Chapter 2
Chapter
Two
Devon sat in his car, eyes closed, his half-knitted sock in his lap.
He supposed he really should have slept at the birth center, but he really wanted a cup of coffee he hadn’t made himself. So he’d driven down to the new coffee shop, finding, of course, that it was still closed at three o’clock in the morning.
So he turned on his little neck light, and he’d knitted for a while, but then he realized that he was tearing out as many stitches as he was putting in, so he put it in his lap.
It had been a long damn couple of days. Charlie had been in labor for thirty-six hours before Devon finally called for the ambulance and had them take the man to Montrose.
He didn’t think anything was desperately wrong, and he didn’t think anybody was in danger, but he didn’t like the way that the blood pressures were running. So, he figured better safe than sorry.
Raven was on bed rest with his pregnancy, which was not going great. So Devon was running things basically on his own.
Thank God for Naomi. She was a queen among women, and he felt like she could do almost everything with the actual deliveries at least for twenty-four hours. He needed a day.
But he really needed it to be five o’clock or five thirty, whatever, so that the coffee shop would open, because he had to have a cup or he was never going to be able to drive home.
He’d just dozed off again when someone knocked on his window, scaring the fire out of him. Devon damn near peed himself, and he hit his head on the seat rest.
“Ow!”
He peered out the window, and he saw a vaguely familiar face. Under a watch cap, there was a rugged, square and angled face, a short beard, and bright blue eyes. He searched his birth bank memory and came up with Mhairi. Her brother.
“You okay?” the guy called. Laird. His name was Laird.
“Yeah, I was waiting for a cup of coffee.” And at this point, he wasn’t sure if he could move. He had to pee, he was cold, his joints were frozen, and he was tired, like bone-deep tired. “Maybe a muffin. Although I really don’t give a shit if there’s any muffins.”
You don’t cuss, remember? Hush. No cussing.
“They don’t open for…” Laird peered at the door. “Another forty-five minutes. Would you like to go to the truck stop?”
Wait. Was the guy asking him to coffee? Or something?
He shook his head. “I can’t.” The truck stop was on the other side of the bridge. He pointed toward the row of neat old houses a few blocks over. “This is where I live.”
“At the fire station?”
“No. A few blocks over.” He was too tired to drive anymore.
“I can take you, man. You look wrung out, and I was on my way somewhere to eat anyway. I’ve had a long double shift.” The guy grinned, his breath puffing out in frosty clouds.
“I’ve been on for a while myself.” He swayed a little bit frowning. “You don’t like me, remember? Mean to me, you thought that my birthing center was not clean.”
Maybe he was too tired to keep his mouth shut.
The guy sighed, another plume of breath frosting out. “Can we discuss why we don’t get along someplace warmer and with coffee? I promise not to leave you stranded, but I can’t just leave you here to freeze or to get carbon monoxide poisoning.”
“Okay.” This was a mercy coffee. Whatever. He could have pancakes and coffee at the truck stop, then crash for a few hours.
“Come on, Devon. Out of the car.”
He felt slow and sluggish climbing out of the vehicle, but his head cleared a little as soon as he hit the cold air.
And his stomach growled.
Whoa.
“That was intense.”
He glanced at the EMT. “I haven’t eaten since a protein bar two days ago. I had an omega in trouble.”
“Well, then you need more than a muffin.” Laird took his arm and led him to a big pick-up with really good snow tires.
He was unceremoniously hauled up in the cab without so much as a by your leave, and he would fuss, but it was easier than climbing up.
Then Laird closed the door and went around to the driver’s side.
Devon woke up at the truck stop when Laird parked in front of the diner section. “Come on, Devon. Let’s go eat.”
“All right.” He yawned. He needed a vat of coffee.
“Careful now.” Laird came around and kind of walked him in, half holding him up. “I rode with your patient to Montrose.”
“I wanted to go with him, but Kaleb insisted I stay here. Said I was worn out and he wanted me to rest too.” He hated leaving Charlie in the lurch, but it would’ve been a very long drive back, and honestly he didn’t believe that Charlie was in any real danger. He just wanted to make absolutely sure.
“It has to suck, though, to have a patient have to leave before the job is done.” He got a surprisingly sympathetic smile. “Happens to all of us.”
They walked into the cafe, and Devon smiled at the waitress on duty. “Hi, Millie.”
“Hey, Dev. You look wore out.”
“Yeah, there’s a baby coming and he ended up in Montrose. Always makes me feel a little bit like I messed something up,” he confessed.
Millie grinned at him, “Oh honey, you and I both know that you’re the most careful of all. Everybody wants you to be the one who delivers their baby, but it doesn’t happen every time.”
