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his feet.
    Well, that might be a regular occurrence too.
    I held out my hand gingerly, feeling strange that Jed, not to mention Mary and Chase, were witnessing this little encounter.
    “Lauren Lindsay,” I said. “But you already knew that.”
    He flashed another million dollar grin and I felt my traitorous stomach drop.
    “Lauren Annabelle Lindsay,” he said. “Can’t forget that little detail.”
    I didn’t have anything to say to that. No one had called me that since my Dad. He had always loved the name Annabelle, and even had to convince my Mom to name me that, or so the story went.
    “Dean!” I heard a little voice and the girl with a puff of blond hair appeared from beside me and clung to his knee. As my gaze followed her, I realized he was wearing the most perfectly tailored jeans I had ever seen.
    “Emma girl!” he said with a smile as he swung her up in to his arms. She nuzzled into his neck and peeked out from behind her hair to look at me. The way she was so comfortable with him gave me the impression he was around this family a lot.
    “Dean, who is your girlfriend?” she asked him quietly, looking up at him with wide eyes.
    I swallowed and froze. Medusa could have turned me to stone on the spot and it would have been fine.
    “That’s my friend Lauren,” he said, tapping her on the nose. “You’ll like her.”
    He winked at me. Winked.
    Seriously, where was Medusa when I needed her? I just wanted to sink into the sofa until I woke up from this mortifying nightmare.
    “Okay,” Emma said, putting her thumb into her mouth.
    “Alright, little one,” Jed said abruptly. “Time for bed.” He took Emma from Dean’s arms despite her protests.
    “I’ll be back again soon, Emma girl,” he told her. “I have to check on you and Lauren, right?”
    Emma nodded sleepily.
    “I’ll take Chase too,” Mary said as she reached for Chase’s hand.
    Traitor.
    I couldn’t be left alone with Dean. Clearly, he wasn’t having any trouble with his wits, but mine were on vacation due to the fact that I had recently inherited children and was so stressed out about it that I quite literally hit the floor.
    Jed gave Dean a look before he turned and walked up the stairway. At least I wasn’t the only one who sensed Dean was more in his element than I was.
    As soon as they were out of sight, Dean sighed and turned to face me.
    “You took it pretty hard just now,” he leaned down and put a hand out to touch my forehead where a small bump had formed. “I’m sorry to say it won’t feel great in the morning.”
    I was unable to form words, which seemed to give him some sort of satisfaction, because he smiled the same sideways grin that might just cause me to see stars again in the near future.
    “Here,” he said, holding out his hand. “I’ll help you to the guest room, it’s probably more comfortable in there.”
    Woah. That escalated quickly.
    “Um,” I shook my head. “No, that won’t be necessary.” I disentangled myself from the blanket that they had given me, which was the same one Emma had been using earlier.
    “Well,” he said, scooping me up before I could protest, “I just don’t want you swooning again.”
    My jaw dropped. Swooning? He thought that’s what happened?
    “Excuse me?” I scoffed.
    “I just mean—”
    “Oh my god,” came a voice from upstairs. “Can you just stop hitting on people for like five seconds?”
    I looked up to see two girls staring down at us. As I turned, my head bumped Dean’s chin, and I remembered that I was still caged awkwardly in his arms. As much as I hated to admit it, I didn’t actually want him to put me down right away.
    “Jenny,” he said flatly.
    I shivered when I felt the rumble in his chest as he spoke.
    She walked down the stairs, and the other girl slowly followed. As they got closer, I could see that the second girl was blonde, and her eyes were red from crying. However, she couldn’t seem to tear them away from Dean.
    I can’t say