A Baby for the Firefighter

by Ann-Katrin Byrde

  “Great!” I inhaled. I didn't know why I was so nervous, but suddenly I couldn't wait to get out of the park and get back home. “I'll see you Saturday then.”

  “At seven?”

  “Sure.”

  “I'm looking forward to it.”

  “Yeah, me too.” I gulped, and then I turned on my heels and left, wondering why I was such a mess. It wasn’t like anything was ever going to happen between Dean and me. There was no way he liked me like that, and even if he did… I sighed.

  Even if he did, I was still a blushing virgin with no experience. There was no way I could land a guy as hot as him, no matter what fantasies I held in my heart. They were just fantasies.

  Nothing more.

  2

  Griffin

  I had to be quiet now. Real quiet. Carefully, I adjusted my camera's focus as I looked through the viewfinder at the bird I was trying to photograph. A blue jay. The lighting was perfect today. Clear sky. Just enough sunlight without being too much. And not a cloud in sight.

  Luck was with me.

  Or not.

  Because the moment I clicked the shutter, a loud noise startled the bird and it took to the air.

  I suppressed a sigh. The loud noise was my nephew of course.

  “Uncle Griff!” he called out.

  “Yeah?” I glanced at the kid, who was pointing downhill from where we were, a short way into the forest behind the town.

  “I think I saw a fox! Can we take a picture of it?”

  I'd be happy if we could take any good pictures today.

  Jake had asked me to teach him about photography, and I'd thought it might be fun to take him into the woods, but so far the only thing that kept the nine-year-old's interest seemed to be catching bugs and stomping through the underbrush.

  “You know what's important when you're trying to take shots of animals?” I asked him.

  He tilted his head to one side and looked at me curiously. “What?”

  “Not scaring them away by yelling your uncle’s name is a good start.”

  “What else should I yell?”

  Smart ass. “You shouldn’t yell at all!”

  “I'm sorry,” Jake said. “But there was a fox.” He stressed the last word and waved his arm as if I was being ridiculously dense by not seeing how important this was.

  “We're in the forest. We'll see tons of critters. If you don't spook them all.” But knowing my nephew, I had come prepared. It was time to enact plan B. Reaching around, I dug a little compact camera out of my bag. I'd taken it as a last resort, so to say. I loved Jake, but he was famous for breaking my stuff. Still, he wasn't going to learn anything if I never gave him a camera. I showed it to him. “Next time you see a cool animal, don't tell me about it. Take a picture.”

  “Ooooh, cool!” He grabbed the small device out of my hand without hesitation.

  “Be careful please.”

  “I'm always careful!”

  Right...

  We trudged on further up the hill. As we went, Jake stopped pointing out animals. At one point, he even went up close to a tree with a bird in it, but it flew away. I had the hardest time not feeling a little happy about his prey getting away.

  “Hey, stop laughing!” Jake complained. “This is hard!”

  “Sorry. But yeah it is. Makes it all the more rewarding when you snap the perfect shot, though,” I promised. Really, that was my favorite thing about these trips. I wasn't in love with hiking, or with the idea of getting up at the break of dawn, but if that meant I could capture the beauty of a perfect sunrise on a photograph? Totally worth the pain. Critters were tricky, because they moved, but I'd hoped that would make the day less boring to Jake.

  But even giving him animals to stalk wasn't enough to keep the energetic boy quiet. Not entirely.

  “Uncle Griff?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Are you sad that we moved out?”

  One of my eyebrows went up. Had his daddy told him to ask me that? “Are you sad?” I turned the question back on him.

  “I miss watching cartoons with you.”

  Awww. “But we still do that!” I would never give up watching cartoons with my nephew. I dreaded the day he decided he was too old for it.

  “But not on Sunday mornings when Daddy wants to sleep in.”

  He had a point there. My Sunday mornings were pretty boring these days. “Maybe you should stay over next weekend. How would you like that?” His old room was still empty. Honestly, I had too much space.

  “How about this weekend?” Jake asked.

