“Were you?” A small smile tugged on Dean’s lips. “I used to think it was for the best because I didn’t know how much longer I could keep myself from kissing you.”
I laughed. Poor Dean. “How about you kiss me now?”
“Good idea.”
Our lips met again, lingering on each other just long enough for me to realize how much I loved him too. It could have been perfect if I could only give him everything he needed, everything we both wanted, and as we broke, a plan formed in my mind to do just that.
“I think we should celebrate your new job,” I said.
“Yeah? What sort of celebration did you have in mind?”
“I want to cook for you.”
Both of his eyebrows shot up. A bit unnecessary, if you ask me. “You what? You don’t even like cooking.”
“But I want to do it for you!” I insisted. After all the things he’d baked for me, it was only fair that I be the perfect omega he deserved one night. “Friday night. You come over here, and we’ll have a romantic dinner! Come on.”
He scratched the back of his head. “That sounds lovely, but what about your mother?”
“I’ll think of something to get her out of the house.”
“You’re not gonna have her help you cook?”
I whacked the cheeky bastard over the head. “Of course not! I can do this!”
“Okay then.” Dean chuckled. “Friday night. It’s a date.”
“Good.” Now I only had to figure out what I was going to make and how to make it. Not that the meal was going to be the main part of the night. No, I was finally going to lose my V-card that night. I was determined. With Dean, it would be okay. It had to be.
23
Dean
“Real glad you decided to work with us.” Daniel clapped me on the back after showing me around the station.
“Yeah, I think I’m going to settle down in Oceanport,” I told him, if only because I wanted to talk about something other than the station and the job. Daniel had been going on about it nonstop for almost an hour and my head was ringing. It was a small station, but he certainly had a lot to say about it.
“Yeah? That’s good,” he said as he handed me my uniform. “The town could use a few more alphas like you. Thought you were gonna go back to the big city, though. Everyone’s saying.”
“I was going to, yeah, but…” I shook my head, the uniform weighing heavy in my arms. “I guess I found something worth staying for.”
He laughed and clapped my back again. “A sweet little omega, huh? They do that to you.”
I wasn’t sure that I would describe Griff as ‘sweet little omega’, but his guess was close enough to the truth, so I simply nodded. “Something like that.”
“Good, good.” Daniel grinned. “Good to have an omega waiting for you at home. We firefighters, we need something to protect in our lives.”
Instinctively, I grimaced, but regained control of my face again before Daniel could notice. “I guess,” I said. I did feel an innate need to protect people, and especially Griff, but after everything that had happened, I wasn’t sure anymore that I could do it—and that was a thought I couldn’t let myself linger on.
What if something happened and I couldn’t protect Griff?
What if instead of his parents’ house, it was his house that caught on fire next?
The thought was too horrible to consider. Just the idea of Griff trapped in a sea of flames made me so sick I felt like throwing up before I could catch myself.
I pinched the bridge of my nose.
“Something wrong?” Daniel asked. “You look a bit pale.”
“No, nothing wrong, sir.”
Get a grip, Dean. Nothing’s happening to Griff.
“I heard about that last job you had in the big city,” Daniel said. “That’s not troubling you, is it?”
I quickly shook my head—almost too quickly. “No. How did you hear about that?” I certainly hadn’t told anyone in Oceanport. Shane had heard a bit about it from my parents, but we’d never discussed it.
“What do you think? I googled you. There was a newspaper article about the whole tragedy.”
I swallowed. Everyone had called it a tragedy. Me? I called it a failure.
“You don’t feel responsible for that, do you?” Daniel asked.
“No,” I lied, because I knew what everyone wanted to hear. They wouldn’t understand.
“Good,” Daniel said. “Sometimes things just go to shit.”
I nodded. Things certainly did go to shit. I just had to wrap my head around that and I had to become a functional firefighter again, because I still wanted to protect people. Especially Griff. If anything ever happened to him, I had to be there. Taking this job was going to help me prepare for that and make myself the alpha I needed to be again. I only needed to shove all thoughts of the tragedy aside.
When I got back home, I spotted Conner out on the front lawn playing with the puppy. The sight made me smile. It was good for the boy to get some sunlight. He had a piece of rope in his hand that the puppy was trying to tug away from him, yipping excitedly in between his attempts.
“Dean!” Conner called out when he spotted me.
I walked over to him. “Hey, how’s it going?”
“Great!” Conner beamed. The expression on his face surprised me a little bit just because of how rare it was. “I’ve decided on a name for the dog!”
“Yeah?” I knelt down by him and patted the dog, who ignored me in favor of the rope.
“I’m going to call him Max!” he announced.
“That’s a good name.”
Conner smiled. “After the main character in Where the Wild Things Are.”
“You like that book?”
He nodded, and tugged on the rope again. “Can you take me over to Jake’s?”
“Have you asked your dad?”
“Yeah. He said to ask you when you’re back. He’s busy. But Jake and I want to practice for the play.”
“Okay, I’ll take you.”
