Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It wasn’t for the money. That wasn’t why she did it. Kate Beckett already had all the money she could ever possibly need. Thanks to a lucrative first business, one she’d built, nurtured, and then sold following the deaths of her parents in an accident two years earlier, she donated every penny she brought in now to a host of charities, and it was a respectable number of pennies.

The island that’d become her backyard was a veritable magnet for tourists. It teemed with them year-round, and despite having developed an appreciation for the stillness of her own company, Kate tolerated the clamor that accompanied them, because she knew if she didn’t, if she didn’t challenge herself to maintain even the most superficial of connections to the rest of the world, she might very well untie her lines and sail off, never look back.

She was as strong as they came, and not by way of adversities surmounted, though her thirty-plus years hadn’t been free of their share. She’d always been stout of character, like it was part of her DNA, in her cells, and people couldn’t help but see it, as if some coat she donned each day.

Men certainly saw it--a blessing often, a curse rarely. She’d taken a few to bed, told herself she’d earnestly tried to make a go of it with a couple of them, and maybe she had, but none of them were still around, and she had to suppose that was for the best. She lived on a boat, after all. How much room could she possibly make for someone else?

She never stayed in a place for very long, besides. A city girl for her entire early life, she now called the ocean her home, and she was more at peace there than she had been anywhere. The simplicity and the freedom gifted by that brand of nomadic existence turned her on, and absent a companion to inspire the same, the feeling was welcome, relished, steered into as she did her sails into the wind, but on that June afternoon, dockside at Sunset Reef Marina, she didn’t yet know it, but life was about to become anything but simple.

xxxx

Rick’s eyelids snapped open and then shut again when the god-awful sound slammed into his ears like a speeding train into a cement wall, the island’s noon light pouring cruelly across the whole of his vacation bed through the blinds he’d neglected to flip closed the night before.

Disoriented by his position, which found his feet--still covered by the top-siders he’d worn to the bar--resting atop the pillows at the opposite end, he rolled onto his back and pushed out a Fuck, his head as heavy as a mountain with the weight of the hangover he’d strapped to it.

It was the second day of their impromptu trip, he and his buddies, Kevin and Javier, having made the jaunt down from New York for a sort of kick-off-the-summer long weekend, and together they’d closed down the resort’s watering hole in the wee hours with the zeal of a trio of college spring-breakers, in Rick’s case, minus the morning-after resilience.

He dropped his clad feet to the floor and slogged his way out of the bedroom to locate the source of the infernal racket and to bring it to a deserved end, found Kevin in the kitchen juicing the oranges that’d been stuffed inside their condo’s gift basket. Somehow, though he too had guzzled vast quantities of tropically colored alcohol, his eyes were bright and his energy high, so much so that Rick couldn’t help but want to hurl the remaining fruit at him.

“What the hell’s wrong with you health freaks? You can’t just pour it out of a container like the rest of humanity? How can you stand to listen to that?” He pushed past, made a beeline for the coffee pot, which he picked up to find too light to be holding anything at all. “There’s no coffee? This must be a nightmare. I must still be asleep,” he grumbled.

“There was plenty this morning,” Kevin replied before another twist at the machine, one he fiendishly enjoyed more than any of the others. “You should’ve had some. It was delicious.”

“You’re an asshole, you know that?” Rick hissed, rummaging through the contents that remained in the basket. “Where’s your partner? Last I remember he was sucking face with a brunette who was cooing at him in Spanish.”

Kevin slid a glass of fresh juice in front of him, started on one for himself. “He’s down at the pool, and I don’t know why you’re saying it like that. You seemed pretty envious last night, going on and on about how you wanted a brunette of your own.” Rick pursed his brow. “You don’t remember the new Rick Castle rule, the ‘no more blondes or redheads’ thing? You told everyone at the bar about it, especially the blondes and redheads.” He snickered with the recollection.

Rick coughed out the crumbs of a cracker he’d found, swallowed the remnants down with the juice. “From the gleeful tone of your voice, I take it you didn’t try to stop me? Gee, I’m so lucky to have friends like you guys. You’re welcome for the free trip, by the way.”

“What do you care? It’s not like you’re ever going to see any of those people again. Besides, you might be on to something. It’s not like you’ve had much luck in the love department, and it’s not like you’re getting any younger, either.”

“Got any vodka for the OJ? Unfortunately, this conversation has already managed to sober me up.”

Kevin tossed a hollowed-out orange peel in Rick’s face, caught a peek at his watch. “Hey, aren’t you doing some sailing thing today, speaking of brunettes?”

“Sailing thing? What sailing thing?” Rick asked, mindlessly chomping on another cracker though the first had left plenty to be desired. “Maybe you are still drunk.”

“Dude, for real? Maybe you should think about staying away from alcohol for the rest of the trip.” When Rick took umbrage, Kevin had to recount for him yet another of the night’s events. “You practically pissed yourself when you heard someone talking about dolphins and you realized you might be able to cross swimming with them off your bucket list. You interrogated the guy for, like, twenty minutes about it. Then you booked a sailing tour or something on your phone. Check your email. They probably sent you a ticket or whatever.”

It sure sounded like something he’d do, but Rick recalled none of it, so he went back into the bedroom to verify, found his phone on the floor in the corner without a clue as to how it’d ended up there. A confirmation of his booking was sent, all right, logged in his email beneath one welcoming him to the Condiments of the Month Club, another thing he didn’t remember signing up for and one absent ready explanation.

He was to be out at the Sunset Reef Marina at 1:45 p.m., apparently to sail off with JJB Charters on their Sun Odyssey, whatever the hell that was, and with much of the cloud of the boys’ night out still hanging above him, he didn’t feel as happy about it as he imagined he probably had when he’d decided to do it. That was until he called up the company’s website and got a glimpse of its proprietor. One look at her and his heart began to pound louder than his head.

xxxx

Rick easily spotted the sign for JJB Charters when he arrived at the marina, followed the direction of its arrow nearly the full length of the floating dock until he came upon a second set up in front of the sailboat parked at slip seventeen. Despite being late for the scheduled meet time--thanks to a misplaced condo key, which took him an embarrassing number of minutes to find in the very pocket he’d left it in--he saw no one else around, so he went ahead and approached the vessel in search of his captain.

“Ahoy there!” he called out, and with genuine giddiness in his voice to boot, the four aspirin he’d popped before his cold shower permitting the extravagance. “Is anyone home? I’m here to report for deck-swabbing duty.”

While busy delighting in his own drollery, a head popped up from below deck, and had his fingers not been clamped around the rim of the boat’s hull, he undoubtedly would’ve fallen over at the sight. That was how stunning the woman was.

“Swabbing the deck, huh? So, you bought the deluxe package, I guess,” she quipped, climbing the remaining steps of the companionway until she was in full view. “Are you Jack?”

In just three sentences, Rick already found himself wanting to agree to and with anything that ever came out of her mouth from that moment forward, and he probably would’ve had confusion not horned in.

“Rick, actually--If that’s okay,” he answered with an impressive idiocy he was promptly kicking himself for. “I signed up for the…” He took a notable pause. “Okay, I’m not exactly sure what I signed up for, but I’m pretty sure I’m in the right place.” He watched as she pulled a band from her hair and let it tumble loose, gather it up again and secure it from the breeze, and he had to blink the blur of wonder from his eyes. “Even more beautiful than the picture.” He sounded positively euphoric.

On his words, she gave the boat--her home--a thoughtful scan then spoke with palpable esteem. “She is. She’s a fairy tale come to life.”

“I didn’t mean the boat.” He heard himself say it and swallowed a gulp of air so hard, he almost choked. The words shouldn’t have come out, and when she just stared back at him, he set about reversing course, which wasn’t a pretty sight. “That’s, well, no, of course the boat’s perfectly nice--lovely, in fact. What’s the lingo? Something about sexy lines or seaworthy or…” It was no use. He finally stopped flailing and raised a feeble distress call. “Mayday? SOS?”

With a hint of fluster she had to labor to conceal, she pulled her phone from her pocket. “So, um, yeah, you signed up for the 2 p.m. sail, and it definitely says your name’s Jack in the form you filled out.” Reading it with greater scrutiny the second time around, her brow arched. “Jack Ship.” She looked up when Rick giggled. “That’s cute, Jack. You must be a twelve-year-old comedian.”

Gorgeous and playful, Rick thought, and with the appraisal felt his heart’s trouble deepen exponentially. Somehow, he’d managed to make an ass of himself and she’d moved right past it. Surely he must be the one in a fairy tale.

“Just a for--thirty-something guy who ordered too many Bahama Mamas at the bar, I’m afraid,” he offered in excuse, laying blame on the night’s booze binge. “It’s Rick, I promise, and I guess I’m going sailing.”

She extended a hand to help him aboard, introduced herself in the process. “Try not to sound so excited about it, Rick.” She punctuated his name and grinned. “I’m Kate. Watch your step.” Noting his activity-appropriate shoes, she offered praise. “No flip-flops, I see. Good tourist. I take it this isn’t your first time on a boat.”

“Who, Me? God no, I went canoeing with my daughter once when she was nine.” Hubris oozed from him, misplaced though it was given the unimpressive denouement that followed. “Although, I’m not really sure we actually got all that far. I think I tipped us over.”

“Guess I’ll have to make sure I hold on to something then. Thanks for the warning.” Kate turned and pointed toward the bench on the port side. “Have a seat. There was supposed to be another couple, but they had to reschedule, so it’s just us this afternoon. We can head on out. I hope you did a rain dance,” she commented as he passed. “The forecast mentioned the possibility of a shower, and, apparently, with you on board, the potential for a rough ride is already pretty high.” She teased, or so she thought.

