Page 12 of A Baby for the Firefighter

The boy had swum out a little bit, but he turned to me at the sound of his name.

“Come here!”

I turned to Conner while my nephew swam back. The boy was still wearing a shirt over his swim trunks, just dipping his feet in the water. He was super pale too, and probably not just because of his Irish background. The kid really needed to get some sunlight on his skin—and apply three layers of sunscreen.

I bent down in front of the eight-year-old. “Hey, Conner.”

“Hey.”

“You want to put on some sunscreen so you don’t burn your skin?”

“Sure,” he said without any enthusiasm, like he knew it was the only acceptable answer. Like he just wanted me to go away again.

He’d hardly said a word and my heart was already breaking for him. Kids his age should be running around and having fun, not saying whatever adults wanted them to say so they could go back to suffering quietly.

But before I could say anymore, something cold and wet hit my side.

I glared at Jake, who looked at me with the biggest grin on his face.

“Got you!” he exclaimed. And then he ran, because he knew that I would want to get revenge. I chased him across the uneven, grassy shore, until he stumbled, laughing, and I wrestled him back into the water where I dunked him for a split second. He came back up panting, but still in good spirits.

“Got you back,” I said. “Now let’s get out so we can get sunscreen on you.”

“Okay.” And as we waded to the shore he asked, “Isn’t Conner gonna swim?”

“I don’t know.” Actually, I wasn’t even sure if hecouldswim. If he couldn’t, that would at least explain why he wasn’t getting in the water with any part of his body other than his feet.

Ireallyhadn’t thought this lake idea through.

When we got to the grass, I dried Jake off with one of the towels we’d brought and rubbed some of the sunscreen on his arms.

“Can Conner swim?” Jake asked. It seemed he’d been having the same thoughts as me.

“I’m not sure. You’d have to ask him. But be nice about it.” I tapped a finger with sunscreen on his nose.

“I’m always nice!” he insisted. “And if he can’t swim, I could teach him.”

Good. I was going to be so busy making sure nobody drowned that I wouldn’t have time to ogle Dean.Speaking of…I glanced around to see him talking to Conner, though I couldn’t quite make out what they were saying.

Conner finally took his shirt off, though.

Good. He could stand to get a bit of a tan.

When I was done with Jake, I applied some sunscreen to myself—just cursory, really, I didn't burn easy—and then I patted Jake on the back and handed the tube to him. “Go and bring that to Dean.”

He went off obediently while I busied myself with checking my phone and not looking at Dean.

When I glanced up, I saw that Jake was trying to strike up a conversation with the other boy.

“Do you want to swim?”

“I can't swim.”

“But it's really easy! Look! I'll show you.” Jake sprinted into the water again.

“Don't swim too far!” I yelled after him. Yeah, I was definitely going to be busy watching Jake.

“Try to catch me!” Jake yelled back.