“To everyone but you.” My tone turns bitter and Dean’s hand squeezes my hip, telling me to quiet down. He knows better. That move never worked on me.
“What can I say? It’s my charm I guess.” He holds his hands out to his side like ‘check me out.’
“I think it’s your dick.”
“Chels,” Dean says my name with warning and I have to say I like the way he’s trying to keep me in check.
“Listen to your boyfriend,” Beckett says with a chuckle.
“Are you suggesting your dick isn’t impressive enough for her to go easy on you?”
“And that’s our cue.” Dean’s hand slides across my lower back, capturing my hand, ready to pull me away. “We’re going to take a breather.”
Dean ignores my uncle Jim who tries to say hello to us on the way through the room and pushes open the back door into the alley.
I struggle to free my hand from his grip, but he doesn’t let it go until he cages me in with his body against the wall.
“I like your thinking.” My hand slides down the front of his shirt bumping along his abs until my finger slides under the waist of his slacks.
He takes his hand and stops me, spurring my gaze to shift to his.
“You’re cockblocking yourself?”
“What’s with you?” he asks, his eyes appearing darker than normal.
“Beckett and I have a mutual dislike of one another.”
He doesn’t say a word, just stands there brooding and silent. His hand eventually leaves mine and he places it back on the brick that’s currently scratching my back.
“Talk to me,” he says, all serious.
“How about I taste you?” I fiddle with his belt and again his hand clasps down on mine.
“Chelsea?” There’s that warning tone again.
“Dean,” I return the same one. “Since when do you not want to fuck me?” My hand wiggles out of his grip and I dip under his arm.
“What’s up with this whole night? You not telling your family I was coming? Not going up to Sky? Being a bitch to Beckett? I know you well enough to know you’re not dealing with something and that’s why you’re acting like this.”
I pace up and down the filthy alley that reeks of old spaghetti and spoiled veal.
“Skylar can do whatever the fuck she wants. She wants to be a brat, fine. I don’t care.”
He leans his shoulder against the brick, his arms crossed and lets out a long sigh.
Yeah, we both know I’m talking bullshit.
“This isn’t about Sky.”
I stop pacing, meeting his gaze. “It will never be like it is for them.” I choke back tears.
“Like what?” His arms drop, and he pushes off the wall.
“Beckett and Sky, everyone is so happy for them. No animosity, no anger. They just accepted him into the family.”
A tight smile forms on his lips and he slowly walks toward me.
“So maybe it does bother you more than you think that your parents don’t accept me?”
I shrug.
“It’s okay, you can tell me I’m right later.”
I huff out a small laugh. He reaches up and cups my cheek. “Baby, one day they will. What we have is complicated and none of them understands. All they see is some has-been baseball player who lost his shit in a bottle of Jack. A guy who left his new bride alone and abandoned. But that Dean is gone and maybe they haven’t realized it yet, but you have. For me, that’s all that matters. But if those people in there matter this much to you, then I’ll make damn sure they know what we already do, that you’re number one in my life.”
I shake my head. “You shouldn’t have to do that. It should be enough that I know, and I tell them so.”
His large palms slide down my bare arms, taking each hand in his. “Your family is important to you. I’ve always known that.”
I step into his strong arms and he holds me tight to his body.
“But the bitchy girl who’s throwing a tantrum because she didn’t get what she wants has got to go.”
I jab him in the stomach, but he never moves an inch.
“You love my bitchy side.”
He chuckles into the night air. “I love every side. But I think everyone in there would prefer to see a different side of you.”
“How fitting I find you both in the alley?”
Dean steps us to the side so we can see who it is, but I’d know that voice anywhere and I prepare myself for round two.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“Thank goodness you have clothes on this time.” Skylar’s arms are crossed, her eyes throwing daggers at me.
I slide out of Dean’s embrace, stepping in front of him as though I’m protecting him.
“Let’s remember one thing before we get this started, I never gave you shit about Beckett. If anything, I pushed you toward another man, so he’d realize he loved you.”
“Okay girls.”
“Stay out of this, Dean,” we both say in unison.
Dean steps out from behind me. “Fine. Go at each other’s throats.”
Skylar and I are practically like sisters. We grew up together, playing tag around holiday dinner tables, secretly telling one another our crushes. Jeez, with the same last name, people thought we were a set of adopted twins all through school. This isn’t the first time we’ve thrown it down, and I know it won’t be the last.
“I’ll be inside.” Dean opens the door, passing Skylar with a shake of his head.
“Were you never going to tell me?” Skylar asks, her gaze narrowed on me.
Anyone passing by would probably think we’re minutes away from pulling each other’s hair out. That’s not us though, we punch and kick. We just haven’t done it since we were sixteen.
“Obviously from your reaction tonight, I chose correctly. I don’t need your doubts.”
Her exaggerated huff echoes in the dark. “You’re the one who calls him your biggest mistake.”
“Maybe I was wrong.” I shrug.
Her shoulders lose the fight and sag.
“Maybe he’s changed. People can change,” I say.
Her hands leave her hips. “I never said they couldn’t, but Chels—”
I raise my hand in the air. The dim yellow light above the door our only way of seeing one another.
“I don’t want your negativity. I love him, okay? I know very well I’m lighting the match on the explosive and my entire life could blow up. But maybe it won’t. I don’t need you and my mother and Zoe and anyone else who wants to weigh in telling me he’s no good.”
She steps closer and there’s a glimmer of a smile on her lips. “You’re so intense right now.”
“I was there for you.”
“I know,” she says softly.
“I never told you how horrible of a guy Beckett was even when he was being the biggest douchebag.”
She stops in front of me, her smile on full display now. A glimmer of hope sparks inside me.
“I don’t need another mother, Sky. You’re supposed to be on my side.”
Her hands touch my shoulders. “Okay.”