Page 72 of A Baby for the Firefighter
“This is so cool!” Jake nearly shouted, watching Dean in awe.
I grinned. Coming here had been such a great idea. I was having so much fun.
Smoke started rising from the wood, and I took another picture of Dean.
I was so focused on watching his every move and all the fine details of his face that I immediately noticed when a shadow fell over his features. I hadn’t imagined it earlier; something wasn’t right. He was staring at our little campfire as if it had just burned his grandmother on her birthday.
What was up with that?
I put the camera down and approached him. “Dean?”
His eyes snapped to me. He was pale, his body stiff, as if it was taking all his willpower not to shake. No one but me was looking at him, though, and I didn’t want them to, either. I had the feeling he wouldn’t want to be in the spotlight right now, so I took his arm and gently led him away from the fire and toward the woods.
“Where are you going?” Shane called after us.
“We’ll be back in a minute.” I forced a laugh. Let Shane think I was up to something naughty. At least that didn’t invite questions.
Shane groaned. “Really? Don’t take too long!”
“Right!” This wouldn’t take long, would it? I just needed to know what was going through my boyfriend’s head. He kept saying that everything was fine, but I wasn’t buying it. I’d never believed it, and I wasn’t going to keep pretending that I did. It was obvious now that something big was bothering him, and we needed to talk about that. We couldn’t have any monumental secrets between us when we were about to have a child together.
Oh God, we’re going to have a child together.
I hadn’t told him that yet, but I was going to. Tomorrow when we were alone. I took a deep breath.
Focus on the here and now.
Here and now, my alpha needed me. He’d relaxed a bit since we’d left the others, but he was still pale. I could see that even in the low evening light. I touched the side of his face to make him look at me, loving the feel of his stubble underneath my fingertips. “What’s wrong?” I asked, not willing to give him a chance to pretend like nothing was.
He swallowed and licked his lips. “It’s…”
“Don’t say that it’s nothing,” I warned. “I’m not stupid.”
“I don’t think you’re stupid. It’s just…” He took a deep breath. “Difficult to say.”
I gave him a sympathetic smile. “I promise I won’t tell? Pinky swear?”
That got a little laugh out of him, even if it was short-lived. “I’m not worried that you might tell.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I’m worried what you’re going to think of me.”
I creased my forehead. How could he worry what I was going to think of him? Didn’t he know that I loved him? He was the only one I’d ever dated. The only one who’d ever broken through my barriers. He wasthe one.Whatever he was about to tell me wasn’t going to change that. “You don’t need to worry about that,” I told him, kissing the corner of his lips. “You’re my boyfriendandmy best friend. I love you. Who could you tell if not me?”
He exhaled. “I don’t want you to see me as weak.”
I stroked a hand through his hair and kissed the tip of his noise, breathing in his alpha scent. “I could never see you as weak, but I don’t think anyone can be strongallthe time. You know, my brother and I had to rely on one another all the time. Those first few years weren’t easy, but we made it through, because we had each other. I know I can rely on you like that too, and I want you to be able to rely on me as well.”
Screw alpha and omega roles. I could be there for my man. I wanted to be. Wasn’t that kind of the omega’s job, anyway? To pick up the pieces when the alpha crashed?
I could do that.
“Okay,” Dean said eventually, kissing my forehead. “I guess I need to tell you what this is all about.” He rubbed his face.
“Go on.” I took his hands in mine to show support.
“You remember why I came to Oceanport?”
“Because your cousin needed help.” It had impressed me a bit, how he’d left everything behind to help Shane out.
He grimaced. “That’s not the full truth.”
