Page 38 of Courageous Devotions

“Embarrassed?” he said, stunned, and looked at her in surprise – before leaning forward to kiss her softly on the cheek, his eyes holding hers. “I haven’t stopped talking about the both of you yet today. C’mon…”

“Colton?” her voice stopped him, and he turned back to her.

“Yeah?”

“I thought maybe we could give this a try, like you suggested,” Eris said nervously, looking at him. “You brought it up and… and I’m in,” she breathed tightly. “I’m nervous, afraid, but I’m in.”

“I’m so glad,” he breathed, feeling anxiety, relief, and fear wash from him in that instant. It was almost enough to bring tears to his eyes as he smiled at her. “Step by step… together.”

She nodded once, her eyes still sharp and watching him.

“You know what this means?”

“What?”

“We’re a family,” he grinned, leaning down to brush a kiss against her lips softly – only to feel her respond tentatively. He didn’t care. She was actually reaching for him, too, and that was all that mattered. The rest would come with time, and time was on their side.

“I wanna kiss too, Daddy! Kiss me,” Zane interrupted – and he laughed, feeling joy surge in his soul. He pulled his son down, wrestling with him for a moment, before kissing his cheek and blowing raspberries on his neck.

“Kiss you? Kiss you? I’m gonna gobble you up, buddy!” – and Colton met her eyes and saw her smile. “Come meet everyone… and if we are lucky, I’ll have a little time to sit down for a bit. Zane, you wanna look at the big fire truck?”

“Ohhh yesshh!”

“Well then, come on, buddy…”

Colton reached out and took Eris’s hand in his.

“Hold him,” she ordered firmly.

“I’m not going to drop him,” he promised. “But I do want to hold my wife’s hand for a moment,” and tugged her to join him as they walked into the station.

All the conversation drew to a stop for a moment – only to see Justin give a look to his wife, and they both stood up.

“Hey! Is this your son and bride?” Justin began, extending his hand politely to Eris – only to have the woman pull her away, hugging her closely before releasing her.

“I’m Faith – but most of these twerps call me Mrs. Justin,” the woman said openly, smiling warmly at Eris. Colton looked at Justin only to see him give a silent thumbs-up in acknowledgement. His wife was going to draw Eris out of her shell, and she was going to be taken under her wing, and Colton was truly grateful.

“Now, wait a second,” another woman said, getting to her feet. “What am I, chopped liver? Hellloooo? And who’s this young ‘probie’? Where’s your hat, little man? My name is Maya, but my niece Grace calls me ‘Ammie-aya’ because she couldn’t say ‘Auntie Maya’…”

“I’m Zane, Ammie-aya…”

“Are you hungry, pumpkin?”

“I wanna see da’ cruck…”

“Truck. Truuuck.”

“Fire engine.”

“You can call her ‘Big Red,’ Zane…”

“Just like any other man,” Maya grinned and winked at the two of them. “Chad & Papa Bear – you are up! I expect to hear that siren, young man.”

“Siren?”

“We’ll be right back,” Colton chuckled. Chad was already on his feet, digging out his keys as Maya grasped Eris by both hands, pulling her forward to join them all at the table.

“Guys – behave with my wife,” he warned bluntly and saw their knowing looks. Firefighters had a reputation, and the ‘flirt’s battalion’ was no different. Most were single or getting married; one or two who worked for the station had been quite promiscuous around town, and where there was some, there was usually fire.

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