Page 62 of A Baby for the Firefighter
“I see. But call me when you’re done, okay? I want to know how it went.”
“I’ll do that.” He leaned up to give me a kiss. “Thank you.”
“Nothing to thank me for. I want you to be happy.”
He showed me a soft smile and leaned his head on my shoulder. “I am.”
I couldn’t help but smile myself, wishing we could stay like this forever.
27
Griffin
My motherand I left for the hospital almost as soon as she got back from the bed & breakfast. I thought I’d be nervous the whole drive, but for the most part, she distracted me. My mom could talk like a waterfall. I figured I got that trait from her, even if I didn’t do it all the time. But maybe she was nervous too. If she really wanted us to be a family again, and I thought she did, she had every reason to be nervous about this meeting.
That wasn’t what she was talking about, though, no, she decided to pry for information about my date instead.
“How did it go last night?” she started innocently enough. But a simplefinewasn’t enough of a response. “No, I mean, did he like the food?”
I grimaced. “Well, he ate it. But he was probably just being polite.” And I wasn’t going to put him through that again. No more last minute cooking lessons from me. From now on, I was going to stick to what I was good at, which was… Well, I was going to figure that out.
“Still, that’s an important trait in a partner,” my mom pointed out. “And it sounds like he really likes you. I’m glad.”
“Me too.” I gave her a small smile. At least she approved of my choice in partner. Not that it would have mattered either way. I wanted to make peace with her, yes, but not enough to give her a say in who I dated. Involuntarily, I tightened my grip on the stirring wheel. It was Dean or nobody else for me, I knew that.
“Did he stay the night?” she asked without warning and I almost drove us into a ditch.
“Mom!”
“What? Can’t I ask?” She laughed, as if she’d inquired about the weather. I could only shake my head at her. “I’m not judging you if you let him stay,” she continued. “He’s damn fine.”
I bit my teeth together, trying to keep the blush from spreading on my face. Nothing I could do about it, though. I blushed too freaking easily. “He left this morning,” I muttered.
“Good, good.” She smiled. “I only hope you used protection.”
I swallowed. “Mom…”
“Just saying! But I know you’re old enough to be responsible.”
I only shook my head again and let her interpret the gesture as annoyance. In reality, though, I wasn’t annoyed. I wasterrified. I got the creeping realization, that no, wehadn’tused protection.I hadn’t used protection.
Oh my God.
I’d completely forgotten about it. How had that happened to me? Going back over the last night in my head, I could even pinpoint the exact moment I’dalmostthought of it, but then hadn’t, as if part of me had really, really wanted to go without. I swallowed again, knowing exactly what part of me that was.
Maybe I shouldn’t have let my instincts dictateallthe action.
Too late for regrets now, though. Now I could only hope that my stupidity hadn’t doomed me. It wasn’t like I never wanted to get pregnant, but I didn’t want to get pregnant now. I wanted to get pregnant some far off point in the future when I was ready to be a full-time adult and parent. For now, I liked being the goofy uncle much better, even if I loved Jake and Livvy like my own. The level of responsibility was just different.
But I’d only had sex one time, and how many people got pregnant their first try? Sure, omegas were super fertile, but it was still a long shot, right? Right?
Don’t panic, Griff. Nothing’s confirmed yet.
And I was going to have to wait at least two weeks before I could take a test. Two freaking weeks! Might as well beforever.
I took a deep breath and tried to focus on the road again. Panicking now wouldn’t help. I probably wasn’t even pregnant.
Right?
