I'm so happy to see so many of you engaging with this story, even though it will be short. I hope you'll enjoy chapter 3!
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If Castle thought he had been nervous two days before, he had been wrong, terribly wrong. He spent the whole Saturday pacing around the loft, thinking about things to say, imagining scenarios even if he knew probably none of them would come true. He tried to plan something that wasn't plannable.
But it kept his mind busy and relieved some of the tension he was feeling, so he allowed his mind to trail off again and again. There was no doubt this evening would change everything between them. If only he would dare to push it far enough. He really planned to do that. But he was aware there was still a chance he would chicken out at the last second, too scared to lose what they had when she wouldn't be ready to admit what she was feeling.
At some point, he stopped trying to fight the nervousness. It was 5 p.m., and there was still plenty of time until he had to pick her up, but still, he started to get ready. Standing in front of his closet again, he opted for a dark grey sweater instead of a button-down shirt. He didn't want to feel like they were at work. While he slipped the sweater on, he wondered if Kate might be contemplating what to wear as well and if she felt any of the nervousness he was feeling.
By 5:30 p.m. he was sitting at the counter, his keys and phone lying in front of him. How should he take the next one and a half hours of waiting before it would be reasonable to call a taxi? He thought that maybe he should do a little research on the band and try to impress her with his knowledge about them. But he crossed that thought from his mind, knowing he would sound ridiculous. Also, he probably wouldn't even be able to spell their name to google them.
He was too nervous to eat, and having a drink would be a bad idea. He managed to sit at the counter for another twenty minutes, then got up, pulled on his coat and a scarf, and headed out of his loft. With more than an hour left, he could walk to her place and order a taxi there.
Keeping his feet busy made the spinning of thoughts in his head a little more endurable. The air was cold and calming, walking had been a good choice. Ten minutes before he arrived at her building he called a taxi to pick them up. The last bit of the way, his heart rate got faster with every step he came closer to her building.
He arrived at her door and took a deep breath before he pushed open the door and walked inside. Taking the elevator up to her floor, he nervously tapped his fingers against his hip. The doors slid open, and he forced his legs to move all the way to the door of her apartment. With another deep breath, he knocked against the door and waited for her to open, the seconds feeling torturously long.
The door cracked open, and his breath got caught in his throat when he saw her. She had definitely thought about what she wanted to wear tonight, and man, she had made a great choice. Her black dress had long, tight-fitting sleeves and a neckline of almost see-through black fabric that ran just below her collarbones and ended in a thin line between her breasts, revealing a tantalizing glimpse of her cleavage. In contrast to the tight-fitting top, the skirt of the dress fell loosely around her hips, emphasizing her curves perfectly and ending just above her knees, her legs looking endless in the dark grey tights and black heels.
He only noticed his jaw had dropped when his eyes wandered back up her body and met her face, seeing the smirk on her lips. Closing his mouth, an insecure grin spread over his lips.
"Wow, Beckett, you look fantastic!" He said, happy to see a smile form on her lips along with a slight blush that spread to her cheeks.
"Thanks, Castle." She replied and lowered her gaze a little, looking at his jeans. Suddenly, he felt a little underdressed and tried to cover up his insecurity with a joke.
He arched one brow at her and said "You're not some sort of groupie, are you? Trying to impress the lead singer?"
She chuckled and shook her head while she took her coat off a hook on the hallway wall. "No, I'm not. And even if I were, my chances would be slim since he is married to the male drummer."
Castle shrugged his shoulders and reached for her coat, taking it out of her hands. "His loss." He smirked and held the coat up to help her put it on.
She accepted the gesture with a smile, and he thought she blushed a little more at his words. He meant them.
She closed the buttons of her coat and reached for a scarf, smiling at him. "Shall we?"
"Yes!" He stretched out his arm for her to walk past him after she pulled the door close beside herself. "The taxi's waiting outside. Do you've got the tickets?"
Nodding, she threw him a glance over her shoulder. "Of course!"
With a few quick steps, he caught up to her and walked by her side until they reached the elevator. On the ride down, he thought that if they could keep this kind of lightness between them for the entire evening, there was a good chance it would end the way he wanted it to. The thought made him smile.
The taxi took them to the concert hall, where they were able to walk past the line of waiting people and hand their tickets to a security guy who assigned them to their seats. Castle made a mental note to give Ty an extra tip. Their seats were perfect, and avoiding having to wait in the cold was definitely a plus to keep the mood up.
Kate stayed at their seats while he got them both something to drink, and when he returned, she grinned up at him, excitement written all over her face. He took his seat beside and before he had the chance to come up with something to talk about, she started talking. And even though he didn't care at all about the band, their history, how their style of music had changed over the years, he loved every word that came from her lips, together with that wonderful, beaming smile.
