Author's Note: This is a chapter I had fun writing since it involves Jim so I hope you all enjoy it too.
The Best-Laid Plans
Chapter 27
Kate and Castle were supposed to have dinner with her dad that same evening after taking Alexis to Princeton, the first time Castle had been able to accept Jim's invitation to join the two Becketts sometime when they met up. Afterwards, it had occurred to Kate to wonder if it were such a good idea to have such a potentially fraught occasion as their first dinner as a couple with her dad on what was already going to be an emotional day for Castle but when Castle had accepted her dad's invitation, she could hardly be the one to back out.
As it happened, she decided that it was actually good timing after all. The dinner with her dad gave Castle some specific event to anticipate so he had something else to think about other than Alexis's absence.
Castle had changed out of the Batman t-shirt he'd put on that morning to put on one of his usual button-downs, this one in a pale blue, and then hesitated, glancing at her as she, too, changed into somewhat nicer clothes. "Is it okay if I wear jeans or do you think I should wear a suit?"
"We're not going to that formal of a restaurant, are we?"
"No, but I don't want your dad to think I look like a slob or that I don't care."
She had to smile. From what she could tell, Castle, wealthy metrosexual that he was, probably didn't own a single item of clothing that would qualify as slob-like. "He wouldn't think that and anyway, it's not like your jeans are tattered or have holes in them or something." she left unsaid that she knew perfectly well they were designer jeans. "You aren't nervous about this, are you? It's not like you haven't already met my dad."
Castle grimaced a little. "Not nervous, per se," he hedged. "I'm just… cautious."
"There's no reason to feel cautious either," she told him with a faintly dry emphasis on the word, cautious. "My dad already likes you, remember?"
"He's only met me once. And the more time I spend with someone, the higher the chance I'll say something stupid and as I'm sure you know by now, I am rather talented at saying stupid things."
His tone and expression were wryly humorous but it occurred to her that he really was nervous. It might have been the first time she'd ever seen Castle, the people person, expressing any self-doubt about how he might be perceived and she realized with a flare of warmth in her chest that it was because this was her dad and her dad was important to her and therefore he and his opinion was important to Castle.
"You'll be fine, Castle. You're not an easy person to dislike. I ought to know since I tried hard enough to dislike you after we first met," she added teasingly. "And we both know just how well I succeeded at that."
That made him laugh. "Thank you, I think, although considering it took months before you stopped looking at me like you wanted to shoot me, that's not quite as comforting as you might think."
She patted his chest. "Just don't be as annoying as you were those first few weeks after we met. Aren't you planning on being on your best behavior?"
He feigned injury. "I'm not as dumb as I look. Of course I am."
She laughed and kissed his cheek. "Well, then, that's all you need to do. Come on, we should get going. My dad always tends to be early."
As if to prove her right, although they arrived at the restaurant almost 10 minutes early, her dad walked in bare moments after they did.
"Katie, Rick, you're both looking well."
"Hi, Dad." Kate stepped in to hug her dad and he kissed her cheek.
Her dad turned to Castle, who held his hand out.
"Mr. Beckett, it's nice to see you again."
Her dad shook Castle's hand and then reached up with his other hand to briefly clap Castle on the shoulder. "None of that Mr. Beckett nonsense, always makes me feel like such a fossil. It's Jim, please."
She saw Castle's smile ease a little, some of his tension dissolving. "Jim, then. Thanks for letting me join you and Kate."
"No thanks necessary. I thought it was about time I got to know you better."
Castle straightened almost imperceptibly although her dad spoke casually and, she didn't think, had meant anything in the words beyond the obvious. But Castle's finely-honed social sense stepped in and he kept his smile firmly in place. "Well, then, why don't we sit down and we can talk at our leisure?"
He nodded slightly to one of the servers and they were shown to a table in one of the back corners, one of the more private tables, and she wondered if Castle had deliberately requested one of the better, and more discreet tables.
