Page 68 of Running Scared
“Laure—” He wasn’t sure what he wanted to say, but he felt like if Sal’s pain had been recognized, hers mustsurelybe spoken.
“The planning’s the best part,” she said, her voice not breaking at all.“Although watching the plans come true can be pretty awesome.”She bent and kissed his cheek again, offered Mr.Bumble another whisker rub, and flitted away, and he slid down his stack of pillows and slept some more.
TRUE TOLaure’s promise, he was awakened by Bailey’s quiet entrance.Shivering, Bailey grabbed a clean T-shirt from the battered dresser that had once been Sal’s, and a clean pair of sleep shorts from the pile on top of the boys’ desk that each one of the boys had carved their initials on as they’d used it.
Seeing him there, amid his family’s history, felt so right that Dean wondered why Bailey Dodge hadn’t been in his life this entire time.
“You awake?”Bailey asked softly.
“Yeah,” Dean said.
“Want to strip to your skivvies and we can cuddle?”
“Sure, but you need to pet your cat.He’s been a neglected love sponge all day.”
Bailey chuckled and slid into bed, pulling the covers to his shoulder in deference to the breeze now blowing in from Dean’s window.Every night in the summer, if it got cool enough, somebody went around the house and opened the windows and turned on the fans before turning off the air conditioner.
Dean loved that feeling of breezes coming from other places, having seen other things, brushing up against his skin.He stood and stripped to his boxers before climbing back into bed and lying to face Bailey, Mr.Bumble between them.
“How’s your head?”Bailey asked softly.
“Much better than this afternoon,” Dean told him truthfully.“I think it was sleeping in my parents’ home.Was everybody okay with me doing that?”
“Oh yeah,” Bailey said, and then told him that Birdie had done the same thing.“By the way, did you know our fathers have completely refurbished the mother-in-law cottage?”He gave a partial shrug.“I think my dad is pretty close to negotiating rent on the place so he can move in.It’ll take a trip to Manor with a stop in Fort Stockton for our stuff….”He grew sober.
“And then you both relocate your lives here, for me,” Dean said, acknowledging what a giant thing this was.
“For me,” Bailey said firmly.“I’ve been farther from my dad than I like for too long.This is good for both of us.But that’s not the main reason.I know we’ve said this a couple of times, but it bears repeating.I love you, Stanford Dean Royal.We probably could have continued on like we were doing for a year before either one of us said it.But getting thrown out of an airplane and chartering a plane to the desert to bail you out didn’t make me love youmore,if that’s what you’re worried about.It showed me how much I loved youalready.”
Dean felt the words wash over him and knew that after a couple of repeats, they’d be a solid part of his soul, his identity, grounding him in himself as a man who was loved by Bailey Dodge.
He couldn’t wait—but he had a question first.
“You never—nobodyever—explained how you all found us?You had to have been in the air before the plane went down or Marcus….”He didn’t want to say it, but it was true.Marcus wouldn’t have made it another eight hours, particularly not after sunrise when the plane would have become a convection oven.
“Oh.”Bailey glanced away.“Uhm, your brother Reg.Uhm.How much schooling has he had in computers?”
“Junior college,” Dean said.“He’s got an IT degree, and he does a lot of work from home.It gets him his own apartment, but it’s not… you know.Great.”
“Mm….”And before Dean could ask what that had to do with anything, he added, “I… you know, you should maybe take a gander at the computer setup in your parents’ den.I don’t think a lot of it is legal.”
Dean’s eyes shot open, and he was fully awake and a little alarmed.“Like, legalhow?”
“He… he has trackers on the entire family.Did you know that?Like, you and Marcus too.I think I saw Rory and Anthony in there.So when I told him I was worried….”Even under the covers, Dean could see Bailey’s gesture of rubbing his stomach, and part of him warmed, because he’d seen that gesture before, but most of him was listening.
“He tracked my phone?”Dean’s voice cracked.“Bailey, he’s not supposed to be able to do that!”
“I know!”Bailey hissed, shaking his head.“I mean, it’s a good thing you’re moving back here, because I think this family really needs you.”
“Oh.”It wasn’t a word so much as a sound, but Dean suddenly felt it, the tender place in his heart where his family lived.He needed them—but he’d always resented that until now.Until his conversation with Laure, with Bailey, about how much they needed him.Bailey too.Bailey had lost a lover once.Dean had almost made him lose another.Dean’s family had saved them both, and it was Dean’s job to return the favor.
It was the only job he’d ever wanted.The reason he and Val had fought so fiercely.Because Dean had always thought he’dknownwhat his family needed.
But now hefeltwhat they needed, much like Val and Laure had, and that was ever so much more important.
His heart rushed in his ears as his life seemed to come together in one moment, in one place, with this one man.
He needed Bailey closer, and while his head was still sore, and he was now keenly aware of his limits, he also knew about his needs.Human contact.Family.
