“It’s not like that!” Taylor replied. He glanced nervously at me. “I didn’t flirt at all.”
“What were you wearing?” Jordan asked.
“Same thing I always wear,” Taylor replied. “My blue work trousers, boots, and the Fresno Fire Department T-shirt.”
“The tight white one?” I asked with a laugh. “Yeah, now I’m beginning to understand why we had such a huge crowd! It was sweet of you.”
I gave him a soft kiss, and he grinned the rest of the night.
The commute from Riverville to Fresno wasn’t bad. It was twenty minutes to the new fire station, and thirty-five to Tony’s Pizza downtown. So we all kept our homes in Riverville.
I babysat Anthony every third day, when the guys were on their twenty-four-hour shift. It was remarkably easy now that we weren’t trying to hide it from anyone. I watched him at home, then brought him to the restaurant with me. He was such a good baby—I could put him in his bassinet in the back room of the restaurant, within sight of me at the food prep station. He rarely cried, and happily focused on the spinning toys of his mobile.
Mom gave him lots of attention. She even hired an extra person to help run the cash register and take phone orders. She insisted it was because they were busy, but I knew it was because she liked to sneak away to the back room and play with Anthony. Soon she was doing more of that thanactualwork.
I didn’t mind. She had stopped bugging me about grandchildren. That’s what we call a win-win scenario.
She continued believing that I was only dating Jordan, and that I was nannying for Anthony as a favor rather than because of my relationship with Derek. Sometimes I wondered how she would react if she knew I was dating all three firemen. Maybe I would tell her in the future. But for now, she was just happy to have a new baby to play with several times a week.
Speaking of dating all three of them, that part of things was goingverywell. The new shift schedule made it so much easier to spend time with each of the guys individually. Sometimes I crashed at Derek’s house, and other times I was at Jordan’s apartment.
I had the most fun with Taylor. He was in his final year of college at Cal State Fresno, but continued to live in the undergraduate dorms.
“I’m only here a few nights a week,” he told me. “The dorms are cheaper than getting my own place. I’m savingsomuch money.”
He had a dorm room all to himself, so I didn’t mind. And it was kind of fun fooling around in his small dorm bed while shouting and partying went on down the hall. It kind of made me feel like I was in college again.
And of course, Taylor was totally worth it. As our relationship progressed, he was the most loving, affectionate of the three. After sex, he would roll me over onto my belly and gently run his fingertips over my skin, caressing my back until I fell into a deep sleep. He liked to give foot massages, especially after I had been standing up during my shift at the restaurant all night. And helovedto cuddle. In the morning before we got out of bed, at a restaurant while we shared a booth, and at Derek’s place when we all hung out together on the couch. If Taylor and I were sitting next to each other, his arm was around me.
Everything was just as great with Jordan and Derek, too. Jordan and I had a traditional dating life, going out to dinner and watching whatever rom com was in theaters. Meanwhile, Derek and I had adeepconnection through our mutual caring of Baby Anthony. It felt like the two of us were always playing house. Eventually, it stopped feeling likeplayinghouse and started to feel real.
Anthony may have been his baby on paper, but I couldn’t help but feel like the mother. It was such a satisfying feeling.
That feeling intensified once the thirty-day revocation period ended, and Derek received the paperwork officially making him Anthony’s father.
“I can’t believe it’s been a month already,” Jordan said. We were all sitting around the living room, with Anthony in the bassinet on the floor. “It feels like just yesterday we were scrambling to fill out the paperwork before Billy Manning found out.”
“Maybe it flew by for you,” Derek said, “but for me? It was the longest month of my life.”
“You didn’treallythink Melanie would change her mind, did you?” I asked.
“No, I didn’t think so. But I’m still a lot more relaxed today, now that it’s official.” He leaned down and pinched the baby’s little foot. “You’re mine now, little guy. And I’m always going to love you.”
I smiled at the fatherly look in Derek’s eye. For the first time in his life, he wasexactlywhere he wanted to be. And it made me feel all tingly inside. Especially knowing that I was a part of it all.
We spent the next two days formally preparing a nursery. We moved all of Derek’s typewriters to the attic—which was no small feat, considering how heavy they were to carry up the steep attic ladder. Then we painted the room a soothing shade of robin’s egg blue. Taylor used his artistic flair to add little clouds and tiny flapping birds to one corner of the room.
Once we added a crib, and a diaper-changing station, the room was complete.
We celebrated that night with margaritas (made withgoodtequila.) Taylor cooked chicken tacos with spicy guacamole and a smooth crema fresca.
By the time we put Baby Anthony to bed, the four of us were nice and sloshed.
“The Dodgers are going to come back,” I said, gesturing at the TV with my fourth margarita. Or maybe it was my fifth. “They’re only down one run.”
“Not a chance. The Giants closer is going to shut this rallydown,” Jordan argued.
“Bet you he blows the save,” I said.