Page 6 of Calling from the Heart (Secret Springs)

He was obviously going to have to take pregnancy leave when the baby was born in March, so he’d miss two months of school and then start back again in September. But he was going back.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean. Let’s say that--I don’t know, let’s say we share custody or we are living together or we have some arrangement.

When the baby’s bigger, and I go back to work, are we going to want to put the baby in daycare with Saul?

Or are you going stay home with her?” He held his breath, waiting for the answer.

“Well, yeah. I mean, I work from home, right? It makes sense that I would stay home with the kids.” Jeb chuckled. “I’m not even a Zoom guy, so I don’t have to worry about someone listening to babies cry or crazy things crashing when they start being mobile.”

They. Jeb was saying they for kids. Plural.

“Oh. I think…I think that Saul is amazing, but I think parents are the best for little ones.”

“Yeah. I mean, Saul is so cool, but I would just want to use him if we had to.” Jeb beamed. “Look at us, agreeing on the first major thing.”

“Right?” Okay. Okay, that was comforting. The first thing. That meant there would be more things to agree on.

They talked about everything and nothing on the way to the truck stop, Jeb driving carefully on the icy roads. It was sweet, because really Jeb usually kind of tore around.

The restaurant was packed — filled with families and couples — and he bumped shoulders with Jeb. “Everyone’s tired of Thanksgiving leftovers, huh?”

“I bet. I mean, that’s a lot of remains.” Jeb winked at him, teasing hard. “Not that we didn’t have tons of options this year, and it was great, but I’m so ready for something not turkey involved.”

“Oh, I get that.” Owen greeted people as they waited. It was hard not to know everyone. Being one the town’s two kindergarten teachers made it inevitable.

He met all the kiddos as they funneled through.

They got seated relatively quickly, and he had to chuckle because they ended up sitting next to the owner of the town’s hotel, his family, and the town’s librarian and his family.

Who were all, obviously, having some sort of an outing.

Jeb winked at him. “That is a lot of babies, man.”

Owen nodded. It was, and he’d had Gwennie, Gawain, and Elizabeth Ann already in his class. Elizabeth Ann was his student now.

Gwennie was the spitting image of her tattoo artist father, and she was the possibly the smartest little girl he’d ever met. While her brother Gawain was this easy going, silly boy to the core kind of child.

Elizabeth Ann, on the other hand. Elizabeth Ann might just -- well, she was either going to become president or a serial killer. There was no real way to tell at this point, although he was going to warn her first-grade teacher about her, because damn.

“Mr. Rogers. Mr. Rogers.” Gwennie waved at him from her side of the booth and smiled, book in her hand. “How are you?”

Owen found a smile for them because to be honest, they were all great kids, and he remembered how exciting it had been to meet a teacher outside of school. “Hi, guys, how are you? How school going?”

Elizabeth Ann blinked at him. “Mr. Rogers. We’re on Thanksgiving break. We go back to school tomorrow.”

Her father Jack chuckled softly, while her other father simply rolled his eyes.

“Sorry man. Kids, you have to leave Mr. Rogers alone. He’s not teaching today. He’s just having breakfast like the rest of us.”

Gawain nodded. “We’re having pancakes, and then we are going to go to see reindeers.”

“Reindeers? Really?”

Gwennie nodded. “Uncle Jack found us a place that has reindeers. He’s going to buy one for Elizabeth Ann for Christmas.

I told him that we didn’t need one, but we could come visit and feed it corn.

” She glanced over at Jack. “You know, if he gets one for every one of his babies, he’s going to have a herd. ”

“Gwennie!” Tim stared at her.

“What? It’s true. Uncle Chase is a baby making machine.”

The other dad, who must be Chase, winked broadly. “Nice to know I’m good for something. But really, Uncle Saul has me beat.”

Owen cracked up. “Oh, yes well you know, he needs to just make sure that he doesn’t try again.”

Poor Saul had started with one. His second had pregnancy resulted in a twins, and the third had found them with triplets.

So what they had hoped was going to be a family of two or three, then possibly four, was now a family of six.

And while they were all incredibly happy, the rumor was that the chief of police had gone and gotten himself fixed.

Everyone was terrified that Saul would end up with quadruplets.

They all started laughing, even the little ones, who had no idea what was going on.

They ordered their drinks -- one cup of coffee for Jeb and a glass of milk for him, and Jeb leaned forward across the table. “You really do know everybody, don’t you?”

He nodded. He did. “It’s part of the job.

I’m the first contact between public school and families.

I’m the one who sets the tone, a lot of times for a whole school career.

We’re there at the beginning. We teach them about all of the weird little socializations and about how to start to learn to function in something that is not a family unit.

That’s a huge deal, and in a weird sort of way I am a part of the family, especially when we’re in the class.

I’ve had Tony, Saul’s oldest. I’ve had Gwennie, I’ve had Gawain.

Elizabeth Ann’s in my in my class now.” Owen shrugged, suddenly embarrassed.

“I suppose it’s silly to you, but it’s true. ”

Jeb raised an eyebrow. “Why would it be silly to me, baby? I think you’re amazing. I always have. And I know you love your job.”

“Oh, you know I do. So much.” But right now, he wasn’t being a teacher. Right this second, he was very busy being Jeb’s lover. “So what kind of Christmas lights do we want? You. What kind of Christmas lights do you want?”

Jeb beamed at him. “I was thinking, rainbows. Like sparkling. All the colors, all the twinkles. I want my house to look as happy as I feel right now.”

Owen’s cheeks burned with a deep, hot blush. “Oh. I think that sounds...heavenly.”

If only it would last.