Page 50 of A Baby for the Firefighter
“Not really,” I told him. “Dad seems stable. I tried to talk to my mom about it, but she avoids the topic. I figure she’s just not ready to talk yet.”
“I guess. It’s not too unusual for people to react that way.” Dean put his arm around my shoulders again and I let myself sink back into his touch, closing my eyes for a moment as his fingers gently stroked the fine hair above my ear, sending pleasant tingles down my spine.
“Yeah, I guess,” I said on an exhale. I liked the way his fingers felt. He had large hands, but they weren’t rough, no part of him was. So why was I still scared? Dean would never hurt me or abuse any power he had over me in any way. I was safe with him.
No, it wasn’t Dean I was scared of. It was me.
“I’m glad you let me come over today,” Dean said. “I do have some news to share.”
“Good news?” He’d said something like that on the phone, hadn’t he?
His smile fell just a little bit, but not long enough for me to worry. “Really good news, I think.”
I looked up at him curiously. “Did you win the lottery or something?”
“Or something.” He laughed. “I called the chief of the local fire department earlier today.”
“About the fire at my parents’ house?”
He shook his head. “No, to ask for a job. Actually, he’s been trying to get me on board for a while, so it really wasn’t difficult to get in.”
“Oooh.” I felt my eyes grow wide and a happy, bubbly feeling rising in the pit of my stomach. “You’re joining the local fire department?” That meant he would stay, and I know he’d hinted at it before, but now it was like, definite. He didn’t need to go back to his old firefighting job if he could do the same in Oceanport.
“Yeah, I guess I am.”
Hearing those words, I got the same rush of euphoria I had the night before. And I reacted almost the same way too—I leaned up and kissed him. His lips on mine felt so good that, immediately, I wanted more again. God, I wanted him and everything I’d fantasized about in the shower that morning.
But I made myself stop and draw back, because what I did not want was a repeat of the night before. No, we needed to talk about this shit before going forward.
“I love that you’re staying,” I told him instead of expressing my feelings with kisses and touches the way I really wanted to.
“Because it means you’ll never have to go without cupcakes again?”
I burst out laughing because he managed to look so serious while he asked that. Silly Dean. “No, because it means… that we can be together.” That I finally got a shot at getting everything my brother had. That we could be a family someday, maybe, hopefully. The most omega part of me was already picturing babies with Dean’s eyes. I wasn’t going to tell him that, though. It was way, way too early for us to be having thoughts like that.
“Yeah, I love that too.” Dean kissed the side of my face, and it took me a second to remember that he was talking about being together rather than starting a family. Silly me. In any case, I had to get over my sex phobia before I could think about having babies.
Honestly, though, if he was going to be wearing a uniform, that might just make things easier.
“When are you starting this new job?” I asked.
“I’m only on part-time right now, since I still need to help Shane, but I get to take a look around the department tomorrow.”
“Are they giving you a uniform?”
He smiled as though he knew exactly where my thoughts were heading. “I imagine so.”
“Can you put that on outside of work?”
A chuckle made it past his lips. “Icould,” he said. “Why, would you like that?”
“I might.” I kissed the line of his jaw, trying not to imaginetoohard how he was going to look in his uniform. “What about your cupcake business, though?” I asked.
He laughed. “You know why I made so many cupcakes? It wasn’t really because I wanted to open up a bakery.”
“No?” I tilted my head at him. That was news to me.
“No.” He ran his fingers through my hair, playing with the strands. “Do you know why I even started baking, honestly?” His eyes twinkled.
