CHAPTER15
NORA
Dean was gone when I woke up the next morning. My body felt deliciously used and sore in the best of ways. I smiled as flashes of the last twenty-four hours played through my mind—first with the shower and ending with last night when he woke me up as he was sliding into me.
He couldn’t get enough, and honestly, neither could I. I wanted him just as badly. This craving for him wasn’t going away anytime soon, hopefully not ever. When he was gone, I wore his shirts to feel closer to him, but that would not be enough anymore.
I stretched and let out a sigh of pleasure, feeling the burn of muscles I hadn’t used in a while. Dean wanted to get married before he left, and I couldn’t wait to be his wife. I glanced at the alarm clock and saw it was already after eight. If we were getting married today, there was a lot of things we needed to do.
It wasn’t until after I showered and dressed that I went downstairs. Nobody was home, and I thought that was pretty weird. I grabbed my phone out of my purse that I had left downstairs on the table by the front door.
Dean: Morning, Beautiful. I didn’t want to wake you, so I’m not sure when you’ll see this text or if I will be back before you see it, but I grabbed a ring from your jewelry box and Drew and I are headed up to Savannah so I can get you a ring.
Dean: He’s okay with it. He just wants us to put a sock on the staircase next time, so he knows not to go upstairs.
I smiled and blushed, but I was glad Drew was coming around so easily. I knew he would. I figured Mom would too, but Dean was worried about his dad, which was making me worry about him too. Would he accept our love for each other? I know for me and Dean, this had been brewing for years, but to everyone else, this was overnight.
Dean: I love you, and I’ll see you soon.
The smile on my face was wide and the lightness in my heart left me feeling like I was floating on cloud nine.
“Hey honey, what has you smiling so big?” I looked up to see my mom standing in the doorway to the living room.
“Mom,” I almost shouted, then changed my tone. “I thought you would have been gone to work this morning, already.”
“I went in for a couple hours early this morning to speak with my teacher’s assistant. She’s going to handle the classes today and tomorrow. I thought I should take some time since your brother is home for only a little while.”
“Stepbrother,” I corrected. “Is Dad calling out of work too?”
“Not completely, I don’t think. I think he’s going to work the mornings and take the afternoons off. He went in to try and rearrange his schedule. We really didn’t plan on Dean coming home.”
I forced a smile. “No. None of us did.”
Mom came over and hugged me. “So, what had you smiling, because you went from giddy happy to looking like you were smelling a rotten egg pretty fast?”
FUCK.
“Can you give me a few minutes, and then we need to have a talk.”
She pulled back from the embrace, the seriousness of the moment not being lost on her. “Is something wrong?”
“No, but I need a few minutes before we talk. Please, Mom. It’s important.”
“Okay. I’ll go pour us some sweet tea. We can sit in the kitchen and have our talk.”
“Sounds good. Thank you.”
She nodded and walked back toward the kitchen. I went back upstairs to my room and called Dean.
“Morning, Beautiful.”
“Morning. Hey, so we have a problem, and I’m about to at least solve half of it.”
“What’s going on?” The lightness of his greeting was gone, and he was already switching over to fix it mode.
“I was reading your texts and Mom caught me smiling like a giddy woman in love. She knows something is up and wants me to tell her. Plus, she’s off the next two days, and Dad is at work now clearing his schedule up so he can have the afternoons off.”
Dean sighed. “I was going to talk to you today about telling them tonight. It may just happen sooner if Dad is home this afternoon.”