Her dad only gave the menu a quick cursory glance before he looked back up to address Castle. "So, Rick, Katie mentioned that Alexis's summer program at Princeton started today. How did that go?"
Kate glanced at Castle to see how this mention of what she knew had to be a somewhat painful, even if predictable, subject affected him but he kept a small smile in place. Even so, she shifted her leg over slightly until her ankle was brushing against his. He didn't react outwardly but did return a slight pressure with his own ankle. "Thanks for asking. We drove her down to Princeton this morning and got her settled in. She was really excited to be starting too." He paused and then went on, his expression becoming a parody of sobriety, "But I will admit that saying goodbye was hard. It was very emotional. There were a lot of tears."
She narrowed her eyes a little. She recognized Castle's tone although her dad would not.
And sure enough, Castle added, with a shift in expression and tone, "Alexis was fine, by the way."
Her dad chuckled a little. "I know exactly how you feel, Rick. I still remember when her mom and I dropped Katie off at Stanford at the start of her first year. Katie was perfectly fine, eager to get started. And as for her mom and I, her mom had already pulled out the tissues the moment I started the car to drive away and as for me, I only made it about a block before I had to pull over since I could no longer see through the tears."
Kate stared at her dad. "Really? You never told me that." How had she not known this? And she had almost never seen her dad cry at all so she'd never imagined somehow that he had cried when she'd started college.
Her dad gave her a rather rueful smile. "It hardly seemed like something I would announce. But what were you expecting, that your mom and I would have been happy to get rid of you or something?"
She laughed at that. "From what I remember of my teenage years, I'm not sure I'd blame you if you were."
"You were just being a teenager and as teenagers went, you weren't that bad, Katie. You kept your grades up and weren't that much of a troublemaker. Your mom used to say we lucked out with you." He paused and added with a wry smile, "I admit that at the time, I wouldn't have been quite so sanguine but I've had time to recover."
Castle sat forward. "Oh, do tell. I would love to hear more about rebel Becks and the sort of trouble she got into."
Her dad chuckled. "Rebel Becks! I'd almost forgotten that your friends used to call you Becks, Katie."
She shot Castle a look that he blithely ignored and she turned the look onto her dad, silently warning him.
"As for stories, if I get started, we could be here for a long time."
"Don't you dare, dad," she warned.
Her dad, thankfully, decided to heed the warning and her minatory look and went on, "Suffice to say that I owe quite a few of my gray hairs to Katie's teenage years." He paused and then added, "But for all that, it was still a wrench when she started college."
Castle shook his head a little. "I have to say, I don't know how you did it, Jim. I'm living in fear that Alexis will choose to go far away for college. Or just assuming that wherever she goes, I'll need to move to follow her."
She glanced at him. He wasn't serious about moving to follow Alexis to college, was he? She tried not to wonder about it. It was two years away, after all. There was no guarantee she and Castle would even still be together in two years' time–she tried to ignore the lowering thought.
"It wasn't easy," her dad acknowledged. "But I suppose her mom and I always rather expected that Katie would choose to go far away for college. She was always trying to push her boundaries, doing new things, so it just made sense."
Fortunately, before her dad and Castle could continue this conversation–quite as if she wasn't really there–a waiter returned to take their orders which forced a brief pause as they all perused the menus and somewhat quickly settled on their orders.
Once the waiter had left, Kate hurriedly asked, "So, Dad, how has work been? Are you still working on the shareholder derivative suit you mentioned a couple weeks ago?"
"Yes, that's still going on. You know how these lawsuits are; they go on for months. But I don't want to bore you and Rick by talking about my job. Even I have to admit that a lawyer's job can sound incredibly dull." Her dad turned back to Castle. "How is your new book coming along, Rick?"
Well, there went that attempt to intervene in this ongoing conversation between her dad and Castle. She wanted them to get along–of course she did–but she wasn't exactly used to being, if not quite ignored, but talked about almost as if she weren't there.
