Page 75 of A Baby for the Firefighter
When I wokeup the next morning after a blissfully nightmare-free night, Griff wasn’t in the tent with me. I looked around groggily, but he was nowhere to be found. There were sounds coming from outside, though, so I opened the tent flap. It was awfully light. The sun stood high in the sky already, raining heat down on the forest and making me wonder just how late it was.
“You’re up!” I heard Griff say and found him sitting where we’d made our fire yesterday. He was on the phone, but ended the call when he saw me.
“Who was that?” I asked. “What time is it?” I ran a hand over my face and through my unruly hair, trying to wake up properly.
“Just Eli. I swear he calls me only to make sure I have my phone with me. I told him he doesn’t need to worry because Jake’s headed home already.”
“Is he?” I looked around, only to notice that the second tent was gone. “They left already?”
“Dude, you slept forever. Shane took the boys to the lake this morning and then they packed up so they could get fast food in town.” Griff shook his head as if disapproving of this decision, but I could only laugh.
“Sounds like a fun day.”
“I guess.” Griff gave me a small smile.
I crawled back into the tent and looked for my own phone to check the time. 2pm. Jesus Christ, why had no one woken me?
“Are you going to come out of there?” Griff asked. “I have breakfast. If you can call it breakfast anyway.” He laughed. “I missed a perfect photo opportunity because of you, you know? Didn’t want to leave here until you woke up.”
I climbed out of the tent and stretched. “You could have woken me.”
“Nah.” Griff waved me off. “You needed it. And I still got some good pics of the sunrise. I love taking pictures out here. It’s so relaxing.” He let himself fall back into the grass and stared up at the sky.
“Didn’t know you were such a child of nature,” I teased.
He peered at me from his position in the grass. “I’m not really. Not long-term. Not unless nature comes with cupcakes and chocolate bars.”
“I see.” I walked over to him and sat in the grass beside him. “What’s this breakfast you speak of?”
He laughed again. “Cookies, mostly. Why do you think the others went into town to eat?”
“You seriously brought cookies for your breakfast?
He shrugged. “There’s also granola bars, beef jerky, apples and bananas. But the cookies are the best.”
“I see.”
“Help yourself.” He pointed at his backpack. “I’m not super hungry today.”
“No?” I walked over to his bag and dug through it. I found an apple that looked good and took it, but not before finding something else that stirred my interest. “You brought a bottle of soap bubbles?”
He sat up and directed his brightest smile at me. “I walked by the toy store and saw them on sale and thought it might be fun! For old time’s sake. You can’t feel bad while blowing soap bubbles. It’s impossible.”
“Why would you be feeling bad?” I asked, taking the bottle in hand.
“Oh, not me.” He stood. “Truth is, I have something to tell you, and I’m not sure how you’re going to take it.”
I raised an eyebrow at him. How was I going to take what? “You can tell me anything, I promise.” It was the least I could do after the events of last night.
His smile turned soft. “It’s good news, actually. At least, I think it’s good news. I don’t feel bad about this.”
What was he talking about? I tilted my head. “Why don’t you tell me what’s going on?” I put both the apple and the soap bubbles down on the grass and sat beside my love.
He took the soap bubbles up and opened the bottle. Without saying anything, he blew into the stick and stared after the colorful bubbles it produced as they floated away on the mountain air.
I gave him time. Whatever he needed to say seemed important enough to warrant that. I was curious as hell, yeah, but if Griff needed me to be patient, I would be.
“You remember the night we first had sex?” he asked eventually.
