Page 63 of A Baby for the Firefighter
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My dad was sittingup in his bed when we entered the room.
“Griffin.” His eyes widened when they fell on me. “I wasn’t expecting to see you.”
I glanced at my mother, but couldn’t read her face. Apparently she hadn’t told Dad that I was coming. Great. This was already awkward. “I thought I’d drop by to see how you’re doing,” I said while my mom pulled up chairs for both of us.
“That’s… nice of you.” He reached for a glass of water that stood on his bedside table. “It’s been long enough since you’ve shown your face, after all.”
I grimaced. “What did you expect after throwing us out? That I’d be over for Sunday dinner?” This was ridiculous.
“I didn’t throw you out. Your brother decided to leave and you decided to go with him.” My father looked hospital-pale, but his face still had all the same hard lines it had had years ago.
“Eli left because you told him he had to if he wanted to raise Jake.” I’d been there for that conversation. He couldn’t confuse me now.
“He wanted to throw away his future and his reputation to raise a child at nineteen when he didn’t even know who the father was. I did what I could to make him see reason.”
I groaned. How could I have thought that my father’s bullheadedness might have changed over the past years?
“Boys, please,” my mother cut in. “Declan,” she addressed my father. “You told me you were ready to let this go, or I wouldn’t have brought Griffin to see you. Our sons did a very good job living their lives without us, and don’t think they won’t keep doing that if we can’t admit to our mistakes. Is that what you want?”
“No,” my dad grumbled in a low voice.
I looked at my mother, both eyebrows raised. All my life, I’d never heard her talk to my dad like that. A small part of me was also pleased to hear that she thought Eli and I had done a good job as well. But this wasn’t the time to preen.
My mother gestured to one of the chairs and I took a seat.
“You’ve been doing well, huh?” my father addressed me.
“Can’t complain, really.”
“He’s working as a photographer, as I told you,” my mother chimed in, sitting next to me. “He’s also seeing a very handsome alpha.”
“Mom!” My eyes snapped to her. Did she really have to bring that up now? As if this meeting wasn’t awkward enough already!
She patted my shoulder as if brushing off dust. “Dear, dear. You have nothing to be ashamed of now, do you?”
Not exactly, but that didn’t mean I wanted to discuss my love life with my parents. It was bad enough that my mom was living with me while I tried to get closer to Dean.
“He treating you right?” my dad asked in a gruff voice and I just about wanted to die on the spot. My family was progressive, insofar as my parents hadn’t tried to find mates for us, but they’d never made a secret of the fact that they wanted to see us married and taken care of.A good life for an omega, in their eyes.
“We’ve only been seeing each other for a little while.”
“But you’ve known him forever!” my mom interjected. “It’s that boy who used to come over to our house sometimes. Dean Kramer. You remember him, don’t you?”
My dad pondered this for a moment before shaking his head. “I don’t recall. But it doesn’t matter, as long as you’re making good choices.”
I grimaced, because who was he to judge whether my choices were good or not? And also because I’d definitely made a poor choice last night, but he didn’t have to know that. Oh God. I hoped neither of them ever needed to know. “I’m doing my best,” I said.
He nodded. “Good. Good.”
“Tell him about your job, Griff!” my mom encouraged me, and I was more than happy to move on to a topic that didn’t concern my relationship with Dean. My parents might not know yet how hard I might have fucked up, but it was constantly on my mind.
* * *
I’d thoughtabout calling my brother at the end of my hospital visit, but I didn’t. Instead, I went straight over to his house after dropping our mother off at mine.
“Griff? I didn’t know you were going to come over?” Eli said as he opened the door to me, carrying his daughter in his arms.