Rick watched her every movement as she freed the boat’s lines and took her place behind the wheel, and he suddenly felt as though he’d stepped into a pit of enchantment quicksand with no hope of escape. Attraction was a phenomenon he knew well. His extensive history with women was evidence of that. But he also knew that what was happening with her was beyond attraction, and somehow, between their 2:17 p.m. departure and their whatever o’clock return, he had to try to figure out what the hell he was going to do about it.

Chapter Text

Kate told herself again not to stare, admonished her eyes for their repeated defiance as she stood at the helm, guiding them out toward open water, but the rebuke succeeded only insofar as they’d manage to veer away from Rick’s now shirtless body every few seconds, somehow finding their way right back, a titillating yet irksome preoccupation.

He wasn’t even the type of man she usually found herself attracted to. That made the amount of effort she was being forced to exert even less explicable, even more aggravating. She was drawn to edge, a certain mark of intensity, and he was sitting there whistling “Popeye the Sailor Man,” for crying out loud. The man had about as much edge and intensity as Olive Oyl did. Nevertheless, something about him had penetrated, and in a hurry, something like a gnat that already required constant shooing, and their afternoon together had only just begun.

“Are you going to be doing that the whole time?” Kate’s tone, though perfectly sweet-sounding, masked something of a snarl. “I do have actual music I can turn on.”

“I believe that,” Rick blurted relaxing his pucker, the second such uncontrolled thought that’d slipped out of his mouth in a too-short period of time. “Sorry, I’ll stop. Sometimes I whistle when I’m nervous. It’s one of my tics, I guess.”

Kate promptly felt like a jerk, having tried to deny him his mental escape. “No, it’s fine. I’m the one who’s sorry. I didn’t realize you…” Her eyes drifted to his bare chest and the rest of her words carried straight off into the breeze. “What, um--What are you nervous about? You seemed okay back at the dock.”

He pushed from the bench and peeked over the side of the boat, the water below so clear he could practically see to the bottom. “You mean besides all the things down there that wouldn’t mind having me for lunch? Or you, for that matter. Who knows where the hell I’d end up drifting away to if you suddenly weren’t around to drive.” When he righted his body, he found her struggling to suppress a smile. “Oh, stop it. Everyone’s afraid of sharks and you know it.”

God help her, but despite its absurdity, she found the vulnerability charming. “You’re pretty dramatic. Has anyone ever told you that?” She opted to surrender the battle to conceal her amusement, instead flaunting it like he obviously was his body. “Honestly, Popeye, come on, a big, strong man like you is scared of a few fish?”

Rick got up, crossed the modest divide between them as they passed the red buoy marker and left the channel behind, Kate’s grip on the wheel tightening with his increased proximity. “He and I do have striking physique in common,” he puffed with a flex of his bicep, not at all serious and yet maybe a bit. “Thanks for noticing, and I’m sure my mother would be proud to hear I’ve taken after her. She’s an actress, actually, so the dramatic thing must be in the genes,” he explained on her look.

It burned her to admit--even to herself--just how absorbed in his genes she’d allowed herself to become, especially with the occasion to appreciate them up close, the sapphire of his eyes even more hypnotic than she’d realized. Thankfully, when the wind changed direction with the boat’s course and she was forced to roll the wheel to tack through, it snapped her free of their spell.

“First of all, you should have your life vest on,” Kate sneered in her own frustration. “Second of all, I told you to watch for the boom and you didn’t.”                                                                                                               

An expression equal to his guilt came over Rick’s face, though with a hint of a smirk. “You’re right. I didn’t, but it’s hard to remember all the rules, and it’s usually more fun to break them, anyway.” He swiveled his head around. “There should be a sign or something, like at a pool with the big red letters reminding kids not to dive.”

“Most people just listen when other people are talking to them,” she sassed.

“Most people don’t look like you,” he countered without a breath. “You can’t fault me for being distracted. As for the vest, Captain, you never gave me one. I will say it does make me kind of tingly that you’re worried about my safety and well-being.” He put his hands up on the wheel between hers. “And I promise. You now have my full attention.”

Christ, Kate, she thought, no life vest? Really? Whoever the hell he was had her forgetting one of the most important parts of a routine she implemented daily, and it was truly embarrassing, not to mention dangerous.

“Get your hands off my wheel and sit. I need room to work, and I have sharks to find,” she teased. “It’s in the compartment under the bench. Put it on. Now.” Rick retreated, as ordered, but he never looked away, and because she didn’t either, she was uncomfortably aware of it. “Didn’t that actress mother of yours teach you it isn’t polite to stare?”

Kate Beckett was most adept at playing defense, even if no one was playing offense on the other side.

“Is that what I was doing?” It absolutely was. “I don’t think so, no. I was admiring those impressive clouds behind you, in fact.” With the vest donned, he crossed his legs, ankle over knee, set his elbows up along the rim of the backrest. Cockiness personified. “I could ask you the same thing, by the way.” He’d noticed her occasional glances and had, up to that point, at least, let them pass without remark.

Kate expelled a snort of protest, its inelegance only serving to confirm Rick’s insinuation, but not knowing him, not knowing it better to simply let it go--more often than not, the most advantageous course of action--Kate instead tried to refute, as though anything she said would ever convince him otherwise.

“Are you suggesting I was staring at you?” She hitched a guffaw to her indignation for good measure, sounding every bit as theatrical as she accused him of being; meanwhile, she caught herself still doing the very thing she was in the process of denying, in spite of the added layer his body was wrapped in. “Either you’re still drunk from all those Rum Runners or the sun has fried your brain.”

“Excuse me, but weren’t you the one who slapped me on the wrist a couple of minutes ago for not being a good listener? They were Bahama Mamas, not Rum Runners, and you can go ahead and pretend all cruise long if you want to, but we both know it’s true. I’m a writer. I notice everything.”

“I assume a writer of fiction.”

“And a very successful one at that, thanks. Beer?” Invited to earlier, he finally reached into the cooler strapped to the bench beside him, plucked one out for himself.

When the sail luffed, Kate had to steer off the wind and settle it. If he’d aimed to somehow become even more of a distraction, he’d succeeded admirably.

“I’d like to get us out and back in one piece. If you’d like that, too, I wouldn’t be offering alcohol to the one of us who can actually do that.”

Rick cracked the tab on the can, swallowed half of it down in one go, sensed her observation. Her mouth was tight and her fingers clamped around the wheel, but everything else about her seemed soft in contrast, and he couldn’t decide which he preferred more, the former because he hoped he understood why or the latter because she was such a perfect mystery.

“You’re going to have to forgive how unrefined this sounds, but I bet you have no fucking idea how beautiful you are,” he said with a second guzzle of liquid courage, her aspect’s resulting shift silent proof of his hypothesis. “I think you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, and I don’t care how uncomfortable hearing it makes you. Someone should be making sure you hear it every single day.” It failed in its endeavor, but it was as subtle a non-question question he could come up with in short order to attempt to ascertain her relationship status.

Kate’s molars fastened themselves to the insides of her cheeks as she exhaled through her nose the breath she was holding. All at once she felt bare, exposed, the ocean breeze a chill across her skin. Part of her wanted to thank him, and that, she rationally knew, would be the easier road, the road that would likely leave nothing more to be said, but, unfortunately, that wasn’t the part of her that won out.

“If I’d known I was going to get hit on all afternoon, I would’ve charged more,” she lobbed back. “Do the women of…” Mid-sentence she realized she had no clue where he was from, but pressed on, anyway. “Do they actually think that isn’t some line you’ve used a hundred times? How many of your whatever-you-write is that one in?”

“You know, if you’re curious about me, Captain Kate, all you have to do is ask,” Rick replied smugly. “Allow me to whet your Rick Castle appetite. I’m an Aries. I live in New York. I write mystery novels--bestselling mystery novels, if that does anything for you--and I’m sure it would probably make both our lives less complicated if it was a line. Sorry to disappoint us.”

Apparently, not only did he write books--books she’d heard of, it turned out, now that she knew his full name--but he also read her like one, and, oh, that ticked her off. “I wasn’t curious, and I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. Clearly, neither do you. Just--be quiet for, like, five minutes.”

He set down his beer and rose with a stretch, one purposefully designed to accentuate the muscles he’d proudly worked to cultivate. Sure, he was laying it on thick, but he was having way too much fun doing it.

“Aye aye, Captain,” he said.

xxxx

Nearly two hours into a journey scheduled for five, the skies to the west began to shift a telltale shade of grey, one Kate had hoped they wouldn’t encounter at all, let alone with as much distance as stood between their position and the marina.

She’d been through rough weather before, of course. That was part of the unpredictability and the risk of living on the water, but with another person on board, it became an entirely different ballgame, and she would’ve been lying if she pretended the prospect didn’t get her heart pumping a tad faster. 

The trip’s usual course would’ve taken them out along the coast, eventually looping around and traveling the same route back in, but, at that point, an early turn for port, in defiance of what Mother Nature appeared to be building, was neither the wise nor the responsible decision, so she elected to go on, hoping to perhaps reach the safety of an inlet where they could hold up and let the system pass.

“Hey,” she hollered to Rick, who had his head buried in his phone, his thumbs tapping furiously at its screen like he was in the midst of an electronic game of Whac-a-Mole. “I need you to listen and pay attention to what I’m going to tell you, okay?” She hoped not to arouse concern so much as caution, but she was aware the line might be a fine one.

“What’s up?” he said though granting little in the way of attention.

“Rick, I mean it. Can you stop with the game for a minute?”

He couldn’t help it, and he wasn’t playing any game. It seemed that among the many thoughts Kate had inspired that afternoon--a number of them less than pure--she’d managed to plant a seed for a potential new book character, and ideas were flooding his brain at such a rate, he couldn’t get them all down fast enough.

“Okay, yeah, sorry.” He tucked his phone between his thighs. “In case I forget, remind me to ask you about parrots after.”

