“I’ll only tell you if you keep it to yourself.” Nick was basically family, right? Seriously, he spent more time with Nick than anybody, including his baby daddy.
“I’m totally telling the whole world. Everyone.” Nick was a massive man who filled up the bus with his shoulders and had a great big deep gravelly voice, who was as gentle as a kitten and just sort of glared at him. “Spill.”
“Devon is pregnant.” Laird met Nick’s curious gaze.
Those brown eyes widened. “What? Damn, man. He knows where babies come from.”
“So do I. We were using birth control.”
“Wow.” Nick blinked at him. “What are you going to do? I mean, I know you’re into him, but are you that into him? A baby is a big commitment.”
“I’m that into him. I really want him, like the whole package. I want the dad package.” He wanted midnight feedings, and the first everything?—
The first smile.
The first word.
The first step.
All of it.
“Dude, we don’t really live the dad lifestyle, and he’s a midwife. He works like a million hours a day. How are y’all gonna do that?” Nick was asking the questions that he really didn’t want to have to answer, but he had to because everybody was going to ask them.
“We’ll figure it out.” He had some ideas. If he didn’t have to pay rent, he could go down to part-time, pull shifts a couple of days a week. He’d go to school. If he worked at it really hard, he could be graduated in two years.
Three, depending on how it worked out with the baby.
Then he could go to work at the hospital, at the med center. Hell, he could have his own physical therapy practice.
“All right, well, congratulations, dude. Happy baby.” Nick clapped him on the back. “Do I get to be the godfather? Because, you know, I’d be great at that job.”
Laird detected no lies. “Yeah, I mean, I do have to introduce you to my partner. As in actually introduce you.”
“Cool, supper at my place the day after tomorrow? I make an empowering cheesecake.”
He could see that. Nick spent a lot of time looking up recipes while he was waiting to go out on a call.
“I think that’s a fantastic idea, man. Just don’t make anything with red sauce. He’s having a little trouble with acid-y tummy.”
“Well that sucks, but I can absolutely do that. I’ll come up with something…pot pie? What do you think about pot pie?” Nick looked so excited, and Laird felt a little bit guilty for not introducing him to Devon before.
This was the weirdest dating/courtship thing he’d ever encountered because he and Devon were so cautious and circling around each other. And he was done with all that now. He was going to show Devon that he was all in.
“I think Devon would love it. Let me check with him. I’ll text him, and then I’ll tell you.”
Hey babe?
Yeah?
My partner Nick would like to know if we could come to supper day after tomorrow.
Let me see.
There was a pause, then three dots. And then,
Yes, that should be fine. Raven has coverage all this week.
Cool, want me to pick up anything before I go home?
