In the afternoon, the Beckett/Castle clan decided to go to the lake and make the most of the sun. They made their way to the artificial beach and settled on their towels.

"Did you put your swim suit on?" Kate asked

"Yes I did" Rick answered, "just like you said"

"And since when do you listen to what I say?"

"Since … always!" he exclaimed, pretending to be hurt by her words

"Yeah, right" Kate snorted, "then let's go to the water!"

The four of them made their way to the lake. Kate jumped right into it with her father. The two Castles were a little more reticent. Alexis finally went in and started to swim not to get cold. She started racing with Jim and Rick was still not in the water. Kate got out and went to him. He was only knee deep in water.

"Having a problem Rick?"

"Well, yeah … it's cold!" he whined like a child.

"Well, it's not a hot tub, it's a lake" she laughed, starting to splash him.

"Kate, stop. Please."

"You really think it's that cold?" Kate asked, stopping to splash around and taking his hand. "I'm sorry" she said, kissing him. "Come on, it's gonna be fun! There are slides over there, and you can jump from the floating ladder" she said, pointing to the equipment on the side of the lake.

"Just give me a few minutes and I'll be right there with you" Rick said, walking more into the water.

Kate went back in the water and just as she was turning to talk to him, he jumped on her, taking her under water with him.

"What was that for?" she asked, not really pleased, when she finally got to the surface.

"It was my revenge"

"Revenge for what?"

"For you jumping on me yesterday in the pool" he answered, taking her by the waist and pulling her to him.

"I don't remember any complaining from you though" she said, automatically locking her legs around his waist.

"Oh I was not … and the day you hear me complain about that please take me to a doctor" he said before kissing her.

O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O

Rick and Kate were the last two of their "clan" to get out of the water. After a half hour of swimming, pushing, splashing, racing and kissing, they finally decided to go back to the beach and enjoy the sun. As they were walking hand in hand out of the water, Kate couldn't help but look at the children who were playing between the water and the sand. When she turned her head to talk to Rick, everything went really fast, too fast for her to react She turned her head. She heard some woman say quite loudly "Andy No!" The next thing she knew, a ball stopped right in front of her face. By the time she realized Rick had stopped the ball, the woman ran to her, a child bouncing on her hip.

"You ok?" Rick asked to Kate

"Uh? Yeah, I'm fine" she answered."Goo reflexes by the way"

"Anything to protect you"

"Are you ok Ma'am?" the woman asked. "I am so sorry. I really didn't expect him to throw the ball this way and certainly not that far. I'm so sorry. I don't know what to …"

"It's ok, don't worry" Kate said, smiling at the young woman and seeing her 'aggressor' for the first time. It was a little boy about two years old, with light hair and big brown eyes . "You can't be mad at such a cute face anyway" she added, smiling even wider at the boy. "Do you want your ball back?" she asked the boy. He immediately hold his arms to her.

She was about to take the ball from Rick's hand when her father arrived.

"Oh, hey Lisa! How are you?" he asked, kissing the young woman on the cheek and taking the little boy in his arms. When he saw the looks on Kate's and Rick's faces, he remembered. "Oh, Kate, this is Lisa. She's Claire's daughter. And the little mister here is Andy, her son."

"Oh, Hi. I'm Kate, and this is Rick" Kate said, taking Rick's hand and squeezing it quite hard.

"Hey" Lisa said, more shyly than before. "Once again, I'm really sorry for the ball."

"It's ok, don't worry" Kate repeated.

She was about to finally give Andy his ball back when an older woman arrived. Kate would recognize this woman anywhere.

"Hey Jim!" she said, kissing him quickly."What are you doing here? I thought you …" she stopped when she saw Kate. "Oh my …"

"Hi, I'm Kate. Nice to finally meet you" Kate said, shaking her hand and trying to smile.

Claire didn't seem to be able to speak. She shook Kate's hand and looked at her. She looked completely panicked.

"Hey, it's ok" Jim said, putting his arm around her shoulders. "She won't bite, you know."

They all looked at each other, no one was talking.

"Jim, have you seen Alexis?" Rick asked, trying to break the tension.

"She on the phone. One of her friends called. Ashley I think …"

"Oh, this is going to take hours…"

"You know, I was thinking" Jim started, "since we're all here, why don't we move up tomorrow's lunch to tonight's dinner?"

"Sure, why not" Kate answered "it would leave us enough time to pack tomorrow. We'll have to live in the afternoon to go back to the city" she added, looking at Rick for his approval.

"Sounds good to me" he said

O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O

By the end of the afternoon, Jim had gone home to get started on dinner and Alexis was sleeping on her towel. Rick and Kate were laying side by side.

"Why did you agree to have dinner with Claire tonight? I thought the idea freaked you out?" Rick asked, turning on his side to look at Kate.

"It still does but I figures the sooner we have 'the meeting' the less freaked out I can get" she said, trying to explain how she was feeling.

"That's a pretty good reason, pretty smart one too" Rick laughed

"Hey! In case you hadn't noticed Mr Castle, I AM pretty smart" Kate said, leaning on her elbows and looking directly into his eyes.

"Right now you're pretty scary too" Rick laughed, shifting his weight so he could kiss her "but in general I think you're just … pretty hot"

"That's better" Kate said, laying back down

"And pretty nice" Rick said, kissing her neck

"That's good to know"

"Pretty good in a pool" he added, whispering in her ear, making her shiver

"Rick …"

"Pretty hard to resist"

"Stop it"

"Pretty flexible" he added, tracing patterns on her bare stomach

"Rick, please, there are children around"

"Yes Dad, even your own child is around so please stop" Alexis mumbled

"I would say you're pretty much controlled by your daughter" Kate laughed.

They left the lake a few minutes after this very interesting discussion, deciding it was time to go get ready for what Kate called 'the meeting'. When they arrived at the house, Jim was almost ready with the food. He was smiling at the idea of his daughter meeting his girlfriend, even if he was a bit scared of Kate's reaction. She had told him several time that she was ok with it but her voice lacked … something. He could not really say what was missing but she didn't seem quite herself. Of course, he completely understood the reasons she may have but still, he hoped his little girl could be happy for him just as he was happy for her.

Kate was in the stairs, back from her shower when she heard the doorbell rang.