  “I uh... kind of have plans this weekend.”

  Don't blush, Griff. You're not doing anything worth blushing over. My cheeks heated up so quickly it was ridiculous. I only hoped Jake was still too young to draw any conclusions from that.

  “What kind of plans?” The boy regarded me curiously. “Can I come?”

  “I'm doing something with a friend.” A friend and nothing more than a friend. “Don't tell your daddy about it, okay?”

  Jake's eyes went wide. “Is it a secret?”

  Oh no, now I'd really sparked his curiosity. “It's not a secret,” I said quickly. “I just don't think he needs to know.” Really, all I had planned was a movie night with a friend, but if Eli heard of it, he would get it all wrong. Dean wasn't my boyfriend, and we weren't going to be a thing, but try telling my brother that. I only had to shake an alpha's hand and Eli heard wedding bells in his head.

  Just because he'd gotten married. Didn't mean I was going to. I didn't care what people said, there was no reason an alpha and an omega couldn’t just be friends.

  Even if that alpha was hot as hell and shaking his hand gave me all sorts of conflicting feelings I didn’t want to think about. Truth was, I'd brought him garlic bread on our last meeting just to make him stop smelling so damn alpha. That smell always made me want to do things I wasn’t sure I should.

  Things I wasn’t brave enough to do, anyway.

  “So can I come?” Jake asked again, pulling me out of my thoughts.

  “We'll be staying up very late.”

  “I don't mind staying up late.”

  Of course he didn't. “Your daddy will mind.”

  Jake grinned. “I'll keep your secret if you keep mine.”

  My mouth dropped open just slightly. Was my nine-year-old nephew blackmailing me?

  Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to have him around. Really, why shouldn't he come? It wasn't like Dean and I were having a date or anything. “Okay,” I said eventually. “You can come, but only if you promise to go to bed after the second movie.”

  “Promise.” Jake's grin grew wider, but I knew he was going to stick to our agreement. He was a good kid when he wasn't breaking my stuff or blackmailing me.

  Now I only had to talk to Eli about our weekend arrangements. Make sure he and Matt didn't already have something planned for Jake.

  My brother greeted me with a stern look when I dropped his son off at his house after our little hike in the woods. Uh-oh. I knew that look. “What, did I do something wrong?” I held my hands up defensively.

  “Where were you? I tried to call you an hour ago! I was waiting with dinner.”

  “Dinner's ready?” Jake squeezed past Eli into the house while I rubbed the back of my neck.

  “You called? I'm sorry, I didn't hear my phone.”

  Eli seemed nonplussed by that response. “I called like five times! You know I worry when you take Jake out into the forest. Do you even have your phone with you?”

  “Not like anything is going to happen to us in the woods. You don't have to worry.” I went out all the time, and nothing ever happened. And honestly, after all these years, Eli should know that he could trust me with Jake.

  “You never know when something's going to happen,” he insisted. “And you shouldn't wander out there without a phone. It's irresponsible!”

  “Of course I have my phone!” Or did I? I searched my pockets and came up with nothing. Damn. For som
e reason, I could never remember to take the stupid thing. “Okay, maybe I don't have it. But nothing happened.”

  Eli sighed. “I'm going to have to inject a tracking device into you. Or into Jake.”

  “A little drastic, don't you think?”

  “Just kidding.” He waved me off. “But if that was a possibility...”

  “Dude.”

  Eli gave me a half-hearted shrug. “You'll get it when you have your own kids.”

  That comment stung a little bit. “You know I love Jake like a son.”

  “I know, I know. I'm sorry. I just can't be laid-back where he's concerned, that's what I meant. It's some omega instinct gone crazy. You'll see what I mean.”

  Would I?

  My silence seemed to make my brother reconsider his words. “I mean, if you want to have kids.” It wasn't a question, but it sure felt like one.

  I didn't know how to respond to it, though. Yeah, I wanted to have kids someday, but someday seemed to be slipping farther and farther away. At this point, I wasn’t sure it was ever going to happen. Didn’t matter, though, right? Because I could still spend time with Eli’s kids. It wasn’t some great tragedy if I never had a baby of my own. Not every omega needed that.

