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Dean smiled. “She did.”

“I look like him.”

“You do.”

“I hate it.”

“I know,” Dean murmured, turning his head to kiss Sloane’s hand. “It’s strange how a man could have given you so much of your looks and yet is nothing like you.”

“He used to laugh a lot,” Sloane said quietly. “When was the last time you heard me laugh?”

“You laughed at my bedhead this morning,” Dean pointed out.

“You look like a hedgehog when you wake up. I can’t help it.”

“My point,” Dean said, twisting around to kneel beside Sloane and face him, “is that you might look like that man, but you’re a far better man than he ever was. He took off, but you’ve never left your family behind. You never left me behind. Maybe you don’t laugh and play like he did, but you know how to be kind, you care, and you give with all your being. If I have to choose between a man who knows how to laugh easily but will take off whenever the party is over or a man who’s as likely to scowl as he is to growl but will be there by my side throughout everything life throws at us, then I know which I’m picking. Hell, Ididpick him.”

Sloane’s eyes darted over Dean’s face, searching. For what? Dean didn’t know. He hoped he found it, whatever it was. He figured Sloane had, though, when the man reached out, cuppingDean’s face and gently pulling him in for a kiss. Dean smiled against his lips, curling his fingers in his short hair and holding him tight.

“Aww, that’s the cutest damn thing in existence,” came Shawna’s voice in a horrible cooing tone.

“And there goes the moment,” Sloane grumbled.

Dean glanced over, sighing when he spotted not just Shawna but Diana and Ana. All three women were still red-faced from the cold, wearing what Dean noticed were almost identical Christmas sweaters, and all three had the same wide grin.

“I’ll forgive you for the language,” Ana told Shawna. “Only because you’re right, that was cute.”

“I hate all of you,” Sloane grumbled, hunkering down on the couch as though he could somehow hide his bulk.

“You know,” Diana added thoughtfully. “I never thought of you being with a guy.”

“Neither did I,” Sloane said.

“Or me,” Dean threw in.

Sloane shot him a knowing smirk, and Dean shrugged. Oh sure, he hadwantedSloane to be with a man, specifically him. And while he’d wanted it more than he could bear sometimes, he had never allowed himself to believe it was possible. Sometimes, he still found it hard to believe despite the reality of their relationship.

“I just think you’re sweet together,” Diana said.

Sloane huffed. “Thank you for making things awkward again, guys. What do you want?”

It was Dean’s turn to give Sloane a knowing smirk. Sloane chose to ignore him, but Dean knew him just as well as Sloane knew Dean. Huff and puff all he liked, Sloane loved his family, he loved Dean, and he was privately loving that they were so happy for them.

“The girls have done their duty,” Ana told them. “And now you must do yours. Come help me get dinner ready.”

“A slave’s work is never done,” Sloane grunted, pushing himself up.

“Like you’ve been doing any hard work today,” Shawna told him.

“I have, thank you very much,” Sloane informed her.

“Ew,” she muttered, stalking off.

Dean snorted. “I’ll help too.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it, Dean. Sloane can help just fine,” Ana informed him.

Dean shook his head. “I like doing things. If I sit around much longer, I might start climbing walls.”