Page 19 of Savior
My parents are supposed to be here soon, sometime around eleven a.m. I’ve been up since seven, cleaning, baking, changing my clothing several times. I woke up nauseous with anxiety, feeling like I could throw up for the first two hours I’ve been awake.
What the hell is wrong with me? Dean is right, what we went through… I’m entitled to take whatever time I need to heal and prepare myself for this reunion with my family. It should have been on my terms. I agree with him. In theory, certainly. Though, I still feel a little guilty even thinking this way. They are my family, after all… And everyone makes mistakes.
Perhaps, after everything that happened, after everything that was splashed across the news for weeks on end… Maybe they see Jack now, for what he truly was all along. A monster.
“Doll, the house looks great. Relax.” Dean says, walking in the front door.
“Boots!” I immediately point at him, halting him in his tracks before he can take another step onto the clean floors. He raises his hands in surrender, wearing a slight smirk as he obliges my adamant request. “Where were you? I didn’t even know you left the house.” I really must have buried my head in housework.
“Unlocking the farmstand for Jessica and Veronica, so they can clean the place up before the season starts. It’s been locked down since… you know.” Since we found out Jack got out and was stalking us. Dean ended the season early last year, worried the girls wouldn’t be safe. “Anyway, I set them up to make a few bucks today for a couple hours of work.”
Now in his socks, Dean walks into the kitchen, scooping Nico up into his arms. He leans against the kitchen counter, watching me Swiffer the hardwood floors for the third time this morning.
“My father is allergic to cats.” I suddenly remember. “We’re going to have to put Nico in a room and close the door.”
Dean arches a brow at me, gently scratching underneath Nico’s chin. “This is Nico’s house, too.” He grumbles, sticking up for our cat.
Dean and Nico have become close friends since we moved in with him. Though it makes me happy the two of them have taken a genuine liking to each other, it’s just something else I expect my parents to take issue with. They’ve never been pet people. Neither was Jack. One of the first things I did when I left three years ago, after securing a place of my own, was adopt a little companion. A black kitten with striking green eyes.
I peel off the last pad on the Swiffer and open the cabinet below the sink, tossing it into the trash bin hidden inside. “I know you hate my father, Dean, but please just work with me on this. I don’t want to have to lock Nico up, either.” I sigh, walking past him to put the Swiffer back in the laundry room. “It will just be easier this way.”
“I don’t hate your father.” He insists. “I don’t particularly like him much.” he shrugs, “But I can guarantee you, your father likes me a hell of a lot less.”
“That isn’t true… he just doesn’t know you.” Reaching up to take Nico from him, I cuddle my cheek against his soft, black fur as he purrs. “The Twisted Throttle just… isn’t their scene. I was nervous in your bar the first few weeks I worked for you, too.”
“You didn’t look at me like I was trash.”
“Because you aren’t.”
“Daddy thinks so.”
“And you think he’s a snob. You’re both even with your preconceived notions of one another. I’m honestly surprised you even care what he thinks of you. That’s so unlike you.”
His expression tenses slightly. “I don’t. I care what you think of me.”
“I love you, Dean. You know that.”
He nods. “But this is your family… And you took my ring off your finger last night... You didn’t want them to know that you’re marrying me.”
The slight pain in his voice pulls a penitent sigh from me. I turn to walk Nico towards the room where I keep all of my ‘witchy things’, as Dean calls them. Placing Nico in one of his favorite napping spots, on the day bed by the window, I pet him and apologize, before closing the door. Dean is standing with his arms folded, watching me intently as he so often does.
“I just didn’t want to get into anything with them at the bar. That’s the only reason, Dean.” I try to reassure him, holding my left hand out so he can see his ring on my finger. “Look. It’s not coming off today.”
He grabs my hand possessively, lifting it to place a kiss upon the ring and my finger. “It’s not coming off, ever.”
I promise him it won’t, and it seems to settle him a bit. “It wouldn’t change anything between us if my family actually did hate you, Dean… But please, mind that motor mouth of yours while they’re here.”
That salacious grin creeps across his handsome face again as he reminds me, “You didn’t mind it last night on the couch.” He playfully bites my finger, before I slip my hand from his grasp. No. I didn’t.
“I have to change.” I say, shaking my head at him. “They’ll be here soon.”
“Again? You look great, Vanna. What’s wrong with what you have on right now?”
I’m wearing a pair of dark blue jeans and a simple blouse. “I feel like this is too… plain Jane… It doesn’t look like I made an effort.”
“An effort?” his brows raise before they furrow once more, and he gestures with his arm to the open space of our home. “An effort… Vanna, you’ve been up hours cooking enough to feed an army, or at least Viking! And cleaning an already clean house… How much more fucking effort do these people require?”
These people… “Dean, please…” I groan.
