[Castle] Ch: 75 [The Next Step] (Patreon)

[One Week Later] [Night After Duty] [Travis' Apartment]

After dinner, Travis leaned back against the headboard with his laptop resting on his legs. He’d been scrolling through real estate listings for almost forty minutes, clicking on anything that caught his eye, only to close the tab a second later.

Money wasn’t the issue anymore. The auction was set for next week, and Castle’s broker had assured him that plenty of collectors were gunning for those two rare bottles. Even after fees, taxes, and all the usual red tape, Travis was going to walk away with enough cash to buy a nice house outright and still leave a massive cushion in his savings.

The real headache was finding the right fit.

This apartment had been great when he was single. It was even fine when Kate moved in, though her clothes, case files, and uncanny ability to fill every empty cabinet had definitely taken over the space.

Not that he minded. He loved waking up next to her. He loved seeing her coffee mug in the sink and her jacket hanging by the door. It just felt good to come home and know she belonged there with him.

But now Lanie was in the picture, too.

Surprisingly, things were actually working out between the three of them. Sure, there were awkward moments. They’d had plenty of long talks about boundaries, schedules, jealousy, and the fact that none of them really knew what they were doing. But no one had run for the hills. If anything, it had only brought them closer.

Travis swiped to the next listing, took one look at the tiny kitchen, and sighed, closing the tab.

"No way in hell," Travis muttered, immediately closing the page.

The hair dryer in the bathroom finally clicked off. A minute later, the door swung open, and Kate strolled in, a white terrycloth robe belted loosely at her waist, her hair hanging around her shoulders.

Travis looked up from the screen and smiled. Kate climbed onto the bed, immediately invading his personal space, and planted a soft, lingering kiss on his lips. He looked into her eyes for a moment before kissing her back. After a couple of kissed, they pulled back.

"Hey," she murmured, settling against his chest.

"Hey yourself."

She rested her head against him, her eyes drifting to the glowing screen. She raised an eyebrow. "House hunting?"

"Yeah. Just browsing."

Kate shifted to get a better look. "Really?"

"Things are going great with Lanie, and honestly? She’s going to want to move in eventually," Travis said, clicking back to his search results. "This place is already bursting at the seams with just the two of us. Add a third adult, and we'd be drawing boundary lines with duct tape by Friday."

Kate chuckled. "She did complain last night that she had to keep her makeup bag on the toilet tank."

"Exactly. I have exactly one closet left, and I know you’re planning a hostile takeover before Thanksgiving."

"Oh, please," Kate scoffed, sounding thoroughly offended. "I only took half your space."

"Half?"

"Okay, maybe sixty percent."

"Babe, you own three-quarters of it."

"That's because your wardrobe is entirely devoid of imagination and takes up zero room."

Travis laughed, kissing her temple. "Anyway, upgrading makes sense. The auction money will more than cover it, and the rest goes straight into savings."

Kate shook her head, a smirk playing on her lips. "I still can't believe you found a literal goldmine of vintage booze under a bar."

"I like to call it superior real estate instincts."

"Right. Most people find asbestos or mold. You find scotch worth more than a yacht." Kate reached over and hijacked the trackpad. "Show me what you've got."

They skipped past a few absurdly massive mansions... Kate firmly vetoed a seven-bedroom estate, joking that she wasn't running a boarding school before Travis pulled up a modern penthouse.

"What about this one?" he asked, enlarging the photo.

Kate immediately pulled the laptop closer. 

She clicked through the gallery. Open-concept living space, a massive kitchen island, floor-to-ceiling windows.

"Four bedrooms," Kate noted.

"Master, guest, an office, and a flex room," Travis suggested.

She paused on a photo of a massive bonus room. "You could turn this into a gym. We can spar and have naked fun whenever we want after light training sessions."

"I love you," Travis said, kissing her cheek.

"By the way, good luck explaining your superpower to Lanie." She clicked to the master suite. It was big. One could fit two king-sized beds in it and still have plenty of room to pace.

Kate went quiet, staring at the screen.

"What are you thinking?" Travis asked.

Kate shot him a sideways glance. "I'm thinking you could comfortably fit four or five people in a bed that size."

His eyebrows rose. "That was exactly where my mind went."

"Of course it was."

"I was thinking romantically."

Kate smiled. "Sure you were."

Travis leaned closer and kissed her neck. "I can have multiple motivations."

She rolled her eyes with a smile and kept clicking until she hit the master closet. It was practically its own zip code.

Travis sighed. "And there it is."

"What?"

"That gleam in your eye. You look like a shark that just spotted a wounded seal."

Kate pointed at the screen. "Look at the square footage in there! It has an island, Travis. A closet island."

"It might just barely hold all your boots."

She nudged him hard in the ribs. "Shut up."

She pulled up the floor plan, and the banter faded as they actually studied it. The layout was perfect-enough communal space to hang out, but enough separate wings that no one would feel suffocated.

Kate rested her chin on his shoulder. "Do you really think Lanie’s ready for this?"

"Not tomorrow," Travis admitted. "I don't want to spook her. She's just now getting comfortable with us. But if we're doing this long-term, I want the space waiting for her when she is ready."

Kate went quiet for a beat. "You've really thought this through."

"I don't want her feeling like a guest in our relationship, Kate. She needs to know this is an equal partnership."

Kate's expression softened into something incredibly fond. "That's exactly what she was worried about."

Travis raised an eyebrow. "She told you that?"

A sly smile touched Kate's lips. "Girl talk. Confidential."

"And here comes the downside of dating two women who scheme behind my back."

"You signed up for this," she whispered, leaning in to kiss him properly. It was slow, deep, and grounded.

When she pulled back, she kept her forehead against his. "I love the penthouse."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. The kitchen is great, the layout is smart, and that closet is big."

"Want me to set up a tour for tomorrow after shift?"

"Sure." Her fingers traced aimlessly over the edge of the laptop. "You know, this is kind of terrifying."

"The current housing market?"

"No." She let out a breathy laugh. "How easy this is. A couple of years ago, my entire life was homicides, my mom's case, and walls so high nobody could climb them. Now... I'm lying in bed, picking out a luxury penthouse because we need room for our girlfriend."

Travis laced his fingers through hers. "Good terrifying, or bad terrifying?"

Kate met his eyes, her gaze steady and warm. "The best kind."

They spent another twenty minutes debating the floor plan. They argued over whether Travis was allowed to display his weird book collection in the main living room. Kate said absolutely not, and whether Lanie would demand exclusive rights to the soaking tub... undoubtedly yes.

Finally, Kate flashed a wicked smile, slammed the laptop shut, and tossed it onto the nightstand.

"You know Lanie is going to have intense opinions about the tile choices, right?" she said, straddling his hips.

"Three of us can go together, and we'll see," Travis said, his hands naturally finding her waist. "But hey, I wasn't done looking at the specs."

Kate opened her robe, threw it down on the floor. She then leaned down, her voice dropping to a husky whisper. "Trust me. You're done."