The casualness with which he’d dropped the bizarre request almost seemed more bizarre than the request itself, but Kate wasn’t willing to spend the time to press. “Look, I don’t want you to worry about anything bec--”

“Whoa, wait, you know if you open with something like that, the first thing the other person is going to do is start worrying. In this production of Too-Late Theater, that other person is being played by me.”

And there was the charming vulnerability thing again. She forced herself to shake off the flutter.

“It has nothing to do with sharks, if that helps.” He liked light. She’d already gathered that about him, so she gave it as she could. “But we’re in for some weather here, Rick. You’re a writer. You notice everything. I’m sure you can see that.”

He took a second or two, surveilled the landscape, and, no, not for the first time. “Touché. I guess I must’ve had my switch flipped to ‘Yes’ instead of ‘No’ by accident when I did my rain dance, huh?” He chuckled, but Kate cracked no hint of a smile. “Yes, I can see it,” he followed more subdued, “but if you tell me I shouldn’t worry, I won’t. If you tell me I’m in the right hands, I’ll believe you.”

“You are,” she assured him with no small level of surprise in his faith. He’d barely known her for two hours. He knew nothing of her word. “I promise everything’ll be fine. Just, if I tell you to get down below, I want you to get down below, and I don’t want you to come back up, not until I say so.”

Rick nodded once in agreement, slid his phone into his pocket and stood up. “Yellow’s never really been my color,” he joked, pulling tight the straps on his vest. “What about you?” She hadn’t yet put one on.

Kate knew what he meant but, again, went the waggish route for his benefit. “I agree. I definitely don’t think it’s your color.” She grinned, elicited the same in return. “I’ll take care of me. Right now, it’s more important that you’re ready--just in case.”

“Well, can I say something for the record, you know, just in case?” He put up a hand when she tossed him a disapproving look with the mockery. “I know. I heard what you said, and I’m not going to worry, but I am a writer and writers need to say things.”

“Some more than others,” she quipped.

“Just for that, I’m going to say two things. First, out of all the sailboat captains, right now, I’m glad to have you as mine. Second, if this does end up getting ugly and you find me wailing like a small child, please don’t let that dissuade you from falling head over heels in love with me. It could actually turn out to be a very sweet story we tell our grandchildren, someday.”

Kate let silence hang in the air for a long moment, deliberately so. “I get it now, why your books would be bestsellers. That’s some of the most incredible fiction I’ve ever heard.”

She turned and looked back over her shoulder, did her best not to imagine such a preposterous scenario.

Chapter Text

With its whip rattling the boat’s halyards against the mast with a perpetual clank, the intensifying wind howled in Kate’s ears as she surveilled the sky for the next flash of lightning. When towering grey finally exploded in white light, her eyes darted to the timepiece strapped to her wrist, and again she counted off the seconds until thunder bellowed in its partner’s wake, the method unsophisticated, perhaps, yet constructive enough, she’d learned, not to be mistrusted.

The watch had once been her father’s. She wore it now in his honor, along with her mother’s wedding ring, which hung from a chain around her neck, and since the accident she’d rarely removed either. All of their life things remained in her care, closed up just as they’d left them in the house they’d all once shared, but those two pieces were the only she carried with her, and though they were small in size, they were mighty in comfort.

Ten seconds ticked by in that round, which, in conjunction with readings from her onboard barometer, suggested the storm hung roughly two miles off their position, but it was definitely closing in, and Kate knew, against earlier hope, they wouldn’t be making it to the safety of an inlet--not by design, anyway. The goal now had to be keeping the boat upright and away from shallow waters, where breaking waves and powerful gusts could push them aground. If that happened, things could get very ugly, very quickly.

She set the sails to heave to, as experience and wisdom suggested under such conditions, stepped back behind the wheel as rain began to fall to lock their heading, when Rick popped his head up out of the companionway.

“I told you to stay down there, Rick,” she snapped. “Which part of that didn’t you understand?”

Twenty minutes before, after noticing the color of his skin was turning one skin should never turn, she’d ordered him below. A hundred cruises just like that one, maybe two hundred, but never had she seen a passenger look quite like that before, a positively sickly shade of pale.

“I was just making sure you didn’t fall in or something. I’ve seen Titanic a lot of times,” he replied, surprising her with his sharpness, given his state.

“This is just like Titanic,” Kate said in retort as she engaged the wheel to windward. “Thank God you’re here to help save me. Now back up.” With a final glance at their imposing foe and her preparations for their brush, she climbed down into the cabin after him and secured the hatch behind her.

xxxx

The boat was swaying side to side, its rock not severe but exaggerated, and Rick was happy to plant himself back on one of the cushioned benches. “That sarcasm sure isn’t going to save you,” he mumbled as he lowered flat onto his back. He still hadn’t returned to pink, his night out drinking and little in the way of food since of no help to the cause, but when a sharp crack of thunder pierced the relative hush of their containment, he practically jumped to attention.

“If you’re going to be sick, the toilet’s behind that door.”

In an attempt to give appearance of resilience for the sake of his masculine pride, he insisted the contrary with a shake of his head that he instantly regretted. “I feel fine, great, actually. Can I interest you in some surfing?” Everything about him screamed performance, but Kate found the fib an entertaining effort.

Going for the galley, she pulled out two bottles of water, handed one to him. “Drink this, daredevil. I’m sure that beer did you a world of good.” He opened it straight away and chugged. “I know the vest isn’t comfortable, but I need you to keep it on for now, even down here.” Honestly, that served both of them. He was still shirtless beneath, and with the closer quarters, well, the fewer temptations for her wandering eye the better.

“Thanks. I don’t know what happened. I felt perfectly fine the last time.”

“You mean the great canoe adventure of yore?”

Rick narrowed his eyes. “I see how it is with you. You can dish, but you can’t take.” He kicked out his legs, plopped his feet down on the mirroring bench.

“This from a man who can’t take a little boat ride without turning green? Please, do tell. What exactly is it you think I can’t take?” Another boom and their heads shot up, the wind beginning to whistle through even the tiniest airway it could find to penetrate. “I’ve been through this, Rick,” she assured to soothe, finding her own spot to settle in. “We’ll be okay. I promise.”

“I know,” he said, his tone an affirmation of his trust. “And what I also know is that you can’t take a compliment, for starters. You practically bit my head off when I told you how gorgeous you are, and that’s just a simple fact. I mean, if we can’t even be honest with one another, what kind of an example is that going to set for our kids?”

He could see her shoulders sink as she exhaled. “You are my passenger, Rick. You paid me money, and I’m giving you a ride. That’s all.”

An impish grin curled his lips. “How naughty, Captain Kate. How many tickets can I buy?”

“You’re incredibly irritating. I’m sure you hear that a lot.”

“Yeah, but it sounds sexy when you say it.”

Kate twisted and pushed up onto her knees, angled for a peek outside, but the rain was battering the windows and obscuring her view. “Aren’t you supposed to be sick?” she asked rotating around. “Maybe you should take a nap.”

The boat listed hard to the right, and Rick nearly tipped over where he sat. “I don’t think a nap is going to happen,” he said as his fingers clutched at the wood to win balance. “Why don’t we play a game, instead?”

Kate’s brow crinkled. Why, she wasn’t sure, but the suggestion flipped a switch of unease.

“I’m sure I’m going to regret asking, but what kind of game?”

Rick pretended to think on it, as though he didn’t already have the idea locked and loaded. “Um, I don’t know, how about Truth and Dare?”

Like a teenager who’d just been asked to clean her room, Kate literally huffed. “You mean Truth or Dare? You can’t be serious.”

“Come on, we ask each other two questions, we each propose one dare. It’s educational and fun.”

The Kate Beckett who’d woken up that morning would never have agreed to something so foolish. She would never have allowed herself to be taken in by a man who got drunk on stupid island drinks or flaunted his body so shamelessly or was so delusional he was talking about their future grandchildren as though they hadn’t just met. But goddammit, it was like he was some kind of drug she’d taken, all at once an elixir and a venom, and there she was agreeing.

“Fine, but get your damn feet off my cushion,” she commanded with no idea what was to come.

xxxx

Kate switched on a cabin light as the meat of the storm seemed to move in above them, the angry skies virtually blanketing them in darkness. Wood of blanched cedar lined the boat’s interior walls, aiding in both the counterattack and the illusion of the vessel’s bigness despite its true dimensions, and though Rick was accustomed to the breadth of his New York penthouse, he nonetheless found himself comfortable in the modest surroundings.

It was tidy, yet distinctly lived-in, her things quietly represented, and the inquisitive storyteller he was, he couldn’t help but wonder how a home uncommon had come to be hers.

“I’ll ask you first,” he said, “so you have time to think of something extra good for me. Ready?”

“I can’t wait,” she remarked dryly.

“That’s the kind of enthusiasm this game needs. Okay, here goes. Question one: Why the boat? I’m just a city guy looking at it from the outside, obviously, but it seems like kind of an isolated way to live.”

Of course he couldn’t just ask her favorite color or what day of the week she liked the most. That would’ve been too easy.

The cap to her water bottle began to slide down the table when a decent wave rolled beneath them, and she stayed it with her palm, fidgeting with it as she offered an answer. “My parents died in an accident two years ago. I started looking at things differently after that.”

“Oh, Kate, I’m sorry,” Rick said, assuming because she’d stopped talking, that was all he was going to get.

“Yeah, well, life is full of shitty things. I don’t know, I just--everything started to feel really loud, and I needed to be away from that, so I sold my business and my apartment in New York--yes, I know, we’re both from New York--and I bought her. And spending time alone isn’t always a bad thing. You’re a writer. Isn’t that a solitary art?”

