SO sorry this is late. Again. My baby brother came home for Christmas and so we all have been doing family things. So, as a Christmas/Hanukah present, I am going to upload the next chapter on Saturday! And of course, thank you all for your reviews (G . L . Williams . 97 and Kathy), favs, and follows! Love you guys and Happy Holidays!
Castiel and Hannah continued to stared at each other, neither saying a word. Castiel felt a sudden rush of affection towards her. Her eyes looked even bluer than he remembered them.
"You're looking well." Hannah stepped closer to the table.
"As are you." Castiel replied. She gave him a gentle smile as she sat next to him.
"Hannah, Castiel was just about to tell me about his boyfriend." Bess stretched the word 'boyfriend', making Castiel uncomfortable. Hannah balked and blinked multiple times.
"B…boyfriend? You have a boyfriend?" Castiel slowly nodded. At that point, Dean laughed loudly. It sounded so natural Castiel turned to see him. His head was thrown back at something Garth had apparently said. Castiel felt a small smile come to his lips, happy that Dean seemed to be enjoying himself.
"That's him." Bess whispered. Castiel realized that the three of them had been watching Dean.
"Wow, I…I'm very surprised. I thought…"
"Bess, sweetheart." Becky had come up to the table.
"Hi, Mrs. Novak." Bess stood up and gave her a hug.
"You look amazing. Tomorrow will be beautiful," Becky turned towards Hannah and Castiel. "And just look at you two!" She beamed.
"How are you, Mrs. Novak?" Hannah stood up to give Castiel's mother a hug as well.
"Great, sweetie, just great. Did you meet Castiel's latest flame?" Becky narrowed her eyes in Dean's reaction.
"We haven't met, but he was just about to tell us about him." Hannah glanced over at Castiel. Castiel hurriedly finished his beer.
"I need a refill. Anybody else?" The women didn't respond before Castiel walked away from the table. He heard somebody follow him, but didn't stop until he reached the bar.
"I see your mother hasn't given up on us." Castiel spun around, finding Hannah there.
"I think I could marry somebody else and she would still hold out hope for us." Castiel replied. Hannah gave Castiel a sympathetic smile.
"I'm sorry," Hannah began, but was cut off.
"Cassie!" Gabriel suddenly appeared at his brother's side. "I need you." Gabriel shot a look at Hannah. "You don't mind if I steal him, right? I mean, you stole nearly eight years of his life." Gabriel grabbed a whiskey glass and a beer off the bar, and then began leading Castiel away from the bar.
"What the h*ll was that, Gabriel?" Castiel demanded when they were out of ear shot.
"THAT," Gabriel replied, "was me saving your sorry a$$ from getting sucked back into the Hannah Vortex." Castiel grabbed the whiskey out of Gabriel's hand.
"I have no idea what you mean by that."
"I meeeeeeaN you have a gorgeous pile of man candy running around here and you're hanging out with your ex at the bar. Dude, the Hannah shipped has sailed. Let her go." Castiel downed Gabriel's whiskey.
"Maybe it hasn't though." Castiel practically whispered to himself. Gabriel, however, had heard it and his eyes grew wide.
"No. No no no no no no. We are NOT going down that road."
"There was a ship and now there's a road?" Castiel could feel the whiskey hitting him. He usually only drank beer.
"Castiel," a voice behind them spoke. Castiel rolled his eyes before turning towards his eldest brother.
"Yes, Michael?" Michael narrowed his eyes.
"Are you alright?"
"Just great, I'd be better if I had more whiskey." Castiel pushed past Michael to get back to the bar. He looked around for Hannah, but apparently she had left already. Castiel sighed and put his empty glass on the bar.
"Hey, you okay?" A soft whisper in his ear said. He looked up and saw green eyes filled with concern. Dean was very close. So close that Castiel could smell the beer on his breath.
"Fine. Just…I'm fine." Castiel decided not to burden Dean with all his problems. Dean would be able to leave all these issues at the end of the weekend, thousands of dollars richer for it. Why would he care about Castiel's problems? He had been paid. All he had to do was enjoy himself for a free weekend. He wasn't there to impress anybody. It wasn't his brothers or parents that were telling him that he and his date weren't good enough for the family.
