She Talks to Angels | {BOOK 2}

85|Domesticity

"Honey, I'm home!"

"Mommy!"

Maddie came running up to me and I scooped her up in my arms as Dean also rounded the corner.

"Hey, darling," I greeted my daughter. "Did you have fun with Aurora?"

"Mm-hm," the toddler nodded her head.

"Hey," Dean said.

"Hey back," I grinned.

He leaned down and I met him halfway for a kiss.

"Eew!" the child in my arms exclaimed loudly.

We broke away from each other, both smiling and laughing a little. 

"That's gross," Maddie declared when we looked to her.

"Oh, really?" I asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"Uh huh."

"So, it's gross when Mommy and Daddy do this?"

Dean and I kissed one more time and Maddie shrieked, trying to escape my arms.

"Where do you think you're going?" Dean asked her when we pulled apart once more.

"Away!"

With a mischievous gleam in his eyes, Dean snatched our daughter out of my arms and ran with her up the stairs.

"Daddy!" the young girl cried out, giggling.

"I'm coming!" I yelled after them, taking off up the stairs as well.

When I got to the landing at the top, there was no sign of girl or father. As quietly as I could, I crept down the hall in the direction of Maddie's room.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are," I called in a sing-song.

I heard a giggle come from the closet followed by a shushing noise. Grinning, I prolonged finding the pair a moment longer.

"Let's see... are you under... here?" I crouched down to check under the bed, predictably finding it empty. "Nooo..."

I stood back up creeping back toward the door.

"I guess they're not in here. I'll just try the next room."

I closed the door so it banged a little more forcefully than was necessary, but stayed in the room. Another giggle came from the closet as I crept quietly toward it. Years of hunting had trained me how to remain deadly silent on my feet.

"Gotcha!" I cried, wrenching open the closet doors to reveal the two hiding inside.

"Mommy!" Maddie whined.

"She found us, princess," Dean laughed.

They came out of their hiding place, all of us still laughing, and the lights suddenly flickered for a moment before stabilizing once more. Dean and my smiles faltered just slightly and we shared a look.

"Hey, Maddie, why don't you come help me with dinner while Daddy takes care of something really fast?"

"Okay."

Maddie once again transferred over to my arms and I carried her downstairs, leaving Dean to double check the salt lines. There hadn't been any cold spots, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Maddie stood on a chair beside the stove, helping me add ingredients to a pot for our meal. I joked and played with her some more while we worked, making sure she didn't pick up on the mood change between me and Dean. He shook his head at me when he came down a few minutes later, and I let out a breath of relief.

We had picked this particular neighborhood and this house thirteen months ago to shelter Maddie from the truth about what Dean and I really were involved in. The last thing we needed was some creature or some hunter to come along and pull us back into that life somehow. We had sworn that off after the incident at Stull Cemetery.

As far as the nearly three-year-old was concerned, her Daddy was nothing more than a mechanic and her Mommy stayed home with her or came and helped at her school sometimes. The monster under her bed or in her closet was nothing more than her imagination and stuff from movies or her fairy tales Dean or I took turns reading her at night. They weren't real. 

Maddie hopped down, helping Dean carry the dishes to the table while I carried over the pot a little while later.

⁘

"So, it was just a faulty bulb, then?"

"Looked that way to me," Dean confirmed.

It was his night to put Maddie to bed, and he'd just come back into our room.

"Dean, what happens if something does find us here? What would we do?"

He sighed, slipping under the covers beside me and pulling me into his chest.

"If something did happen, you would stay here with Maddie and keep her safe while I took care of whatever it was," he supplied. "I know, ideally we wouldn't have to deal with that at all, but let's face it. You can't always outrun the past. It finds a way to catch up to you eventually."

I didn't respond, attempting to focus on the book open in my lap instead. But that quickly became impossible when Dean started sponging kisses up my arm, across my neck and along my jawline.

"De-ean," I whined, trying to shrink away.

He just smirked against my skin, moving with me so we wouldn't break contact.

"Dean, seriously," I tried again.

One of his hands reached to take the book from my grasp, and then he was pulling me onto his lap under the blanket, moving to my mouth while I straddled him. Giving up, I slipped my hands under the hem of his shirt, moving them up his sides. However, before I could completely get the shirt off, I found myself on my back against the pillows, trapped underneath him.

"Have I told you how much I love you?" he asked me huskily.

"Only every day," I smirked.

⁘

The next morning started off just like any other. I made breakfast and got Maddie dressed for school while Dean got ready for work and then father and daughter left while I stayed home. I didn't have any obligations at the school today, so I had some extra time to myself. Deciding to go on a jog, I changed and left the house, the iPod attached to my arm playing music in my ears.

The strange thing was, as I circled back to the house an hour and a half later, I swore I saw a tall man with shaggy brown hair out of the corner of my eye. But when I turned my head to get a better look, there was no one there.