A Baby for the Firefighter

by Ann-Katrin Byrde

  “Dean!” I waved as he approached, a smile lighting up my face. I was so glad he was here. And because I needed to prove a point to Eric—and because I really wanted to—I sprinted up to him, threw my arms around his neck and kissed him. His surprise lasted only a second before he kissed me back, sending a shiver down my spine as his tongue swiped my lips. I wasn’t sure about sex yet, but kissing him was awesome—even more so when we were doing it in public where certain people could see.

  Dean smiled at me as we parted. “What was that for?”

  “Just a greeting.” I tapped his nose. “You don’t like it?”

  He scoffed. “As if. Just didn’t expect it.”

  “Well, get used to it, because I get the feeling we need to be doing it a lot more.” I grabbed him by the hand and let him away from the school, up the street in the direction of my house.

  “We need to?” Dean asked. “Did something happen tonight? Is that why you called? You had me a bit worried on the phone, you know.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you.”

  “What were you doing here anyway?”

  “Oh, didn’t I tell you? Jake enlisted me to help with his play. I was working on some of the props tonight.”

  “Oh, right. I heard about the play. Conner is in it too.”

  “He is?” That surprised me. I hadn’t taken Conner for the sort of boy who would like to be on a stage.

  “Yeah, I can tell he’s nervous about it too, even though he was in it two years ago as well. But Ron did the props back then.”

  “Oh.” My heart sank as I realized why I’d been given this job this year. The person who used to do it couldn’t. Right.

  “Anyway,” Dean said, as if he wanted to change the topic just as much as I did. “Was there a reason you needed me to get you? Not that I mind…”

  “Well.” I glanced back at the school. “To be honest, the teacher kind of weirded me out.”

  “The teacher?” Dean looked confused. No wonder. I would have been too.

  “You remember Eric Zimmerman?”

  Dean raised an eyebrow at me. “That guy became a teacher? No kidding?”

  “Yeah, but you have to admit, he always had a knack for the dramatic.”

  That made Dean laugh. “No doubt. Still, didn’t think he would want to work here.”

  I shrugged. “Whatever makes him happy. Just wish he hadn’t tried to ask me out.”

  “He tried to ask you out?” Dean furrowed his brow.

  I chuckled. “You don’t like that idea, do you? Don’t worry. I’m sure he has absolutely no baking skills to tempt me with.”

  Dean shook his head. “Oh, I’m not worried that you could be tempted. I know I’ve spoiled you.”

  That made me laugh harder. “What, you’re not even a little jealous?”

  “No, just hoping the creep knows to keep his dirty hands off you.”

  “He didn’t want to believe that we were a couple at first, but I’m sure that kiss showed him.”

  Dean looked at me with both eyebrows raised.

  “What?” I asked.

  “You just called us a couple.”

  I blushed, because I’d said it without thinking. “I did, didn’t I?”

  “You definitely did.” Dean grinned.

  “Guess we’re a couple then.”

  “Guess we are.”

  Dean leaned over to kiss me, and I opened up to him without hesitation. The fine stubble around his mouth brushed my skin and I felt the tiniest trickle of fear in the back of my mind, but it wasn’t enough to stop me. It wasn’t enough to combat the joy this moment gave me. Dean was my boyfriend and I was his.

  Now we only needed to tackle the rest of this relationship stuff.

  14

  Dean

  The Sunday after our visit to the shelter, and two days after that stupid creep had tried to hit on Griff, Shane and I were going to surprise Conner. The puppy was ready to come home, and my cousin hadn’t told his son anything about our plans yet. I was sure the boy was going to be ecstatic, though. I couldn’t wait for Shane to get back from the shelter with his furry surprise, but until then, I was on babysitter duty.

  “Play!” Mary demanded, banging one of her dolls against my leg while Conner sat in the corner of the living room with a book.

  “What do you want to play?” I asked, taking the doll from the little girl.

  Wordlessly, she brought me another doll and started banging that against my leg.

