Chapter 2 #2
Laird asked, “How can it be gross?”
“You ever kiss somebody, and it was like kissing your brother? Where it was just like, oh my God, I’m gonna die? That was this. I like him so much. He’s one of my best friends. I think he’s amazing. The chemistry is nothing—like, not even a boop on the… Boop scale.”
“Oh, damn. That has to suck.” Laird grinned. “No, that’s never happened to me.”
“Maybe it’s just me.” Devon shrugged, one hand kind of slapping on the table. “Maybe I’m just not meant to have a hot guy. That’s okay. I have my treadmill, I have the triplets and I have knitting. My life is complete.”
He thought he might cry, but he would wait until after pancakes.
“Well, honey, I go the other direction, too. I’m all alpha. At the risk of sounding like a weird werewolf novel, I can kinda tell when an omega is into me.” Laird reached out and covered his hand with one, big, warm, callused one. “Don’t beat yourself up.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t.” What good would it do if he did, anyway?
He couldn’t make chemistry happen between two people.
It either was or it wasn’t. It was like pheromones—sometimes people smelled good, sometimes they didn’t.
It wasn’t right or wrong, it was body chemistry.
“How is Mhairi’s baby? How is little Savannah doing? ”
Laird tilted his head. “She’s fine. She’s a baby. She’s really cute, I will admit. I mean, she’ll be cuter when she’s older and we can play ball.”
Devon chuckled softly. “What kind of sports do you play?”
It was easier to let Laird talk about himself, and then he could just sort of listen and float.
“I’ve done everything from football to rugby to baseball to tennis.”
He tilted his head. Football, yes. Rugby and baseball, sure. But tennis? He didn’t see it.
Maybe when Laird was small.
“Which one did you like the best?”
“Believe it or not, baseball. I do love to play a good game of baseball.”
Now that Devon could totally see. Baseball players had to be quick and strong, and they really had to be in good shape in all different sorts of ways. Their bodies did many things.
“I can see that. I’m a runner. I used to trail run, but there was a mountain lion… So now I treadmill it.”
“Did you scream like a baby? I would have.” Laird seemed to be laughing more with him than at him.
“No. No, I just froze, and then backed away until he couldn’t get at me with one leap. Then I ran like my ass was on fire.”
“I was working a fire in Oregon once, and I ran into a big black bear coming out on the trail I was going in on. I damn near pissed myself. Thankfully, he was in a hurry too.” Laird chuckled. “I made it out, but I have to admit I understand why you wouldn’t want to trail run anymore.”
Their food came, Millie setting down steaming plates of pancakes and eggs and bacon and wonderful things. His had sausage, of course.
Devon moaned. “God, I didn’t even know I was so hungry until she just set that down, stomach growls notwithstanding. Thank you, Millie, my love.”
“You are very welcome, my darling.” She bustled off, and Devon proceeded to butter and syrup his pancakes thoroughly. He liked every bite to have both on them.
When he looked up, Laird was watching him and he raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“Nothing. I just enjoy watching a man who likes his food. That’s all.” Laird salted and peppered his eggs and his hash browns before adding ketchup to the hash browns.
Devon knew that, like him, Laird probably had a sweet tooth. Ketchup always added that extra bit of sugar.
The pancakes were perfect, and he hummed as he ate them. He hadn’t thought he was going to be able to eat a bite, and he found himself devouring the pancakes.
Laird never said a word about his eating habits.
He just munched down his lumberjack breakfast and smiled every so often.
It was like a complete one-eighty from what he had been before when Mhairi was having her baby, and it was kind of weird.
But it was also really nice to just sit and share somebody’s company.
Who knew what the deal was. Maybe he’d just been having a really bad day before.
Or maybe it was just the shared camaraderie of a healthcare professional after a long shift.
Devon had that with Raven sometimes after they’d both been on for two days in a row and helping birth three or four babies at a time.
Which meant maybe he’d earned a little respect from Laird during the process.
Who knew? He was just going to take it as it was—two dudes, one hot, one him, not being into each other.
“Oh my God, that was so good.” Laird leaned back in his seat after a bit, putting a hand on his belly. “I think I might explode, but I needed that.”
“Pancakes feed the soul.” Devon grinned, although he was less “I’m going to die from full” and more “I’m going to nod off right here.”
“I can accept that as a basic fact of life. Turkey sausage? We might have a problem.”
“Turkey sausage? It’s not my favorite, but I tend to get a little bit of a queaze if there’s too much fat. It’s a thing,” he admitted.
“Huh.” Laird’s grin went a little roguish. “That’s because you run. Bounces everything around.”
“Aren’t you a firefighter? Don’t you have mandatory PT?”
“I do, but I circuit train.”
“Lots of weight training.” He nodded. He could totally tell. “It works for you. You’re built like a brick shithouse.”
“Thanks. That’s good, right?”
“It is. I think the whole idea of that idiom is that a brick crapper is going to be so much more sturdy than a rickety old wooden one.”
Laird threw back his head and laughed, and the sound combined with the sight of that tan throat working was just so incredibly sexy that all he could do was sit there and blink. That wasn’t fair. The guy was beautiful as it was, but laughing, he was intense.
“You’re really beautiful.” Hopefully he didn’t say that out loud.
The way Laird’s eyebrows went up, he had a feeling he’d blurted it right out.
“Thank you. I have to say, you’re growing on me fast, honey. I was in a mood when we met, and I apologize.”
“I appreciate it. It happens to all of us.” And he meant that. God knew everybody had their bad days, and under stress, it could get worse.
“Yeah, it seems to happen to me a lot.” Laird chuckled. “I try not to be a dick, though, so I always apologize when it’s due.”
Millie brought the check, and Laird pulled out his wallet.
“It’s my treat, you drove.” He fumbled with his wallet, blinking. His fingers just wouldn’t work.
“Hey, I’ve got this. You can get it next time.
” Laird handed over his card to Millie, who didn’t have a whole lot else to do besides run back and forth since they were the only folks in there.
“And I’m going to drive you home, too. Listen, if the storm gets worse and you need to get out tomorrow so you can get your car, call me, okay?
I have tomorrow off, and I have chains for my truck. ”
“Are you sure? I mean, thank you. Is it going to snow? Probably, huh? Stupid weather.” Spring here could be so mercurial.
“It started while we were in here eating. I was worried you were going to freeze in your car.”
“Yeah, I was knitting.”
“What were you making?”
“Socks. I make a lot of socks. I find them portable and mindless.”
“I like socks. My gran used to knit ones with extra thick soles to wear as slippers.” The bill got paid, and Laird had him up and moving, feeling dazed but happy to go along.
“Making socks is just a good way to keep your hands busy.”
He wasn’t sure why his hands needed to be busy, but it was what one said.
“Keeps your mind from rabbiting too, I bet.” Laird put him in the truck. “Rest now, Devon. Give me your address.”
He did, and he was asleep in seconds.
And he never did wake up until the next morning, warm and toasty and alone in his bed.