The concert started, and for the next one and a half hours, Castle barely noticed anything about his surroundings; he wouldn't even have been able to tell what kind of music the band had played. All he cared about was her, and no concert could ever keep up with watching her have fun and enjoy herself more than he had ever seen her do before.
She looked wonderful in her dress, and the pure happiness on her face made her look even more gorgeous. He promised himself to take her out as often as possible from now on, only to see her like this. As the evening progressed, he was convinced he had to bring her to talk about her feelings tonight. Because he was sure, there was no going back for him.
He was a little sad when the concert, and, therefore, his personal Kate Beckett show, ended, and the people started leaving their seats to head outside. They both took their time and waited until the majority of people had left. Then Castle helped her into her coat again, and they slowly made their way over to the exit.
When they stepped out of the heated air of the concert hall and into the winter night, Castle damned himself that he had spent ninety minutes staring at her instead of coming up with a specific idea of how not to let this evening end after the concert. But she had just been so mesmerizing and hypnotizing that he hadn't been able to focus on anything else.
Looking over at her, he saw her taking a deep breath and letting it go again, the air escaping her mouth in little clouds. The smile was still bright on her face, and when she looked over at him, his heart stumbled in his chest.
"That was the best birthday present ever, Castle. Thank you." She said, and a smile spread over his lips, too.
"You're welcome. I'm happy you had fun."
They started walking towards the road where countless taxis were waiting to pick up customers, and people were struggling to get one since everyone was leaving at the same time. He threw her a glance with a little smirk on his face.
"Wait, if that was your best birthday present, does it put my book in second place? The book I wrote about you?"
She chuckled and shook her head. "I'm sorry to tell you, Castle, but your book doesn't even make it into the top ten."
Clenching his hand to his heart, he stumbled a few steps to the side and groaned, "Just put a dagger to my heart, alright."
She laughed again, and all he could think of was that he would write a hundred terrible books just for her to make fun of them and hear her laugh.
"But if it lightens your mood: Your book is better than the one I was reading when you came over to surprise me."
His brows shot up in surprise as he walked back to her side again. "Ha, that means you already read it?"
She didn't answer for a moment, but the way her lips briefly curled, he could tell she hadn't intended to give that information away.
"Maybe." She mumbled. "But only because the other book was so boring that I couldn't take it anymore, and I was curious to see what changes you made to the original manuscript."
"Oh, you can just admit you liked it." He grinned and carefully nudged his shoulder into hers, causing her to grin.
With a sigh, she looked up to the night sky and smiled. "Fine. I liked it. Are you happy now?"
"More than that." He grinned back. It really did mean a lot to him that she liked it. Simply because he wrote this book not just about her but also for her. Maybe someday he would tell her that.
They reached the huge group of people who were still trying to get a taxi. Looking up and down the street, Castle thought that might be another sign.
"It would be hell to try and get a taxi. How about I walk you back to your place? Supposed you can do that in those shoes." He knew it was quite a bit to walk, but it was worth giving it a try.
She arched her brow at him as he looked down at her heels. "Please, Castle, I can catch killers in these shoes. A little walk won't be a problem."
He replied with a grin and thought about it for a second. Maybe it would be too much, but if he never tried, he would never know.
He stretched out his arm for her to hook hers into it, and when she eyed him in surprise for a second, he felt more nervous than he had the entire evening. But then her features softened, and when she stepped closer to him, he felt his heart jumping happily in his chest.
She put her arm around his, and he immediately felt the warmth of her body against his side. It fueled his excitement to be able to walk her home even more. Tonight wasn't about to get into bed with her, even though, of course, he wouldn't mind. But what he really wanted was to come clean about their feelings and talk about what she had said to him on the rooftop. And he felt like it would be easier for her to admit it in the safe environment of her home instead of on the street, surrounded by people.
So, taking her home was bringing him another step closer to what he hoped would happen tonight.
He led her down the sidewalk, and for a while, they walked in comfortable silence. This time, Castle tried to concentrate and come up with possible ways to start the conversation he wanted to have with her as soon as they got to her place. But he couldn't really come up with anything. Maybe it would be better to just trust this evening and see where it would lead them. Until now, that had worked out pretty well.
And then it got even better.
Kate suddenly slowed down, tearing him out of his thoughts. He looked at her, and she lifted her hand, which wasn't resting on his arm, to point to a brightly lit-up window.
"That's one of my favorite cafés. Do you want to have a coffee?"
He looked over to the window, then arched a brow at her. "Coffee at 10 p.m.?"
She chuckled and slowly let go of his arm, which he didn't like at all. But when she opened the door to the café and turned around, the bright smile shining on her face again, his disappointment was already forgotten.
"Guess why it's my favorite café. There are only a few places where you can get good coffee that late."
She held the door open for him and he walked up to her, then followed her inside with a little laugh. "Yeah, Beckett, and that's for a reason."
