In like ten years. If he and Laird were still together and one of them was going to slow down a little at work and they had plenty of time, sure.
But not now.
“You okay? You seem a little stressed. Especially for a good day at work.” Lord, Laird did pay attention to him. It made him happy, but it was hard to handle sometimes.
“Fine. I had a little disagreement with Raven, and I have some things to think about, but it’s nothing serious. Nothing that would interrupt our date. Just work stuff.”
Him being pregnant was totally work stuff, right? He was fairly sure it counted as work stuff.
Well, they weren’t going to talk about it, him and Laird, not today. He was just being an idiot.
“How is Raven doing? I know you said he had a really rough pregnancy, but he’s back at work now, I guess?”
Devon nodded. “Yes, he’s back to work. He has a huge family here, so there are plenty of people to take care of the babies. His husband owns the gym in town.”
Laird blinked at him. “Ben? I work out there all the time. How did I not remember that?”
Because all they did was fuck constantly? “We’re both busy. So, you’ve seen the babies then? You have to have, because they’re both in there a lot.”
“I have. They’re adorable. I mean, seriously. So cute.” Laird was still kind of blinking at him, but he didn’t think it was necessarily a bad thing. It was just, they really needed to get to know each other if they were going to keep doing this.
“I delivered one of them. Raven ended up having to have a C-section for his second, so I didn’t deliver him, but I was there. I was in the room.” He shrugged, grinned. Laird didn’t care about this. “So, what are you thinking you want for food? Do you want the shrimp and grits, or do you want the pasta? The pasta looks pretty good.”
“I could totally do the pasta. Did you want to split it and have dessert then, or what are your thoughts?”
Devon laughed, the sound merry, even to his own ears. “Laird, you are a huge guy. Splitting an entree with me is not an option for you. Now, if you want to get the shrimp and grits and the pasta, and we can sort of share both, that’d be great.”
“And that’s what we’ll do.” Laird beamed at him. “I’m really thinking that mixed berry cobbler with the cardamom ice cream looks amazing for dessert. So if I get to split a couple of entrees with you, then I won’t gobble down a dozen appetizers.”
“Fair enough. I think we should totally do this. Although—” He leaned in. “I do think that we should get the fried cheese sampler.”
He knew that Laird loved fried cheese, and he could have one or two, and that Laird could have the rest.
“Oh, do you now? Does cheese sound good?”
Actually, he wasn’t sure, but cheese usually sounded good, so yes. “Yes, cheese sounds great.”
He caught himself staring at Laird, just sort of fascinated. The man was lovely, broad-shouldered and strong,And the little beard just made him look that much more studly.
Like a lumberjack.
Lumber Laird.
Okay, that was pretty funny.
“Cool.” Laird ordered for them when the server came, and that also kind of made him silly happy. He’d always read about that in the romance novels he adored, and thought it was…gallant. As long as Laird ordered him what he actually wanted.
And asked him what he wanted, didn’t assume that was less romantic.
It was weird because they just didn’t know what to talk about. After all, they’d already asked about work. They both knew what the weather was because they both lived here. Maybe the Spring Fling?
“Are you having to work during the Spring Fling festival? If you’re not, we could wander around. I don’t usually set up a booth or anything, it’s not like there’s another birthing center.”
Laird blinked at him. “To be perfectly honest, I haven’t been since I was a kid. It just seemed something kind of for families.”
“They have some neat food and some booths, lots of crafts and art that people have done for sale. The best part is watching all the people out in their spring finery.” He meant the kids because everybody else had on shorts and sweatshirts.
“That sounds like fun.” The smile Laird always gave him when he suggested another date was so much more intimate than their conversations… Surely Laird liked him a lot, so what was holding them back? He knew so much about the man on the surface but…