Castle gave a wry little smile. "Well enough, I suppose. It's at the stage where it's entirely out of my hands for the moment. I submitted the first draft a couple weeks ago and until I get the first round of edits back, I won't exactly know what the verdict is on how it is."
"I see. That must be rather difficult, to wait and find out."
Castle made a small moue. "Well, I am rather used to the process by now. I look at it as this being my time to relax a little before the final push to get the finished product out. And my editor and I have worked together for years now so nothing should be that big a surprise on either end."
"Your editor, Gina, right?" she inserted.
He met her eyes. "Not anymore. She was my editor for years, yes, but in the last few years, she's moved up the ranks so she doesn't handle the actual editing work anymore, leaves that to others."
The last few years, as in roughly since he and Gina had been divorced? She supposed that would have helped make it a little easier for Castle to keep working with his ex-wife. She did want to know more about his relationship with Gina but obviously, now was not the time.
"So what will this new book be about?" her dad asked.
"It's about the murder of a gossip columnist and the lengths to which some people will go to keep their secrets."
"Well, that sounds interesting. I'm looking forward to reading it–Naked Heat, I believe the press release said it was called?"
Kate blushed hotly. Oh god, she really should have threatened to shoot Castle until he changed the name. But she'd somehow never thought her dad would hear of it. "You plan to read it?" Her dad wasn't a big fiction reader, usually sticking with nonfiction. Her mom had been the fiction reader.
Her dad turned to her with mild surprise. "Yes, of course. I read Heat Wave too, didn't I ever mention it?"
If she'd thought her blush had any chance of fading, it came back with a vengeance at this news as she abruptly remembered certain scenes, certain pages, in the book that had, well, made her feel in need of a cold drink–and her dad had read that?!
"No, you didn't mention it," she managed to grit out. "Why–I never thought you'd–you don't usually read books like that."
"I admit that mysteries are not my usual reading material but then again, it's not every day that someone writes a book about my own daughter, is it? So of course I had to read it."
"Well, that's very nice of you, Jim," Castle responded.
"I am not Nikki Heat," she managed, half-overlapping with his words. She wasn't but–oh god–this would have been easier if she could have insisted that absolutely nothing that had happened between Nikki and Rook in the book reflected reality except she couldn't say that anymore. Why wasn't the food coming to save her–or why couldn't a hole in the ground open up when she needed it?
"Yes, well, I enjoyed most of it very much," her dad said, just a shade of discomfiture entering his tone at the words, 'most of it,' and she knew just what parts he had not enjoyed so much and half-wondered why her face wasn't bursting into flame it felt so hot. She really, really had never wanted to know that her dad had ever read a sex scene about her–well, not her, but sort of her. Absolutely did not want to imagine that such thoughts had ever been put into her dad's head. Oh, she knew that her dad knew, intellectually, that she, um, was not a virgin but she desperately wished to preserve the polite fiction that her dad remained blithely ignorant of that aspect of her life.
Castle cleared his throat. "Ah, well, the book is fiction and while inspired by Beckett in some aspects of her character, the actual plot and what happens in the book is a product of my imagination–not that I imagine that kind of–never mind, I'll just stop there. Sorry, I'm usually better at explaining myself."
Good, he should feel awkward and ill at ease, for once.
Her dad managed a small smile at that. "Oh, I wouldn't say you're doing too badly, Rick. And I will say that I thought the character of Nikki Heat could almost do justice to Katie."
"Thank you, Jim, that means a lot. I don't know if even I would claim to have done justice to Beckett, considering how complex her character is, how extraordinary–" Castle glanced at Kate, meeting her eyes for a moment, before turning back to her dad, "but one can but try."
Oh damn, she felt herself softening almost unwillingly–but how was she supposed to stay irritated with him when he spoke about her like that? Called her extraordinary so openly?
Her dad's smile softened. "I agree with that sentiment but of course, I'm biased."