She ignored his comment and walked over to a little table on the other side of the room, next to one of the big windows. He watched her take off her coat, and even though he had seen her in her dress the entire evening, he was once again surprised at how beautiful she looked.
Following her, he shrugged off his coat and took a seat on the other side of the table. A young waitress came up to them and took their order. He noticed Kate ordered the same coffee he brought her every morning, and it made him smile.
"Do you ever drink something else?" he joked, and she looked down at the table with a smile.
"A couple of days ago, you saw me drinking a lot of different things, and we both know how it ended. So I should better stick with my coffee."
"Right." He chuckled but thought to himself that for this one exception he was glad she didn't stick with just coffee.
The waitress brought their order, and as Kate took the first sip from her steaming mug, Castle used his chance to spark a conversation.
"So, did you ever see that band live before? You seemed quite ecstatic."
She shot him a bashful grin as she lowered her mug and shook her head. "No, this was the first time, actually."
"Ah, that explains a lot." He grinned back. "But why, though? If you like them that much, why not see them earlier?"
She shrugged her shoulders and wrapped her fingers, which still felt a little cold from the winter air outside, around the warm porcelain. "I didn't really get the chance. Work came in between, or I had no one to come along with me, and going alone wouldn't be much fun."
Tilting his head a little, he eyed her as she looked down at her coffee. "I never would have considered you someone who wouldn't go out alone," he said.
She shrugged her shoulders again, not looking up at him. "I would. But I don't want to."
With a smile on his lips and determination in his voice, he said, "Well, let me tell you something: From now on, if you ever need someone to attend you to wherever you want to go, I'll come along."
Lifting her gaze to his face once more, she smiled and teasingly answered, "Really? Even if it's some lame indie band that you obviously don't like?"
He firmly nodded his head. "Even then. I feel like you need to catch up on having fun, and I'd be happy to help."
Her brows shot up, and a warning glance formed on her face, which was still accompanied by a little smile. It took Castle a second to realize the ambiguous meaning of his words.
"Not that way!" He laughed, but quickly a cheeky smirk appeared on his lips, and he leaned a bit towards her, whispering, "Unless you want that. As I said, I'm in on everything."
Her only answer was a soft shaking of her head, but she was still smiling, and it sparked a new shimmer of hope in him that the light and flirty mood of this evening would be exactly what they needed.
He looked at her as her gaze wandered out of the window, and a frown formed on her face. A little confused, his eyes followed hers, and he tried to spot what she was looking at. It wasn't hard to see.
On the other side of the road stood a police car. A young man, merely older than twenty, perfectly dressed in his uniform, stood beside the car and fumbled on the side of his belt.
"What is he doing?" Kate whispered, but Castle couldn't suppress a grin.
"I think he's stuck," he said and pointed to the officer's side, where the young man desperately tried to free his sleeve from one of the clasps on his belt while he shot nervous glances to the passenger seat.
"Oh, that poor guy," Kate mumbled, but he heard a smile in her voice. "Didn't close his buttons correctly. That's going to get him into trouble. Must be one of this year's rookies."
Castle looked away from the young man, who had managed to free his sleeve by tearing it apart and now collected the buttons from the ground, and looked back to Kate.
"Is that something that happens to a lot of new cops?"
Kate slowly nodded, trying to hide her smile as the deeply blushed young cop finally got into the car. "Yeah, but usually only in the first one or two weeks. Then you learn it's better to pay attention to your uniform."
"Did something like that ever happen to you?" He grinned, the image in his head looking quite funny. But Kate shook her head and looked back at him.
"No, it didn't. I always liked to make sure my clothes were on the spot."
She leaned back into her chair with a little stretch, and he could have sworn she softly bit her bottom lip, but his eyes wandered deeper, where her neckline revealed a seductive look at her chest.
He swallowed even though his mouth was dry and forced himself to look away again before his thoughts had a chance to wander off and his imagination took over. He had to admit that he'd been lying to himself before: He definitely wanted to get into bed with her tonight, and then he never wanted to get out again.
Clearing his throat, he said, "Let's finish our coffee, it's late."
Kate wordlessly agreed by lifting her mug to her smirking lips. In a couple of minutes, they emptied their coffees, paid, slipped on their coats again, and then headed back out of the café.
Without hesitation, Castle stretched out his arm for her to hook in again, and when she did, a satisfied smile formed on his lips. Kate noticed it but didn't say anything about it. She wasn't really sure what his intentions for this evening were. But then, she wasn't sure what hers were either.
All she knew was that she was having fun and that it felt right to let him walk her home. Whatever would happen when they reached her doorstep was a decision she put off for the moment when she needed to make it.
Right now, all she felt was the security and comfort his body next to hers gave her as they walked down the dark street toward her apartment.