Page 49 of A Baby for the Firefighter
I grimaced, sympathizing with the shy boy. The only reason he was trying so hard was to make his late father proud, I was sure of that. “Poor kid,” I said. “But things will go fine and then he’ll feel really good about himself. Maybe it’ll give him a boost.”
“Yeah, maybe.” Eli’s lips quirked up as he handled his needles. “Maybe he only needs to face his fears. We all do, don’t you think?”
I scoffed. “Subtle.” But I got what he was trying to say, and I knew that he was right. If I wanted to keep Dean, I had to face my fears.
But how?
22
Griffin
Idecidedto call Dean that evening. It would have been nice to ignore my problem for a while longer, but I knew that was pointless. Besides, I really wanted to see him, and I wanted to make up for being so standoffish in the morning. That wasn’t like me, and I didn’t want Dean to think that it was.
While my mother was preparing dinner—another chore she insisted on taking on—I went up into my bedroom and dialed Dean’s number. He answered his phone quickly, as always.
“Hey,” I said softly when I heard him pick up.
“Hey,” he returned. “I’m glad you called. Are you feeling better?”
“Well, I haven’t freaked out about anything in a couple of hours. Sorry about that, by the way.” I tried to play my embarrassment off with a laugh.
“Don’t worry about it,” Dean said, predictably.
“It’s a difficult thing not to worry about,” I admitted. “I want this to work. I wantusto work.” I slumped back on my bed. I knew this was only my first relationship and most people went through a couple of them before findingthe one, but I didn’t even want to consider moving on to someone else. I felt like I’d found my number one ages ago; I just hadn’t realized it then. And now I only needed to get over myself.
“I want that too,” Dean said on a sigh. “And we’ll make it work, I know that, but I don’t want you to stress yourself now. We have all the time in the world.”
“Do we?”
“Yeah, actually. I got really good news, and I was wondering if I could come over to your place to tell you all about it.”
I loved how he still managed to sound so happy in spite of everything. I was sure he was smiling on the other end of the line, and I wanted to see that gorgeous smile of his in person. “You can come over anytime.”
“Good. I’ll be right there, and I’m bringing cupcakes.”
“Oh God, I love y—” I cut myself off. “I love cupcakes,” I corrected what I was going to say. Way too early to tell him that I loved him, wasn’t it? Even if it was true. Yes, it was early, and we hadn’t even had sex, but I didn’t have to have sex with him to know that I loved him. It was all in the way my heart fluttered in this really happy way when I saw him—even when he wasn’t bringing me cupcakes.
He laughed, and he sound reverberated within me and made me feel warm. “I know.”
Do you, Dean? Do you?
* * *
Dean cameover carrying a large box of baked goods for both me and my mother. I took it from him and brought it into the living room while my mom swooped down on Dean and tried to feed him some leftover dinner.
“I’ve eaten, thank you.”
“But a big man like you, I’m sure you could stand to eat some more. I know your mother doesn’t live here anymore and you’re not married, so who’s cooking for you?” She sighed. “And it seems I really failed to impart any culinary skills on my second son. Eli was always good with a kitchen knife, but Griff…”
“Mom!” I protested, dragging Dean away from her. “Dean doesn’t need me to cook for him.” Honestly, my family was more progressive than others, but my parents still held some pretty old-fashioned beliefs about how alphas and omegas should live.
“I promise I eat enough,” Dean said in good humor. “And I have enough cooking skills to keep the both of us from starving.” He draped an arm around my shoulders. “I don’t mind feeding Griff at all.”
I scoffed, but I couldn’t deny that hewasfeeding me regularly, and that I didn’t mind it. No, I didn’t mind at all.
My mom sighed again, but seemed somewhat placated. “Fine. I’ll leave you two to it.” At least she knew when to make herself scarce.
“Did you two hear anything from the hospital?” Dean asked as we sat down on the couch in the living room.
