68. Chapter 68

Castle wraps his hand around hers and tugs. Kate comes, briefly bouncing on her toes, a habit he swears she's picked up from their son. He yanks the sheets and covers back up the bed as she grabs the pillows and throws them over his shoulder. Castle laughs at her, peering at her lithe form as she heads for the bathroom.

"I'm gonna start dinner," he calls out after her, gingerly putting his tshirt back on, his board shorts, then moves towards the door.

She calls back something muffled as he starts to leave; Castle stops and turns, waits, but she doesn't elaborate, and he has no idea what she said. She always does this.

He growls at her, taking a few steps towards the bathroom. "Kate. Stop telling me stuff when you're walking away. What did you say?"

She laughs and comes back to the doorway, pulling a clean shirt on over her head. "Can you gather up towels and swimsuits and dirty clothes? I want to get that started before the kids get back."

"Yeah, check." Castle pauses, eyes her for a moment, hair tangled from the ocean, and maybe his hands as well, but pulled up into a pony tail even so. Actually, she might have braided some of it; he can't tell. She's still partially up on her toes, looking like a dancer in the long, fitted tank top and leggings, barefoot, bathed in sunlight from the sliding glass door in the master bedroom.

"Mm, what is it?" She turns her head to look at him, leaning over to brush sand off her feet; he can hear the grains scatter over the bathroom tile. "What, Rick?"

He shakes his head, reaches out to catch her hand as she straightens up, brushing his thumb over her wrist. "Just. You."

She comes to him, slides her arms around his back, hugging him gently, careful with his sunburned skin. "Love you too."

Castle presses his lips to the tangle of her hair, breathes her in, the strange scent of sun-brightened beach and sunscreen mixing with sweat and love and water. Some soap at the skin of her temples; she must have washed her face.

"All right," she murmurs on another light laugh, putting her palms against his chest. "Get going. They'll be back any minute."

"Yeah," he says, thinking he did an admirable job of sounding as pleased and nonchalant as she did, but still hearing the way his voice tightened with the force of love. Not just his, not just hers, but theirs. Their love.

Castle lets her go, starts to turn for the door, but she plucks at his tshirt. "Aloe."

"I'll start the kids' dinner first, then you can slather me in aloe," he laughs back. She nods and disappears into the bathroom again, so he leaves as well, on the hunt for dirty clothes.

Kate squeezes the blue aloe vera gel out onto her hand, nods at Castle to sit down at the bar. He checks the chicken nuggets in the oven, then does as she indicated, pulling his tshirt over his head, wincing.

"Rick," she murmurs, sighing at his back. He doesn't have the right genetics to let himself get burned like this; underneath the work-day color is some fair skin with pink undertones. He burns too easily, though not nearly as bad as Alexis. "Remember those couple of days in the Hamptons? July Fourth?"

He sighs. "That was just being stupid. This was-"

"Different?" she laughs softly, putting her cold hands to his back. He flinches at first then his shoulders slump in relief.

"God, that feels good." He groans when she slides her palms slowly down his spine, the contours of his ribs under her fingers.

"I think letting Ella put sunscreen on your back was about as stupid as not doing it at all." She doesn't try to rub it in, the aloe anyway; she'll rub his stupidity in as much as she wants, considering the consequences. "I don't want you getting skin cancer, you furball."

He laughs so hard that it jostles her hands from his back; she stands behind him, confused but amused by his breathless laughter. Castle turns, wraps his fingers around her wrists to hold her slimy hands away from him and then kisses her mouth lightly, still grinning.

"That's cute. Going for a Star Wars reference, were you? But it's fuzzball, Kate."

Oh. Darn. "I always get that mixed up."

His eyes are crinkled up, entirely too sexy. "I appreciate the effort."

"Turn around," she says, rolling her eyes at him to keep from crawling into his lap and doing silly, sensual things to him. Even with the aloe all over. Maybe especially with the aloe.

Castle presents her with his back and she squeezes more gel into her palm, smears it over his shoulders this time, down the sides of his arms where she can see it's pink. The worst of the sunburn is on the tops of his shoulders and along his spine. Someone got sunblock at his sides, where his ribs wrap around - maybe that was Ella.

His muscles and tendons bunch under her hands; she uses more aloe when the skin grows warm again, hoping to take some of the heat out of it.

When she's layered as much over his back as she can, Kate slides her palms down over the sides of his arms to brace herself, leans in to kiss the skin behind his ear, nuzzling with her nose.

He breathes out softly, melting a little, making her smile with it. "Thanks, love."

"Mm-hmm," she murmurs, moves forward some to kiss his jaw before stepping back. "I'll put some more on your back after dinner?"

"Yeah."

Kate washes her hands off in the sink, biting her lower lip as she concentrates on getting all the gel off. "Hey, Castle?"

He's at the microwave now; even with the sheen of blue gel across his back, she likes the play of muscles across his shoulders as he moves, the strong line of his spine, the tapering of his waist at his hips. She turns and leans against the sink, shutting the water off with her elbow, flicking her fingers at him with a grin. If it weren't for the aloe, she'd probably kiss his shoulder blade, just because.

Castle grins back, an eyebrow raised at her, but starts putting together the mac and cheese.

"So. . .when Dash and I were in town yesterday-?"

He makes a noise, his rumbling go on noise to let her know he's listening. She loves that little noise, the way it pulls up from his throat, how familiar it is. He's listening. He does listen, even when it looks like he's not.

"The humane society was out in the parking lot of the hardware store-"

"Yeah?" She still doesn't have his undivided attention, but that's okay. He's pouring water into the noodles, making their kids' dinner.

