"But I come over."
Dean stops a moment to look at the house. "It looks good. Thanks for doing that."
At least he's not mad, but I have a feeling he will be when he sees the inside. It looks so much better but Dean is so weird about letting people in his house that I'm worried he's not going to react well.
"What are we waiting for?" Jake asks as I stand by the door.
"I was waiting for Dean."
He makes it to the front door, stopping next to Jake. "Remember what I told you about the house."
"Yeah, I know. Dad ruined it. Let's just go inside."
I glance at Danny, my stomach a ball of nerves. I hope Dean doesn't freak out.
When I open the door, Jake pushes past me into the house.
"Holy shit," he says, his eyes moving around the room.
"Jake, watch your mouth. We have—" Dean stops, his eyes getting huge. "Holy shit."
"Told you!" Jake says, running to the couch. "Look! A new couch!" He plops down on it. "Dean, it's leather!"
Dean turns to Danny and me. "What's going on here? Who did this?"
"It was Brook's idea," Danny says. "We all pitched in and did it last Sunday. Coach paid for the couch."
"Look, Dean!" Jake yells. "We got a new table too!"
He's so excited. Maybe Dean won't get mad after seeing Jake this happy.
"The table was cheap," Danny says. "Same for the lamps. We all pitched in a few bucks to pay for them."
"Who?" His eyes go between Danny and me. "Who did this?"
"The guys on the team," I say. "I told Danny I couldn't do all this myself so he asked the guys and they all came over on Sunday to fix up the place." I get in front of Dean, looking up at him as he gazes at the room. "I know you don't like people coming here but I couldn't let you come home to that. It was a mess, Dean." I whisper so Jake can't hear. "And the blood. It was everywhere." I glance at Danny, then back at Dean. "Are you mad?"
He doesn't say anything, and the knots in my stomach get tighter.
"Dean, it needed to be done," Danny says. "We couldn't leave it like that."
The room gets quiet. Even Jake isn't making a sound. We're all waiting for Dean's reaction.
"Fuck," he finally says, looking up at the ceiling, then back at the room. His eyes are wet and his lip quivers as he blinks a bunch of times. "I can't believe you guys did this." His voice cracks and his breaths are shaky.
"So you're not mad?" I ask.
"Fuck, no. Are you kidding? All week I've been worried about what I was going to come home to. I didn't know how I was going to clean everything up." He wipes his eyes.
"Made the big guy cry," Danny says, nudging Dean. "That's a first."
"And if you tell anyone I'll kick your ass."
Danny laughs. "Come on. Come check the place out."
We walk with Dean to the kitchen.
Jake comes up behind us and opens the fridge. "Dean, there's food!"