Castle grinned. "Oh, I'm biased too but as I always like to say to Alexis when she accuses me of being biased in her favor, being biased doesn't mean I'm wrong either."
Her dad chuckled. "Well put. I'll have to remember that."
"He always says he has a way with words," she interjected dryly. "He's just humble like that."
Beside her, Castle made a small face and her dad laughed. "She does have a point, Rick."
Castle pretended to sigh as he threw her a half-laughing glance. "She almost always does. It's a little annoying, how she never lets me get away with anything."
"Yes, my Katie-bug was always as sharp as a tack." Her dad's smile softened as he looked at her. "Her mom and I learned early on that we had to watch our words around her because she'd remember and if we ever contradicted ourselves, she'd call us on it."
She felt Castle's glance at her at her dad's use of the childish moniker and she steadfastly did not meet Castle's eyes as some color crept into her cheeks. She could have done without her dad revealing her childhood pet name like that but the very fact that her dad had used the pet name was a sign of just how relaxed and comfortable he was with Castle. And in spite of everything, she couldn't regret that.
"That sounds like Beckett. Alexis used to do the same thing with me, still does, for that matter. Alexis always was such a smarty-pants." As usual, Castle's expression and tone softened as he talked about Alexis, mingled with just a touch of wistfulness, and she shifted her leg over until her ankle brushed his again, the only way she could subtly touch him without her dad noticing.
But fortunately, the waiter returned with their food at that moment, providing a distraction, and for a little while, conversation lapsed as they started to eat.
Her dad was the one to break the silence. Somewhat surprisingly but her dad really did appear to have decided to get to know Castle better and more than that, simply liked talking to Castle. "Say, Rick, Katie mentioned that you'll be going on a book tour this summer? How long will you be gone?"
Castle straightened up, wiping his mouth. "Yes, unfortunately, a book tour is rather unavoidable, considering Alexis is gone too. I'll be leaving just after the Fourth of July and will be gone for two and a half weeks."
He had, as he'd told her, been able to negotiate with Paula to shorten the tour to that long but she knew that Castle was still not pleased at how long the tour was going to be, had only reluctantly agreed. She wasn't exactly thrilled at the thought of Castle being gone for so long but wasn't about to say as much to Castle, no need to add to his disgruntlement.
"That's quite a substantial trip. Where will you be going?" her dad asked.
Castle gave her dad a summary of the itinerary while Kate continued eating, listening with only half an ear since she knew all this already anyway.
He and her dad swapped impressions of the various cities Castle would be going to and which her dad had also visited at some point and for the others where her dad had not yet been, her dad asked Castle what they were like, if he had been. She didn't think she'd heard her dad converse quite so much and so readily with anyone he had only just met pretty much. It occurred to her with an odd sense of surprise and at the same time a feeling she wasn't at all surprised that her dad and Castle honestly enjoyed the other's company in their own right, in a way that was separate from their respective relationship with her. Her dad's motivation for wanting to get to know Castle better was certainly because of Castle's relationship with her but at some point over the course of this dinner, it had already moved beyond that.
And as for Castle–she glanced at him–he was just as relaxed, whatever nervousness he had been feeling when this dinner started entirely gone now. He was just being himself, a slightly more polite version of himself than he was with her, of course, but still just himself.
Her dad and Castle were becoming, if they weren't already, friends in their own right, entirely separate from what they were to her. And she realized, belatedly, that it was something she could not imagine ever happening with her dad and Will. In the handful of times her dad had met Will, he had been perfectly civil and she'd always thought it was good they got along but seeing her dad with Castle, she could see the difference. She watched as her dad laughed at something Castle said–yes, the way her dad was with Castle was very different than her dad's somewhat restrained courtesy towards Will.
She wasn't entirely sure what that meant for her, why it should matter, but it did matter. It felt… important, somehow.
Her dad had moved on to asking Castle about what his book signings were like and then, with a glance at her and a slight quirk of his lips, which should have provided a warning if she hadn't been too relaxed to heed it, he went on, "but of course, I don't necessarily need to ask you what your book signings are like since Katie has been to one of your book signings herself and can tell me her own impressions."