"Out there with some dogs, trying to get them adopted," she says, waiting a moment.

His head comes up, eyebrows raised as he looks at her, interested now. "Yeah? And?"

"Dash. . .loved them. One in particular."

Castle grins even wider. "So you coming around?"

"I think I'm already around?" She sighs at his delighted look, shrugs her shoulders. "Dash just fell in love with this one dog, Castle. He was kinda patchy looking, but-"

"Are you telling me you want to get him a dog now? Like, from the humane society here in Texas?"

"He was all over that dog. It broke my heart to make him leave. I told him that you and I had talked about maybe getting him a dog when he was older and could take care of it, and you know what he told me?"

"What?" Castle looks stunned, entirely thrown off his game. She really has come at him from out of nowhere.

"He said he didn't want just any dog, he wanted that dog."

"Oh," Castle murmurs, then laughs at her, shaking his head. "Kate. You got played."

"No," she insists, moving closer to lean against the counter at his side. He's putting the mac and cheese noodles into the microwave to heat up. "It wasn't a ploy on his part, Castle. You didn't see his face. I know when he's trying to charm me. He looks just like you do."

Rick still seems dubious, and honestly, she wasn't expecting to have to fight so hard for this.

"He wants that mutt from the humane society, Rick. And I think we can get it back to New York."

"How?"

"You can board dogs on the plane. Travel crate; they fly in the cargo area - I found the guidelines online."

"You're serious." He flicks his eyes to the timer on the microwave, then back to her, giving her his full attention. "You want to get Dashiell a dog."

"Yes."

"This specific dog. Here."

"Yes." Kate crosses her arms over her chest, considers him. He was the one to push for a dog last year, said a boy needs a dog, pulled out the big guns and pouted at her and said he never got to have a dog - which always works on her. "I thought you said-"

"I did. No, don't get me wrong. I want him to have a dog. But we agreed, when he was older."

"Yeah." This is true, all true. Still. "I know it will fall on you to take care of it, at least until Dash is old enough, but I think he's halfway there, really, and it's a good lesson in responsibility and some theory of mind, let him think about how the dog feels-"

"Kate," he says, shaking his head at her. "You don't have to convince me. Yeah, I'll be the one taking care of it, but I'm fine with that."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"So. . .can we?"

"You really want this."

"I want. . .yeah. I think he's been so concerned over Ella, trying to take care of her, being a good brother, but Ellery's getting older. At some point, she's going to be more than just annoyed with him trying to boss her around."

Castle laughs, moves to take the mac and cheese out of the microwave. "Yeah, she's already there, I think."

"Could be. Dash having a dog to focus on instead, worry over the dog. . .might help."

He nods, stirring a fork through the noodles and then adding milk and cheese and butter. "Yeah. Might be right. But this dog? Here?"

"Dash is right. It can't be just any dog, not for Dashiell. He has. . .you know how he is. There are rules for everything. And if this dog fits him, and he fits the dog-"

"Watch it, Kate. You're starting to sound rather mystical. Is it fate that he gets this dog?"

She laughs with him, traces the edge of the counter with a finger, rehashing the arguments - pro and con - over again in her head. Still, same conclusion. And maybe it is fate. She would never have taken him to the town square if she hadn't felt sorry for him not being able to get in the water. And he'd never have been restricted if he hadn't needed stitches, hadn't fallen in McDonalds and smacked his head.

"I think this is the dog, Rick."

He pauses, turns his head to really look at her. She waits, knows he's got to process. He's the spontaneous one, not her; she's the one who plans everything out. Role reversal to the extreme, and he's got to be struggling to catch up with that.

"You should be grateful," she murmurs, giving him a smile.

"Grateful?"

"I almost went ahead and arranged everything, like I usually do-"

He growls at her, narrowing his eyes, but she can see it's still playful, teasing; he leans in to nip at her mouth, her lip in his teeth for a second. "You better not."

"I didn't. See? I can learn."

"Maybe you *can* teach an old dog new tricks-"

She squeezes his hip, hard, making him yelp. "Calling me a bitch, Castle?"

He laughs at that, clearly delighted by the unintended insult, grins over at her. "So you want to get Dashiell his dog."

"Do you, though? That's the important part. Because I don't want to do this behind your back or without your support."

Rick finishes mixing the mac and cheese, puts it back in the microwave, probably to keep it warm until the kids get back. He leans against the counter and regards for a second, then nods. "Yeah. Okay. Let's get him the dog. Birthday present. Five is a good age for a dog."

She bounces up on her toes, wraps her arms around him only to encounter slimy aloe vera, feel his body jerk as she clutches sunburned skin.

"Oh, damn," she breathes, withdrawing, leaning her forehead against his chin. "Sorry, so sorry-"

"It's okay." He shrugs at her, hands coming to her elbows to keep her there. "Get it all over you?"

"Not too bad," she murmurs, lifts her head to kiss the underside of his jaw, sliding her palms at his sides to wipe off the aloe onto his skin. "Rick. The dog-"

"I'll call them today - soon - before they close. Make sure they haven't done anything to him."

She sighs and smiles, glad to get started on this. "Good."

"Oh, what was the dog's name?"

Kate grins, raises up on her toes again to be closer to eye level, missing her high heels. "You'll never guess."

"What? Fido?"

She bites her lip on a laugh. "No, even better."

"So tell me already," he growls, squeezing her elbows.

"Rex. His name's Rex. Dashiell. . .Dash was certain it was short for T-Rex."