“Thanks for calling it that, by the way. That’s definitely a big step up from the way one critic referred to my last book. You’re right, though, it is, and this might sound weird, but I always have my characters with me, so I guess it doesn’t feel like I’m alone.”

“Well, I do this. I have my passengers, so.”

Rick gave her a congratulatory nod for the point. “Does her name have to do with your parents? Always? I meant to ask when I first got to the dock, but then you appeared and I forgot…everything.”

Oh, she felt that one.

“It’s just some light in the dark. Reminds me they’re with me.”

“My mother’s always with me, too. Maybe I should think about buying her one of these boats,” he joked and she laughed a gentle laugh that momentarily stole his breath. “God, you really are beautiful. Talk about light, that smile of yours is blinding.”

“Do you ever think about anything you say before you say it, or is it like coughing and you can’t control yourself?”

“Is that one of your two questions?” he quipped.

Kate didn’t have the opportunity to respond before a crash rang out topside, and it instantly had them both on their feet. Making sure her vest was secure, she went for the stairs. “Don’t move. I mean it.”

“Be careful,” he admonished and watched her climb outside, the wind and the rain blasting his face before she managed to secure the hatch behind her.

Rick moved to the windows above where they’d been sitting, attempted to get a visual of her off either side, but wasn’t able. The driving rain was all there was, no footsteps, no other sounds, and after a few minutes passed and she still hadn’t come back, he did the exact opposite of what she’d instructed and went up after her.

The ocean around them resembled undulating mountains, he thought, the foreign perspective a daunting challenge for both his body and his mind, as he worked to wipe its spray from his eyes. The landscape had transformed in such a short period of time, it felt as though he’d stepped into a different world--a nightmare, perhaps--and the moment he arrived was the very moment he wanted to flee.

He swiftly scanned the boat in every direction, all around him, but there was no Kate, and, rationally, he knew that was an impossibility, because there was nowhere for her to go. He had to wonder if it really was in his head, if he’d passed out from sickness and was still laid up down below, or if there’d never been a boat or a Kate and he was in his bed back at the condo, sleeping off the effects of the booze.

But every drop of rain, every gust of wind seemed so absolute. Not even his most fantastical of dreams had ever conveyed such authenticity.

“Rick!”

It was a terrifying scream. It was a scream of desperation, of fear, of pain, and there was no way in hell he’d dreamed it. It was Kate’s voice, but where it’d come from, he didn’t know. What he did know was that he had to find out and fast.

He had nothing in the way of sea legs to speak of. Mother Nature was seeing well to that. So, he did the only thing he could do, which was cling desperately to anything he could get his fingers around.

“Kate!” he yelled back reaching first for the wheel, hoping in doing so he wouldn’t be making a bad situation worse. He called out her name again, she his. “I’m trying to--Just keep shouting.”

He was soaked to the bone, his feet bare, water cascading ceaselessly from the hair matted to his forehead into his eyes, but he fought his way to the port side and grabbed onto the lifeline.

With Kate’s screams appearing louder from his new position, he was able to peer over the edge when the boat dipped in the opposite direction, and that’s where he found her, hanging near the bow, her body half in the water, her hands clasped around the bottom of one of the metal stanchions that lined the perimeter.

“Shit, Kate, hang on. Hang on.” He coordinated his crawl with the push of the waves, reached her in a flash, thinking nothing of the danger he too faced. “Kate, okay, it’s okay. Hold on just a few more seconds, beautiful. I’ll get you. I’m going reach down and grab the bottom of your vest and try to pull you up. Just swing your leg, swing it up as far as you can.”

“Rick, I can’t...” Her exhaustion came out in every letter.

“No, you can, Kate. Listen to me. You can.” His body was so big, and he had so little room to work with, his hips burned from the pinch, but he maneuvered onto his stomach, got as flat as he could, braced a foot against one of the stanchions behind him. “You have to help me,” he told her, but when he reached down the first time, his hand slipped and he let her go.

“Again, come on.” He caught her with the second effort, pulled as hard as he could with all the leverage he didn’t have. “Your leg, Kate, swing your leg.” He just kept tugging, to the point he worried he might actually rip the vest off her body, but that didn’t stop him. Finally, her leg flew up and over the side, inadvertently kicked him in the thigh and elicited a wild curse. “That’s it. I’ve got you.”

Rick gathered her into him, their limbs entwined in an awkward jumble, their chests rising and falling in shallow, synchronous rhythm. “Shit. Thank God,” he whispered into the wind. “Everything’s okay now. Everything’s okay.” Kate coughed and he held her tighter. “Man, all I thought I was going to do today was swim with some damn dolphins.”

She clutched his arm, dazed but grateful.

Chapter Text

For what felt like hours despite the passage of mere minutes, their bodies lay still beneath the falling rain, woven together as if only one. Once raucous and harsh, the storm’s thunder had begun to soften to an almost soothing drum, the waves that’d tried in vain to separate them tranquilizing as they tamed to their former constancy.

“We should get you inside,” Rick said angling for Kate’s ear, the pitch mainly for her benefit, though he could sense his muscles beginning to cramp from the unkind position he’d forced upon them for far too long. “We have to get you out of these clothes. You’re starting to shiver.”

“Like it’s gonna be that easy,” Kate countered jokingly, playful even after what’d come so close to disaster.

Rick snapped his tongue. “That’s not what I meant.” After brief reflection, he came back. He couldn’t help but swing at that softball. “I am enjoying your suggestion that what I didn’t mean is a thing that will be happening, though.”

She managed to roll out of him, earned enough leverage to push herself up on her elbow. “You’re delusional. Give me my leg back.” It was curled between his. He didn’t realize how tightly he was still hanging on. “We’re both soaked,” she said and flicked his face with a spray of water. “Follow me down and do exactly what I do. Slowly.”

They pushed along the boat’s edge, using the lifeline as a brace until they were able to climb down onto the bench and to secure ground.

“Get down below. I need a minute,” Kate told him, and though he wanted to argue, he noted the insistence in her face, in her body language, and thought better of it.

She choked the locked wheel with her fingers once he’d gone, allowed herself a breath. She’d been careless. She’d been afraid. She wasn’t accustomed to being either, and because everything she did she did for herself, neither was she accustomed to owing such a profound debt.

xxxx

She found him sprawled on his back in the cabin with only a towel wrapped around his waist, and the sight stopped her cold at the bottom of the steps like she’d walked into a wall.

“Where are your clothes?”

Rick sprang to his feet like he’d been caught at something. “You said--I threw them in the shower with my vest. What are the odds I need it twice on one trip, right?” he said with a chuckle that faded abruptly in regret. The last thing he wanted was to tempt the keepers of fate. “You’re dripping, too.” He pointed to the tiny puddle forming at her feet.

“Shit.” Realizing how sheer it was in its sopping state, Kate promptly peeled her tee away from her skin. “Not that saying it’ll mean anything to you, but stay here.”

“Yes, Captain Kate,” he said as she walked by. “You still look beautiful, by the way, maybe even more so. You have that I-was-just-plucked-from-the-jaws-of-the-sea-by-a-world-famous-novelist glow about you.” Now came the part where he played the hero card forever.

Two steps past him was all she got before she turned back, grabbed his face in her hands and kissed him, fast and hard.

Rick stumbled backward into the table, shocked the very least of things he was. “Well, you’re welcome,” he panted with audible satisfaction. “What do I get if I find your missing shoe?”

Kate had neither realized she’d lost one, nor did she break from him to verify, thumbing away the moisture the union of their mouths had left behind. “That wasn’t a thank you.” There was urgency in her voice, purpose. She was positively humming from all of it. The thing about harrowing experiences, she’d forgotten, was that they spurred an incredible surge of adrenaline and potent nerve.

“Then prepare yourself for a very good tip and a five-star Trip Advisor review for your excellent customer service.”

Beads of water continued to trickle from his hair and glide over his shoulders, down his chest. Her eyes locked on one, and they followed its path all the way to the knot in his towel where it disappeared. Like a poem, it felt like some kind of metaphor, though for what she had no damn idea.

“I don’t want your money,” she said, but it was what she did want that set off a twitch.

“And here I already thought you were perfect.”

It should’ve been so easy for her to reach out and take what he’d been offering since the minute he’d climbed into her life, to allow herself that indulgence, that pleasure.

It should’ve been.

“You don’t know what I am.” It was her armor talking, but it was also the truth. “I need to change,” she said and then disappeared into the forward cabin.

xxxx

He wasn’t sure which, by gift of physics or good fortune, but from where he stood--the spot where she’d left him--Rick was able to see Kate through the silver of an open door, and for fear of waking from the dream, he didn’t dare move a muscle, hesitating even to blink.

He watched as she lifted her shirt over her head, her fingers taking aim at the pale blue lingerie she wore beneath, the clasp secured at her back. Never had he found himself so aroused by such an innocent act. Never had he wished so deeply to admit it.

It was a window of but a few inches. That was all he had of her, but there was no mistaking it, the jagged emblem that trailed across her skin, the sort, he knew, only left by cruel circumstance. It began along the ridge of her shoulder, disappeared from view somewhere below, and his fingertips already tingled, wanting to trace its length down and back.

He stepped back and sat, closed his eyes so he could see it all again where he’d cached it. One more second and stupidity would’ve overtaken him. “I can’t hear thunder, anymore,” he called out to her, and with it he realized her scar mirrored a bolt of desert lightning.

Kate emerged before she spoke, her clothes fresh, her hair wet and free. “The storm’s passed.” It was true only of the storm outside the walls. “I didn’t ask. I’m sorry. Are you hurt? Do I need to--”

“I like your hair down,” Rick cut in, left it when it went unacknowledged. “I’m fine. The bruises’ll make a good story in a couple of days. As a writer, I should probably be thanking you.”

“Glad I could help,” she replied shaking her head as she stepped out of the doorway with her wet things in hand. “I’m going to get us headed back in now that things have quieted down. I just need a few more minutes.”

