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Dean laughed and held his hands up, palms out to her. “I promise I come in peace.”
She smacked his bicep lightly, well, sort of lightly, and turned to silence the timer signaling the food was done cooking. “You don’t do anything in peace. You have redefined ‘troublemaker’ since childhood and I have pictures as proof.”
A look of mock panic crossed his face. “I thought you got rid of those.”
“Nope.” She popped the end of the word for emphasis. “A girl needs to be prepared.” She gestured to the table already adorned with silverware, napkins, and two glasses of orange juice accompanied by a steaming mug of coffee for Dean and a cup of tea for her. “Sit down, this only has to set for a few minutes, then we can eat. You don’t have to leave until eight, right?”
Dean’s eyes tracked her movements and gave her inexplicable butterflies when she caught him staring at her out of the corner of her vision.It’s simply been too long, she told herself.That’s the only reason I’m acting this way. It’s just Dean, after all.
He took a long draw from the coffee and inhaled deeply when she set the plate in front of him. “So Jillybean, to what do I owe the honor of this delicious meal?”
She shrugged and filled her own dish, taking the seat next to him. She had every intention of playing it off, but the cloud of deceit following her since her return was bothersome enough. “You’ve been amazing. I have asked the world of you and you’ve not only gone along with a ridiculous plan,” she glanced down at her ring and stroked the inside of the band with her thumb, “but you’ve managed to go above and beyond. And meanwhile…I haven’t asked one damn thing about you. How you’ve been, what’s going on at the ranch, and what in the blue hell Mat is doing here.”
She leaned forward and grabbed his forearm. “Please tell me that Mat actually is here and I wasn’t hallucinating that entire thing in some weird hangover-induced stupor.”
“No, he’s real. He moved here permanently almost a year ago.” Dean chuckled and pushed a forkful of the quiche in his mouth. The laughter dissolved into a moan of contentment. “Damn, this is phenomenal.”
Heat worked its way up the column of her neck. “Thanks for the compliment, Sparky, but I still want answers.”
His cell phone called out from the counter behind him and he leaned back in his seat to grab it. With an annoyed groan, he swiped several times across the screen before setting the device down next to him. He shoveled in the rest of his food in record time and stood up. “Shit, I’m running late.”
He disappeared in that moment, and faster than she could blink he reappeared with a towel slung around his waist, his hair damp from a record breaking shower. “Breakfas wath amating,” he garbled out around the foam and toothbrush hanging out of his mouth before vanishing again.
Dean emerged seconds later in a t-shirt and jeans. Disappointment swept over Jillian as he tugged his light jacket on and shoved his feet into a pair of tan boots. He caught her gaze from across the room and she noticed the lines forming around his lips. Even more questions than the unanswered ones that she’d already asked popped up in her mind.
A small smile that didn’t quite reach his dark blue eyes curled his lips. “How about I bring home Chinese and we can binge watch whatever reality show you need to get caught up on? We can talk more then.” His expression moved from thinly veiled concern to goofy in seconds and he threw her a wink before opening the front door. “That’s the kind of thing old married couples do on Friday nights anyway, right?”
Before she could answer, he vanished, softly latching the door closed behind him.
Chapter Ten
Dean
Thirteen Years Ago
“You’re kidding with that shit, right?”
Dean grinned over at Jillian. “Mighty dirty mouth for a proper lady there, Miss Monroe. Must be the influence of a good man.”
She rolled her eyes and splashed him with water as they trod in the pond that was far too small for any meaningful swimming. “First of all, we are fourteen. You can’t call yourself a man at fourteen. Second of all…yes, it is completely all your fault.”
He paddled a few short feet until his toes touched the grainy bottom and he walked the rest of the way to the edge, plopping down on the towel stretched across the rock and baking in the summer sun. “Come on, Jillybean, it’ll be fun. Also, feel free to not mention to my mother all the words I’ve taught you over the years. She still yells at Tanner for swearing and he’s an adult.”
The reflected shine on the water made reading her face impossible. “I don’t know…”
“S’mores.” He pulled out the biggest gun he had, her favorite dessert. The same one she’d never had until the ripe old age of ten when he’d first introduced her to the gooey creation that she immediately fell in love with. “We can roast hot dogs and make s’mores and I can tell you the most gruesome ghost story I can think of before I send you home to your bed in the glass castle.”
Jillian groaned as she followed the same path he’d just taken and stretched out on the blanket beside him. It was weird seeing his best friend change and he wasn’t sure he liked it. The skinny girl who’d made herself right at home in his world seven years ago was looking…different.
Sure all that makeup crap that her mother had caked on her face for certain functions made her look strangely untouchable, but even now when it was just the two of them hanging out by Fredrock and every single one of her freckles stood out, she wasn’t the same.
Her long flame-colored hair glistened in the sun. She was still much shorter than him, but her small body was filling out in ways he couldn’t help but notice. And he couldn’t give her full lips more than a passing glance or thoughts about her would go to places they absolutely did not belong.
Jillian was beautiful.
He cleared his throat and stared off in the opposite direction. No matter what, this was still Jillian. She was his best friend, not a girl he should be looking at that way.
“I’d have to be back by midnight.”