Castle turned to her, his eyes wide and bright. "You've been to one of my book signings? How have you never told me this before?"
On second thought, it wasn't a good thing that her dad and Castle got along so well.
She shot a narrow-eyed look at her dad, who met it with a look of spurious innocence. "Why would I have mentioned it?" she returned with an assumption of indifference. "It was a few years ago and no big deal."
"No big deal?!" Castle made a show of dismay that was only half-feigned. "How can you say that? I can't believe I don't remember meeting you before."
"I never expected you would remember," she placated. "I was just one in a long line of fans, nothing to make me stand out at all."
He pulled a pout. "At least tell me I didn't say anything stupid."
"You hardly said anything at all. You asked me what name to sign the book out to and then thanked me for coming. The whole interaction was over in about thirty seconds." She left unsaid that when he had thanked her for coming, he had flashed what she now knew was his publicity smile and his smile, combined with his looks and, yes, the fact that she'd been a little star-struck (which she would never admit to anyone), had made her pulse leap and skitter. It was a little surreal to remember that now, realize just how different things were now. Now that he wasn't just some celebrity to her, now that she knew his kiss, his touch, his body. Now that she knew what a good man he was.
"I told you it wasn't anything interesting," she added.
Her dad raised his eyebrows at her. "She says that now," he addressed Castle rather dryly, "but I remember when she called to tell me about it and she seemed surprisingly excited about it to me."
Damn it, Dad. When had her dad turned into such a traitor? She directed a narrow-eyed look at him. "I may have been a little happy about it but I wouldn't say I was excited over the whole thing," she corrected as repressively as she could manage.
Her quisling dad only smiled. "Well, perhaps. I'm only your father, what would I know? Although remind me, Katie, how many other author's book signings have you been to?"
"I'm usually too busy with work to go to book signings on a regular basis," she tried to sound bland and not grit the words out.
"Of course you are and yet you still made time to go to one of Rick's book signings. And you haven't been to any other book signings that I can remember."
She was going to disown her dad or herself or whatever. And then buy a muzzle for her dad. And possibly never let him talk to Castle again. "I was curious to see what a book signing would be like," she lied.
"Of course you were," her dad agreed just a touch ironically. "And naturally, it was just a coincidence that you went to the book signing of an author, all of whose books you already had a copy of."
"Why, Beckett, I knew you were a fan but I had no idea you were so much of a fan," Castle sat back and smirked at her. "And now, just think, if you want an autographed copy of any of my books, you won't even need to wait in line. You can just ask."
She shot him a look. "Don't hold your breath for that to happen."
He only sent her a sunny smile. "That's okay. I'll just give you a personal, signed copy of all my books going forward, you won't even need to ask."
He was enjoying this way too much.
Her dad chuckled and she turned her darkling look onto her dad, who had just enough sense to swallow the rest of his laugh. But then he ruined it by commenting, "That's very generous of you, Rick."
"I'm always happy to please such a loyal fan," Castle adopted a tone of exaggerated virtue.
Yeah, he was definitely never going to let her live this down.
"So, Dad, did you watch the Mets game the other day? What did you think of that pitching performance?" she asked, not making even a pretense of subtlety. She'd had quite enough of being embarrassed, thank you.
Beside her, Castle gave a suppressed laugh, ill-disguised as a cough, and her dad didn't even try to hide his amusement but at least, he accepted the change in topic readily enough.
"I only caught about half the game but that Takahashi is turning out to be quite a pitcher," her dad agreed.
Fortunately for her own sanity (to say nothing of Castle's and her dad's continued good health), her dad apparently decided he had tormented her enough and the rest of the dinner passed in more neutral conversation, her introduction of baseball leading to her dad asking Castle if he really knew Joe Torre that well and how he'd gotten to know Torre and Castle readily sharing that story and then likely winning a friend for life by offering to try to have her dad meet Joe Torre himself the next time Torre was in town with the Dodgers.
