Thank you all for your wonderful support it means so much to me to see you guys enjoying this. So the Fourth of July is my favorite holiday, and I've never been to the Hamptons. I think that pretty much covers it.
Castles not mine as evidenced by the fact that I don't tweet my writing partner all the time (If you're on Twitter and not following Terri Eda and Andrew Marlowe do it they're sickeningly adorable).
Chapter 18 – Summer Explosions
The sound of intermittent key clicks mixed with the ocean waves breaking, provides a sense of calm that can't really be associated with anywhere else for me. It was early morning and I'd brought my laptop out onto the deck near the pool making some final edits to the still un-titled story on my hard-drive.
"Morning dad," Alexis called, coming through the patio door clutching a glass of orange juice and bowl of cereal, smiling happily.
"Hey Pumpkin. Already dressed for the ocean I see?" The ties of her swim suit visible from under her shirt.
She set her breakfast down on the table leaning in to angle the umbrella so that it covered her seat properly and not mine casting a glare across the screen of my computer. "Hey you're stealing my shade," I griped, saving the document, choosing instead to focus on her.
"Sorry, Dad. Alabaster skin, have to keep the sun damage to a minimum," she grinned at me. "So is it nearly done?"
"Is what nearly done?" I asked, despite the fact that I knew she already knew exactly what I was working on.
Swallowing the bite of cereal she cocked her head to the side with that look she'd perfected at the age of five that said I wasn't hiding anything from her. "The Nikki Heat book you've been writing for the last ten months." I tried for a look of innocence that she didn't buy, instead she lifted her eyebrow, a move perfected at thirteen. "The one that you haven't let me read or talked to your publisher about because you're afraid of how Kate will take it. And you haven't talked to her about it either."
"I have no idea what you're talking about. How about we go for a bike ride?" I tried to redirect the conversation entirely, a move that hadn't worked with her since she was fifteen.
"I don't even have a bike here anymore," she almost snapped, it felt more like she was disappointed with me. "You're going to have show it to her sometime. And you're going to have to talk to Gina about it sooner rather than later because she's going to start calling me about what you're up to."
My daughter, the wise and beautiful girl that I'd raised, now had a high school diploma and was leaving for college in the fall, and despite all that I could see the little girl with a smattering of freckles begging me to go seashell hunting with her across from me. Instead, she was scolding me on work and my relationship. I suppose it was time to come clean, "It's nearly done."
"I figured," she nodded crisply, "you've been working on it for long enough."
"I just want it to be perfect before I give it to her to read… I want her to read it first because I want her to be comfortable with whatever I do with it."
Alexis looked at me, just studying my face for a second, as she finished off her cereal. Swallowing the last of her orange juice she finally nodded, "Are you close?"
"Editing the last chapter. I want to be able to give it to her before the end of the weekend."
Alexis leaned back in her chair, watching me, an inherited trait I can only assume. "How do you think she's going to react?"
I chuckled darkly to myself rubbing a hand through my hair. That was the exact reason I'd ended up writing the whole damn thing without telling her. Because, I just didn't know how she was going to react. "I have no idea, but I have a feeling that best case scenario where she's fine with it without having read it isn't going to happen."
More of the watching, seriously I rubbed off on her more than I appreciate sometimes. "Well finish it now, Gram will be up in a bit, and Kate will be here in a few hours. You should have it finished before either of those things happens." She stood scooping up her dishes, "What's it called?"
"Another dilemma that I should probably solve," I confessed.
"You always have the named, usually before you start them." She shrugged though, like that was the mystery she'd decided to let go of. "Well I think I'm going to go read on the beach for a bit. Let me know if Kate gets here early."
"Whatcha reading?" I asked as I opened my lap top back up, opening the title document.
She grinned wickedly, at least as wickedly as she ever does, "Oh I thought it was time to re-read Heat Wave, thought there might be a sequel coming out soon." And she disappeared into the house, leaving me to readjust the umbrella so that there was as little glare as possible.
