Except it wasn’t out of line because Raven was his best friend and his co-owner, and Raven was right. He’d been having sex. No birth control was a hundred percent effective. He knew this.
But surely that wasn’t the problem here. He didn’t really want to take a pregnancy test before he went to meet Laird at the restaurant, but he would take one tomorrow. That way he would stop wigging out about it.
“I’m sorry, Raven. I didn’t mean to snarl at you.” Devon took a deep breath and then let it out. “Of course, there’s always the possibility that I’m pregnant, but I’ve been really careful. Laird and I—if nothing else, we just work so much, I don’t know how it would possibly work between us to have kids and try to live together.”
Raven just nodded at him. Looking serious but sweet, which was really one of his superpowers.
“So,” Devon went on. “Besides, that’s kind of putting the cart before the horse, isn’t it? I mean, it isn’t like Laird has asked me to live with him or even to spend more time with him than dates.”
“Maybe you need to make sure he knows you want to. If you’ve expressed to him your doubts about yourself and hot guys, maybe he thinks that taking it slow is the way to reassure you that he’s totally into you.”
Devon frowned. “It can’t be that easy, can it?”
“Sometimes the simplest answer is the best answer.” Raven chuckled. “Anyway, knit for a minute. Breathe, and when it’s time to go meet Laird, put on your new relationship cap and say, ‘Do I want him to know how I feel about him?’ And if you do, give in and live a little, Dev.”
“I think I can do that. At least I hope I can.” He might as well put his heart out there on his sleeve and let Laird know what he felt. Because then if it didn’t work out, at least it would be over quickly, and this terrible hope that he had in his belly would go away.
He knitted until he left for Fuel, and when he pulled up at the parking downtown, Laird met him at his car, smiling and bending to kiss him. In public. “Hey, baby.”
“Hey, you, how’s it going?” He couldn’t stop his smile, and he didn’t want to. He just wanted to be here with Laird and have a good evening, possibly really get his rocks off.
“Better now.” Laird looped an arm around him and they headed to the restaurant, the little downtown area starting to bloom, even if it was still pretty cold.
“Oh, good. Did you have a bad day at work?” It warmed him a lot to know that Laird thought he was the best part of his day.
“It was just really busy. There was a car accident out on the highway and it wasn’t nice.”
“Oh no, tell me it wasn’t someone I know, or even someone I don’t know.” That sounded awful because he didn’t want to only worry about people who were in his circle of friends and acquaintances.
“It was not somebody local, if that’s what you mean.” Laird shrugged. “They were passing through on the way from Delta to Telluride, and they just flippedtheir car. A lot. But they’re alive and in stable condition at the hospital in Montrose.”
“Oh, that’s good. Still, that has to be so stressful. I always hate it when a patient is in trouble.” Devon patted Laird’s arm.
“Yeah, it makes for a rough one. And then there were a few other problems. There was a domestic over in Hot Springs Junction, and that’s always gut-churning.” Laird’s voice took on a rough, almost angry quality, and he understood that meant somebody had been messing with an omega. Laird really had that protective quality about him. Devon found that incredibly appealing.
“Well, now we can have dinner and just enjoy ourselves.” They stepped inside the restaurant, and the hostess, who knew both of them, nodded and grabbed a couple of menus.
“Come on, guys, I’ll get you seated.”
“Thanks.” Devon smiled at her. “How’s your sister Angie? Is she doing well?”
“She’s doing great.” They got seated, and she handed them their menus. “What can I get you guys to drink?”
They had their drink orders in by the time they sort of settled down and got back into conversation.
“How was work for you?”
Devon grinned. “It’s been a good day. Normal. No babies. It seems to go in waves, right? I’ll go for a couple of weeks and not have any births, and then I’ll have a three-day period where it seems like eight babies have shown up. I think that the alphas do it on purpose.” He winked to prove he was teasing.
“Oh, I imagine there’s some sort of cycle to it, right? Omegas going into heat, alphas are there to do their thing.”And Laird sort of drew out that last bit, making him laugh because, yeah, Laird could really do that thing.
“I do like it when a certain alpha does his thing.” He grinned and refused to think about how Raven thought he could be pregnant because he couldn’t be pregnant.
It just wasn’t going to be a thing. He was not going to be pregnant. Not now. Not ever.
Well, or at least not now.
Maybe someday.