  It would sure be nice, though…

  When I watched Eli with his husband and children, I couldn’t deny that I wanted what he had. I had no idea how to go about getting it, though, and so I only shrugged in response to my brother. “Maybe.” And because I really didn't want to continue this line of conversation, I changed the topic. “Is it okay if Jake stays over at my place this weekend? Saturday to Sunday.”

  “If you don't have anything more fun to do on your weekend...”

  I wondered if my brother realized his constant subtle attempts at getting information about my love life weren't so subtle at all. “What could be more fun than watching cartoons with my nephew?”

  “Watching cartoons with your nephew and your niece?” Eli tried.

  I laughed. “Oh no, that's not working.” My niece was just under a year old, and I adored her, but I spent enough of my time babysitting already. “Boy's night.”

  “It was worth a try. Oh well. You can have Jake. Just have him in bed by ten.”

  “Sure, I will.”

  “And don't feed him so much sugar again.”

  I cringed as Eli reminded me of the last time Jake had been over at my place. He'd found one of my emergency snack stashes and ate it. All of it. After that disaster, I'd briefly thought about getting rid of my snack stashes, but really... who was I kidding?

  “There might be a few cupcakes,” I said before I could stop myself.

  “Cupcakes?” Eli's eyebrows shot up.

  Damn.

  “Is your friend coming?” Eli asked before I could take back what I'd said.

  “We're just friends, okay? We're watching movies, that's all.”

  “Right,” Eli said in a tone that told me he didn't believe me even a little bit. “Are you sure you want to have Jake over for that?”

  “Can you please just believe me that nothing's going to happen?”

  “Okay, okay.” Eli held his hands up. “Nothing's going to happen.”

  “Thank you,” I said while quenching the nervous flutters in my stomach. I had no reason to be nervous. I was only meeting up with a friend. Right?

  3

  Dean

  Flames licked at the walls and the floor groaned underneath my feet. Smoke hung in the air, and even though I wore a mask, I still felt like it was creeping into my nose, carrying with it the sharp acrid smell of burned plastic. This house wasn’t going to last much longer. I knew how these things went. We’d gotten here too late and the fire was too powerful. Any moment now, I’d get the order to retreat.

  But I’d heard a cry for help. Someone was still up here, and I wasn’t going to give up on them so easily.

  I needed to get them out before the fire could consume them. That was my job.

  The billowing smoke made it hard to see, and I couldn’t find them. Not even with the thermal camera.

  Breathe, Dean. Keep calm.

  The moment I lost my nerves, it was game over. Panicking was a rookie mistake.

  But so was underestimating a burning building.

  I took another step forward, and then the floor gave way.

  With a crack, I tumbled down into the flames below.

  And just before the fire could eat me alive, I woke.

  Sitting up, I rubbed my face. It had been over a year now since I’d crashed and nearly burned, but it seemed I hadn’t quite recovered yet. At least these dreams had become a lot more infrequent since I’d returned to Oceanport. There was just something about this small town that put my mind at ease, and it wasn’t just my cute omega friend, although I’ll admit he played a huge part.

  Stretching, I got out of bed, the dream already fading in the morning light. I had a full day of activities ahead of me, and an evening with my best friend to look forward to.

  Nothing could really make me feel bad when I had the chance to spend time with Griff. His smiles were so bright that even one would be enough to chase any nightmare away, and I knew just what to do to get one.

  I was going to do a little baking today.

  The timer pinged and I grabbed my oven mitts to get the fresh batch of cupcakes I was baking out of the oven. Immediately, the smell of sugar, cinnamon and chocolate filled the kitchen. I drew it deep into my nose as I put the cupcakes on the counter to cool. This was my third favorite part of baking.

  My cousin came into the kitchen just as I was putting the icing on the cupcakes. “More cupcakes?” he asked. “I can’t believe you still haven’t given up on that strategy.” But even as he said that, he reached for them. “You can spare one for your cousin, right?”

