Page 45 of My Three Hometown Firefighters (Aspen Springs #2)

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

Sienna

MAY

“Oh, I forgot my animal book,” Jackson says, darting out of the fort we built in the living room. I hear his small feet pound up the stairs.

Mack scampers right behind him. I snuggle back further into the mass of pillows and blankets the guys piled up so I’d be comfortable in here.

I’ve been at Warren’s house for two weeks now. I thought it would be awkward, but it’s been anything but.

Tucker and Grayson still have their own places, but they end up spending most of their time here when they aren’t working. Warren and Jackson don’t seem to mind having all of us encroaching on their space.

We’ve all fallen into a comfortability that screams of family. I’m trying so damn hard not to fall headfirst into it, but it’s getting tougher with each passing day when I see what things could be like with all of us.

I can’t, though. Not for me. My hand gently rests on my thirty-two-week bump. For her.

There’s just too much that could go wrong, too many hearts that could be broken.

“Got it,” Jackson says, crawling back into the fort. He ducks under the sheets we have draped over the chairs and couches around us and plops down beside me. Mack sneaks in behind him, cuddling up on one of the blankets.

I’m pretty sure every pillow and blanket in the entire house is under me right now. They were bound and determined to make this more like a bed than the unforgiving floor.

Jackson looks through the stack of books he has beside him, deciding which one he wants me to read next.

Tucker’s laugh rings from upstairs, where all three men are putting together Jackson’s new bed frame. Why that takes three grown men, I have no idea.

My mind flits to thoughts of building a crib.

This baby is going to be here in two months, if not sooner. I really need to figure out where I’m going to be living when that happens.

Maybe I need to start apartment hunting. I’ve already been told my apartment won’t be done by then.

One of the downsides of living in a small town in the middle of the mountains is getting specialty services like that can be a challenge.

Something about finding anywhere else to live just doesn’t feel right, though. Just like I have every time the thought has crossed my mind over the last few weeks, I push it out of my head.

The guest bedroom upstairs has temporarily become my room.

The morning after the fire, I loved waking up to find them all so close. It was a comfort I desperately needed in a time when so much had been ripped out from under me.

Since then, we’ve gone back to all sleeping separately. Sometimes Tucker and Grayson go back to their own homes. Sometimes they crash in the living room.

My brain knows this is necessary, but my heart hasn’t seemed to get the memo. It wants to have them all as close as possible, all the time.

Obviously, I’m not in the right frame of mind to figure this all out now.

I still have time. We’ll figure it out eventually.

“Can you read this one again?” Jackson says, holding up a book about two dinosaurs that I’ve already read twice.

“Sure,” I say, glad for the reprieve from my tumultuous thoughts. He snuggles into me, his head half-resting on my stomach.

Flipping open the first page, I start reading. I use different voices for the characters, which makes him laugh.

“Wow,” he yelps, sitting up. He turns to fully face me. “What was that?”

I smile, running my hand over my stomach where his head was just resting. “She just kicked.”

“That was the baby,” he says. His little voice is so full of wonder.

He knows that I’m having a baby, but not about the confusing father situation. He’s a perceptive kid, though, so even at four years old, I think he’s pieced more of the situation together than we might think.

Loud footsteps clomp down the stairs. “Are you guys okay?” comes Warren’s worried voice.

“We’re fine,” I say, loud enough that hopefully they can hear.

They all peek in through the fort’s entrance. “What happened?” Grayson asks.

“The baby kicked my head,” Jackson says like it’s the coolest thing ever. I chuckle at his choice of wording.

“Really? That’s cool, bud,” Tucker says, giving Jackson a fist bump.

“She was just saying hi to her big br—” Warren snaps his mouth shut. His eyes fall closed for a moment before he forces them back open. “She was just saying hi because she already knows how awesome you are.”

Jackson smiles at his dad, not picking up on Warren’s shift in demeanor. Jackson might not see it or know its source, but I sure as hell do.

The unknown of everything between all of us and the future is the elephant in the room that I’ve been avoiding like the plague.

With the days between now and my due date dwindling, I know we need to talk. I don’t even know what I want, let alone what they all want.

That’s a lie. You know exactly what you want.

These last few weeks have given me a taste of something I really might want. I just don’t know if I can let myself want it all the way because of the risks that come with letting them in.

The risks aren’t just for me, either. There are six hearts on the line here.

Grayson jolts me out of my thoughts when he crawls beside me. He kicks his boots off, lies down.

“Are you okay?” he asks. “You kind of disappeared into your head there for a minute.”

I tilt my head so I can see him better. “I was just thinking.”

“About?”

Going for honesty, I say, “The future. Just trying to decide what I want.”

He nods. “Made any decisions yet?”

I shake my head.

“I’ll be here whenever you do decide. Okay?” he says, giving me a hopeful smile.

This right here is why his is one of the six hearts I need to protect.

Tucker reaches for the book I’m still holding in my hand. Somehow, all five of us squeeze into the fort, six including Mack. I roll onto my side, pressing back into Grayson to make more room.

Tucker starts reading the book. Jackson teases him about not having as good of voice for the characters as I do.

The baby starts moving around again, so I reach behind me to grab Grayson’s hand. I rest his hand over where I can feel her moving the most. I really don’t want to let go of his hand, so I don’t.

We lay there listening to Tucker’s horrible rendition of a read-aloud.

She kicks in the same spot a few times in a row. I hear Grayson’s sharp intake of breath as his fingers lace through mine.

It isn’t the first time he or any of the guys have felt her kick, but each time they all react this way. It’s adorable, and it makes keeping myself from falling for them damn near impossible.

He presses a soft kiss against my neck, which makes me inhale sharply.

Who am I kidding? I’m absolutely falling for them. Maybe I already have.