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“Nice to meet you both. Glad you could all come today.”
James watched his wife disappear into the house. “Sorry about your mother, son. You know what she’s like with Cynthia and her folks.”
“Hopefully, this is the end of it.” Dean felt Mack start to withdraw from him. He turned to look at her and saw that she was holding back tears.
She took a deep breath. “I don’t think I can do this, Dean.” She started to back away slightly.
“Mack, please don’t go. I promise to stay by your side. Ten minutes, then we’ll go the minute you say.” He took hold of her face and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead, before pulling her into his arms for a brief hug.
James realized, upon hearing his son talk to Mack and seeing his show of affection toward her, that she meant a great deal to him. “Mack, please join us. I suspect Anne may already have learned her lesson.”
“Ten minutes.” Mack took hold of Dean’s hand. Lucas slipped his small hand into her other one.
“Dean, your grandparents aren’t here. Some friends of theirs are going on vacation tomorrow so they wanted to have a quiet afternoon with them.”
He looked at Mack.
“Don’t worry, Dean.” She squeezed his hand, hiding her disappointment. “Let’s do this.”
They walked around the side of the house, which was huge. Mack very nearly walked into Dean when he stopped, rather abruptly.
“Dean, what’s wrong?”
Too stunned to answer, he looked at his father. “Dad, we don’t have this much family!”
“I think your mother got carried away.”
“Auntie Mack, I need the potty,” Lucas announced as he tugged on her hand.
“I’ll take you, Lucas. I could do with a bathroom break myself,” Thomas added, taking hold of Lucas’s hand.
“Follow me. I’ll show you where they are,” James said.
Mack watched Thomas and Lucas walk off toward the bathroom and wished she could go with them. With a quick glance over Dean’s shoulder, Mack could see a lot of people, some of whom were watching her and Dean together. She felt so nervous.
“Babe, come here.” Dean pulled her into his arms. “Don’t worry, I’ll look after you.”
She breathed his scent into her lungs and raised her head up to meet his eyes.
He lowered his mouth to kiss her. “Open for me, Mack,” he whispered against her lips.
She did as he asked, then all her worries just fell away. She reached up to take hold of his face and deepened the kiss even more. One of Dean’s hands traveled south and landed on Mack’s bottom, which he squeezed, and then he pulled her even closer to him.
James appeared behind Mack and cleared his throat, which broke them apart, although Dean refused to let go of Mack. “Dad.”
“I think everyone gets the idea about the two of you now! Why don’t you go and introduce Mack?” James smiled and walked off to join the party.
“You okay?” Dean placed a quick kiss on Mack’s nose.
“No, I think you should show me your room.” Mack offered him one hell of a sexy grin.
“Christ, woman. Come on, let’s go and join everyone. I need a drink!”
They both laughed as Dean led Mack down to his ‘family’ and collected two glasses of orange juice on the way.
He introduced her to so many people that she couldn’t remember who was who. Up till now, she hadn’t met any of Dean’s family members, other than his parents. None of his uncles, aunts, or cousins were present. Apparently, they were spread right across the United States and a couple even lived in Canada.
While Dean talked briefly with everyone, Mack kept looking around to try to spot Cynthia. She was really curious as to what she looked like, and wondered why Dean wasn’t interested in the woman.
