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“I’m glad you found him.” Dean said, pulling her into a full side hug. “I’m glad things finally fell into place.”
Dean smelled good and his hug was nice. She’d felt weird about touching him while they were fake dating, as if there was too much expectation behind each brush of their bodies. Now she remembered how nice it was to have someone wrap her up and just hold her. It was good to have his arm be a warm and solid weight over her shoulders while they sat in silence.
“I’m glad you’d told me, Maggie. I just wish I’d known all this when you first asked.”
“I know.” Maggie’s voice was a whisper. “It wasn’t fair of me to have expectations you didn’t know about.”
Dean took a deep breath, the movement shifting her body right along with his. She patted his rock hard stomach and looked up into his worried green eyes.
“It would never have worked, Maggie.”
“I know.” Maggie said. “I should have known before, but you were safe, dependable, and your looks don’t hurt.”
Dean didn’t even crack a smile at that. Maggie frowned.
“I’m shocked you don’t know,” Dean said. He was frowning again, staring out into nothing. “I was sure everyone did.”
Maggie’s brain started working double time. Dean had said he wasn’t in a relationship. Had he lied to her? Had she ruined something for him? That was a horrid thought. True, he could have explained everything to his significant other, but who would be okay with that? With their boyfriend pretending to date someone else? Potentially kissing someone else? And to make matters worse, she’d been interested in turning their pretend relationship into a real one.
Audrey must have known. How could she have said nothing about another woman?
“Know what?” Maggie ran a soothing hand down Dean’s forearm. The hair there was soft and downy, a perfect contrast to the coarse feel of Mac’s.
Dean swallowed before turning to her with a soft smile. “I’m gay, Babs,” he said.
“Oh,” she said. “How did I miss that?” Maggie couldn’t remember the last time Dean had had a girlfriend, but she’d thought that was a good sign that he wasn’t a player. He’d lived with Dante for a year, but Maggie had been sure the two were just roommates. Was she really that clueless? Or had her misplaced crush on him changed her perceptions, the way tinted lenses could change the color of the world? Maggie laced her fingers with Dean’s and squeezed them tightly.
“I don’t know.” He said and squeezed back. “I’m not exactly in the closet.”
“Did you have a boyfriend?”
Dean shoved a hand through his hair and laughed, but the sound was low and self-deprecating. “I don’t have a boyfriend. There was someone, but it wasn’t anything official. I don’t date a lot.”
“Why agree to help me?” Maggie asked. Surely his decision to pretend to be in a relationship with her would have caused some confusion with Dean’s someone.
“You’re important to me, Babs.” Dean said, “And to be honest, I wasn’t ready to deal with how serious things were getting with him, so a fake relationship bought me some time. I was helping my best friend’s little sister, so it was heroic. I also thought it might give Mac the kick in the butt he needed to ask you out. Although it took him a lot longer than I anticipated. And Kyle wasn’t worried because you—”
“Don’t have a penis?”
Dean winced. “Something like that.”
"Why didn't Audrey say anything?" Maggie asked. "I could have handled knowing."
Dean sighed. "Audrey is…protective. It's easy to forget, since it happened so long ago, but i had some friends react badly after Audrey accidentally outed me to them. She's a firm believer in letting me share my own story. I'm sorry you got caught in the crosshairs."
“No, I’m sorry,” Maggie said again. “Did I ruin everything for you two?”
Dean shook his head. “Actually, you helped us. I don’t make time for dates, I don’t put thought into romance or love or feelings mostly because I don’t have time, but also because I really wasn’t looking for a relationship. I’m just too busy. But you needed dates. You needed time.” He sighed. “I’m so sorry, Maggie, but every time we had one of our dates, I thought about how nice it would be to share them with Kyle. How right it would be to ride a Ferris wheel together, although I could do without the barfing, and run together in the park, without the spilled coffee, or hike out to the waterfall…”
“Without the Biblical flood?” Maggie offered.
Dean laughed. “I was going to say without the sprained ankle.”
“It was just a twist, thank you. I probably could have walked it off.”
Dean groaned, and Maggie couldn’t stop her laugh.
“That day at the waterfall, before you apparently conned me into carrying you back to base, I was working through some intense feelings. I didn’t see Kyle at all while we were together, but he’d been out with a mutual friend the night before, and it really messed with me. I was jealous, and scared, and you still needed me, so I offered you more time.”