She made her way to the bathroom, left her stuff there with his, gave herself a look in the mirror. There wasn’t any time to address the myriad of things that begged attention, so she simply backed out.

“You know, even though my captain tried to jump overboard and ditch me along the way, this is still the best boat ride I’ve ever taken. Obviously, it might also be my last,” he teased, “you know, because of all the new fears I can add to the list to keep the sharks company, but…”

There was a smile, soft, but it didn’t last. “Look, Rick, I’m sorry I put you in this position. I’m sorry about all of this.”

He stood up again but didn’t make a move toward her. “I’m not sure what position you mean, Kate, but if you think you’re to blame for causing a thunderstorm, your ego might actually be bigger than mine. As for me valiantly coming to your aid with no consideration for my own peril--P.S. you still owe me the story of why that aid was required--that’s like eating breakfast for me, a normal day of the week, happens all the time.”

“Yeah, well, this is the only time you’re going to hear me say this, but thank you for not listening. If you had, I might not be here.”

“Look who’s the dramatic one now,” he said.

Kate rolled her eyes. “Shut up.” She walked back to the galley, flipped up one of the cabinets and pulled out a bottle. Into a glass she emptied a generous pour of Johnnie Walker and kicked back a sip, extended to Rick what remained. “Yes, I remember what I said before about the beer. This is just--”

“I know.” Rick added no commentary, and their eyes met and held.

xxxx

The trip back in to the marina had been a quiet one, though they’d spent the majority of it up on deck together, and that wasn’t by design, on either of their parts, but instead, perhaps, a result of the weight of what had happened beginning to properly set in.

“I bet those are nice and comfortable,” Kate said in a tone that reflected her sarcasm. Rick had gone down to put his shirt and shorts back on while she tied off the lines at the slip, the sky a painter’s palette of color with the later hour. “Hope you don’t have a long way to go.”

“They should put ‘Doubles as sponge’ on the labels. They might sell a few more of them. And, no, it’s not that far. My friends and I are staying over at The Reserve.”

“Ah, bestseller money.”

Like two teenagers at the end of a first date, neither wanted to be the first to say the words to bring it to an end.

“Cute. Maybe when I get home I’ll send you a copy of one of those bestsellers so you can experience the brilliance for yourself. I wonder which one,” he said tapping his chin. “There are so many to choose from. Wait, can one mail things to a boat?” Kate shrugged puckishly. “Your loss, I guess.”

“I’m, um, I’m going to refund your money for today. I’ll do it later tonight, so you should see--”

“I don’t want to not see you again,” Rick interrupted, “and I hope that even though that wasn’t the prettiest way I could’ve said it, you might feel the same.” Kate looked down and found her heel tapping restlessly against the dock. “Have dinner with me. Tonight. Now. In twenty-eight minutes, I don’t care.”

“Rick, I don’t know that that’s a good idea.”

He moved closer. “But do you want to?”

“Yes,” she answered without pause, surprising even herself.

“Then this is my dare, Kate. We never got to finish our game. I still have a dare. Give me an hour. The Reserve, Coral Building, Condo 1518.”

It wasn’t a good idea, for many reasons, but standing there watching him walk away suddenly felt even more difficult than she imagined it would.

xxxx

“What the hell happened to you?” Kevin asked when Rick came through the door, his clothes and hair a mess of wind and water, not at all resembling the same man he’d seen walk out hours before.

Rick tossed his key on the kitchen counter, grabbed the collar of his shirt behind his neck and yanked it over his head. “What happened to me is that, today, I fell in love, boys.” Through a moony grin, his words practically came out in a song.

Javi stepped up, eyed him with stifled laughter. “I assume from looking at you, love is the name of some big-ass hole somewhere. Seriously, bro, you look like shit. What’s the deal? We’ve been texting you.”

“Not the brunette?” Kevin asked. “The sailing chick?” Rick plopped onto one of the stools at the counter. “You’re in love with the sailing chick?”

“You’re trippin’ over a girl you met five seconds ago, dude? Did she show you her pirate-y eyepatch?”

Rick could barely hear anything either of them was saying over the buzz of his anticipation. “We might be going out tonight. I need another shower.”

His friends shared a glance.

“Might be?” they said in unison unplanned. “How is that something you’re not sure of?” Javi followed. “What did you do, ask and then run away or something? Scared she’d say no, probably.”

“I thought she was too hot for you,” Kevin added offhandedly.

“I’d explain it to you, but I don’t have time to draw pictures so you two assholes would understand.” Rick chucked his wet shirt in Javi’s face. “And save me some coffee next time, prick. I’ll be back,” he said and went off to his room.

“What’d I do?”

Kevin snickered.

xxxx

Like his life depended on it, Rick checked his watch every couple of minutes, the hour having come and gone with no appearance from Kate. He continued to pace the condo floor like an expectant father awaiting the birth of his child, his buddies amused, to say the least, and just when he allowed the possibility that she wasn’t going to show to wander across his mind, that’s when they all heard it.

“Oh, damn, it is on,” Javi exclaimed. “You want me to get it, so you can make a grand entrance, sweetie?” he ribbed.

Rick gave him a slap on the head when he passed for the door, his heart pounding louder than his footsteps.

Kate’s scent hit him first, like wind to a sail, and he inhaled it deliberately. From her body hung a sundress of soft yellow, a lavender cardigan its accent, and though her hair was still wet, it had the semblance of fingers drawn through it, purposeful in their path.

What drew him most fixedly, however, was none of those things. It was the shine of the lip she held between her teeth that had him weak. A more sublime picture of a woman so modest in her own bloom, he thought, had never been captured.

“Dare accepted,” she stated in place of a greeting. “I’d say I was sorry for being late, but since you were too, I guess we can just call it even.”

“You look amazing. We’ve established yellow isn’t my color, but it is definitely yours.” He could hear footsteps creeping up from behind, Javi and Kevin suddenly at his sides. “Guys, this is Kate. Kate, this is the guys.”

They all exchanged pleasantries, Rick never breaking his gaze.

“He didn’t think you were coming,” Javi pointed out, not at all helpful.

Kate’s eyes traveled to Rick’s. “I guess that makes two of us. I didn’t think I was, either.”

When they lingered too long on one another, Kevin instigated an exit on their behalf. “Well, it was nice to meet you, Kate. We’ll be down at the bar after, if you feel like joining us for a drink.”

“They still have alcohol left after last night?” she asked with a smirk.

“Maybe we’ll stop by for a Rum Runner or something,” Rick said, taking obvious enjoyment in the privacy of the joke. “Shall we go?” He checked his pocket for his key, followed Kate out.

The guys snuck a peek as the pair walked down the hallway together. “Bon voyage, you two,” Kevin called out, and without turning, Rick gave them the finger behind his back.

Chapter Text

Kate couldn’t recall another man she’d ever known that’d made her feel the way she did when Rick looked at her; or maybe it was just that she hadn’t for so long allowed herself such a profound curiosity of heart and mind, the loss she’d suffered in the death of her parents a cruel reminder of the pain a connection of that depth could deliver.

How he stirred her, though, and how futile she was learning it was, the fight to brush aside a response that reflexive.

The restaurant--one noted popular with tourists--while predictable, wasn’t without its charms, their table overlooking the water doing well to make up for the limitations short notice had dictated. Rick had suggested wine. Kate had agreed, so he’d bought the best bottle they had, made no effort to counter her accusation he’d done it purely in attempt to impress. He had. He was, after all, working against time. All battle stations were manned.

“It’s good, thanks,” Rick answered of his entrée around another bite of risotto. “I mean, I’ve made better, but…”

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” Kate’s insight into his character already seemed finely honed. “Is there anything you don’t do better than the rest of us?”

He set down his fork, swallowed a sip of wine, feigned struggle for an example to win a smile, successfully so. “There you go. There’s something. I definitely don’t light up a room like you do.”

The blush of Kate’s cheeks neared the hue of her cardigan, and she raised her own glass to her lips to try and mitigate its conspicuousness. “So, are we still playing?” Rick arched his brow. “The game we started earlier. I never got a chance to ask you anything. I still have both my questions.”

“Absolutely, fair is fair. Ask me anything, Captain. This novelist is--get a load of this wit free of charge--an open book.”

Like he’d won something, he was practically dancing in his seat.

“What’s your father like?” Whatever celebratory music he was hearing in his head instantly stopped, as did his cheery bounce. “You mentioned your mother, but nothing about him, and I Googled you, but I could only find stuff about her,” she confessed on the reception she was unable to diagnose.

Like her before him, Rick wasn’t prepared for the weight of the inquiry, though, in all fairness, she couldn’t have known there existed any either.

“Before I answer, please know how turned on I am by the fact that you were interested enough to go snooping. Hopefully you also stumbled across some decent pictures of me shirtless, not that you haven’t already enjoyed a healthy dose of that pleasure.” With an exaggerated croak, Kate phonied up a yawn. “Oh, now that’s not very nice.”

“This is your game, not mine. Let’s hear it, Mr. Open Book.”

Oddly, so few people ever asked, and when they did, he often found himself a writer without words, a chapter without a proper ending--discomforting, to be sure.

“I don’t know what my father’s like. I’ve never met my father.” There was disappointment and distance in it, and Kate read both. “Plot twist: the man who writes mysteries lives in a mystery.”

“Have you ever tried to find him?”

Rick sometimes wondered what the man was like, and how different he and his life might be had a father figure been a part of it, but more than any desire to fill whatever void had been created by his absence, he’d focused on making sure his daughter wanted for nothing, that she knew he’d always be there. It certainly took no book on psychology to understand why.

“I’ve thought about it. I just don’t know if I need it, or if I even want it.” His chin dropped in a flash of guilt, remembering what she’d lost and could never have again. “I’m sorry. That was really insensitive, after what you’ve been through.”