When the check arrived, Castle almost snatched it up practically from under her dad's outstretched hand. "Dinner is on me."
"Oh, but, Rick, you already paid for Katie's and my lunch that time," her dad protested. "You don't need to–"
"I insist, really, Jim."
"Well, thank you, Rick. It's very generous of you," her dad relented.
"Oh, it's my pleasure, believe me," Castle assured with a smile as the server returned to take Castle's card. Something in her chest softened like butter on a hot stove because she knew him well enough to know that he honestly meant it. He was generous and he loved to be able to give things to the people he cared about.
Castle left a generous tip (as usual) and then looked up after he'd tucked his card back into his wallet. "Shall we go then?"
Her dad agreed, standing, and they made their way out of the restaurant with Castle deliberately falling behind them as she and her dad walked out together.
Her dad turned to Castle the moment they were outside. "Well, this was wonderful. I'm glad we were able to do this."
"I hope this is just the first of many times we can talk. In fact," Castle suggested, "maybe next time, you could come over to the loft for dinner, Jim. Not to blow my own horn but I have to say that I'm not a bad cook and I'd love to have you over." He glanced quickly at her before returning his gaze to her dad.
So her dad could see the place where she was spending most of her nights, she guessed, entirely aside from Castle's general hospitality.
Her dad, too, glanced at her and she only smiled at him, not entirely sure whether she should echo Castle's invitation, if she had the right to be issuing invitations to the loft. "I'd like that, Rick, thank you."
"Great," Castle beamed. "We'll have to schedule something, although I'm afraid it will probably have to be after I get back from my book tour."
"That's fine, Rick. I wouldn't want to inconvenience you and there's no rush."
"That's settled, then. I'll look forward to it." Castle turned to her. "Beckett, why don't you drive your dad home? I have some errands to run as it is."
"That's fine. Dad?" she turned to him. Castle's errands were, she suspected, if not imaginary, not nearly as pressing as he implied, were only an excuse for them to go their separate ways for now, give her time to talk to her dad alone.
Her dad smiled. "I'd never turn down the chance to spend some more time with you, Katie." He turned back to Castle and clapped Castle on the shoulder. "Rick, thanks again for dinner. Take care of yourself and safe travels on your book tour."
"Thank you, Jim. Have a good night. Beckett," he turned to her with a small, private smile. "I'll talk to you later."
"Yes, later," she agreed as blandly as she could since she did not want to broadcast her intention of spending the night with him.
Castle lifted a hand in a last wave and then set out to cross the street while she linked her arm with her dad's. "My car is parked that way," she gestured with one hand.
She and her dad fell into step side by side. "Well, Dad?" she prompted after they had walked in silence for a moment.
"You're happy with Rick," her dad began and it wasn't a question.
"Yeah, I am," she admitted. She was a little afraid to admit just how happy she was, afraid that it was somehow tempting fate, that it couldn't last–but yes, she was happy.
"And he's happy with you," her dad went on.
She flushed, biting her lip. "I hope he is," she managed. She just wished she could stop the doubts that occasionally slid into her mind about how long she could keep Castle happy. She, with her walls and defensiveness, the darkness that was her job and her past–could she really make him happy for long? He was so different from her in his outlook, so much more an optimist, a bringer of light–and she wondered, feared, that she might only end up dragging him down into her own darkness.
"He is, Katie, believe me." He paused and then added, a little more quietly, "He's in love with you, you know."
She choked on air. "I–he–what makes you say that?" she stammered.
Her dad smiled faintly, rather wistfully. "I've been in love, Katie, I can tell when a man is in love with my only daughter."
"I don't–he hasn't said–it's too soon," she objected, not very coherently.
"These things don't work according to some set timeline, Katie. I wouldn't worry about it. You and Rick can take things at your own pace."
