We sat in the chair for a while just making out and learning what we both like before I asked a question.
"So how do you want to tell Alexis and Martha?"
"Can't we just stay here until they come home? They are smart. They'll just look at us and realize something is up," he mumbled as he kept kissing on my neck.
"I would say so, me fully clothed and you just in your fancy silk boxers?" I smiled at the surprised look on his face.
"I guess I should go get dressed. I'll call Alexis and see when she and Mother are coming home. I didn't even realize I wasn't dressed yet, why didn't you tell me?"
"And miss the show? I don't think so," I smiled at him and earned the squinty Castle glare.
He left to get dressed and I sat there for a while trying to think of how would be the best way to tell his family that we were together; and hoping that they approved. I know that they liked me, but me working with Castle was different than dating him. I knew that Martha wouldn't mind but I was a little more worried about Alexis. She was a great kid who has had her dad all to herself for years now, how would she take to someone else coming into his life? She didn't seem to be thrilled when she had come home and found him in the kitchen.
"Hey, what's got you so deep in thought?" he said from the doorway, startling me.
"Alexis."
"They will be here for dinner by 6:30. But I think that isn't what you were just thinking about."
"She didn't seem terribly thrilled when she had come home, is she going to be okay with us?" I asked. He took two large steps to me, held out his hand and pulled me out of the chair. He then sat down and pulled me onto his lap.
"Alexis likes you, a lot. I normally don't have female guests here when she is here so she was surprised. Trust me, she approves of you."
A little while later we finally left the study to get dinner started. We decided to make lasagna and we had fun getting it ready. I was pulling it out of the oven when the door opened and Alexis peeked her head in.
"Kate, where's Dad?" she whispered surprised to see me.
"Laundry room," I whispered back.
"Good. Gram come on in," she said as she opened the door fully and pulled in several large suitcases. Martha followed her with several more suitcases.
"Oh, hello Kate."
"Hello, Martha," I said with a smile. "It looks like you had a good trip."
"Yes, it was nice, we were busy shopping. Hello, son." I turned slightly to see the look on his face as he came back into the room.
"Mother," he said shocked as he looked at the suitcases. "Five suitcases? And you bought new suitcases too? I knew that I shouldn't have given her my credit card," he mumbled to himself.
"Don't complain, kiddo. We needed to get a few essentials since we left so fast."
"A few? Mother…" he seemed at a loss for words. I loved seeing him flummoxed like that but I was suspicious that something was up.
"So, Alexis, let's see what you got," I suggested. She smiled and I knew that I was right.
"Sure! Dad, grab that one." She pointed to the suitcase that she had brought home earlier.
We took the suitcases over to the living room and Alexis put the one suitcase on the coffee table, opened it up and started to show off a couple of shirts.
"Richard, darling. Open up this big suitcase, we got a little surprise for you."
"I'm afraid," he said. He opened up the large suitcase to find… "Nothing."
Martha and Alexis started laughing and I wished again that I had a camera to catch the look of sheer confusion on his face.
"We were good Dad. We only got the little suitcase and what was in it. We just had to play a little joke on you though," she smiled her charming Castle smile.
"Where did you get the suitcases?" he asked pouting.
"These are my friend Kelly's and those are Gram's agent's."
"Oh, son, the look on your face. Priceless, right Kate?" Martha asked me.
"Yep. I wish I had a camera. The boys would love to see this." I got the infamous Castle squinty glare for that.
"How did you know, Beckett?" he asked walking over to me, making me think he was going to let it slip about us before we had planned.
"I'm a detective, I detected." I smiled at him smugly.
"Very good! And do I detect a hickey, Detective?" Martha asked with a smile, my hand shooting to my neck to cover it.
"Gee, does it match Dad's?" Alexis said innocently not looking at us, as his hand shot to his neck. We all fell silent, causing her to look up at us finally.
"Seriously?" Alexis asked. I looked over to Rick and we both dropped our hands from our necks and reached for each other.
"Well, it's about time, kiddo," Martha said. Alexis squealed and wrapped me in a sudden hug.
"See Kate, I told you that they wouldn't have a problem with it," he said with a smile.
"I think this calls for a celebration. Let's go out for dinner," declared Martha.
"Actually, we just took dinner out of the oven, Martha," I said.
"No matter," she insisted.
"Mother, Kate wants to keep this kind of quiet for a while. So we won't be going out on dates and such right now," he said as he put his arm around my shoulders.
"Dinner here it is then," Martha said.
"So, how did Dad finally make his move," Alexis asked with a grin as we were eating dinner.
"Um," I stammered as I glanced at Rick. We hadn't thought about what to tell Alexis.
"Or do we not want to know?" Alexis smiled.
"Speak for yourself, kiddo, I wanna hear this," Martha smiling at our discomfort.
"Okay, writer boy, you're up."