73. Chapter 73

After dinner, Kate checks on Ellery first, slipping into the half-dark bedroom and ducking under the bunk bed to get close. Ella's flipped around in the bed, her head at the foot, and her mouth is open, slack in sleep, one little fist curled up at her chest. Kate shakes out the lovey from the floor, spreads it over her daughter's back, the soft blanket providing some semblance of warmth in the cool bedroom.

She leans in and gives Ella a kiss, smoothing a hand over her hair. Then she heads for the connecting bathroom and slips through to Dashiell's room.

The dog is awake. She can see the glow of its eyes in the darkness. Kate pauses in the doorway until her eyes adjust, then steps softly to her son's bedside.

Rex watches her; she lifts her hand and strokes the top of the dog's head, gets her fingers licked for it. He must smell or taste the chicken Rafe made, because he licks her palm too, around to her wrist. She strokes her thumb behind his ear, then pulls away.

"Good boy," she murmurs.

Dash shifts in his light sleep, gives a long sigh. Kate can see that he's got both arms around Rex, holding him there, and she sighs as well, smiling as she leans in. Her kiss is gentle, barely there, but even still, Dashiell stirs, his lashes flutter.

The dog lays his head back down; Kate can feel his long breath out against her cheek. Dash settles and she pulls away, watches the two dark heads, the dog at the boy's side, and wonders if this is the feeling Castle has when he talks about fate, and magic, and seeing a sign from the universe.

This boy was meant to have this dog. And if this is meant to be, then the rest of it is as well - their family, her unlooked-for pregnancy, the case that hurtled them together, the man who followed her to her work and would not let her go.

She slips through the bathroom, into Ella's room, back out into the hall. Castle is there, waiting, as if he knows.

Kate slides her arms around him, presses her cheek to his shoulder, revels in the strong line of his thighs against hers, the sweep of his ribs gathering to the chest that she leans against. She has all these things she wants to say, but no words to say them. Feeling and sense and gut instinct - how it is with him, how it is with her.

"I know," he murmurs into her hair, laughing a little, giving her a quick kiss on her forehead. Entirely not enough, but Allie and Rafe are just in the next room. Probably waiting on them.

"It's amazing how much he loves that dog," Kate says finally, stroking his side and traveling to curl her hand up over his heart.

"It's amazing how much you love that dog," Castle says back, releasing her to catch her hand instead, squeeze. He turns back for the living room where Rafe had cajoled Allie into playing a mean game of Scrabble before Kate left. "They've abandoned Scrabble. Gonna play Nertz. Alexis didn't know you'd taught me."

"Nertz?" Kate shoots him a sly look. "The last time we played that, you stormed off. Got your feelings hurt."

He reaches back and curls his hand at her neck, tugging her closer. "You're vicious when you play."

"Nature of the beast."

"A vicious, unmerciful beast."

She elbows him and knocks his hand away from her neck. "You man enough to play me?"

"You gonna be civil about it?"

"Why on earth should I be civil?" Kate shoots back, bumping into his hip and pushing past him to the living room.

Rafe and Allie are in the floor around the coffee table, shuffling their own decks of playing cards. Allie lifts her head and beams at them, getting to her knees to hand Kate a deck of yellow bridge cards. The young woman has claimed the deck of Chicago's Shedd Aquarium, which Kate thinks are hard to play with, because of all the pictures on their faces, but she'll let Allie deal with that disadvantage. Rafe has the Yankees deck Castle bought for Dashiell after a game.

Rafe is already setting up his cards. Allie grins at Kate. "You guys ready to play?"

"Your dad's gonna be a big baby about it, but I am more than ready to beat his ass, regardless."

"Hey now. Them's fighting words," Castle grumbles, sitting down across from Rafe and grabbing a free deck. "You're getting it now."

"When do I get it?" Kate shoots back, sitting beside him and leaning against him for a moment. Then she realizes how that sounded and laughs, turns to Allie. "Sorry."

Rafe laughs at that, but he shrugs when Castle turns a look on him. Castle still glares; Rafe coughs and raises an eyebrow, looking at Allie, and Kate bites her lip, nudges her glowering husband.

"Come on, baby," she murmurs, distracting him. "Get set up."

Castle turns to her then, lets her see the flash of heat in the back of his gaze; it warms her as well, a flame licking up her bones, and she presses her fingers into his knee under the table.

"Baby?" he mutters.

"Big baby. Whiny baby," she clarifies, but her fingers trail up his thigh.

"Mom. You ready?"

Kate detaches from Castle's gaze with an effort, nods to Allie. "Let's play."

They all set up their cards, four across, a stack of thirteen with the top one turned over. Kate thumbs the deck left in her hand, already sliding three apart, ready to begin. She is ruthless at this game, but it is so much fun to beat Castle.

"Okay. Ready?" Allie says, lifting an eyebrow. "Go!"

Just as she's about to flip her cards over and go for it, Kate feels Castle's hand on her knee, glances over at him. Pitiful blue eyes, pouting face, faint sense of a smirk somewhere in all of that, despite the look.

"Have mercy."

"Never."

And she plays her ace into the middle without even looking, slaps her two over it before Castle can even get to his own two. Already beating him.

"Ow!" Castle jerks his hand back from the pile of cards, shaking his jammed finger. "Alexis!"

"Sorry!" His daughter laughs at him, but doesn't take her eyes off the fast-moving game, slapping a king onto the top of the diamonds and flipping it over.