"I'm not worried, exactly," she hesitated, realizing she had unwittingly echoed Castle's own words from earlier. "I just wonder sometimes… if it isn't too good to last."
"Oh, Katie, we talked about this. We can't predict the future. You can move forward with your relationship in hope, at whatever pace you feel comfortable with, and figure it out as it goes. That's all any of us can do. And for what it's worth, I think you can trust Rick to figure things out with you. He's a good man and he cares about you."
"He is a good man," she agreed quietly. That much, she could say. And she did trust him but that was harder to admit aloud.
Her dad paused and then asked, "Where is Alexis's mom, if I can ask?"
"Meredith lives in California and isn't around much. Castle has full custody and I'm not sure how often Alexis gets to see Meredith. I get the impression she's… flaky is the best word for it, I guess." She tried to be diplomatic, not wanting to say outright that as far as she could tell, Meredith was supremely self-absorbed.
"I see. That can't be easy for either Rick or Alexis."
"No, it isn't," she agreed quietly, thinking about how upset Castle had been in the Hamptons over Meredith's thoughtless text, the shadows in Alexis's expression.
"It sounds as if you've become friends of a sort with Alexis."
"Yes, you could say that. Certainly, we get along well and Alexis has never shown even the slightest sign of not welcoming me or my relationship with Castle."
"That's good. I just want to make sure that you realize that dating someone with a child is a different challenge. Your relationship with Rick doesn't only involve the two of you. You'll need to keep that in mind, try not to hurt Alexis inadvertently, whatever happens with you and Rick."
"I know, Dad. I do worry about that sometimes," she admitted. "I care about Alexis too and I would never want to hurt her."
"I never doubted that. And clearly Rick trusts you with Alexis as well."
She managed a small smile. "He really does." It was a little amazing–and humbling–how much Castle apparently trusted her where Alexis was concerned considering her level of experience with children and teenagers was close to nil but somehow, he did trust her.
"And that's as it should be. Which just leaves me with one more question and it's a big one," her dad went on gravely.
Oh dear, what now? She'd thought Castle had entirely won her dad over–rather too much so, if anything–but her dad's expression was sober and a little spark of concern flickered to life inside her. "What's that?"
"Do you think Rick can really get me a meeting with Joe Torre?"
She choked on a laugh and her dad–her evil dad–finally betrayed a smile. "I'm sure he'll try his best and from what I could tell from witnessing their brief interaction, I'd say it's a pretty good chance he'll succeed."
"Well, then, if you'll do your old man just one favor, Katie, make sure that whatever happens between you and Rick, it doesn't interfere with my getting to meet Joe Torre." Her dad dropped a quick wink. "A man has to have his priorities, you know, and a chance to meet one of baseball's living legends doesn't come along every day."
"I'll keep that in mind," she returned dryly.
Her dad smiled. "Yeah, I knew I liked Rick for a reason."
"I could tell," she drawled. "You were rather too eager to share all sorts of information about me."
"Well, you are my favorite topic of conversation, Katie," her dad said unrepentantly.
"Uh huh, well, maybe next time you could try a little harder to exercise restraint in that regard," she pretended to chide.
"I make no promises," was her dad's airy response.
"I'm going to have to rethink letting you see Castle again."
They had reached her car and her dad paused, turning to face her, his expression sobering. "Seriously, Katie-bug, all I've ever wanted is for you to be happy and now, seeing how happy you are with Rick, it does my old heart good."
She swallowed, her throat abruptly feeling a little tight. They had been through so much to get to this point, where she and her dad could talk so openly, where they could be happy again. "Thanks, Dad."
"Now, I think it's time you got me home, don't you? It's almost time for my curfew."
She laughed and unlocked her car. "Yeah, come on, Dad, let's get you tucked up in bed before it's too late."
~To be continued…~
A/N 2: I'm afraid this will be the last update for this year because of RL commitments for the holidays. But rest assured, I will be back in the New Year with more of this story. I hope you all have very happy and healthy holidays.