled at finding herself facing a slightly out of breath Richard Castle with Chloe patting his arm in consolation.
Standing upright at the arrival of the 'stragglers', Castle pulled four ten dollar bills from his wallet. "Girls, you know the rules. Stick to them, and may the best man, woman or girl win." Castle quickly handed each girl a bill before lightly pushing them towards the door. "Now go!"
As soon as the girls were inside the shop, he turned and handed Kate one of the two remaining ten dollar bills.
"What's this for?"
"For the game."
In response to the pause that followed his proclamation, Kate raised her eyebrow in a question.
"When I was young, my mother and I spent a lot of time on the road travelling with whatever production she was a part of at that time. Because of that, we didn't have a lot of stability, but we made it a point to hunt down the best ice cream shop in whatever city we were stopped. For a while, just eating ice cream was enough, but as time went by and I got older, mother decided that just eating ice cream was boring. It needed some pizazz! So, we decided to make a game of it. Instead of just eating plain, normal ice cream, we had to spice it up somehow, and thus a game was born. The goal of the game was to create the most outrageous, but best tasting ice cream concoction we could with however much we could afford at that time. As we visited more and more cities and more and more ice cream shops, the rules changed slightly so that we started guessing what the other person had put in their ice cream. When Alexis was born, I just knew I was going to have to play the game with her, even if we weren't travelling the country as much as my mom and I did, and so, as soon as she was old enough I started playing the game with her. Then Chloe was born and now it is tradition."
"So, let me see if I got this right. The goal of the game is to come up with an outrageous concoction that tastes good and is strange enough that hopefully no one else will be able to guess all the add-ins? Is that about right?" Kate asked after a pause to process what she had heard.
"That's about it. Now, the only other rule you need to know are that you must by a large ice cream—it makes enough for everyone to share and then allow you to enjoy what's left over and it limits how many add-ins you can afford. Other than that, it is pretty much a free for all. Just remember to cover your bowl before you sit down at the table."
"I think I can handle that. Just don't take it too hard when I wipe the floor with you."
"Oh? You think you can take down the reigning champion? We shall see, Kate. We. Shall. See!"
Quickly ushering Kate into the shop, they joined the line, making sure to stay far enough apart from one another that neither would be able to cheat.
-o-O-o-
Carrying her covered bowl of ice cream, Kate made her way to a back table where the Castle were already seated, three covered bowls in front of them. Sitting down in the last empty seat, Kate placed the bowl on the table and looked at the pieces of paper that had been resting there.
"That is the game cards. In order to try and keep the game fair, we fill out game cards with the flavor of ice cream we think it is followed by all the add-ins. First, though, you fill out one of the cards with what is actually in your ice cream, fold it up and place it in the middle of the table. Then for the game, you taste each of the ice creams and fill out the card and at the end you rank them on flavor. Since Chloe is still learning to write, the person whose ice cream she is tasting has the added job of filling out her card as she dictates it to you. Sound good? Okay then, everyone pass their ice cream to the right."
For the next ten minutes, the only sounds that could be heard were the smacks of mouths as they ate ice cream, the scratch of pen on paper, quiet grunts of disgust as they each tried Castle's concoction and the faint hiss of Chloe whispering her guesses into someone's ear. When everyone was done and the papers were handed to Castle, the girls started talking right away.
"Dad? What is in your ice cream? That is possibly the worst creation you have ever foisted on us. Please, please, please, never make that again." Alexis said with a grimace.
"Really? You think my ice cream is disgusting? Not possible. Not. A. Chance. That dish is the masterpiece of all ice creams."
"No Rick, Alexis is right. That is truly disgusting. Besides, how would you know whether it is good or not? You haven't even tasted it yet."
"It's a Richard Castle creation. Ipso facto, it must be great!"
"And Chloe, what do you think of your dad's masterpiece?"
"Daddy, I'm with them. That was gross." Wrinkling up her nose in such an extreme showing of distaste, Castle couldn't help but laugh before scooping a spoonful of his ice cream into his mouth.
While the girls and Kate sat eating their ice cream and discussing school, Castle quickly scored the sheets laid out in front of him while occasionally taking bites of his own ice cream. When it appeared that the girls were deep in conversation, Castle covertly snuck his spoon towards Kate's ice cream intent on getting another taste. Without looking away from Alexis, Kate reached over and smacked Castle's hand.
"Na uh! You have your own ice cream. Eat that and leave mine alone."
"But yours is so much better than mine!" As he talked, he put on his best puppy-dog pout and tried once again to snag a bite of Kate's ice cream. "I mean, it was unanimously voted as best tasting."
