Page 9 of A Baby for the Firefighter
“I see.” I looked back at my cupcakes.
“Do you know what he wanted?”
I licked my lips. There was probably no harm in telling my cousin. He already knew that Daniel wanted to talk to me, and seeing as he was the director of a fire department and I was a firefighter, it wasn't too hard to guess what he might want. “They need more people at the department.”
Shane was quiet for a moment, and I wondered if he feared I might take the job and stop helping him out with the business. “Are you tempted?”
I shrugged. “Not really.”
Shane raised a single eyebrow. “Not even a little bit? I know how much you love your job. Your actual job, I mean. Not taking care of seniors. I appreciate you coming down here to help me, really, but... it's been almost a year, man. I don't want to hold you up forever.”
“You're not holding me up.” Far from it. “If I wanted to go back to firefighting, I would go back to my old department.” But I was glad for the excuse to stay.
“Does that mean you don't want to go back to firefighting?”
Shit, did I say too much?
“Of course I want to go back to firefighting.” I laughed and hoped it convinced him. “Just not right now and not here. I've got your back, Shane.”
Shane looked like he didn't believe me a hundred percent, but he nodded anyway. “Okay, then.”
I suppressed a sigh of relief that we were done with this topic. Sooner or later, I would have to face my demons. But not for as long as I could avoid it.
* * *
An unfamiliar facegreeted me when I knocked on Griff’s door, cupcakes in hand.
“Uncle Griff!” the little boy called out. “Your friend is here!”
So this must be Jake. I recognized him, of course. Griff had shown me pictures. Tons of pictures. I hadn’t known the kid would be with us tonight, though.
“Come in!” Jake took me by the arm and dragged me inside before I could even utter a greeting. “I’m Jake, by the way.”
If I hadn't heard tales of the boy's energy levels before, I would have wondered if Griff fed him a ton of sugar before I arrived.
“Oh hey!” Griff got up from the couch when Jake led me into the living room. “You're early!”
I was only five minutes early, but to someone like Griff who was perpetually at least twenty minutes late to meetings, that must have felt like an hour. I gave him a smile—it was so easy to smile at Griff. “I guess I just couldn't wait to get here.” I still couldn’t believe he’d invited me for the evening.
Of course, I hadn’t thought thatJakewas invited as well.
What, did you think this was going to be a date? Get over yourself.
I bit back a sigh.
“I guess we’re not watching horror movies after all?”
Griff gave me a pained smile and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m sorry. I forgot that we talked about horror movies. But there’s some really good anime on Netflix that we could watch. I mean, if you want to?” His voice took on a cautiously hopeful tone at the end that was nothing short of endearing. God, he was cute. I remembered the first time I noticed that about him when I hit puberty and my alpha genes started to express themselves. I’d spent a few days out of town on a family trip, and when I came back, he’d startled me by throwing himself at me in a hug. I could never forget the way he’d smelled that day. Like all of my favorite treats combined. I’d wanted to pull him closer andlickhim. And when he broke away he left me feeling confused as hell. I hadn’t known how to handle my sudden attraction to my omega friend back then—and I still didn’t.
“I don’t mind watching anime,” I said when I realized that I’d been quiet for too long. Truth was, as long as I got to spend the night with Griff, I didn’t carewhatwe were doing. Shane was right. I was pining for this omega to an unhealthy degree.Especiallyconsidering he was my friend.
But there was nothing I could do about it. Nothing I reallywantedto do about it.
“I brought you something,” I said, holding the box I was carrying out to Griff.
Immediately, his face lit up. “Oh, is it cupcakes?”
“Cupcakes?” Jake perked up.
