Page 66 of Santa of the Creek

“Good. Just don’t do anything stupid like break up with Echo because you feel guilty about Marty,” JoBeth says.

I don’t look at Dean, but the temptation is huge.

Dean gives a wry smile. “Tried that. He ignored me.”

Daniel flashes me a look bordering on respect, then turns back to his brother. “At least one of you is sensible.”

“I’m taking you home before Danny starts telling you all my secrets,” Dean says to me. “Let’s go.”

“He probably knows more about you than I do,” Daniel says.

I doubt that, but I plan to know everything I can about this man.

Dean herds me toward the exit before I have the chance to say anything.

“Night, Dean. Night, Echo,” Daniel calls after us.

Dean ignores his brother. I wave a good night to them, and we wander off.

Dean lets out a huff when we’re out of earshot. “I’m sorry. Danny can be intense. It’s that helicopter tendency.”

I kiss his cheek. “Don’t worry about it. He cares about you. That’s a good thing.”

He pushes me into the shadow of a large tree.

I raise an eyebrow. “I thought we were going home.”

“We are,” Dean agrees, “but I just want to say thank you.”

“What for?”

“For being you.”

“You’re welcome.”

I kiss him gently, then we walk away from the Bash, holding hands under the night sky.

I’m not settled, far from it. But right now, I just want to be in bed, the two of us together.

Back at home, I make nice with Ariel for leaving her alone so much. Then we get ready for bed. I can’t tell you the relief when Dean settles in my arms in his bed, warm and solid and happy. We’re in T-shirts and sleep shorts, neither of us in the mood to make it about sex. I pull the bed clothes over us so it’s just thetwo of us. Ariel is padding around our feet, but up here, it’s just us.

I hold him close, needing him to feel me, to know I’m here.

“I’m sorry,” Dean says, reading my mood.

I brush my lips over his temple. “Don’t do that to me again.”

“I won’t.”

“Don’t say it if you don’t mean it.”

Dean buries his face in the crook of my neck. “I mean it. I just panicked, you know? Seeing them again for the first time in twenty years.”

I curse myself for not being there with him. We spend so much time together, and the one time he needs me, I’m not there.

“Stop that,” he says, raising his head, obviously reading my expression.

“I should have been there.”