With a resounding thump, Kate smacked the back of Castle's hand with her spoon. "Nope! That isn't going to work on me. Now, stop trying to steal my ice cream or I will be forced to cuff you to your chair."
"Cuff me to my chair? What is it exactly that you do, Kate?"
Stealing herself for the inevitable rejection that usually followed this confession, she locked eyes with Castle "I'm a police detective."
"Really? That is so cool!"
Shocked by the atypical reaction, Kate stiffened as her eyes grew slightly wider. Before she could get over the shock, Castle leaned forward so that his mouth was next to her ear.
"In that case, Detective, feel free to cuff me any time," A lecherous look overtook his face as he felt Kate shiver slightly as the huff of warm air breezed past her ear.
"Dad! Children present!" Alexis reproachfully exclaimed as she quickly clapped her hands over Chloe's ears and eyes while seemingly trying to figure out how to cover her own at the same time.
Blushing deep red when he realized he had spoken louder than intended, Castle leaned back in his chair and opened his mouth in horror.
In an attempt to ease the awkwardness that had settled over the table, Kate grabbed a spoonful of her ice cream and shoved it in Castle's mouth causing the girls as the table to laugh as the sight.
"So, you mentioned that my ice cream was voted best tasting. What did I win then?"
"Yes, your ice cream—"
"Didn't your mom ever tell you not to talk with your mouth full?" Reaching over, Kate placed a hand under his chin forcing his mouth closed to finish his ice cream. With a loud gulp, Castle swallowed the rest of the ice cream before turning and showing Kate his empty mouth.
"As I was saying before you interrupted—yes, your ice cream won best tasting hands down and I am not sure what you won yet. Normally best tasting would get to choose the movie we watch tonight when we get home, but since we aren't having movie night tonight, and I am feeling that even if we were you'd feel terribly uncomfortable joining us for that, I am not sure. How about I think about it and get back to you?"
"Sounds good. What about the other winner?"
"Yes…and the winner is, with an impressive twenty-three out of twenty-six correct guesses, drumroll please." At the prompt, the two girls started slapping the table for a couple seconds before stopping. "the reigning champion, Chloe! As the winner of this challenge, you get the chance to choose the destination of our next family outing this next weekend. Think long and hard about what you want to do…it could be the last time you win this challenge!"
"I already know what we are going next, but it is a secret."
"Is that so, Chloe-bug? Well, don't tell us then. We wouldn't want to ruin the surprise would we?" Turning to face Kate, Castle opened his mouth to talk when Chloe interrupted.
"Fine. You win. I'll tell you. We're going to the… "
"Shhh! You can't tell us. It will ruin the surprise." Alexis held a finger up to her smiling mouth as she admonished the little girl.
"ZOO. We are going to the zoo." Smiling widely, Chloe looked around the table. "What do you guys think?"
"That sounds great, Chloe. Why don't you finish up your ice cream so we can head home, though? Tomorrow is a big day after all."
"What's tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow is Chloe's first day of first grade. She has been bouncing off the walls in excitement all weekend."
Smiling as she remembered how excited she had been for her first day of first grade, Kate looked over at Chloe and noticed that her eyes were starting to droop a little.
"Looks like you won't have too much trouble getting her to sleep tonight. I guess she had too much sugar on top of all the excitement. "
"I guess so. Seeing as Chloe looks like she is ready to pass out, how about we exchange numbers so that I can call you when I manage to come up with the perfect prize?"
"Sounds good. Here, hand me your phone."
"What are you going to do with it?"
"I am just going to send a text to my phone so that we have each other's numbers." While Kate quickly shot off a text to herself, she suddenly jolted a bit when she heard a loud thump and felt the table shake. Looking up from the phone, Kate smiled when she saw that Chloe's head was lying on the table next to her bowl—having finally succumbed to sleep.
With quick, practiced movements, Castle stood from the table, picked Chloe up and bundled her in her jacket before reaching back to grab his own. Handing Castle his phone back, Kate joined Alexis in gathering the rest of their things from around the table and tossing trash in the nearby trashcan. With one final look to make sure that they weren't forgetting something, the group walked out of the shop with Castle carrying a sleepy Chloe in his arms.
Climbing into a cab, Kate made her goodbyes before closing the door and telling the cabbie her address. Leaning back in the seat, Kate took a deep breath, amazed at how relaxed she was even after the amazing events of the evening. Before she could think too much about what she was doing, Kate pulled out her cell, noticing that she seemed to be missing her bag from the bookstore, and sent off a text to Rick.
I had a good time tonight. It was nice to meet you and your girls. By the way, I seem to have forgotten my book. Did Alexis pick it up by any chance?