Page 85 of A Baby for the Firefighter
With that important note added, I got dressed, picked up my photography gear and headed out.
36
Dean
When I woketo find Griff gone, I wasn’t immediately worried. No, I got up, found the note in the living room, and figured he’d be back any minute while I ate my breakfast, which consisted of yes, a bowl of Cheerios and no pickles.
Seriously, only someone pregnant could worry about having their pickles stolen.
When Griff was still not back by the time I finished eating, I started wondering where he might have gone, and how long ago. I liked to sleep in late on the weekends when I could, while Griff often got up quite a bit earlier. He said he did it to catch the cartoons on TV, but I knew that he was just really in love with the morning sky. Not that he would ever tell you that.
After another hour passed without a peep from him, I looked around the living room. It was nearing noon now, and I couldn’t help but wonder what he was doing outside for so long. Like a detective, I looked for clues. Griff had evidently dressed in his clothes from yesterday—probably so he wouldn’t wake me. His camera was gone as well. I concluded that he must have gone out to take some pictures. If he’d decided to go all the way out into the woods for that—which I knew he loved to do—it wasn’t odd that he wasn’t back yet.
Still, worry grew in the back of my mind. It wasn’t like him to just up and leave like that. Not for so long. Normally, he would have at least waited until I was up to tell me if he was going to be gone for hours.
I decided to call him on his cell phone, since there was no reason for me to pace the living room and worry needlessly when I could just ask him what he was doing.
But only a moment after I’d dialed his number I heard his ring tone coming from the bedroom.
Of course.
He hadn’t taken his phone. I sighed. One day I was going to have to glue the phone to his hand or something. Or put a tracker on him. His brother joked about doing that sometimes. I didn’t find it so funny anymore.
Calm down, Dean. You have no reason to worry. Griff is going to waltz in through the door any minute and you’re going to feel silly.
I stroked some hair back from my face. The voice inside my head was right. My boyfriend was a grown man, and he didn’t need me to worry about him when he’d simply gone out to take some photographs.
Trying to take my mind off the issue, I turned on the TV. It couldn’t hold my attention. Still, I kept my eyes glued to the screen. I wasn’t going to leave this house before Griff came back and I could hold him safe in my arms again.
I held out for exactly thirty minutes before I decided to call Eli. I didn’t have his number, but it was on Griff’s phone, and maybe my boyfriend had decided to hang out at his brother’s after taking a stroll in the woods. It was possible, right?
Eli answered his phone after a few rings. “Hi. What’s up?”
“Hey, it’s Dean. I was just wondering if you’d heard from Griff today.”
“Oh, hi, Dean. No, I haven’t heard from Griff. Don’t tell me he forgot to take his phone again.” Eli’s irritation was apparent in his voice, though it was still light-hearted.
“I’m afraid he has.”
“I see. I’m sorry I can’t help you. I haven’t heard from him,” he said again, then he paused. “I’ve heardabouthim, though.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Our mother came by here earlier, totally out of the blue and crying.”
“Your mother?” What wassheup to now?
“Yeah, I was shocked too.” Eli gave a little laugh before turning serious again. “She said she’d been in a fight with Griff and wanted to tell me how much she loved me.” I heard the frown in his tone. “She was really upset.”
“She and Griff had a fight?” I licked my lips. If this fight had left his mother at the point of tears, it must have devastated Griff as well. He was such a sensitive soul. Especially now that his hormones were out of whack. “Did she say what they were fighting about?”
“She wasn’t really coherent, honestly. She babbled on about babies, though, so I'm pretty sure it had something to do with that.”
I groaned. “She must have confronted him about the pregnancy.”
“I guess so, yeah.” Eli sounded less than happy himself. “I was afraid there was going to be a fight about that sooner or later.”
I couldn’t argue with him there. I’d seen it coming too. I just hadn’t done enough to prevent it, or maybe it couldn’t have been prevented. I wasn’t sure. That didn’t matter now, though. What mattered was finding out where Griff had gone. Damn it, why couldn’t I have woken up early? “When did your mother show up at your place?”