I was just beginning to think that maybe I should let go at least until after lunch when I heard her, "Castle?" It was a little timid and a lot confused but she sounded like she was coming around the outside of the house, "Rick?"
"I'm back here," I called saving the document, with two new words on the title page, before exiting out of the program and powering the computer down just in time for her to come around the corner. Looking every bit the woman ready for a beach vacation she stepped onto the the patio, with her hair tied up in a loose ponytail, sunglasses on her nose, white v-neck tee, and a pair of shorts that made her legs go on for miles before reaching the wedge sandals strapped to her feet. "I think you were made for summer," I told her wrapping my arms around her waist to capture her lips in hello.
"I'm finding it hard to disagree at the moment even if I'm only here for a couple of days," She stroked her fingers through the hair at the base of my neck.
"Really so short?" I pouted. I already knew it was a miracle that she'd managed to get the 4th off, but it was still a bummer that she had to be back at work on the 6th because it meant leaving here on the 5th.
She hummed her agreement with my pout, "Yeah, but let's not whine about it."
I grumbled more now, "You're right let's not whine about."
"Good." She smiled that dazzling smile that made her cheeks disappear up under the bottoms of her sunglasses. "Now would you care to show me around this monstrosity or should I just plan on sleeping next to the pool because I can't find my way around."
"It's not that big," I laughed, releasing her waist to snag her hand and lead her inside.
"Not that big? Rick I rang the door bell three times before giving up and coming around back to find you."
"Ah well…" I rubbed the back of my neck, "that might have more to do with the fact that I was working and not really focusing on anything but my computer." I lead her into the open first floor that connected the living room, dining room and kitchen all together much like my SoHo loft but on a grander scale in airy beach tones.
"Oh really?" I could hear the intrigue in her voice as she pushed her sunglasses up on her head, "and what has the illustrious Richard Castle been penning these days? A new detective to prowl the streets, perhaps?"
"Perhaps," I teased back. "We should go grab your bag and then I'll show you around upstairs."
She nodded for me to lead on, "Really Castle, aren't you going to tell me what you've been writing?"
"All in good time," I promised.
A pair of arms slipped around my waist as I manned the grill. "This is wonderful," she told me settling her head on my shoulder.
"Having fun are you?" I flipped the burgers in front of me before turn my head just enough to catch a kiss.
"You sound surprised?" She grinned, "did you think that I would find myself bored out of my mind barbequing on the beach with the man I love and his family on the Fourth of July."
"I am a little bit, you sounded pretty reluctant when I asked originally."
"I didn't want to get your hopes up," she released my waist to pick a plate and start assembling her burger. "I love the Forth of July, it was my favorite holiday growing up," she offered, plunking a tomato onto her bun.
"Oh really you love the Independence Day?" I slid the patty onto the waiting bun.
She smiled and fussed finishing the assembly of her food. "Well when I was a kid everyone got the day off and we'd go to the park or the pool and play games and barbeque and then at night we'd all lie on blankets and watch the fireworks go off. It was always a good excuse to spend the day with family and friends eating outside without all the fuss of Christmas or Thanksgiving."
"Isn't that exactly what we're going right now?" I asked loading up my own plate to take over to the table.
She smiled saucily at me tossing her hair over her shoulder as she took a seat, "Which is why I'm enjoying myself so much, I haven't had a reason to celebrate it in a while. Usually I volunteer to work the holiday." She shrugged lifting the burger off her plate to take a bite.
Oh Kate, my heart seized and I reached over to give her exposed thigh a squeeze of reassurance, "Well you have plenty of people to celebrate with now."
"What else is on the list of things we're doing to celebrate?" she asked with a lazy smile. "We've been swimming in the pool, and in the ocean, played Frisbee, and soccer, we've built sand castles, and now we're eating watermelon and hamburgers what's left on the list of all American things to do?"
"Well obviously there's fireworks to watch but we'll have to wait for it to get dark first, and if you want there's a reading of the Declaration of Independence at the town hall," I suggested, "otherwise we can just hang out here."
