Page 14 of A Baby for the Firefighter
“I remember.” I hadn't met Ron often, but his vibrant personality was hard to forget, and I sincerely hoped Mary would keep his spirit alive.
God knew this family needed all the cheer it could get.
“It would be good if Conner could make a friend,” Shane said.
I had to agree. The boy needed to get out more. “Jake invited him to his house,” I mentioned. “Maybe you should call his dad and see if you can set something up. Griff told me Jake doesn't have a lot of friends either. I'm sure they'd be happy to have your boy over.”
“I'll do that. Thank you.” He sipped at his coffee and I did the same. “I've been thinking maybe it really is time for all of us to be moving forward. It's been a year.”
“Yeah, I get what you're saying.” I had things to get over as well. Though mostly I was just running from them by being here.
“Actually, I kind of have a favor to ask of you.”
“A favor?” I raised an eyebrow at my cousin. “You know I'll help with whatever you need.”
“Very generous.” He grinned. “I guess then you'll have no objections to going on a double date with me.”
Excuse me? “A what?”
“C'mon, it'll be fun.”
“What are you talking about? Who do you want to date and why can't you go by yourself?”
He sighed. “I would, but you know, I'm rusty, man. I'd probably make a fool of myself.”
I shook my head. Where was all this coming from? “Who are you talking about?”
“The Maden brothers from up the street.”
I tilted my head, searching my brain for any recollection of those two, but nothing came up aside from maybe passing them on the street once or twice.
“The older one asked me out,” Shane continued. “And I know his brother has a thing for you. Then again, that's no surprise. All the omegas in town have a thing for you.”
“Notallthe omegas in town.” Specifically, not the one I wanted and who'd spent all of our outing yesterday avoiding me.
“You need to get over that crush of yours,” Shane said, guessing at what I was talking about. “This'll be good for both of us.”
I sighed. He might have a point there. I wasn’t getting anywhere with Griff. I was only weirding him out and hurting our friendship—and I really didn’t want to lose him as a friend, even if I couldn’t have him as a lover. He’d faded out of my life once, and now that I had him back, I didn’t want to let that happen again. He made my days brighter just by being around. I didn’t even have to make out with him to get that effect. Being friends was enough. I just needed to make sure my heart got the message. “Who’s going to watch the kids?”
Shane thought for a moment. “I’m sure I can get a babysitter. I could call my mother, if all else fails. She’d be happy to hear I’m dating again.”
He was probably right about that. Aunt Stephanie worried a lot about how her son was faring after the loss of his spouse. We all worried, to be honest. He was doing much better now than he had been a few months ago, but I knew the scars on his heart would take longer to heal, and so I had to ask. “Are you sure you’re ready, though?”
He didn’t answer immediately, and then he gave me a shrug. “Honestly? I don’t know. But there’s only one way to find out.”
I rubbed my temples. There was no way I was going to get out of this without a guilty conscience, was there?
“Fine, I'll go. For you.” I wasn’t a big fan of blind dates, but if it helped my cousin move on I could suffer one evening.
How bad could it be?
6
Griffin
Ihadn’t talkedto Dean in two days and I was getting antsy. Every time the phone rang, I jumped. But it was never Dean.
Impatient foranythingto happen, I paced around the living room.