Out of the blue, something came over her, an inexplicable impulse. That was when she told him.

“I was driving the car. The accident with my parents, I was driving.” She hadn’t shared that reality with anyone outside her immediate circle since the day it’d happened. “I didn’t see the truck. He didn’t see the stop sign.”

It took Rick what seemed an eternity to swallow back the knot in his throat, and once he did, the only thing he could manage in its wake was a single word.

“Kate.”

“We all live in a mystery,” she said, and if he didn’t already love her, that was the moment.

xxxx

Rick insisted upon driving her back to the marina after dinner, the reason for a swift--and mutual --decision to forgo drinks at the bar with Kevin and Javi motivated by like, albeit restrained, sentiments.

They’d found their words again, lighter words, talked of New York and whisky and classic movies, and they’d laughed, still were as they strolled the dock toward the boat tied at Slip 17.

“So, you were just riding around the city naked on a stolen police horse?”

“Picturing it in your head, I hope. I was, indeed, but much like the infamous canoe flop, the whole thing didn’t last very long. Luckily, my daughter wasn’t around for that one. Would’ve scarred both of us for life.”

Kate giggled, gathered the ends of her sweater together in the evening breeze. “Yeah, that’s a sight a daughter should never have to see.”

There were dock lights perched atop a pair of tall, wooden posts down the way, but even in the shadows she found herself impossibly drawn to his eyes.

“Hey, that sight isn’t so bad, I’ll have you know. Just the other day, a lovely grandmother at the gym told me I was the handsomest fellow on the all the elliptical machines.” Then he heard himself. “But, god no, not for Alexis to…” The rest of his thought was swallowed up in a grimace before he could get it out.

Water lapped at the boat’s hull with the steadiness of a metronome, the beat of Kate’s heart succumbing, falling in line. “What am I doing with you?” It escaped her in a whisper of audible defeat. “I don’t even know you, but it’s like I can’t…”

Rick allowed her a few seconds, but couldn’t leave it. “Can’t what?” She turned away, but his fingers caught the curve of her shoulder and brought her around. “Tell me. If it’s embarrassing, you can blame it on the wine. Come on, it can’t be worse than the horse.”

“I can’t stop wondering about you, okay?” she replied in a huff. “I can’t stop thinking about you.”

It was all he could do to keep his grin out of it. “And you’re…angry about that, clearly.”

“I’m not angry,” she snapped.

“You sure sound angry.”

“Well, I’m not. There just, there isn’t any point.”

“Maybe the point is for you to realize that I am, in fact, irresistible, which is something I’ve been trying to tell you all day.” She raised a fist and punched him in the arm, not hard but enough for effect. “Ow, careful, that’s the arm I use to rescue you with, among other things.”

“Rescue me, uh-huh. All the one time?” A flimsy comeback, she knew, but in her fluster it was all that came.

Rick firmed his shoulders, parked his fists on his hips. “Geez, you save a gal from becoming shark bait and it’s still not enough. What does a hero have to do?”

“You’re so annoying.”

“And you’re getting loud, Captain Kate. People are going to think we’re fighting, even though we’re not, because you’re not angry.” They both stood there, staring at one another, the tension mounted to a delicious degree. “You’re thinking about me naked on the horse again, aren’t you?”

Kate bit the inside of her cheek to suppress a laugh. “Among what other things?”

“I’m so glad you asked,” he said and swept her up, his mouth melting into hers, and it wasn’t anything like it’d been before. It wasn’t hard and it wasn’t fast. It was as deep and warm and thorough as any kiss ever had been, and when they finally parted, when they’d given everything those moments allowed them to give, there was only one thing they could do, and they both knew it.

xxxx

“Guess that’s yet another number one for ol’ R.C.,” Rick puffed from the pillow beside her, his thumb gliding back and forth over the bare slope of Kate’s hip. “They say you always remember your first time.”

She lay curled on her side, fresh from the peak he’d delivered her to, her skin covered only in the goose bumps his caress was still effecting, and as the events of the afternoon drifted across her mind, she recognized they hadn’t made her feel half as alive as he just had.

“Pretty impressive for a virgin,” Kate remarked with a smirk. “How long have you been carrying that condom around in your wallet?”

“First time on a boat,” he clarified needlessly, added a playful pinch. “Since you enjoyed it so much and you already refused my money, I guess you can consider that your tip.” He did a half-roll, pressed his lips to hers. “You seem less not angry, but you’re quiet. Are you okay?”

“I am.” It was soft, but sincere. “This isn’t something I do, Rick. This isn’t something that happens. I don’t see a lot of people.”

“I know how fast this all was, Kate, and it’s the last thing I ever expected, believe me, but I hope you aren’t sorry it did because I’m not.”

She kissed him back, uttered in a breath. “I’m not.”

“Then maybe this is a good time for me to confess something.” She reached down and grabbed him where he’d feel it. “Whoa, be gentle with him, please. He’d definitely like to play again, if his partner is so inclined.”

“I swear to God, if you tell me you’re married…”

Rick inhaled with an audible hiss. “It’s not that. I promise. It’s not that.” She relinquished her hold, to his relief and to some extent his disappointment. “Thank you, and please don’t go far.”

“Talk,” she pressed but sportively.

“I watched you earlier. I shouldn’t have, but I did.”

She’d wondered, but chose to go along for the ride anyway. “What do you mean? When?”

“When you were changing out of your wet clothes, and I was about two seconds away from walking in here and kissing you back. You have no idea.” Her lips curled, but he couldn’t see it. “The door was only open a little bit, but your skin, Kate, the line of you and how elegant you were doing something you probably do every day. It was all like some conspiracy of irresistible gravitational forces.”

Kate massaged his earlobe between her fingers. “At this point, I think you’ve actually moved way past dramatic.” She pushed in until the tips of their noses brushed. “Next time, take the invitation you’ve been offered.”

“Wait. You--”

“I know how to close a door, ol’ R.C. What I can’t explain is why the hell I didn’t, or how you’ve managed to do this to me. You aren’t even my type.”

Rick choked out a grumble. “I’m pretty sure we did this to each other. Most pleasurably, I might add. And what about me, exactly, isn’t your type, since I seem to recall hearing an awful lot of yeses out of you tonight in conjunction with my name?”

She blushed again, that time over the truth of his observation.

“Oh, woe is you. Imagine not every woman on Earth wanting you at first sight.”

His hand drifted to her thigh and he squeezed, her body bucking against his without her control. “You did, though. You just don’t want to admit it because it scares you, but see how trying to ignore something doesn’t make it go away?”

“Someone took Psych 101 in college,” Kate replied mockingly.

“I wanted you. I wanted you more than I’ve ever wanted anyone, and I don’t have a problem saying it. I can even show you again how much. I’m exceptional at demonstration.” With a knee wedged between hers, he rolled her onto her back, nipped the pulse point at her neck. “Look, I don’t want you to think this is something that happens to me, either, because it isn’t. And my way-past-dramatic self doesn’t want to scare you,” he chaffed, “but there is a distinct possibility I could love you already. That isn’t just you-know-who talking.”

They weren’t easy words for her to form, let alone to say. “It does scare me. I wish it didn’t.” Rick let his forehead come to rest on her shoulder. She pushed her fingers through his hair and held him. “It scares me that I’m so comfortable alone.” In two years, she’d never acknowledged that, never admitted it to herself. “I don’t want to just disappear.”

“I see you.” His breath was warm on her skin. “Scars and all,” he murmured in her ear, knowing now she’d understand.

“It’s all a mystery,” Kate said into the stillness, and then kissed him sweetly.

Chapter Text

With Kate’s scheduled morning cruise, Rick was back at the condo early, but they’d made a plan to connect later that afternoon for lunch. And for, perhaps, more than lunch. They’d slept some the previous night, enough to get by--which, in truth, was more than either had wanted given the rewarding compatibility of their bodies--and he sauntered into the place even drunker on her than when he’d left it, much to the amusement of his partners in paradise.

“Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged in,” Kevin commented with a nasally resonance, a curse his allergies had long ago bestowed upon his waking voice.

Javi slowly pivoted his head, barely a turn. Any more, the way it was pulsing, and he worried it might separate clear from his body. Nothing about him wanted to be awake in the world, not at that hour, not after the cavalcade of brown and clear shooters he’d poured down his throat that still seemed desperate to find their way back out.

“You can talk without shouting.” A two-word admonishment would’ve been preferable to five, but the intensity the lesser called for would’ve done his head far more harm. “Walking the plank of shame, bro,” he added with a failed attempt at a laugh. Luckily, Kevin’s burst covered them both, though it wilted abruptly when he earned a sharp eye. “Hit us with the goods. Quietly.”

Rick dropped onto the couch between their chairs, kicked his feet up, shoes and all. “Guess you hit it pretty hard again last night, Jav.” He’d cranked his volume up a notch. Such was the nature of their prankish friendship. “I’d say I was sorry we never made it to the bar, but I’d be lying.”

“Your shirt’s on inside out, dude,” Kevin informed like he’d found a clue in a treasure hunt, emphatic point of his finger and all. “Guess it went well, huh?”

Javi’s eyes had drifted closed again, but not in sleep. The room was just too damn bright. “You’re a genius, partner. What the hell else would he have been doing out all night, picking flowers?”

Rick ran his fingers around his collar, grinned with the finding. “It went so well, boys, that I will be ditching you again today.” Kevin visually pouted. “I know, we were supposed to go jet skiing, but if you knew this heavenly creature like I do, you’d drop whatever the hell you were doing, too.”

“I’ve had a hangover on this trip for longer than you’ve known her, bro. You’re a douche.”

“I’ll leave you the car and my Amex Black Card.”