“Thank you! Can we take Max?”
“You’ll have to ask Jake’s parents.” But knowing Eli, it would probably be fine.
“I’ll call.” Picking up the dog, he walked into the house. I watched him go, grateful to see the reserved boy open a bit. He still had a way to go, but he was going to get there. I was glad for him and Shane, knowing how much my cousin worried about his kids.
Of course he did. I would worry too, if I had children. And maybe someday I would. Maybe with Griff. The thought made me smile, even if all that was still in the far-off future.
Or so it seemed at the time.
24
Griffin
I needed advice. On Wednesday, my mother went off to visit my father at the hospital. She told me he was awake most of the time now, and doing well. She asked me if I didn’t want to come with her and have a talk. I didn’t know what to say, but she understood my silence as a no. It wasn’t supposed to be that. I just really didn’t know. Making up with my mom was one thing, making up with my dad was another thing entirely. I knew my mother wasn’t guilt-free, but she hadn’t been the driving force behind our family dispute. No, that title went to my father. He wasn’t an alpha, but he was damn stubborn, still. I was sure my brother got that from him.
And as soon as my mother was gone, I called my brother. Not only about this. I also needed some advice for what I’d planned for Friday. “Eli?”
“Yeah?” He sounded a little bit stressed.
“Do you have a moment or should I call back later?” I figured maybe his baby daughter had had an emergency or something.
“No, it’s fine. Just studying for a test and it’s not going great.”
“I’m sure you’ll ace it.” My brother had always been good at the academic stuff, while I’d largely preferred art class. He’d worked his ass off to be able to attend college, while I could never wait to be done with school. Different talents and all that—not that my parents always
agreed.
“Maybe,” Eli said. “I’m not so sure. But it can wait a little while.”
“Okay, if you’re sure.”
“What did you want to talk about?”
“Mom’s gone to the hospital again and she asked if I wanted to go with her to, you know, talk to Dad while he’s actually awake.”
“Oh.” Eli was quiet for a moment as he digested this information. “What did you say?”
“I didn’t say anything and then she just went without me.”
“I see.”
“I don’t really feel like that was the right choice,” I admitted. “I am busy with work and all, but we can’t avoid it forever, can we?” I said we purposefully because I wanted to know what he intended to do about this situation as well.
“We’ve managed to avoid it for a pretty long time, though,” he said. “And I’m not sure why we should be the ones to take the first step.”
“Are we?” I asked. “Because I know Mom’s been calling you.”
“Yeah, Mom’s been calling me. Don’t think I ever talked to Dad. I doubt he’s ready to forgive and forget. Not that I feel a burning need to be forgiven. Wait, I need to go somewhere the kids won’t hear me.”
“Okay.” I heard some rustling on the other end of the line as well as a door opening and closing. “You don’t think Dad’s ever going to change his mind?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Eli said. “Maybe yes, maybe no. I try not to think about it.”
“I’m sorry. I just want—”
“I know you want everyone to get along.” He sighed. “I’ll talk to him if he talks to me first. Is that a deal you can live with?”
“Yes, thank you.” That was enough. It had to be. Maybe next time my Mom went to the hospital I’d go with her and see if there was anything to be done.
“I owe you a lot, Griff. If there’s anything I can do to make you feel better…”
“Well, actually…”
“What?”
“There is something else,” I said, remembering the other reason I’d called. “Don’t worry, though. It’s got nothing to do with our parents.”
“Well, that’s good.” He breathed an audible sigh of relief, as if I was being especially taxing this morning.
“I might need your help this Friday, if you can make it.”
“What’s happening this Friday?” A note of curiosity seeped into Eli’s voice.
“Dean and I have reason to celebrate, so I decided to make him dinner.”
“I don’t know what to be more suspicious of,” Eli said after a moment. “Whatever your reason to celebrate is or that you want to cook.”
I found myself wishing that I’d gone over to have this conversation in person so I could give him a not-so-light pat on the back of his head now. “Dean’s decided to take a job with the local fire department. That’s what we’re celebrating, not whatever you might think. And I can totally prepare a meal.” Totally!
“Yeah, right.” He laughed a little, the bastard. “Still, that’s great. But what do you need me for? To do the actual cooking?”
“I can cook!” I insisted again. “I just need you to um… help me pick out an outfit. Something that’ll help me… uh… progress our relationship.”
“Ohhh. My little brother wants to get laid!”
“Eli!”
“Well, it’s true, isn’t it?” His voice turned a little more serious again. “Do you think you’re ready?”
“Yeah.” I wanted to be, at least. “I trust him.”
“I’m glad. I’ll come over on Friday if you need me.”
“Around six? I’ll make sure Mom’s gone before you show up.”
“Thank you, but that’s not necessary. I can handle her.”
“If you’re sure.”
“I’m sure,” he said. “See you Friday.”
“See you,” I returned, hanging up. Whatever was going to happen Friday, it was going to be an interesting day for sure.
