Aylin tried to take a step away from him, but he playfully pulled her back. "Don't try to run away now."
Aylin smacked at his hand and he let her go with a laugh, turning to Aylin's mother with a smile. "I think we can all agree that the only bananas we'll see at the camp will be the kind we can eat."
Sam thought he'd worked around the pitfalls that his words could create, but he hadn't quite thought it through, because the whole group broke into laughs a moment later.
It gave Sam the time to think through what he'd said and groan as Viviana Blaise walked up and stepped into the circle.
"You walked right into that one, Caddo."
He nodded. "Sad, but true. I hadn't thought about all of the connotations."
"Don't let them pick at you, Caddo."
Chief Blaise was at his side and Sam shook his head. "I worry sometimes about the level of humor we react to on a daily basis."
Aylin leaned in so she could look at her father. "Honestly," she smothered her laugh and looked like she was trying to compose herself as she cleared her throat, "I wonder if you guys all have the collective sense of humor of a class full of teenage boys."
Rush shrugged and addressed the group. "Thora wonders the same thing when I tell her some of the jokes you guys talk about on shift."
Fish's jaw dropped and he looked mildly put out by Rush's words. "Excuse me? Are we talking about teen like thirteen or teen like seventeen?" He grinned at the group with his easy smile and affable nature. "Naw, never mind. You don't need to clarify. Wedohave the sense of humor of teenage boys." He shrugged. "At least that's what Sage tells me on a daily basis."
Sam grinned. Sage was Fish's wife and the two of them were hopelessly in love.
Something that he could now admit he was jealous of.
He didn't envy the two the difficulties they went through getting together, but the happiness that followed?
Yeah.
He was beginning to realize that he wanted that, too.
He'd seen Chief Blaise fall in love with Viviana and people who knew them often forgot that Aylin was adopted by the chief when she was almost an adult. They were just that close of a family. Rush and Thora had fallen in love when she'd come to the station intending to surrender her baby, afraid that she couldn't care for her. Rush had welcomed mother and daughter into his life and his home. They'd never left and instead, the couple had added to their family.
Peace and his wife Kylie had gotten together when she'd been at the scene of a child forgotten in a locked car and had broken the window to rescue the child. He'd admired her bravery and things fell into place after that.
And most recently, Rhett had been the one to fall when his friend's sister moved to San Antonio from Center City and needed a place to stay. Morgan and Rhett were a match that no one could deny. Even her older brother who'd considered kicking Rhett's ass for a hot moment.
Sam hadn't expected to meet someone like Seaton.
Really, he hadn't 'met' her yet.
He wanted to see the living, breathing woman.
And soon.
"So," he cleared his throat, "I need to get home."
Viviana and Aylin turned to look at him. Matching looks of open curiosity on their faces.
"What's going on?" "Oh? What's happening at home?"
The two women were eerily similar at times.
He wasn't sure what he wanted to say or what he wanted to reveal.
After all, he had no idea about Seaton's interest or lack thereof.
"I... I have some cookies from a neighbor waiting for me."