She laughed freely, "You want to go into town and listen to a list of grievances against the king be read? Why doesn't that surprise me?" She polished of her burger looking at me amused.
I don't know why but her knowledge of the declaration made my skin tingle. "Because I have affection for words," I growled out, "especially ones that make a difference."
She just smiled and hummed at me, reaching out to run her fingers down my arm just light and teasing, "And going to listen to the Declaration … is that a tradition?" she kept her voice low, her eyes on mine.
Capturing the wandering fingers with my hand, I brought them up to kiss, "Alexis has refused to go since she was twelve, and I've never been able to get my mother to go." Flipping her hand over I pressed as kiss to her palm and then the base of her wrist, "But I'm thinking this year maybe my time might be better spent napping and making some fireworks of my own."
Her head fell back as she laughed, "And what about your mother and Alexis?"
"They're old enough to entertain themselves for an hour."
She bit her bottom lip in that way she does when she's trying to contain a smile but it's never as affective as she'd hopes, and it always makes me want to kiss her. Then again, maybe that's the goal of the smile. She pushed her empty plate further into the table with one hand giving a gentle tug on the other as she stood, "Come on Castle. Let's go upstairs."
The smile was full blown and beautiful now, the sun capturing her in a halo of light, and it was a sucker punch to the gut as I stood up. "I love you so much," I mumbled pulling her too me, catching her in a kiss that tasted like summer, as I slid my hands around her waist anchoring her to me, fingers searching out the gap between her tank top and shorts.
"Inside," was all she managed to gasp as I proceed to move my kisses to her jaw and then down the column of her neck.
She was laughing, with my daughter and mother as they tried to write things with the sparklers they'd lit. Alexis was trying to capture it with her cameral, attempting an art project she'd seen on the internet but never had the opportunity to try before now. The three of them looked so ridiculously happy that I was reluctant to shoot of the firework that I'd rigged up.
Eventually the sparklers burned out and Alexis turned to see me watching them, "Ready dad?"
"Yeah, all set." I turned my attention to Kate, "Are you sure you're okay with this?" When we'd watched the formal show, an hour ago, her nails had bitten into my skin hard with the first explosion of the night, and I'd realized that fireworks were probably a horrible idea for someone coping with PTSD. She'd closed her eyes and taken a few deep breaths slowly relaxing her grip on my arm before she'd been able to look up at the sky.
"Just don't blow yourself up," she called coming as close as she dared, bracketed my family.
"Well Richard what are you waiting for?" my mother called her eyebrows arched as they always did when she didn't understand what I was doing.
Tearing my eyes from Kate's after she'd given me a small nod I lit the fuse and ran up to them, covering my ears quickly as I did. I'd aimed the rocket out over the water and just as I turned around a few steps in front of them, it exploded in a shower of golden sparks lighting up the water beneath it.
I was rewarded with more laughter from the girls behind me as they all jogged down to stand beside me, "Just how legal are these fireworks, Rick?"
"I'm taking the fifth." I gave her a smug smile, she knew full well that there was nothing legal about the fireworks I had, but she wasn't going to do anything about it.
She shrugged and rolled her eyes indulgently, "Not my jurisdiction anyway."
"That's the spirit," Mother chortled.
Alexis meanwhile was scanning the ground in front of us, "There's four left. Can we light them all at once?"
"A grand finale" Martha opened her arms dramatically.
There was a gentle squeeze at my elbow and I turned to find Kate giving me a small nod of confirmation. "Ok but we have to run like hell once they're lit."
If anyone had been around it probably would have been comical the four of us lined up feet from the water, rockets at our feet everyone clasping lighters. We were trying to be as serious as possible in that moment as we all hummed with excitement over our own little firework show. "Ready?" I called receiving a chorus of affirmations, "On the count of three. One. Two. Three." I touched my lighter to the end of the fuse designated to me waiting just a fraction of a second to make sure that they all were running to before I joined them.
Getting to the designated distance I wrapped my arms around Kate's waist catching her in spin that brought us both to the ground as the four rockets glittered over the water. Alexis collapsed next to us as Kate settled into the v of my legs, "That was awesome dad," Alexis grinned at me, before laying back in the sand, to look up at the stars.
