Chapter 3
I see firefighters.
-Coffee Cup
Mia
“So, tell me about this man that you met,” my mother said, turning her smile on me.
I grinned.
I’d only known Taima – Tai – for less than a week, and I was seriously falling head over heels in love with him.
It was crazy and way too soon.
It would probably end up in heartbreak for me because it was obvious that he was a heartbreaker.
In the short time he’d been at the hospital visiting Colton yesterday, he’d been hit on by no less than ten nurses.
Nine of whom weren’t even on Colton’s rotation.
On the positive side of that, though, Colton had gotten some really great care. Not once did his ice melt, and I swear, I had more than enough pillows and blankets to last me for weeks.
“He’s really great,” I said.
I wasn’t able to put into words exactly what Tai meant to me.
He’d somehow managed to pull together around a thousand possible donors for me in less than a week.
His efforts paid off big time, because he found Colton a donor. That alone garnered him hero status in my book.
He was making it possible for my baby to get a second chance.
And for that alone…I’d do absolutely anything for him.
When I approached him, he didn’t hesitate to offer his help – even if it was in a different form than what I had been asking for – and that spoke volumes to the kind of person that Tai was. Besides, no one could argue with the fact that his suggestion got results
Rough and gruff on the outside, and a ball of marshmallow fluff on the inside.
“You look like you’re in love with him,” my mother said.
I smiled dreamily.
“I wouldn’t say it’s love…yet. But it’s something,” I admitted. “I could fall for him easily…very easily.”
Colt woke then, crying, and I hurriedly moved to his bed and cradled him up to my chest.
He’d lost a lot of weight, but at least today he was taking food from me, unlike the day before.
“Hey, baby,” I whispered to him.
His blue eyes were brighter today, more full of life than they had been.
He pulled his spread hand, thumb forward, to his forehead and tapped it, causing me to smile.
“Oh, Mr. Tai said he’d come visit you if he had a chance, but I’m not sure when that’ll be, baby,” I whispered.
He’d been doing that a lot since Tai had left yesterday to go speak to his brother, and I found that I didn’t mind the idea of Tai being Colton’s daddy.
Although, pretty much anyone would be better than his biological father.
“What’s he saying?” My mom asked, getting up to mix Colton a bottle.
I don’t know what I’d do without my mother. It was like she was my right hand.
She handed the bottle to me before I answered her.
“Yesterday when Tai came to visit, he gave Colton the firefighter bear,” I pointed at the little stuffed animal Colt had yet to put down. “And Colt called him ‘daddy.’”
My mom smiled.
“Anyone’s better than the piece of shit that is his father,” my mother said parroting my thoughts.
I snorted and sat down, taking the bottle that my mother offered me.
Colt grabbed at the bottle, tried to hold it, and failed.
I maneuvered him into a more comfortable position on my arm and held the bottle for him. Something I hadn’t had to do for him since he was a little over five months old.
It was weird.
There were things that I hadn’t done in a very long time, such as rock him to sleep.
Although, I still held him a lot, I hadn’t had to rock him in a long time because he just plain didn’t like me to do it.
He was a very inquisitive child, and hated being hampered by what I thought of as the ‘cage of my arms.’
My son, though, had needed me a lot more lately to do things he’d been doing on his own for a while. Which made my mind wander to a time later on down the road when he wouldn’t need me at all anymore.
One day I would put him down to walk on his own, and the next day he wouldn’t let me pick him back up again.
Or one day I’d give him his bath, and the next he’d refuse to let me stay while he showered.
It was something I tried not to think about.
Colton’s time wasn’t promised, and I didn’t want to think that I would ever lose a single minute with him.
“He’s doing so well,” my mother said, watching as Colton inhaled his bottle.
This was the baby I was used to.
Eating me out of house and home even at eight months old.
“Ohhh,” my mother said, jolting me out of my contemplation of his improved eating pattern.
I looked up, a grin immediately splitting my face.
“Hey!” I said, smiling happily at who was at the door.
I had a reason to be happy today.
But, then again, I always tried to keep a positive attitude.
It was a mindset I’d adopted at sixteen, when I’d been dealing with the first painful experiences of my young life: the loss of my father followed almost immediately by my first break up with a serious boyfriend.
Tai’s beautiful bronzed skin wrinkled at the corners of his eyes as he stood at the door taking in the room.
He wasn’t alone, though.
There were about six other firemen directly behind him.
“Good morning,” he said. “How’s he doing?”
I waved him inside and looked down when I felt movement from Colton.
Colton was frantically tapping his forehead with his thumb, repeatedly saying ‘daddy’ over and over.
I grinned.
“I think he’s much better today,” I laughed.
He nodded. “That I can see. And he’s taking a bottle, too.”
I nodded in confirmation.
“He is, and he did. Started last night about an hour after you left,” I agreed.
