His lips stretched into a lopsided grin. Lifting the sunglasses from his nose and folding them into his hand, his eyes went to the women gathering behind me.
“Ladies,” he said smoothly, giving Jane a little nod in greeting when she pushed to the front of the group and gave him a wave. He raised an eyebrow at the others. “Am I interruptin’ somethin’?”
My mother bristled and stepped forward. “You are not welcome here.”
“That’s debatable,” someone in the back of the group scoffed quietly.
Dean half smiled and slid his hands into his pockets, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly. “If I’m leavin’, Lily’s comin’ with me.”
My stomach fluttered at the subtle demand in his tone. I went to move forward, but Mom grabbed my arm, halting my step as she narrowed her eyes on me.
“Get inside, right now,” she hissed. “Do not embarrass me in front of all these women—”
“Or I could just sit in my car with the engine running,” Dean added, leveling my mother with a gentle warning in his eyes. “Don’t think your neighbors would appreciate that much though.”
The whole interaction was giving me heart palpitations for two reasons. The first was that my mother looked like she was about to strangle Dean, and the second was because Dean looked really good in a backward cap.
My mother’s grip on my arm loosened, giving me enough slack to step out of reach as she glared at Dean. She didn’t say anything though, not even as we left the porch and breezed down the front path to his car. Well, Dean breezed, I was jogging in case she chased after us.
“Thank you,” I said as we arrived at the car.
“Anytime,” he smiled, opening the passenger door for me.
Before I climbed in, he looped a finger through the belt loop on my shorts and gently tugged me closer, bringing his lips to mine.
A pleasantly surprised gasp caught in my throat but I went willingly, heart racing as I slid my hands up the length of his biceps, and then around his shoulders. When he wrapped his arms around my middle, holding me against him, a choir of gasps sounded from the front porch.
I smiled onto his lips. “We should leave before my mother threatens to have you arrested for kidnapping. ”
Dean's chuckle rumbled through my body, sending a tingling along my skin that reached further down. He pulled away and we looked back at the house.
The women were gathered on the porch, with Mom at the front scathing mad. Jane wasn’t amongst them anymore, so I assumed she escaped upstairs until she shoved her way through the group. Mom swiped out to catch her but missed by inches as Jane leaped from the porch and raced toward us. Phone and jacket in hand.
I stepped away from Dean as Jane skidded to a stop in front of us, gasping as she said, “I need a lift to a friend’s place.”
“Whereabouts do they live?” Dean said, cocking his head to one side.
“Four blocks...that way,” Jane panted, gesturing down the street.
“Alright, get in.” He reached into the car and flicked the latch to pop the front seat forward.
“You’re a legend,” Jane sighed, climbing into the back seat.
Once Dean pushed the seat up again and leaned against the open door, waiting for me to climb in next, I stepped forward and rose to my toes to plant a light kiss on his cheek before I ducked into the car.
I didn’t bother looking back to the house as we pulled away from the curb, knowing Mom would still be there watching as we did. There was a part of me that felt bad, but I knew leaving with Dean was the better choice. It was exciting. Exhilarating.
Once we dropped Jane off at her friend’s house, after she informed us she would get a ride back home from Lydia's mom, I noticed a smile playing on Dean’s lips as he changed the gears to drive.
“What?” I couldn’t contain my own smile.
“Wanna come to a basketball game?”
This was the second time Dean had whisked me away from a disagreement with my mother. It was also the second time he had taken me somewhere where the crime rate might’ve been a little questionable.
I walked a little closer to him as we moved down a busy sidewalk in Downtown Brooklyn. While I worked at The Den most nights (which was situated several blocks in the other direction), I rarely ever ventured outside the two square meters of space around the club, so seeing this area of Brooklyn was a little eye-opening. It made me realize how sheltered my life was before him.
He maneuvered the sidewalk better than I did, unbothered when someone bumped into him but pulled me close to avoid the same happening to me.