Kate hummed in agreement letting her head rest against my shoulder so that she could rotate it just enough to press a kiss to the underside of my chin. "Awesome," she reiterated. I could feel her eyelashes brush against my neck as she left her head just where it was, taking in a deep breath.
"How are you doing?" I asked softly.
Now I could feel her smile against my neck as she pressed another kiss there, "I'm good. Thank you for checking."
"I should have thought about the fireworks before, at least given you a heads up."
"You know I think I deduced that there were going to be fireworks on the Fourth of July when I was about five," she chuckled softly giving my knee a squeeze.
"Ok fair enough. It just didn't occur to me."
"I knew it was a possibility," she confessed.
I pulled my head back just enough to look at her face, "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I love the Fourth of July, including the fireworks. Besides I had no way of knowing if they'd be a problem Captain kept me in the precinct on New Years Eve, stuck me down in processing."
"So she does have a heart."
"More like she didn't want to have to explain anything that went wrong."
"But you're ok?"
"I'm fine the first one just took me by surprise that's all."
All I could do was hum in response and hold onto her as we watched the water. Eventually my mother and daughter claimed exhaustion from the day's festivities and made their way back up to the house. "You think I would have ever gotten you to come out here with me if we'd stayed partners?"
"You would have asked, I'm sure of that." She replied tracing meaningless patterns on my arm.
"What would you have said?"
"I have no idea," it came out as a sleepy sigh.
"Oh the possibilities…" I mused.
"I'm quite fond of reality at the moment."
I paused for a happy moment, "Yeah, reality is pretty good right now."
She cracked an eye open to look at me, "Just pretty good."
"Well fantastic, actually," I assured her, "but I think we can make it a bit better."
"I'm not having sex in the sand Castle," she was serious but it lacked any bite.
I wrinkled my nose, I'd tried that adventure exactly once and it had ended badly, "Not how to make it better that's how to make it worse and quickly."
"Tried that have we?" She was amused.
"Not the point."
Her smile grew, "What is the point?"
"We should go for a midnight swim…" I suggested knowing that there was plenty of potential for her to shoot this down completely.
"I'm not wearing my suit anymore," it almost sounded like a whine.
"You don't need it."
"Rick I'm not getting in the ocean with my clothes… Oh?" she froze when she realized what my intention was. Slowly she sat up looking at me with what could only be a mix of shock and amusement, as the moon light caught her hair. Then she was a blur of movement as she popped up off the ground wrapping her fingers around the hem of her shirt and pulling it over her head. "Illegal fireworks, and public indecency all in one day," she shook her head almost like she couldn't believe that she was doing this. "Be really glad this isn't my jurisdiction." She grinned pulling off the rest of her clothes depositing a lacy scrap of fabric in my lap as she took off for the water.
I watched her dive goddess like into the ocean, entranced by her, mentally trying to figure out what an earth I'd done right to have this magical creature swimming in the ocean at my house in the Hamptons. "Castle, are you coming?" she called snapping me out of my thoughts, as I lurched into action trying not to trip over my clothes as I raced out to meet her.
Not an hour ago I'd extricated myself from our bed, to run to the nearest Kinko's, with the stack of printed pages. It turned out the nearest Kinko's was not all that near, but the place in town that sold all the stationary was able to do exactly what I needed, and the person I talked to didn't know what twitter was, so that secret was safe for at least a little bit longer.
Now she was sitting poolside sipping from a cup of coffee as she finished the paperback she'd brought with her. I could have sworn she hadn't started it when she got here a day and a half ago, but here she was on the last pages.
"Morning," I leaned over and brushed a kiss across her lips, before settling myself on the end of her lounge chair.
She smiled at me but held up a finger, indicating for me to wait for her to finish. Her grin widened and she gave a satisfied sigh as she closed the book. "Morning, where'd you disappear off to?"
"I had an errand to run." I purposely kept my eyes of the box sitting in my lap, "Need new reading material?"
