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“We were talking about that when you came in, actually,” Sloane said with a frown.

“Ah, my excellent timing as ever.”

Sloane laughed softly, shaking his head. “No, it’s fine. I wasn’t getting anywhere with him on it anyway. He says it’s different because we’re together now, but he can’t explain how.”

“He seems rather well-spoken for someone at a loss for words,” she mused.

Sloane snorted. “That’s just Dean. No one gets to see him when he doesn’t know what to say.”

“Except you.”

“Except me.”

And oh, how the thought warmed him but also made him a little sad. Dean was careful to ensure no one caught him off-guard or vulnerable, a product of his childhood. While Dean had cast away so much of what his parents had taught him, no one could escape their past, their childhood. Dean still tried to present to the world what he thought was proper and strong.

It was Sloane who’d been invited to see the doubt and the vulnerability. Dean’s heart was rife with both, even though it pained him to admit it. Sloane suspected Dean believed it made him weak, but Sloane thought it couldn’t be further from the truth. Dean was among the toughest people he had ever known, stronger even than him. He could walk through fire, sorrow, and despair and still come out the other side. If he needed to break down and feel what he’d endured, then so be it. That wouldneverdetract from the strong man Sloane knew him to be.

“So,” his mother said, bumping him with her hip.

“What?” Sloane asked, realizing he’d been stacking dishes diligently while lost in thought.

She laughed. “How are things? You’ve been with him for six months, and I’ve barely heard anything from you.”

“I mean, we’re here. Shouldn’t that say something?” Sloane asked.

“Not in the slightest. Honestly, if I didn’t know you as I do, I’d suspect you were getting cold feet,” his mother told him slyly.

Sloane scowled at her. “That’s for weddings. And I’m not getting cold feet.”

“Well, you did live a very straight lifestyle before,” she told him casually.

“Before Dean, you mean.”

“You did know him before.”

Sloane took the pot from her hands, rubbing it vigorously with the dishtowel. “I’m not getting cold feet. I’m not worried. I know what I feel.”

“And what is it you feel?” she asked, handing him the next dish far more gently.

From somewhere in the house, he heard a deep bray of laughter. It wasn’t a laugh Sloane got to hear often, much as he would like to. Dean was more prone to chuckles and soft laughter, but when he was well and truly pleased, his laugh would come from deep in his stomach, booming through the room and catching the attention of all within earshot.

The first time he’d ever done it, Sloane had been taken aback. Dean had immediately flushed and covered his mouth as though embarrassed. Sloane still couldn’t remember what he’d said that had brought it about, but he’d quickly told Dean there was no reason to be embarrassed. Even then, he had loved Dean’s laughter, drawn to it without knowing why.

Though looking back, Sloane wondered if some part of him had known. The same part of him that had warmed to Dean almost instantly. The same part that had allowed Dean’s affection and gestures of intimacy in their early friendship without doubting it. Through the eyes of the present, Sloane couldn’t help but wonder if he’d been in denial all along, if only because it didn’t fit what he believed about himself.

And how blind he had been to believe that when Dean had been staring him in the face the whole time. He would never know how he could have missed the flush of warmth that filled him whenever Dean lay his head in Sloane’s lap, or the slight fluttery feeling whenever he made the man smile genuinely. Now, he lived for those moments, devouring them like a starved man unleashed on a buffet of his favorite foods.

“Ah,” his mother said.

Sloane’s head snapped toward her, realizing she had been watching him closely. “What?”

“You love him,” she said, returning to the dishes.

“Of course I love him,” he said gruffly.

“There’s love, and then there’slove. I honestly can’t believe I never saw it before, but maybe you needed to realize it before the rest of us could.”

“Which sounds like a nice way of calling me dense.”