Page 45 of Santa of the Creek
“I’ve been unofficially barred. By the sheriff.”
I stare at him. Geez, it had to be bad if he’d gotten barred from a dive bar like Gilligan’s. “What the heck did you do?”
“Nothing,” Dean admits. “Except get liquored up like every other guy in there.”
“Then—”
“I’m the mayor’s brother,” he says gently. “They wanted to keep me out of trouble.”
I chew on the inside of my cheek. I love the people in Collier’s Creek, I really do, and I know I’m an outsider, but this small-town mentality could crush a sensitive soul.
He gives me a wry smile. “I can see what you want to say, but it’s okay. I quit drinking which is what they really wanted.”
“Do you like Gilligan’s?”
“I do,” Dean admits. “It’s rough and ready, but no one gives a fuck who you are. I could hook up with a stranger, and no one cared.”
“We’ll go together,” I ignore the hook up part. I make a mental note to talk to the sheriff. No one puts my baby in the corner.
“You take me to Gilligan’s, and I’ll take you for a meal out. There’s a new restaurant in town.”
“The way to my heart is through pizza,” I admit.
He looks surprised. “You want to go to Gustoso?”
It’s an Italian restaurant just off the square, near Logan’s leather workshop. Sometimes when I’m not working, I get takeout from there if I’m too lazy to cook. I’d never been in there though, and the idea appealed to me.
“I’m not a fancy kind of guy. I love pizza and beer and wings. But I don’t want to go to Randy’s,” I add hastily, just in case he thought I wanted a night out where I work.
“No Randy’s. Understood.”
“You don’t mind I don’t want fancy French cuisine?”
“I just told you I like going to the local dive bar,” Dean points out. “I think I can cope with pizza. Besides, Gustoso do a great lasagna.”
“You’re a man after my own heart.” I lean down to kiss him.
We stay just as we are for a while, not even bothering to watch TV, and I’m amazed at how content this feels. I look over at one point, and I swear Dean has fallen asleep, although when I tease him about it later, he tells me I’m lying, and he was wide awake all time. I give him the only response he deserves to that. “Ya-huh.”
December 10th
I huff as I throw my phone onto the kitchen counter. Yet again, Randy wakes me up to ask me to cover someone else’s shift this evening, this time because Shelley’s son is sick. I feel like every night I have free is taken over covering other people. Randy says it’s because I don’t have family, and everyone else has kids or older parents. I never used to mind, because the money was always useful, but now I have my own commitments, and I hate letting my man down at the last moment.
I pick up the phone and sigh as I hit Dean’s number.
“Hi there.” His soft drawl does exciting things to my dick even as annoyed as I am.
“Hey.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” he says.
“It’s not,” I snap.
“Don’t tell me, Randy needs you.”
I let out a long sigh. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” He sounds resigned. I’m surprised he’s not angry. It’s what? The third or fourth time since we met that I’ve had to cancel at short notice. “We can rearrange.”