"Not really I should probably hit the road actually, if I want to have a prayer of getting home with minimal traffic." She looked mildly torn at the idea of leaving, "Why did you have something you want me to read?" I could see the intrigue in her eye. She was secretly thrilled at the idea of being able to read her favorite authors work before the public, even if she would never tell me that.
"I do," I nodded patting the box, "but I want to talk to you about it first?"
She cocked an eyebrow, bringing a hand up to push her bangs out of her eyes. "What about it?" I took a deep breath steeling myself because I was completely unsure of how she was going to take it. "Spit it out Castle," she smiled and I hoped that wasn't going to be the last time I saw her smile.
"No one else has read this. In fact, Alexis and my mother are probably the only people that even know that this exists and they've haven't seen it."
"Castle did you become a harlequin romance novelist or something and are too ashamed to admit it?" She was looking at amused and puzzled all at once, as she made to take the box from me.
Holding it just out of reach, "Whether this goes to my publisher or not is completely up to you."
"Ok." She nodded, finally taking this a little bit more seriously.
"Ok." I handed the box to her watching apprehensively as she lifted the lid off the freshly bound pages, it was either going to be yelling and screaming or she was going to shut down, my brain hadn't processed the possibility that she'd be happy about it. Every time the topic had been brought up she'd looked worried, and even a little panicky so happy wasn't really one of the reactions I was expecting, even if I was secretly hoping for it.
She dropped the lid on the ground next to her the instant she saw the title, she didn't say anything just yet, she just ran her fingers over the letters soaking it in. After what felt like half a lifetime, she lifted her head, "Nikki Heat?"
"What can I say, Kate? You've always inspired me." I wrapped a hand around her shin, relieved when she didn't flinch away.
"I thought you said you would talk to be before you wrote this?"
"I am."
"No. No, you're not this is a finished product, you've already written it." There was a tiny edge of hysteria in her voice.
"That's what I do I'm a writer, I write things." This was a mess on a level I hadn't quiet expected. I thought that she'd be mad at me for the subject matter, but not for writing it in the first place.
"Rick…" exasperation, annoyance, and quite possibly betrayal all came across in that one word.
"Will you just read it? That's all I'm asking, just read it and then we talk about what to do with it. If you hate it then this is the only copy there ever was and we'll burn it together. Just please read it." I begged.
She looked down and the cover sheet and then up at me, pursing her lips. "I should go, before traffic gets too bad." She set the box aside and extricated herself from the chaise.
I blinked at the rapid course correction, "Um yeah, ok."
"I'm just going to run in and get my bag and then I'll leave."
"You can stay a little bit longer." I tried to reach out and grab her hand.
She stepped back, "No, I should really go." She turned and disappeared into the house leaving me and the manuscript on the patio.
Her slam of our bedroom door propelled me into action. Scooping up the box, I rushed in side finding the nearest pen and scrap of paper, scrawling a rushed note I tucked it in the box and ducked outside to get it in the car before she came back down stairs.
I once the box was on her passenger seat I softly closed the door and leaned against the car so she couldn't escape without at least saying bye to me. I didn't have to wait long before she came striding out of the house, anger making her look dangerous, but I was going to have to stand my ground. She didn't stop when she saw me she just made her way around the car to the driver's side tossing the one bag she'd brought in the back seat. "Let me know when you get home." I told didn't ask, asking meant I was ok with not knowing and I definitely wasn't ok with that.
She took a deep breath closing her eyes as she leaned opened her door leaning against the frame, finally looking at me as her ponytail caught in the breeze. "I will." It wasn't calm and wasn't particularly sweet but it was mutual acknowledgement.
"I love you." I said softer stepping back from the car.
She looked at me for a long moment, "I love you too," finally fell from her lips so softly that I almost wasn't sure that she'd said it, before she was climbing into the car and turning over the engine. Leaving me with nothing more to do than watch her pull away.
Guys we survived the hiatus there's a new episode tomorrow and there's eye sex in it.
Fangirling over. What did you think?
Babyrose