Javi pushed right up out of his chair. “Give the sailorette our love. Send us a postcard,” he yawned. “I’m going back to bed. Knock two minutes before we need to leave. Got that, partner? Two.”

“I liked her,” Kevin said once his walking slap-on-the-wrist shuffled off. “She looks a little bit like Jenny’s cousin, actually.”

Rick had one foot in his own world somewhere. Kate’s taste was still on his tongue. “She doesn’t look like anybody.” Like Javi’s, his eyelids drowsily slipped shut.

Kevin stood with his coffee in hand, pulled the string on the each of the windows’ sets of blinds and darkened the room again. “Pair of lightweights,” he muttered as he wandered off alone.

xxxx

“You’re a mess. What did you do, walk all the way here?” Kate asked, Rick’s shirt speckled with visible patches of perspiration, and not that the marina was all that far from the condo, he just didn’t strike her as the type to exert the energy when it wasn’t necessary.

Though he wanted to do much more, he reined in his urge and kissed her on the cheek as her morning clients, fresh off their sail, gathered themselves and their belongings on the dock to take their leave.

“I guess I’m offended at the shock. I am a New Yorker. I walk everywhere.” When her eyes narrowed, he knew he hadn’t sold it. “Fine, I let the guys have the car. By the way, speaking of guys, thanks a lot. You didn’t tell me I left here this morning with my shirt inside out.”

“What fun would that’ve been? Your wingmen give you a hard time? Hey, thanks again, guys,” Kate hollered around him to the departing group. “Enjoy the rest of your trip.”

Rather than turn to look for himself, he asked her for confirmation. “I don’t want to talk about my wingmen right now. Is the Floridian Four gone?”

“Yeah, why?”

Rick pulled her against him by one of the belt loops on her shorts and greeted her properly, leaving them both in need of a settling breath.

“I figured you’d appreciate me waiting to do that until we didn’t have an audience. Sorry about the sweat.”

“Don’t be,” she said with a peck. “I kinda like it. You want to come up? I want to change before we go.” He followed her aboard and down below. “I’ll be right back.” She disappeared into the cabin where they’d spent their night, and he unknowingly trailed behind. “So, what are they doing today?” she called to him in raised voice, though he was standing right there at the door.

“Oh, don’t let me stop you, please.” Her shirt was already half off her body. “I mean, unless you’d rather I go.”

Without protest, Kate continued her removal, and he soaked up the view with like deliberateness. “I do enjoy it when you do that, and to answer your question, they’re going jet skiing. The car was a bribe, basically, since I ditched them again. Javi gets whiny, especially when he’s hungover. Sometimes it’s easier just to give him a treat.”

“Makes a lot of sense that you’re friends,” Kate teased, crossing to him covered only in the fabric of her bikini. “So, how hungry are you?”

There was nothing in her tone about food.

“That’s quite a loaded question, Captain.” He lifted his own shirt over his head and dropped it to the floor. “I’m still pretty full from the bagel I had for breakfast.” One step and she lowered onto the bed. “I might need some help working up an appetite so I have room for lunch.”

Kate smiled and tugged him down by the arm.

xxxx

“So, I meant to ask you last night, but you…distracted me.”

Poised for another bite, Rick eyed her over his turkey and Swiss. “Multiple times, just for the sake of thoroughness. Readers like details. Shoot.”

They had a blanket spread out on the sand in an unoccupied bit of beach real estate they’d found, a simple picnic lunch of sandwiches and fruit between them.

“I heard you say something about wanting to swim with dolphins. What’s that about?”

“Oh, yeah, that’s been on my bucket list for a while. I was told that’s why I booked the sailboat cruise in the first place. Clearly, when one is intoxicated, one’s thought processes make total sense.”

“I’m almost scared to ask what else is on that list.”

“Stop, it’s all normal stuff: get arrested, buy a Ferrari, have a monkey as a pet. Things a lot of people probably want.”

Kate’s expression took on an air of hammy displeasure. “And I slept with you,” she jested, softening the blow by tendering a kiss, one he welcomed and returned. “I hope you get to cross it off.” Her wheels had already been quietly turning. He’d only just sped them up. “It’s probably a pretty cool thing.”

“Thanks, me too, but just so you know, I had a perfectly good time on the trip without it.”

“Yeah, well, you weren’t the one hanging off the side of the boat.” Rick pushed up from his elbow and tossed her a look, and she knew exactly what it was he wanted. “There really isn’t a story to tell, except that I was stupid and careless. I should’ve been harnessed out there and I wasn’t. When I leaned over to make sure we hadn’t been hit by lightning or something, I slipped. That’s all.”

“You’re right,” he noted with a nod, “that isn’t a great story. With my vast expertise, I could really punch it up for you, though.” Kate lobbed a grape at him and he managed to catch it in his cheek. “So many talents,” he mouthed then swallowed it. “My bruises are coming along nicely, incidentally. I don’t know if you noticed, now that you’ve experienced the full show that is Rick Castle’s physique.” He waggled his brows. “Have I told you yet how incredible last night and this morning and this afternoon were?”

She wiped her hands, gave their surroundings a scan, and then crawled around what was left of the food for his lap. “Only about a dozen times,” she said locking her knees around his hips. “We have one day left. How many more times can I get you to say it?” She dipped her mouth down to his neck, grazed it with the tip of her tongue. “Maybe that can kick off my new bucket list. You’ve inspired me.” He barely reacted at all. “What? What’s wrong?”

“One day is wrong.”

Kate already hated the thought, too.

“Hey, kiss me. Forget everything else and kiss me, like you did out on the dock last night, like it’s the first time.” Rick looked back at her with sapphire eyes of such warmth and wistfulness that her heart felt an instant sting, as if stuck with a dagger, and when he finally acquiesced, when they connected and pushed and pulled like the ocean waves, her hatred only swelled with the exhilaration.

“You know, we probably should have an audience, actually,” he observed afterward. “We’re pretty good at that.”

“If that’s on your list, you should go ahead and cross it out, because it’s never going to happen.” She used his shoulders to push her body off of him. “I just remembered I have a phone call to make. Finish eating. I’ll be right back.”

There wasn’t much she could do to make the inevitable better, but there was one thing she thought might help.

xxxx

“I love surprises, like, really love them,” Rick chirped from his position beside Kate in the back of the taxi, their destination as yet a mystery to him.

She’d returned from making her call on the beach looking terribly pleased with herself, announced they had somewhere special to be at 5 p.m., and then casually went back to her fruit salad as though she hadn’t just spun him like a top.

“My hand gets that. I haven’t been able to feel my fingers for the last seven miles.” He apologized but didn’t relinquish his grip. “Breathe, we’re almost there.”

“I don’t know what I did to deserve whatever this is, but you’ll have to let me know so can do a lot more of it.”

The taxi pulled into the facility a few minutes later, its parking lot seemingly only emptying of cars all headed in the opposite direction. That was the plan, of course, the gift of it, not only to bring true one of Rick’s wishes, but to do it in a way few others could. In a stroke of serendipitous luck, Kate Beckett, it turned out, had friends in high dolphin places.

“No way!” When he realized where they were, Rick pushed open his car door and practically flew out, jumped a couple of steps, and then hurried back for her. He pushed a twenty to the driver for the fare and yanked Kate out. “Are we going to...?”

She played it cool, shrugged. “I know a guy,” she said and his lips were on hers before she could blink. “We only have a little while inside, but the pool will be all yours--with supervision, so no cannonballs. Got it?”

“My best behavior, I swear.”

“For the sake of time, I’m going to pretend that makes me feel better.” She pulled out her phone, sent a text message confirming their arrival, and within a few minutes someone came out to meet them. He and Kate shared a hearty hug, exchanged pleasantries. “Philippe, this is Rick. Rick, this is my friend, Philippe. He’s one of the trainers here.”

“Mr. Bucket List, welcome. My lovely friend, Kate, here tells me you’re pretty excited about swimming with the guys, so why don’t we head on inside. They’re just closing up the park for the day.”

Rick curled his arm around Kate’s shoulder and they followed their guide’s lead. He kissed her again at the temple as they walked, left a whisper of a thank you in her ear.

“It’s really kind of you to do this, Philippe. Excited would definitely be a word for it.”

In a matter of twenty minutes, Rick had been prepared and was already in the pool. Kate sat alone up in the bleachers, far enough away to allow him his moment, yet near enough to appreciate the joy she’d been able to gift, and it struck her again how impossible it was she’d only known him for a period that could still be articulated in hours.

And how many times over those hours she’d reminded herself Rick wasn’t the kind of man she should find herself drawn to. Yet how cruel it felt still, the weight of his impending departure from a life she’d carefully crafted to avoid any further cracks to her heart.

He’d openly acknowledged the possibility that he loved her already, words she’d left hanging in the air absent the ability to so quickly wrap herself around the notion, but as she listened to his laughter echoing through the silent arena and to her heart’s thundering reply, she began to understand it.

Chapter Text

Rick had Kate’s back pressed against the wall in the hallway, his hands beneath the hem of her shirt at the bare of her back, the door to the condo within sight yet too distant an end to hold his need of her in check for even one more second.

They’d finished at the park, spent most of the ride back in the taxi pawing at one another, unruffled by the amused eye of their driver, who, upon arrival, had wished them a pleasant evening with an audible wink, but the appetizer hadn’t been enough. He could only wonder now, having had her, having been gifted the splendor that was her body, if any amount of her would ever be enough to slake the hunger she’d ignited. Such was the exquisite agony just two days with her had bestowed.

With his relentless mouth, he took fresh aim at her neck, a supreme challenge of her knees’ will, and with a fistful of his hair, she tugged him back. “You’re never going to be able to stay at this place again if you keep doing that. Open the door.” Without breaking eye contact, she reached into the pocket of his shorts with her free hand for his key, teased his hardness with a graze and a knowing nip of her bottom lip. “And you certainly can’t do anything with that out here.”

