Cain sat back in his seat, and Damon could feel the weight of his stare, even as he negotiated the last few turns before Eli’s house. “Yeah,” Cain breathed at length, and the words were like a vow. “Yeah, okay.”
Damon glanced at him as they pulled through the closely-packed trees into Eli’s front yard. He slid the car into Park, then reached over and cupped the back of Cain’s neck. “Okay,” he repeated.
The dogs’ barking cut off anything else they might have said, and a second later, Eli was greeting them, shotgun cradled in his arms.
“You finished your business already?” he demanded, when Damon eased himself from the driver’s seat. Cain, hurried around the car and wrapped a bracing arm around Damon’s waist before Eli could offer assistance, and despite everything that had happened that day, Damon had to bite back a smile at the way Cain claimed him.
He wrapped his own arm around Cain’s shoulders, claiming him right back.
“Not finished,” Damon said, looking down at Cain. “But we’ve got a good start.” He glanced up at Eli. “Everything quiet here?”
“Yep. Quiet as it can be when there’s a little brown-eyed chatterbox around, anyway,” he said, rolling his eyes, but Damon could tell he wasn’t really annoyed at all. “Any reason it shouldn’t be?”
“Maybe,” Cain said, taking another worried glance around the yard, but then he exhaled and pulled Damon more tightly against him. “Or maybe not.”
Damon rubbed a soothing hand over Cain’s arm. The initial adrenaline rush was over, but he knew it would be a long time before either of them let their guards down again.
“We’ll fill you in when we get inside,” Damon said.
Damon could see that Eli’s own senses went on alert, feeding off Damon and Cain’s tension, but the man shrugged and stepped aside, ushering Damon and Cain ahead of him into the house.
“Best get inside, then, boys. We’ve got a Thanksgiving dinner to eat!”
Damn.Thanksgiving. With all that had happened that afternoon, all the dangers still lurking around them and the work still ahead of them, Damon had forgotten. But with Cain’s warm weight against his side, with Chelsea and Molly safe inside the house, Damon was well aware of just how much he had to be thankful for.