  “Oh, I see. Is that what you want to do? Destroy Uncle Dean’s leg? Fun game.”

  She giggled in response. Evil little thing. At least she wasn’t really hurting me, so I let her do it for the time being.

  And I was just finishing my coffee when Conner walked into the kitchen. “Where’s Dad?” he asked. “I need him to sign something for school.”

  I glanced at the clock. “He should be back any minute. What do you need signed?”

  He shrugged. “We’re going on a trip to some museum.” It didn’t sound like he was looking forward to that. Then again, the boy wasn’t looking forward to much these days. I wasn’t sure if having a four-legged playmate could change that, but anything was worth a try.

  “Sounds like fun,” I said. And then I heard a car drive up to the house. Shane, probably. My lips quirked up. Time to see how well this puppy would be received. “Guess your Dad is back. You can show him that thing you need signed.”

  “I’ll go get it.” Conner left the room as the front door opened.

  I hoisted Mary up on my arm and went to greet my cousin.

  “Doggy!” she squealed as soon as she saw the yellow bundle in Shane’s hands.

  I grinned. “That’s right. That’s a doggy.”

  Shane was smiling as well, while the puppy regarded Mary curiously. “You like the doggy?” Shane asked his daughter.

  “Doggy!” she said again, happily, reaching one hand out. I stepped a little closer to Shane so she could pet the newest member of the family.

  “Where’s Conner?” Shane asked.

  “Should be here any minute. He just went to his room to get something.”

  “Alright then. Conner!” Shane yelled. “I got something for you!”

  “Coming! I need you to…” Conner stopped short as he stepped into the hallway. “Is that a puppy?” Wide-eyed, he stared at the dog, and the dog stared right back. I got the feeling it was the beginning of a wonderful friendship. Even though it was maybe a bit of a rough start, because the puppy barked and Conner took a step back.

  Shane laughed. “He wants to play.”

  Conner tilted his head, looking at his dad. “Are we keeping him?”

  “Unless you want me to take him back?”

  “No!” Conner said quickly. “Wait, we’re really having a dog now?” Slowly, he stepped up to the puppy in his father’s arm, the permission slip he’d wanted signed all but forgotten.

  “You can pet him,” Shane said. “Your little sister already did.”

  “Really?” Conner reached a hand out and stroked it carefully over the puppy’s golden fur. The puppy seemed to appreciate it too, first sniffing his hand and then licking.

  “You have to give him a name,” Shane said.

  “I have to name him?”

  “Yeah, he’s your dog, after all.”

  “He’s mine?” The little boy was clearly overwhelmed with all this news, standing almost frozen before his father as if he didn’t know how to express excitement anymore.

  “Yes, he’s yours. If you want him. Do you want him?”

  Conner tentatively reached both his hands out to the puppy. “I want him,” he whispered almost reverently. “Can I have him?”

  “You’ll have to walk him,” Shane said. “And clean up his messes.”

  “I will!” It was the most enthusiastic I’d ever heard Conner. “I’ll take care of him.”

  “Good. Just don’t call him George, though.” Shane smiled and set the dog down on the floor.


  Instantly, Mary began to struggle in my arms. “Down, down!”

  Laughing, I let her down, where she started crawling across the floor behind the puppy. She knew how to walk, of course, but apparently it was more fun to imitate the doggy. Shane joined me in my laughter, and then, so did Conner.

  I had a feeling it was going to be a good day.

  Until Griff called me.

  15

  Griffin

  My Sunday started out peacefully. I went to my brother’s place to talk to him. He lived in this beautiful house at the outskirts of the town—as removed from everything as you could be while still being part of civilization. It sure paid to marry a rich alpha, I thought to myself as I knocked on the door. Only a second later, I found myself face to face with said alpha, carrying a little baby girl in his arms as he opened the door to me.

  “Hey, Matt,” I greeted my brother-in-law. “Hey, Livvy.” I tapped my niece’s adorable little nose.