Rick grunted in protest, planted his lips firmly against hers, and shuffled the final few steps with Kate in hand.

“This stupid place has too many rules. Next time, I’m staying on the boat.” He pushed open the door, allowed her first entry.

“Which boat would that be?” she asked with a chuckle.                                                                           

He tossed his key over her shoulder and onto the counter with a clank. “So, what, you just had your hand in my pants, but you won’t put me up for a couple of nights? It doesn’t seem like that math adds up.”

Kate pivoted and grabbed him at the waist. “Me plus joke equals are you sure your friend, Javi, is the whiner of your little trio?” She gave a listen and a quick glance around. “Speaking of, it doesn’t sound like anyone’s here. You want to take me into the bedroom so I can put my hands other places before we order food?”

Without a peep, Rick wrapped his arms around her thighs and carted her off to his room, kicked the door closed behind them. In a matter of minutes, their clothes were in a pile by the foot of the bed, her naked body straddling his, her hands carrying out her promise. 

“I’ve loved every minute of this day,” Rick trailed off into a searing kiss. “I still can’t believe you did that for me.” His fingers slid up the length of her thighs, his thumb gently teasing her at their junction. “I want to do something for you.”

“You are,” she murmured, rolling her hips in silent plea for more. Reaching down, she took him in hand, held him where she needed him, and welcomed him inside. Like a flipped switch, with the slightest of moans escaping her lips, he began to move.

“That’s not what I…Fuck, you feel so good,” he surrendered in the same breath, his grip on her firm but his head floating.

The ecstasy in his utterance was like oxygen to a flame, and Kate rocked harder still, laboring to silence her mind, but she couldn’t escape it. Within hours he’d be gone, plucked from her world as swiftly as he’d fallen into it, and though they were there in that bed together still, as connected as two could be, it was like her body knew, like it already hurt for what only his had ever given, and with that looming absence sought to take from him everything it could.

“Look at me,” Rick whispered through the hair that tumbled across his face when she arched and nestled her head into his shoulder. “I want to see you, Kate.” That he managed to get the words out at all surprised him, that she acquiesced, even more so. “I won’t let you disappear. I won’t let you disappear.”

In her eyes he saw the wet of tears, in his heart he felt them, and as her warmth pulsed around him with her release, as her hastened breaths evolved into sighs, he, too, let go, cradling her in his arms as they came down as one.

Kate slowly stretched her legs out behind her, the sting of her muscles eliciting not pain but titillation in the wake of their effort. It was moments of quiet, and then finally her voice, soft and unguarded. “No one’s ever made me feel like this.” Her fingertips wandered his chest in aimless swirls and loops. “What am I supposed to do with it when you go?”

He angled for her forehead, let his lips linger. “As a man who always has all the answers…” He paused deliberately, waited for the twitch of her body that accompanied her giggle. “It’s not easy for me to admit I find myself without one. A thousand miles doesn’t exactly make for easy dating--not that I’m any less of a handful from down the block,” he added with a squeeze.

“Oh, you’re definitely more than a handful,” she replied, her tone suggesting one thing more than another.

Two could play at that word game.

“Keep stroking my ego like this and you’ll never get rid of me. See what I did there? I mean, not that you ever could get rid of me. I am going to be writing a new character based on you.”

She popped straight up onto her elbow. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t say it like it’s my fault. You’re the beautiful one with the awesome pad anchored in paradise. I was thinking about a pair of treasure hunters--a fictional you and an incredibly handsome cohort like myself--who get thrown together by fate and have to battle pirates for sunken gold and jewels.” Kate said nothing but the hush was deafening. “Come on. That’s great stuff. I could do a whole series with that.”

“Is that what the ‘parrots’ thing was about? Wait, don’t answer that. I don’t even want to know.”

“The parrots are when it’s going to get really good.” A hand landed at her shoulder blade. “Get back down here. You don’t have to worry. I’m just playing with it in my head right now. You’ll have full approval of all things Bambi when the time comes, I promise.”

“Bambi?”

“I’m just kidding. Kiss me.”

Kate flicked him in the ribs. “Forget it. You don’t deserve a kiss.”

“That’s true most of the time, and yet look how far it’s gotten me.” He trailed a finger between her breasts. “And this is only the beginning.” Again she stilled. “I’m sorry I don’t have the answers, Kate. I know you want them, and I know I want to try to find them with you, not without you, whatever that has to look like.” He pressed another kiss to her head, reached for his phone on the nightstand. “You don’t need to say anything. Let’s order some food and eat it naked.”

She didn’t. They did.

xxxx

Rick had been back in New York just over a month, and Kate still couldn’t shake the effect of him. He’d called. He’d emailed. He’d sent text messages. He’d made it impossible for her to box it all up and hide it away as though it’d never been, as though he hadn’t taken her heart in his hands and warmed it from the cold. But he had. He’d shifted her course, a daunting reality absent charts to guide her.

The dock master at the marina had phoned her that afternoon while she was out on the water with clients and had requested a call back, learning, when she got back to him, of a package addressed to her that’d been delivered to his office.

She found instructions handwritten along the back flap that she wasn’t to open it without first talking to its sender, the return address labeled ‘Mr. Bucket List’ eliciting a smile as she sat in her cabin and dialed his number.

“Did you do what I asked,” Rick answered knowing the mailing had landed and the reason for the call, “or did you cheat?”

“Because of the two of us, I’m the one who doesn’t understand directions?”

“Fair point.” He felt terribly nervous, had to actively work to conceal it. “Miss me?”

He always asked. Her response was always the same. And it was always a lie of gargantuan proportion.

“No.”

“Guess I’ll just have to keep asking then.”

Kate traced her finger along the envelope’s edge, imagined his had been there, too, and was surprised by how sexy she found the notion.

“What’d you do, send me some 8x10s from the internet of you shirtless?”

“I’d rather you have the real thing. Go ahead and open it.”

It was big and Rick knew that. It was big and bold and presumptuous, but that was what she’d inspired. All he wanted was to find a pathway to time, and a chance to show her how real it could be. How real it already was.

She peeled at the fold’s seal until it gave, pulled out a small stack of papers with a photograph attached to the top by a clip. It was of a dock she didn’t recognize, unoccupied and labeled with a painted number.

“What is this?” she asked with only a cursory glance at the documents.

“Okay, here goes,” he said and pushed out a breath. “All I think about is you, Kate. I know what we said to each other when I left, that we’d wait, that we’d see, but that was all bullshit. What happened between us that weekend was supposed to happen, and you felt it, too, and I know that boat is your sanctuary, I understand that, but this is me asking for a little bit of time to make you see that I can be a safe place for you, too, if you’ll let me.”

She was reading more closely as he spoke and realized what it was he’d done.

“You got me a boat slip in Brooklyn?”

“I didn’t do anything crazy. It’s just a 30-day rental, with an option, and it doesn’t kick in for almost two weeks. I hoped that would be enough time for you to rearrange whatever you had to. I thought I might even fly down and help you make the trip up. We’ve already seen it’s too dangerous for you to be out on the water without me.”

“But you didn’t do anything crazy?” Kate said with a nudge in her voice.

“The only crazy thing I did was to get on that plane home and leave the most amazing--though clumsy--woman in the world behind. You still sound devastated, by the way.”

Her mind was swirling. She had nothing to hide behind, no job she needed, no family, no bond with the island she’d roped her boat to, and he knew all of it. He knew what the only thing standing between them really was.

“Honestly, I kinda wanted you to leave,” she replied in jest. “You were starting to cramp my style.”

“That’s one of my new favorite pastimes, actually. Maybe if I ask real nice, you’ll let me come aboard and cramp it some more, maybe use my cramping prowess to convince you to sail away with me.”

Kate sprang up like a rocket. “Are you…?” She flew to the stairs and up on deck, found Rick standing on the dock below. “You’re here,” she said into the phone absent need of it.

“You noticed.” He stuffed his phone away. “It was kind of a special delivery. I thought I should bring it down here myself, rope an innocent man into my scheme.”

She climbed down to the dock and they came together. “Still couldn’t figure out how to send mail to a boat, huh?”

“With all the thinking about you, I didn’t have time to Google.” Rick reached a hand around behind him, plucked one of his own paperbacks from his back pocket. “As promised, Captain. I even autographed it for you, included a naughty limerick about a gal with a boat.”

Kate swiped it from his hand and then rushed him like a bull, seizing his mouth and nearly toppling them both to the ground. For minutes they danced the dance of reunited lovers, their bodies fixed, unwilling to part without intervention, which came, finally, in the form of a raucous boat motor turned over from somewhere nearby.

“You did miss me,” he said instantly lost in her eyes, and she offered no denial, instead drew her fingers softly down his cheek. “It’s okay to be scared, Kate, but be scared with me, not of me. Let me be the thing you hold on to.”

She smiled a modest smile. “It’s called a life ring,” she teased. “You really need to work on your boating lingo, Popeye. Maybe Bambi can help you with that.”

“Oh, I bet Bambi can help me with a lot of things.”

Kate clutched the fabric of his shirt snug in her fingers. “Hey,” she said, after a pause and markedly thoughtful, “second question?” Rick nodded, immediately recognizing where she’d gone. “Do your mysteries have happy endings?”

He leaned in, touched his lips to hers. “Spoilers aren’t really my style. Hope is, though, and I’ve got an entire shelf of those at home,” he said tapping the book she held. “Come to New York and find out.”

Sidestepping her, he moved for the boat and made his way up on deck, Popeye’s theme song floating through the air on his puckered lips, just as it had that first day, only now with design.

“Christ, we’re going to need so much Dramamine,” Kate mumbled trailing behind.

XX

Love them. Love you.