“No.” He had to be exhausted, because tears stung his eyes. “But Charlie is my friend, and I feel awful.”
“He needs some pancakes, Millie.”
“You’re a smart one, Laird McCallum. You sit. I’ll get decaf. And don’t argue with me. You both need to go home and sleep after this.”
“I think I need a cup of coffee as big as my head, Mill, just to get me up the stairs.” His house had a little flight of stairs leading up to the living room. But it was his house, three stories, long and thin, old and a little drafty, but basically perfect.
“I’ll get you home, okay?” Laird steered him to a booth and kind of plopped him down on one side. “Decaf is fine.”
He grimaced. “Are you always this pushy?”
“Yes.” Laird grinned, and his bright blue eyes twinkled, and suddenly he was very pretty. In a manly, pushy way.
Devon still wasn’t going to like him, no matter what, because…of reasons.
“Well, fine.” He crossed his arms over his chest and slumped back in his seat.
“So, what do you like for early morning breakfast, man?”
“Pancakes. I am a carb loader. Pancakes for days.”
“See, I knew it.”
“Are you an egg white omelet?” Devon asked, knowing it was a little mean.
“Lumberjack breakfast. I can burn two thousand calories in a shift.”
“I bet you can.”
Devon never worried about how much he could burn. He had a treadmill in his office now, as well as a membership to his friend Ben’s gym. He ran a lot when the babies were on their way, and he didn’t have anything else to do. In fact, he spent a lot of time running.
He could probably be one of those scary marathoners. Maybe that was what he could get into, marathons.
He didn’t know. It sounded kinda hot. At least in his office there was a fan blowing on him all the time, so he could just be running. And the gym was climate-controlled.
And he didn’t have to worry about snakes or moose or bears because it was his office and there were very rarely bears in his office. When he’d been into trail running a few years back, he’d encountered bears and mountain lions. Scary.
Of course, his friend Kynan was kind of bear-shaped, although really he thought that Andrew wore the pants in that family.
“Yeah. So it didn’t go great tonight?”
“Charlie has a history of going into labor early. And if you were in the bus with him, you know about his blood pressure and all.” He shrugged. “I hate when I can’t go start to finish.”
“Well, I appreciate that you took the hit and called in an ambulance.”
“Of course I did. I would never let one of my patients be in danger. Just because I want to be able to be there for the entire thing, doesn’t mean that I would ever allow them to be harmed.” Devon glared at Laird, his tired brain not wanting to be judged by this guy.
“Hey, I was honestly trying to be nice. I know I was over the top when Mhairi was in your place, but she’s my sister. And you did great.” Laird held his hands up at chest level, palms out.
All right, he supposed that was fair. After all, it wasn’t every day that a man was stuck dealing with his pregnant sister when her husband was out of town. “Fair enough. That’s very stressful. I know it is.”
“Yeah. And I can be an asshole when it comes to medical stuff.” Laird shrugs. “Hell, people call me Grumpy Cat at work.”
“You really don’t look like a cat.” He should know, he had cats. He had three. Athos, Porthos, and Aramis were his babies.
“No? Not even a pallas cat?” Laird slumped down on himself and made a face, and suddenly he could see it. It was hilarious, and he had to hoot.
“Oh, listen to you. You have an amazing laugh, man.”
Devon blinked over at Laird. “Me?”
“Yeah. Like full-on and real. I like it.” Laird winked.
“Lumberjack, Laird?” Millie put decaf and creamer on the table.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Pancakes and green chile turkey sausage, Dev?”
“You know it.” She was a goddess.
“It’ll be up in a couple. You two just drink your coffee and chill.”
He wasn’t sure that he was up to “chill”, but drink his coffee? Absolutely.
Laird chuckled, and he realized he must have been making a face. “Not that kind of chill, honey.”
“Oh, right…” He blinked at Laird. “Sorry, it’s been a long few days.”
“No worries.” Laird gave him a look that seemed to heat up the room. “I wouldn’t say no.”
“Oh? You wouldn’t?” What the hell was Laird talking about?
“To chilling in the other sense, honey. I was just being too suave, obviously.” That smile threatened to turn him inside out, it was so unexpected.
“Oh. Oh!” He blinked at Laird. “Really? But you’re hot.”
He had a bad track record with hot guys.
“Well, thank you. I think.” Laird chuckled. “But yeah, really. I mean it.”
“Hot guys and I usually don’t have any chemistry. There was this rodeo rider—he’s still one of my best friends—Eli? I adore him.” He sighed softly, just filled with regret. “We were going to do the deed, and we kissed each other, but it was gross.”