Dean frowned and looked at the bartender.
"Two whiskeys, neat please." The bartender nodded and quickly produced two glasses of the amber liquid. Dean picked them both up and looked at Castiel. "Come on, let's go for a walk."
Castiel hesitated, but decided to follow Dean. Dean led him outside and to his car. Dean leaned against the passenger side door and handed a whiskey to Castiel. He took it, but didn't drink. He looked at Dean curiously. Dean took a sip from his own glass.
"So, do you want to tell me what just happened or do you want to act like nothing did?" Castiel thought for a minute.
"I just…was thrown off by having seen her again." Casteil replied as he leaned against the back door.
"Yeah, you can prepare all you want, but nothing actually matches seeing an ex again." Dean looked down and swirled his glass, as though thinking of a similar situation. "I don't think you ever told me about what happened with the two of you." Dean looked at Castiel through his lashes. Castiel stared for a moment. The look on Dean's face was one that Castiel couldn't quite identify. It was somewhere between interest and slight fear that he'd crossed a line. He looked…beautiful. Castiel shook that thought from his head. It had to be the whiskey. Castiel took a drink before taking a deep breath.
"Hannah and I dated for a long time. Most of high school and all of college. I proposed and she accepted. We were living together and mostly happy. Then we started fighting." Castiel paused, trying to gauge if Dean was listening or even interested.
"About what?" Dean offered softly.
"Oh everything. She would get mad over the food I left in the fridge a day after it expired and that would make me snap at her for not making the bed and then it was suddenly about how I never do things for her. How I didn't help her plan the wedding even though whenever I tried she would either reject my ideas or ignore them entirely. Then she yelled that I didn't even want to get married and slammed the door to our bedroom. Of course, I thought she was being ridiculous. I still wanted to get married, but that night, I was tired of the fighting so I let it go. I figured I would come home from work the next day and we'd apologize, say we were sorry, and move on. I slept on the couch, got up, went to work the next day, came home and she was gone. All of her things too. Found a note that said she couldn't do this anymore. I tried to go to her mom's house and talk to her but…" Castiel felt the tears come to his eyes, not even meaning for them too. It still hurt. After all that he had done to try and make them work, and she was willing to just let go so quickly.
"Hey," Dean put his hand on Castiel's shoulder. Castiel looked at him. "That wasn't your fault." Castiel stared into Dean's eyes. He seemed like he truly cared about Castiel. This wasn't an act. This appeared to be the real thing.
"Thank you," Castiel replied. He had an urge to lean in and kiss those incredibly plush lips. Castiel wasn't sure if he was imagining it, but he could've sworn that he saw Dean's eyes flicker to his lips before Castiel felt his phone vibrate in his pocket.
"Oh, sorry, just a moment." Dean took a step back and cleared his throat.
"Yeah, yeah, take your time, man." Dean downed the rest of his whiskey. "I'll be inside." Dean quickly walked away as Castiel answered his phone.
"Castiel Novak."
"Castiel Novak, this is Charlene Bradbury. I am calling to inquire how your weekend is going." Castiel laughed loudly. He was sure the whiskey was really hitting him.
"Well hi, Charlie."
"Are you going to answer my inquiry?" Charlie didn't drop the professional tone in her voice.
"It's going…" Castiel looked around, making sure there was nobody else around. "He was a bit of an ass on the way up here and to be honest I was debating on calling the whole thing off, but he's really turned around and he's been great with my family."
"Aw, that's great! How's everything else going?"
"Great, actually. And nobody suspects a thing. Except for Michael, but he's also an assbutt, so…" Charlie laughed.
"Oh, Castiel, have you been drinking?"
"No, what makes you think that?"
"You only talk like that when you've been drinking."
"I have no idea what you mean. But he's just so…"
"Castiel!" Somebody called from the barn door.
"Oh, Charlie, I'll call you tomorrow. I have to go."
"Wait! He's so what?!"
