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I quirked my lips and stayed silent.
“You think I have a stick up my ass?” he prodded his eyes clearly concerned with this possibility.
“You had an intense job. A lot of responsibility. I think… I think you’re serious. Focused.”
I liked that focus when it came to giving me orgasms.
He was quiet, as if considering my words. I tried to be as diplomatic as possible. Compared to his brothers, he reallywasserious. Sometimes he did have a stick up his ass, but I had a feeling Mav had one too before he found Bridge. Maybe Silas did as well, but I hadn’t been around him all that much. He was quieter instead of intense.
As for Dex being serious? No way.
“I have no idea how to talk to eight-year-olds,” he admitted.
“They’re six,” I clarified.
His jaw clenched. “Six? Even worse. I deal with trauma. Bad stuff. Not learning how to interact with them and shape their small minds.”
I found his concern amusing. Theo wasn’t what anyone would call tender. Or sweet. Or warm and fuzzy. The way he’d abandoned me with my orgasmic haze, I’d say he wasn’t a cuddler.
He seemed to really have no clue what to do with children.
“They’re not off to med school tomorrow, so make it fun,” I instructed. “Silly even. If you polled them, they want to either be a princess, an astronaut or a snowplow driver.”
“I’m guessing no parent is a princess?”
“You’re the fill in for her. Her tiara was being cleaned,” I said with a straight face. “You’ll do fine. Have fun, but it’s always nice to throw in a reminder of how to be safe.” I pointed to Mac who was on the floor demonstrating Stop, Drop, and Roll. The kids were laughing as he flailed around like an upside-down turtle at the end.
“Safe. Fun. Got it.”
The ominous tone sounded more like he didn’t have it at all.
I studied his profile as he watched Mac explain what he would look like during a fire so the kids wouldn’t be scared before putting on his oxygen mask so they could see. He wrapped up quickly after that.
“Well, shit. He has stickers,” Theo muttered as Mac pulled a stack from one of the many pockets on his bunker pants.
I bit my lip, trying not to smile.
He must’ve known he came next because he pushed off the wall but turned to me.
“My place, six.” His gaze held mine. Direct and potent as usual, none of his kid-wariness visible. “Come hungry. I will be.”
Oh fudge.
22
THEO
“Boys and girls,now that you have your stickers, settle down.” Mrs. Sanchez, the first-grade teacher Mac introduced me to when we arrived, patiently waited for the room to go quiet. “It’s time for Dr. James to share with us about being a doctor.”
The kids clapped as I moved into the center of the amphitheater, but I could tell they were distracted by the SWAG. Why did Mac have to give out stickers? The only thing worse than going after stickers would be if he handed out puppies.
I cleared my throat. Sixty or seventy wiggly, squirmy kids sat before me crosslegged.Theywere like puppies. My mind instantly went to the boy who died on the operating table. The one whose death didn’t have any emotional impact on me at all. These kids were just a little bit younger than he’d been. These kids could get in a car after school and be hurt in an accident, their vehicle totaled just like the one from the fire department practice on Saturday morning.
The boy who died had been ejected, no extraction needed, like practiced.
But these little innocent faces, completely clueless to what could happen in life, wanted to hear from me about my job.
The one that made me feel nothing.
