Page 32 of A Baby for the Firefighter

“Well.” I glanced back at the school. “To be honest, the teacher kind of weirded me out.”

“The teacher?” Dean looked confused. No wonder. I would have been too.

“You remember Eric Zimmerman?”

Dean raised an eyebrow at me. “That guy became a teacher? No kidding?”

“Yeah, but you have to admit, he always had a knack for the dramatic.”

That made Dean laugh. “No doubt. Still, didn’t think he would want to work here.”

I shrugged. “Whatever makes him happy. Just wish he hadn’t tried to ask me out.”

“He tried to ask you out?” Dean furrowed his brow.

I chuckled. “You don’t like that idea, do you? Don’t worry. I’m sure he has absolutely no baking skills to tempt me with.”

Dean shook his head. “Oh, I’m not worried that you could be tempted. I know I’ve spoiled you.”

That made me laugh harder. “What, you’re not even a little jealous?”

“No, just hoping the creep knows to keep his dirty hands off you.”

“He didn’t want to believe that we were a couple at first, but I’m sure that kiss showed him.”

Dean looked at me with both eyebrows raised.

“What?” I asked.

“You just called us a couple.”

I blushed, because I’d said it without thinking. “I did, didn’t I?”

“You definitely did.” Dean grinned.

“Guess we’re a couple then.”

“Guess we are.”

Dean leaned over to kiss me, and I opened up to him without hesitation. The fine stubble around his mouth brushed my skin and I felt the tiniest trickle of fear in the back of my mind, but it wasn’t enough to stop me. It wasn’t enough to combat the joy this moment gave me. Dean was my boyfriend and I was his.

Now we only needed to tackle the rest of this relationship stuff.

14

Dean

The Sundayafter our visit to the shelter, and two days after that stupid creep had tried to hit on Griff, Shane and I were going to surprise Conner. The puppy was ready to come home, and my cousin hadn’t told his son anything about our plans yet. I was sure the boy was going to be ecstatic, though. I couldn’t wait for Shane to get back from the shelter with his furry surprise, but until then, I was on babysitter duty.

“Play!” Mary demanded, banging one of her dolls against my leg while Conner sat in the corner of the living room with a book.

“What do you want to play?” I asked, taking the doll from the little girl.

Wordlessly, she brought me another doll and started bangingthatagainst my leg.

“Oh, I see. Is that what you want to do? Destroy Uncle Dean’s leg? Fun game.”

She giggled in response. Evil little thing. At least she wasn’t really hurting me, so I let her do it for the time being.