  “Hey, Griff. Eli’s in the living room,” he informed me. “And if you’re not careful, Jake’s going to barrel into you and force you to play cops and robbers. I’ve already been shot three times today.”

  I laughed. “Thanks for the warning.” Although I wouldn’t have minded playing with my nephew instead of doing what I’d actually come here for. I needed to tell my brother about what a creep Eric had turned out to be. Because I sure as hell wasn’t going back to work with him.

  I walked into the living room, only a little sad that Jake didn’t try to abduct me on my way.

  “Oh, hey Griff!” Eli greeted me as I entered. He was sitting on the couch with a heavy book open in his lap. Some textbook for school probably. He was really serious about that, as well he should be. My brother was going to be a veterinarian, finally, and I was proud of him. Not many omegas managed to become doctors. He was a trailblazer, even if he got delayed by a few years.

  I sat next to him. “Studying hard?”

  “You know it.” He put the book aside and stifled a yawn. “Just wish some of these books could be written a little more clearly.”

  “Maybe you can rewrite them some day.”

  Eli snorted. “Yeah, right. I want to save animals, not write books. Speaking of animals, isn’t today the day Conner’s getting his puppy?”

  “Yeah.” I’d told Eli all about that. Only Jake didn’t know, because he would have ruined the surprise. “I hope it goes well. I’m going to go over there later and check.”

  “Check, right.” My brother shot me a knowing look. “What you really want is to play with the puppy.”

  “Busted.” I poked my tongue out of him. “Like you’re not becoming a vet to play with dogs all day.”

  “Please,” Eli drawled. “It’s serious business.” He stretched. “Anyway, you said you had something to talk about?”

  “Yeah, actually.” I pulled my lower lip between my teeth. How best to approach this subject? “You know the theater teacher? Eric? I think he might have been in your year in school…”

  “Yeah, I know him. Of course I do. I’m making some of the costumes, remember?”

  Right. “I was at the school Friday night trying to be a good uncle and work on the props, and… well, he was there as well.”

  Eli’s eyes narrowed slightly as he switched into older-brother mode. “Did something happen between you and Eric?”

  “Not exactly, but I got the feeling he wanted something to happen, you know? He was really kind of creepy about it. I had to call Dean to pick me up so he would see that I have a boyfriend. Since he didn’t want to believe me when I told him. I’ve never known betas to be so fucking creepy.” I shuddered at the memory.

  Eli rested a hand on my back, between my shoulder blades. “I’m sorry he was such a creep. I swear he was never like that with me.”

  “It’s alright,” I said. “In the end, nothing happened. I’m just not sure I want to go back there. I mean, I still want to help.” Especially now that I knew who I was replacing. “But he creeps me out.”

  “No, I get that.” Eli’s brows furrowed. “I’ll talk to him, tell him to back off if he wants those props done.” He took a deep breath. My brother actually sounded pissed, and that didn’t happen very often. “You’re not going to the school by yourself anymore, either. I’ll come with you next time.”

  “Thank you.” I leaned back into the couch, feeling a little better now I had this off my chest and a solution in sight. I glanced at the TV, which wasn’t on. “Any good cartoons this morning?”

  Eli shook his head. “Like you don’t know the TV schedule inside and out.”

  “Can’t fool you, can I?” I reached for the remote—and that was when we first heard the sirens.

  Eli and I looked at each frowning. Nothing much happened in Oceanport. It wasn’t often that you heard sirens. This was a call to action for the local fire department.

  “Wonder what happened,” Eli said, walking to the window to look outside.

  “You see anything?”

  “Nah. We’re too far out.”

  “Figures. Maybe I’ll see something on my way back home later.” And that was the extent of my concern at that point, simple curiosity. I didn’t know then that the sound of the sirens was connected to someone I knew.

  Eli and I didn’t find out about that until after we’d watched almost an hour of mindless TV. His phone rang at the end of Ghostbusters, and a few seconds after he’d answered, his face went pale.

  “I… really? In the hospital?”