"I really have to go, Char. I'll call you tomorrow." Castiel hung up his phone when he saw Garth appear.
"Hey, Dean was wondering where you ran off to and I needed some fresh air." Garth looked around. "What were you doing out here?"
"Oh, a friend from Chicago called me and she just wanted to know how the weekend was going." Castiel wasn't sure why, but he was actually comfortable around Garth, even though they had just met.
"Good, good." Garth took a deep breath and looked at Castiel. "There's another reason I came out here."
"Oh?"
"Yes, Bess wanted me to come ask you if you would want to go out for drinks with her and some of her bridesmaids." Castiel's eyes must've widened, because Garth laughed. "You don't have to if you don't want to, she just wants to know."
"I'll come in and talk to her." Garth simply nodded and turned to leave. Castiel followed, thinking how he was going to tell Bess that he wasn't going to go out. He just wanted to go home and sleep. Things were going well with Dean, but he didn't want to push it too hard and have everything come crumbling down.
As the two of them walked in the barn, Castiel looked around for Dean. Why couldn't he find him? Castiel walked over to Bess, still with Garth.
"Castiel!" Bess stood up and took his hands with both of hers. "We're going to that one place where we went after we all graduated?"
"Cupid's Bow? I don't know…"
"Oh pleeeeeease?! Come on! It's my wedding weekend. It'll be so much fun." Castiel still didn't want to go, but Bess seemed too excited for Castiel to tell her no.
"Okay. Okay, we can go. I just need to grab Dean." Bess clapped her hands excitedly.
"YAY! Okay, go grab him. I think Garth might be taking his guys out, so maybe Dean could go with them! That would be so fun!" Castiel just gave Bess a smile before turning to find Dean again.
"Did you happen to see where Dean went?" Bess looked around and bit her lip, then shook her head. Castiel frowned and then walked away to try and find Dean. Then, he heard him laughing again. He was starting to get used to that sound. Not only used to it, but he was beginning to like it. Castiel turned to see Dean and Gabriel at the bar. Castiel walked over and placed his hand on Dean's shoulder. Dean turned around and smiled.
"Hey, babe." Dean gave Castiel a kiss on the cheek. Castiel smiled back. "Who was on the phone?"
"Charlie." Dean just nodded, and Castiel was thankful that he didn't do anything to blow their cover. Although, that was what Castiel had paid for. Castiel felt like he had to keep reminding himself that this was a business transaction. Maybe he wouldn't be feeling so weird about the situation if he remembered that.
"So, I hear that Bess wants to go out drinking?" Dean smiled and took a sip from his glass.
"She does, and I think that I'm going to go."
"Is that so?" Dean smiled wider. "Because Garth invited me out with him and his friends, but I was wondering if you would want to just go home." Castiel considered telling Bess that he had changed his mind, and that he and Dean were just going to go back to his parents' house and go to bed. However, he did want to make sure that Bess was happy.
"That should be fun. We can see each other at home."
"Okay, you two need to stop." Gabriel took a big drink of his own. "Your eye-fucking needs to stop now. And I swear to God if I hear you two tonight…"
"Shut up," Dean joked. The three of them talked at the bar until there were just a few people left in the barn. Castiel's parents had gone home almost thirty minutes before, when Garth and Bess walked over.
"Everybody ready?" Bess clapped again.
"I'll drive." Dean offered. The group, about three for Bess and three for Garth, walked outside. Once at their cars, Bess and Garth gave each other kisses. Dean put his hands on Castiel's hips and pulled him close to whisper in his ear.
"I'll see you later." He pulled back and gave him a kiss, this time on his lips. Castiel felt like the breath had gotten knocked out of him. His whole head seemed to be swimming with Dean. His lips, his smell, even his hands at his hips. Castiel wanted more, but just as he was about to take it further, Dean pulled away with a smile.
"Alright, you two. Let's get going!" Garth called. Castiel's head was still spinning when Bess grabbed him and pulled him towards her car.
"You two can finish that when you get back to your parents." Castiel slowly nodded.
"I suppose your right."