He turned and motioned to the other guys to come into the room.
“And who are these men?” I asked.
Tai pointed to a taller blonde man directly to his right.
“This is Drew. He’s the oldest of the bunch in case you can’t tell,” Tai said laughingly. “He’s the FAO for Truck 3 and a stickler for the rules, so be careful what you say around him.”
I smiled.
“Nice to meet you,” Drew said in a delicious Southern drawl.
He was obviously from Texas with that accent. He was tall and blonde and had arms the size of tree trunks. His eyes were a sharp, stormy gray, and he had a great smile.
“Nice to meet you, too. What’s an FAO?” I asked.
“Fire apparatus operator,” he answered immediately. “I drive the big red truck.”
I grinned.
“I know what the big red trucks are,” I teased back.
Tai cleared his throat.
“This man right here,” he pointed to a man with dark brown, nearly black hair that hung beautifully around his face, highlighting his chiseled cheekbones and dark brown eyes. “Is Bowe, our resident chef for all things Italian.”
I blinked, surprised at how beautiful the man was.
He was serious eye candy.
Not that Drew wasn’t, but Bowe was captivating.
“Nice to meet you,” Bowe said in a deep voice that practically had goosebumps breaking out across my skin.
“Lord have mercy,” my mother tried to whisper under her breath.
She didn’t accomplish what she’d tried to do because Bowe smiled like he’d heard exactly what she’d said.
“This is our chief, Allen Shepherd, and his wife, Linnie,” he said, pointing to an older woman that was hanging back in the doorway.
“And these two buggers are Fatbaby and PD,” he said.
“Fatbaby and PD?” I asked, a smile in my voice.
“They call me Paula Deen, PD for short,” the tall one said.
He was tall, too. At least six and a half feet, if not more.
He’d had to crouch when he came through the doorway.
“Ahh,” I said. “Gotcha. Does that mean you cook well?”
He grinned unabashedly. “I get by.”
The one called ‘Fatbaby’ snorted. “He’s being humble. He can cook like a motherfuc…err…like Paula Deen.”
I giggled. “Gotcha.”
“And don’t ask about Fatbaby. It’s not a pretty story,” he said, a somberness now tinting his voice.
I could sense a sore subject when I heard one, so I decided to turn my attention back to the man I was most excited about being there.
Tai.
He came closer once I looked back at him, and Colt practically flew out of my arms in his haste to get at Tai.
Tai grinned and held out his hands, Colt weakly fell into his arms, and Tai picked him up as if he weighed nothing more than air.
He expertly cradled Colt into his arms, pulling him to his chest like he’d done it a half million times before, and I fell deeper.
“My brother’s going to try to stop by tonight to meet you,” he said, looking in Colt’s direction, but directing his words toward me.
I nodded, but at my mom and not towards Tai.
She’d started squeezing my shoulder around the time that Tai had cradled Colt to his chest, and I brought my hand up to hers.
Yes, I felt it, too.
My mother always said to tell the true quality of a man, just give him a baby.
Depending on how he held that baby determined if he was relationship material.
And needless to say, my mother definitely could tell that Tai was a keeper.
“Tai,” I said. “This is my mother, Judith. Mom, this is Tai.”
Tai smiled and held out his hand to my mom, which my mom took, being careful not to jostle Colt as she shook.
“It’s very nice to meet you, Tai,” she said cordially. “It’s nice to meet all of you. Are y’all supposed to be working right now? We aren’t taking you away from anything are we?”
PD and Fatbaby took up seats on Colt’s hospital bed while the other three took up posts along the short window ledge that doubled as a window seat.
“We’re being covered by the other truck for about an hour. We can’t stay long because it’s too hard on the other crew to be running one ambulance for much longer than that,” Chief Shepherd said. “But we do this about once a week so others can go on grocery runs, do scheduled maintenance on the trucks or do some school visits.”
“Ahhh,” my mother said.
Linnie leaned her head against her husband’s shoulder.
“This is about all the excitement Allen here gets now that he’s been relegated to desk duty, per doctor’s orders,” Linnie explained. “So he’s more lenient with the amount of time each crew spends out and about because it gets him away from his desk and his mountain of paperwork, as he calls it.”
I got up and pointed towards the chair.
“Have a seat,” I said. “I need to go get this washed,” I said, indicating to the bottle.
Tai sat, but I saw it was somewhat reluctantly. He didn’t want me to give up my seat for him.
Well, too bad.
As I went into the bathroom and studied my haggard appearance, I wondered if he saw anything special in me other than a desperate mother.
I stared at the messy blonde ponytail that rode on the top of my head and had been for about a week now.
I studied my makeup-less face and the freckles that dusted my nose
Did he find freckles attractive?
I secretly hoped so.
Because I got butterflies when Tai’s dark eyes locked on mine.
And when he spoke? Shivers danced down my spine.