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Dean stepped to one side and pulled open the door. Her mouth fell open as her gaze landed on Angela standing on the other side of the threshold with a giant suitcase next to her feet.
“Surprise,” the other woman exclaimed as she threw her arms open wide and ran over to her, pulling her into a tight embrace. “Damn, I’ve missed you.”
Tears burned at the corners of Jillian’s eyes as she held Angela in a firm, long hug. “You have no idea,” she agreed in a small voice.
Angela finally released her and stepped to the side, scanning up and down the length of Dean’s body with open appreciation. “You failed to mention your best friend was a mega hottie.”
A white flash of something she couldn’t quite identify shot through her at Angela’s off-handed comment. Something she hadn’t experienced since she was a teen…and she’d been confronted with Dean’s annoyingly large female fan club when she’d joined his parents in picking him up from school once. She grabbed Angela’s hand and tugged her toward the bedroom. “That’s my fiancé to you, you shameless hussy.” Her grin took the bite from the words. “Let’s find you something to wear.”
Jillian led Angela in the direction of the bedroom, but paused for half a second in the doorway before turning to sprint across the floor to launch herself in Dean’s arms, barely giving him a chance to set down the luggage he’d just pulled through the door. “How can you possibly keep being so amazing when I’m being a complete pain in the ass?”
His grip tightened infinitesimally. “You’re half a pain in my ass. Only my brothers have the honor of being complete pains in my ass.”
Dean had always had a thoughtful streak, especially where she was concerned, but his selfless attentiveness lately was more than she’d ever seen from him. He had grown up while she’d been criss-crossing the globe and…
A small corner of her heart ached. He was both the same Dean who was her rock and biggest supporter and a whole new being she had an inexplicable draw to.
It was a pretty damn confusing complication that she really didn’t need. The reincarnation of the teenage crush she thought she’d put to bed long ago was most definitely not what she needed right now.
And it was a thought that played on a loop through her brain the entire night. The mixture of inexplicable feelings and ideas swirling through her mind since their kiss became more muddled and cloudier with each gin and tonic set before her that rapidly found its way to her gut.
The dense fog of alcohol blanketed her as Angela bundled her into a car she didn’t recognize and then led her up the few steps to Dean’s front door. Angela cursed loudly when the knob didn’t turn and then awkwardly knocked while Jillian struggled to keep her balance. She knew she was failing when Angela reached out for the railing, stumbling under Jillian’s weight.
Dean yanked open the door wearing only pajama pants and an obnoxious grin. Obnoxious, adorable, whatever.
She pointed at him and fell against his bare chest. “There’s my sexy fiancé.” She turned back to Angela. “You can go to a hotel for the night…we need some alone time.”
Dean scooped her up and held her close to him. “No, we don’t, you can take the bed and I’ll keep this one in the living room. It’s closer to the bathroom for the inevitable porcelain worship that will be happening.”
Angela patted his bicep as she moved past him. “Good luck, Romeo.”
“Hey, keep your mitts off my…my…” She tilted her head and looked at him. “What are you again?”
He chuckled and gently laid her on the couch. “I’m the guy who is going to be holding your hair back while you empty the contents of your stomach into my toilet.”
Before he could straighten his back, she reached up to grab his face. “You’re the guy who is saving my entire family because my father kept betting it all on lady luck showing up in the next hand.”
Dean sat on the edge of the cushion beside her. “What do you mean?”
The warm fingers of oblivious sleep tugged on her conscious and her lids drooped in response. “That’s why I need this. Need you.” She snuggled deeper into the cushions of the sofa. “My dad gambled away everything, even put the glass castle on the line.” She giggled. “You always came up with the best nicknames.”
A long breath exited Dean’s mouth. “That’s why you need the money. It isn’t for you, it’s to save them.”
She gave a single nod and let her eyes shut. “Yup.”
In the distance she could hear the deep rumbling baritone of his voice, but none of his words made sense as she allowed herself to be drug into the dreamless slumber the excessive amount of alcohol she had consumed offered.
Chapter Sixteen
Dean
Eleven Years Ago
“Yeah, I’ll pick you up at seven tonight.” He paused and turned, biting back a groan when he spied Connor standing in his doorway. “Okay. Sounds good. Okay. Bye.”
He clicked off the phone call and pinned his older brother with an annoyed stare. “Eavesdropping is rude, ya know.”
“Are you and Jillian going on a date?” Connor asked in a sing-songy voice punctuated by kissy faces and smacking sounds.