"You're not sorry," Kate says. "Don't apologize. You meant it."

"Don't encourage her," he grumbles.

Beside him, Kate has one left in her former stack of thirteen; she's going to beat him again. Again.

"Okay, guys, Kate only has a three of spades left in her Nertz pile. No one play the two. Let's make her sweat."

"You punk!" She knocks into his shoulder and plays another card from the deck in her hands, beating him out on the six of clubs. "Ha. Stop trying to thwart me and pay attention to your own game, stud."

"Call me stud again and you know where this game ends up."

"TMI, Dad." Alexis goes for the jack, but he's paying attention now and he beats her to it with his own jack, crowing.

"Ha! Ha. You got played, fool."

"You sound seriously ridiculous." Alexis is probably making faces at him, but he sees now that he's got an open spot in the four across, flips a card from the stack into the hole, sees that he's only got three more to go.

He might, just might, win this. If he concentrates.

Kate doesn't chatter much when she plays; she says she needs to focus, get in the zone. Castle, of course, spends all his time talking when he plays. He also lunges across the table so hard it scoots back, or he'll whine about getting his hand slapped. This is his strategy. Sometimes it throws Kate off, most times it doesn't. It does distract the others he's playing against; right now, it's he and Kate duking it out for first place. If she wins this hand, she'll beat him to 100 points for sure.

"Rafe," he calls out, still flipping his deck over by threes, waiting for the break that will let him get those last three cards played out. "Rafe, you're silent over there, man."

"Concentrating."

"No trashtalk?"

"You're doing a pretty good job of it yourself."

He laughs, breaks to look up at Rafe with appreciation for that one, and sees, out of the corner of his eye, Kate dart a card towards a stack of hearts.

"No!" He turns, slaps her hand with the nine of clubs in his own, even though it doesn't play on the hearts. Then sees that it's not her last card; she still has that three left-

"Castle." She knocks his hand away, then turns and twists his earlobe.

He yelps and jerks away, hears Rafe laughing, tries to stay in the game. "Woman."

"Don't let the game make you stupid, Rick Castle," she says back, her fingers pinching his sides this time, even as she continues to play.

"How is it you can physically abuse me and still play your cards? You have to be cheating."

"Right. With my third hand?"

"With your evil, witchy powers."

"Hmm," she gives him that sidelong look, the arch of her eyebrow, and holy crap, it's like she's again that twenty-something detective back at her desk in the precinct, smirking and messing with him and the boys. Sexy as hell, completely unavailable, and definitely, certainly going to twist him in knots with wanting her.

And while he daydreams, dazzled, she wins.

"Nertz!" Kate calls out, fist pumps, turns back to him with those laughing, clever, smirking eyes. He needs to get her back behind closed doors, and fast.

"I hate playing this game," he growls, but oh, oh, he loves it. He sees her triumph flare hotly, feels her fingers on his knee and sliding up as she leans over and kisses him, on the mouth, teeth at his lower lip.

Alexis is laughing and Rafe is dueling her for second place, apparently, but Castle is curling his hand low at his wife's waist, dropping his cards to stroke her skin.

"Beat you again," she murmurs into his ear.

"Bed," he says back. "Try to beat me there."

She laughs and pulls away, hands drawing back to her lap, catching his fingers before he can do much more. "Soon." Promise and seduction both.

Rafe gives a loud laugh, and Castle breaks his gaze to see his oldest daughter practically in her boyfriend's lap, straddling him no less, and reaching for a card that Rafe holds far out behind his back. Alexis lunges for it, a hand on Rafe's shoulder, and Castle opens his mouth to say something - like, Hey, get off of him-

Only to have Kate grab him by the ear. He winces and turns into her tug, glaring, but she shakes her head.

"Leave it."

He knocks her hand away from his ear. "You're gonna make me bleed."

"You - Castle - need to leave them alone," she hisses. Then she's on her knees and standing up, pushing at his head with a hand as she moves past him. "Who wants dessert?"

Alexis startles, laughing, and plants a kiss on the boyfriend, who is fast becoming Castle's least-favorite so far, and then Rafe is lifting her off of him and standing up as well. "I made cheesecake."

Oh, wait. Cheesecake?

"Allie told me it was your favorite." Rafe turns to him, offers his hand to help Castle up. Rick looks at it for half a second, but really, cheesecake wins.

He grabs the proffered hand and stands, pleased that his knees pop and his back too, but he still made it up, can still sit in the floor and play cards with the young kids. Heh, and Kate doesn't even count in that group any more, does she? Of course, she trains like a machine, so her body is always-

Best to stop thinking about Kate's body right now.

"Cheesecake, huh?"

"Yeah. I made two kinds, because Allie said her mom likes chocolate-"

"Oh my goodness, Rafe!" Kate calls out from the kitchen, her voice coming over the bar. Castle turns and finds her staring at the chocolate cheesecake in her hands. "It smells like coffee. Did you put mocha in this?"

Rafe is grinning, Alexis is sauntering forward with a look on her face that Castle has seen on Kate's before, and damn, he does not like that. Not one bit. His wife can look like that, all smug and sensual and self-satisfied, but certainly not his little girl.

Well. Okay. Ellery is his little girl. This is Alexis. Allie.

It takes him a second to follow, but he does. The lure of cheesecake.

At least they're sleeping in separate beds tonight.