Thursday evening, after several failed attempts to create anything edible at all in the kitchen, I broke down and asked for help. “Mom?” I stuck my head into the living room, where she was watching some show on TV. It was still weird to see her sitting there so normally, as if we hadn’t spent years not talking to each other.
She looked up at me. “Yes, dear?”
“You remember how you tried to teach me how to cook?”
She raised an eyebrow. “I do.” She shook her head. “How could I ever forget? It was a disaster.”
I forced a grin on my face. “Yeah, uh, fun, wasn’t it?”
“You nearly set the kitchen on fire more than once!” For a second, she seemed as if she was going to start laughing, but then the mention of fire and all its recent implications silenced her. Mom never wanted to talk about it, and so we didn’t, but I suspected she wasn’t fully over the shock yet.
“I’ve gotten a little better at it,” I said. “No damage to the kitchen, I promise.” That was something, right? “So I was wondering, if, uh… maybe we could try again.”
“You want me to teach you again?”
I didn’t want that, not especially, no, but I needed to prepare something for Dean to eat, and this was my best bet, short of ordering take-out and parading it as my own food. “Maybe something simple?” I asked. “Something simple but delicious?” That would be perfect.
She turned the TV off. “And where does this sudden enthusiasm come from?”
“Nowhere.” I shrugged. “I just uh… figured it was time for me to learn?”
“You’re not fooling me, dear. You want to cook for your man, don’t you?”
I grew bright red before I could stop myself.
My mom shook her head. “You should know that I don’t mind. There’s no better reason to cook, really. Certainly no better motivation.” She gave me a soft smile. “Well, other than to feed your children, anyway. But I hope that’s not going to happen for you for a little while, at least.”
“No.” I wanted children, yeah, but even I knew it was too early for that.
“Good.” She stood and opened her mouth as if to say something more, but closed it again. I knew what she’d been about to say, though. What I’d been told all my life. An omega needs to be married before having children.
It was one of her core beliefs, and part of what had driven Eli out of the house when he had Jake. I suspected that was why she wasn’t saying it now, even if she still believed it. She didn’t want me to make my brother’s mistake, but she wasn’t going to say it out loud to keep the peace.
I was a fan of peace myself, so I didn’t call her out on it. After all, I still hoped that my family could be mended with a bit of time and understanding on all sides.
My mother walked past me into the kitchen. “Let’s see what we have to work with. I’ll help you feed your man. Dean’s a good alpha. You should hold on to him.”
I guess that was as close to approval of my plans as I was going to get. Still, I wondered what she might have said if I’d told her that I wanted to get rid of my virginity.
Use protection, probably.
25
Griffin
By the time Friday night rolled around, I had learned to make a simple pork roast without setting the kitchen on fire. It wasn’t much, but it wasn’t going to give Dean food poisoning, and at this point, that was the best I could hope for. I had severely overestimated my omega abilities when I offered to cook for him.
I’d arranged for my mother to stay at the only bed & breakfast in town, which was going to raise suspicions of course, but I didn’t care. I’d been through far worse gossip than that I might be sleeping with the hottest alpha in town. What I did care about was that I couldn’t get my mother to leave before my brother showed up. She dilly-dallied the whole time, and I suspected she did it on purpose. In hindsight, maybe I shouldn’t have told her that Eli was coming over, but there was nothing I could do about that now, short of throwing my mom out of the house.
“Elias!” she said when she was face to face with him. “It’s so good to see you!”
My brother stood in front of her and obviously had no idea what to say. He’d said he knew how to handle her, but maybe not. “Hi, Mom,” he got out in the end, before his eyes searched for me and he met my gaze with an awkward smile.
“Mom was just about to leave for the bed & breakfast,” I said, trying to help him out.
“Oh, I was,” she said, never looking away from Eli. “But I have a few minutes if you’d like to chat.”
Eli glanced at me again, biting his lip.
I shrugged. Sorry, you’re on your own, bro. Your decision to make.
“I guess a few minutes won’t hurt,” he said eventually.
Yes! A step forward. I tried to keep from smiling. “I have a few preparations to make in the kitchen,” I excused myself, because I figured it was best to give the two of them some privacy, no matter how badly I wanted to listen in on their conversation.
In reality, I was done with everything I had to do in the kitchen, so I just sat with a coffee and waited. And maybe I spiked my coffee with a little extra because my nerves could really use it that day.
My mom and my brother had gone to the living room, so I couldn’t really hear them aside from muffled voices. At least they weren’t raised. If they could talk for five minutes without fighting, that would be awesome, especially since I got the feeling that Eli was making an effort on my behalf, and I didn’t want to drag him into anything too uncomfortable.
But this drama couldn’t continue forever. What if the next time tragedy struck someone actually died?
I didn’t even want to think about that, so I just sipped my coffee and waited.
It couldn’t have taken longer than ten minutes before I heard the front door open and a few seconds later, my brother stepped into the kitchen.
“You got any more of that coffee?” he asked.
A Baby for the Firefighter Page 13