  Who was in the hospital? I tilted my head, watching my brother grow visibly more uncomfortable with every passing second. What was going on? Eli usually kept a cool head. It wasn’t like him to fidget with the hem of his shirt or bite his lip.

  “Who was that?” I asked as soon as he’d hung up.

  He looked at me, taking a deep breath. “Those sirens… Our parents’ house burned.”

  “Our… what?” I felt my eyes go wide, but this was just… It wasn’t possible. Things like that happened to other people. Not to our parents. Even though we hadn’t spoken to them since Jake had been born, it was still hard to believe something this terrible could happen to them. Not only had their house burned, but Eli had also said something about a hospital. Oh God. “Are they…?”

  “Dad’s been taken to the hospital. I’m not sure what’s wrong. She was hysterical.”

  “She? Mom?” My voice broke.

  Eli looked at me helplessly. I could only imagine what he was feeling. Our parents had kicked him out of the house when he’d gotten pregnant with Jake and there was a lot of hurt still there that would probably never fully heal. I didn’t know our mother even had his number, and I wondered about that, but now was not the time to ask. I had a different question instead.

  “Do you think we should go?” I asked, drawing my lower lip between my teeth. After all, Dad could be dying.

  “I don’t know.” Eli rubbed his face with the heel of his hand and groaned. “Maybe we should. I don’t really want to, but…” He shook his head, and then he took a deep breath and straightened, as if he’d come to a decision. “Matt!” he yelled the next moment. His husband appeared in the doorway a minute later.

  “Something wrong?”

  “Griff and I need to go to the hospital and visit my father,” Eli said with surprising calm. It seemed now that he’d made up his mind, he felt better.

  Wish I could say the same for myself.

  “The hospital?” Matt’s eyebrows went up. “Do you need me to find a babysitter?”

  “No, you can take care of the kids.”

  “You don’t want me to come with you?”

  Eli shook his head. “No, we can’t waste time finding someone for the kids, and I’m definitely not taking them. I have Griff, I’ll be fine.”

  “If you’re really sure.”

  “I’ll be fine,” Eli repeated. He gave his husband a kiss, and then he grabbed the car keys from a bowl near the door and turned to me. “Let’s
go.”

  “Okay,” I made myself say, even though nothing about this was even remotely okay.

  We arrived at the hospital about half an hour later. Since Oceanport wasn’t big enough to have a hospital of its own, it was always a bit of a drive, and one that had been spent mostly in silence this time. Eli hadn’t really wanted to talk, and I hadn’t really been able to think of anything much to say either.

  We hadn’t always had a bad relationship with our parents, growing up. They’d been… okay. Regular parents with regular ups and downs. There’d been a couple of fights, of course, but I remembered some awesome family holidays as well. Our parents could have been worse. I knew of some omegas who had their mates chosen for them by their families. Our parents never tried that, at least.

  Things hadn’t really gone to shit until Eli came home from school pregnant, pretending not to know who the other father was. They would have been pissed even if he had known, of course, but it was his complete reluctance to even list candidates that drove them completely crazy.

  I’d been tempted to tell once or twice, to be honest, but it hadn’t been my decision to make. Still, sometimes I wondered if I’d made the right call and if we could still be a family if I’d spoken up. But at the same time, I could never forgive them for kicking Eli out when he’d needed help, no matter the reason.

  That didn’t mean I wanted either of them to die, though.

  They were still my parents, and sometimes, sometimes, I even missed them. I wondered if Eli felt the same. He never said.

  Our walk across the hospital’s parking lot was just as quiet as our drive had been, and I suspected that my brother had just as much to think about as I did. It surprised me that he hadn’t insisted on having Matt with him somehow. I kind of wanted Dean to be here, and we weren’t even married. Approaching the information desk, I resigned myself to calling him later.

  My brother looked to me as we stood in front of the lady behind the desk. Okay, apparently I was going to do the talking today.

  “Hello,” I said. “We’re looking for our father? Declan Stevens? He was brought in here this morning.”