Page 79 of Dean

“I see you’ve painted the wall,” he says as he sets me on his bed.

I stare up at him. “I was bored and you left for ages. Do you like it?”

Dean glances down at me, and my bottom lip pushes out in a pout. “I do like it.”

“You better say that after you left me all day.”

“I was just at work.”

“After fucking me. You snuck out. And Nick messaged me and you weren’t around to save me from it.”

Dean’s face falls and he scrubs a hand over his mouth. “Fuck.”

“Yes. Fuck.”

I fall back on the mattress, and Dean sighs.

“It’s fine. I don’t need your help with Nick. I’ve been on my own forever. I can deal with this alone.”

“Avery…no. I’m going to string him up,” he murmurs and then glances down at me. “But there’s no point in talking about this now. We’ll talk when you’ve sobered up.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I murmur, but Dean has left, only to return a moment later with some water.

“Come on, drink up,” he says when I glower at it.

“I’d rather have some chips and queso.”

“Water first.”

I give a long and exaggerated sigh, sitting up and sipping at it. A burp leaves me, a short and cute one so it’s forgivable.

“I’ll order some queso and chips and maybe a few tacos.”

“Yes, you should do that because what you did today was something unmentionable, Dean. Unmentionable.”

He blinks a few times and his shoulders fall.

“We will talk about it later.”

I snort and roll my eyes.

“Fine. If you give me some tacos and queso, maybe I’ll forgive you.”

Dean’s lips quirk and he pulls his phone out. “I’ll order it now.”

My eyelids are heavy but I force them open. “Dean.”

He looks up from his phone. “Yeah?”

“Did you sneak away because of me? I just need to know.”

“I—yes. I needed to process things. I should have called, but…I needed to think.”

My chest clenches. “Okay. Makes sense.”

“It’s not bad though. I have a lot of thoughts, Avery. And none of them include leaving you again.”

A happy sigh leaves my lungs and I meet his stare.

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