“Well, yeah, it breaks my heart. I can’t bear it. Can you imagine if it was my own kid? Nope, I think I’m better off without them.” Nick nodded sagely as if that was that.
“You’re so full of shit.” Laird shook his head, shuffling the cards. “Prepare to go down, guys, tonight’s my night.”
They all laughed and Laird started dealing out the cards after Nick cut the deck. This was one of the really unexpected pleasures of having a partner. Now he didn’t feel like the third or fifth wheel anymore, and Devon felt a little sorry for Nick because he knew exactly what that was like. But this was Secret Springs. He was sure Nick would find someone soon.
Chapter
Twelve
Laird put the rest of his stuff in his locker and closed it up, glad to be done with cleaning out the bus and heading home from work this morning. He’d had to pull a double because one of the other EMTs was down with the flu, and they couldn’t leave a bus unattended.
Nick had done a double too, partnering up with the other person who was missing their second in the bus. It had left Laird out of sorts and grumpy because he and Nick were like a well-oiled machine, and working with someone new was really tough.
Not to mention the fact that there had been a terrible car accident with a possible limb amputation involved and also a little kid who had choked on a piece of candy. That had just made his night complete.
For a minute he thought about just going to the truck stop and having breakfast, not going home and waking up Devon. Not that Devon wouldn’t be awake by the time he got home, probably, early as it was.
Devon had to get up and get a lot of stuff done before he headed into the birthing center most days.
It wasn’t even that Laird didn’twant to see Devon. In fact, he did. That smiling face always made his chest feel less tight and his hands unclench. But he didn’t want to inflict his stories of the night on Devon first thing in the morning and have his omega thinking about him all day.
On the good side, he was fixing to have three days off, assuming that no one else came down sick. And he could just right himself from this and pick up where he left off.
He rested his head against his locker for a minute, just about the time he had convinced himself to go have breakfast and let Devon have a nice quiet morning, when he got a text, his phone buzzing in his pocket. He grabbed it out to look at it, and sure enough, it was from Devon.
You coming home?
Laird stared at the phone for a minute and then took a deep breath before calling rather than texting back.
“Hey.” Devon sounded a little breathless. “Sorry, I was across the room from my phone and I had to sprint. Are you doing okay? I read about the accident on the morning news email delivery I get.”
“My night sucked, baby. I was just thinking about going to the truck stop for breakfast and not inflicting myself on you.”
“I’ll meet you there. I don’t have a client until ten thirty so I have plenty of time. You can tell me about it.”
Devon’s words were welcome, and he found himself nodding, even smiling. “Sounds great. I’ll meet you there. I’ll order us coffees.”
“I want waffles and bacon.”
“Sweet tooth.”
Devonsnorted. “Well, duh.”
He hung up, and then headed over to the truck stop, whistling, his mood already kind of buoyed by the fact that his lover wanted to hang out for breakfast.
After food, he was going to go home, and he was going to sleep. Then maybe he’d get up and make something for dinner for them tonight. Nick was teaching him some amazing recipes now that he was domesticated.
Devon was on call this week, so it would be nice. He wasn’t sure if there were any babies due or not. He didn’t think so.
He ran through all the recipes in his repertoire, thinking of things that weren’t too acidy, which still gave Devon trouble.
He could make chicken spaghetti—it was a little hot but not too acidic.
Potatoes au gratin with ham, because he knew how to make that. He wondered if he could buy cheese sauce in a jar. He knew the dish was potatoes, cheese sauce, and ham.
He’d call his mom. Maybe if he called his mom, she’d bring over scalloped potatoes with ham, so he’d never have to cook. He could just pretend like he was magical and feed his lover.
That was an amazing idea. He’d call her after breakfast and ask her how to make cheese sauce. And then she’d say, “Oh, honey, you go sleep. I’ll make you cheese sauce.”