  “Sure, go ahead.”

  Seeing my grumpy cousin smile after taking a bite was my second favorite part of baking. Just last year Shane’s omega spouse had passed away, leaving him to raise their two children and manage the business they’d started together on his own. I’d figured I’d stay with him for a while to help him get back on his feet. I’d wanted to get out of Portland anyway, after that last job, and returning home had seemed like the perfect way to do that. A while had now turned into several months, but my cousin seemed to be coming out of his shell a bit more lately, and that was good.

  “Did they turn out all right?” I asked.

  “Sure,” he said, leaning against the counter. “Still won’t get you into that omega’s pants, though.”

  I barely kept from rolling my eyes. “I’m not trying to get into anyone’s pants.”

  “Sure, sure. So you’re not going out to see him tonight?”

  Busted. I was going to see Griff tonight, but I hadn’t made these cupcakes to get into his pants. No, I’d made them because seeing Griff’s face light up when he ate one? That was my most favorite thing about baking. He was freaking adorable when he was happy. That was reward enough. “So what if I made some of these cupcakes for Griff?” I put two aside. “Give these to Conner and Mary later.” Shane’s kids. Conner was eight and Mary was almost two, and the two of them loved cupcakes almost as much as Griff did.

  “Thanks,” Shane said.

  “Where are they, anyway?”

  “Mary’s down for a nap and Conner… Well, you know Conner.”

  I nodded, because I did know what he meant. Whenever I looked for Conner, nine times out of ten, I’d find him sitting in a quiet corner of the house, nose stuck in a book.

  “I don’t know where he gets it from,” Shane mumbled, then he shook his head. “But anyway, we were talking about your date.”

  “It’s not a date.” Even if Griff had kind of sounded like he was asking me on a date, I’m sure that couldn’t have been his intention. He’d mentioned more than once that he wasn’t interested in any romantic relationships at this point in time.

  Shane gave me a look that was almost thoughtful. “You know, I�
�ve heard things about Griff.”

  “What kind of things?”

  “Things that make me think no one’s been in his pants.”

  “Can we please stop talking about Griff’s pants?” I was so annoyed at the thought of other people discussing my friend’s virginity over a few beers. They only did that because he was an omega, and omegas were universally expected to ‘put out.’ An omega no one had been to bed with? Scandalous. Surely something must be wrong with him.

  I despised that kind of talk. Especially since Griff was almost as sweet as the sugar he loved so much. He shouldn’t have shit flung at him.

  “You can’t tell me you’re not interested,” Shane said.

  “Okay.” I exhaled in exasperation and ran a hand through my hair. “So I’m interested. So what? What alpha in their right mind wouldn’t be interested? He’s fucking gorgeous and he smells like heaven. Does that mean I’m going to bone him when he clearly doesn’t want me to? Hell no. I’m not going to put any pressure on him.” I had few enough friends as it was, and I wasn’t going to lose Griff because I couldn’t keep my hormones under control.

  “Sheesh, calm down.” Shane ate the rest of his cupcake and licked his fingers. “I’m only teasing you. And honestly, you’ve been doing the cupcake thing for months now, so if you were trying to get with him, maybe you need to step up your game or try something else.”

  “I’m not trying anything. He likes cupcakes. I make him cupcakes. That’s all.”

  Shane sighed. “You’re hopeless.”

  “Hey, friendship is better than nothing.”

  “Is it?” Shane seemed skeptical.

  I ignored him.

  “You know you could have any omega in town if you wanted. They’re all salivating at the thought of a night with the hot firefighter.” Shane laughed just a little.

  “I don’t want just any omega.”

  Shane shook his head. “Hopeless,” he said again. He turned to leave the kitchen, but then he stopped. “Daniel called earlier, asking for you.” I looked up at that. Daniel was the director of the local fire department, and I'd successfully avoided talking to him for the last couple of days. “Yeah?” I asked. “Did he say anything?”