Together with You

Chapter Summary: Rick's deadline for his manuscript was coming fast. But he wouldn't be Rick Castle if he stayed on track, would he?


Admittedly, Rick had accomplished a few pages since his brooding session several days ago. He was getting to his quota, but there was just so much patience you could muster if all you did for nearly 20 hours was staring at a Word program and type on end a scene reeling from your head.

Even mystery writers needed a break, right?

Rick took a glance at his desk calendar. On it, two dates were encircled – the end of the week was when Kate would be returning from France; tomorrow was the deadline Gina gave him for the draft of his manuscript. "Am I really going to procrastinate this until the last minute?" he thought out loud to himself, glancing at the blinking cursor. Saving his work so far, he pushed back from the desk and scrambled out of his office, skidding to a stop just in front of the fridge. "I can afford that~" he told himself with a grin, popping open the fridge to help himself to the sweets there.

And sitting in the middle rack was a plate of left-over chocolate cake Alexis had brought home from her party last night. "Score!" Rick cheered to himself, looking around cautiously for a moment before reaching out to snatch it. Kicking the fridge closed, he walked around the island counter while scooping up a fork from one of the drawers as he eased himself onto a chair. "Hello sugar frosting," he greeted the pastry as he happily indulged himself.

He needed to stay away from the office. Coming up with a closing scene for his next book, Frozen Heat, was still a work-in-progress. He just needed one last idea. So he thought stuffing himself with cake would jog his mind to function.

At least it spared him the trouble of having to think of other things… at least for the time being.

TBC