Page 29 of Cocoa

Lucas blinked at the screen, his smile growing. He could already see the images forming in his mind’s eye. Shiny paint, gleaming chrome, and wide puppy eyes and doggy grins. He texted back quickly.

Lucas:Sounds great. Let’s talk about it more soon. Maybe on the next bar night.

Finn:Yay! I’ll stay in touch. I knew you were great.

Lucas responded with a thumbs up and a rainbow smile emoji before pouring the hot water into his mug and stirring in his cocoa. He took a careful sip, but he knew the warmth in his chest wasn’t only from the beverage. He was building something here. Friends, a life, and a reputation as the guy to go to for photographs.

He couldn’t keep volunteering his skills, of course, but he didn’t have to charge a lot to keep his head above water. Settling on the loveseat, he booted up his laptop and glanced around. The studio was tiny, poorly decorated, but it was his, and he was no longer in danger of losing it.

Outside the windows lay a world he now thought of as home. He knew the shops, had connections with great people, and found the most amazing boyfriend in the world.

Shaking his head at the sappy thoughts, he tucked into work on the latest freelance job, photo editing and marketing content creation task for a small hat shop in Illinois. That work was picking up, too, now that he’d expanded his website to offer online ad and social media services.

The next time his phone buzzed, he glanced up to notice it was getting close to eleven, and he should really get to bed.

Ryder:Can’t make it tonight. Call came in looking to be a long one. Miss you.

Lucas:Miss you too. Stay safe.

It was the same thing he finished with after every one of Ryder’s texts from work. It was his most fervent wish… other than actually getting the chance to see and touch his man more often. He gulped down the last of his cocoa, set the mug in the sink, and headed to bed.

As he drifted off, his mind and heart filled with a swirl of thoughts. Home, peace, the loneliness of missing someone dear, but the warmth of having someone to miss.

Chapter 18

Ryder

Ryder stopped mid-stride on his way past the chief’s office. The photo hung on the bulletin board, a full-size printout with the headline “Hero EMT Rescues Baby and Mom.”

Gray and white blizzard conditions faded into the background, giving the mess of tangled vehicles a soft-focus effect. The baby’s face was mostly hidden against his shoulder, but her little hand peeked out and gripped the fabric of his coat. His own face looked different. Really different to how he saw it in the bathroom mirror every morning.

Usually, all he saw was weariness, whiskers, and lines deepening faster than they probably should on this side of thirty. In the photo, he looked steady and focused, the way he alwayshoped to act in the middle of a call. Someone reliable. Someone who would make people in trouble naturally feel better and safer with. If the world had to pay any attention to him at all, that’s who he wanted them to see. Lucas captured his heart in that picture, and his ability to do that meant so much more than the image itself.

“Hey, hero.” A teasing voice interrupted his perusal of Lucas’s photo. “Do we really have to look at your ugly mug every day?” Matt, one of the guys on alternating shifts, stepped up next to him and tucked his hands in his pockets. “Calendar boy and now baby savior.”

Larabee paused while charging past. “That pic’s everywhere. Best PR shot we’ve ever had. Maybe you should do something like that Matt. Get your face in the paper.”

Matt rolled his eyes and headed for the door. His shift was over for the day.

“I didn’t know he was taking pictures. It’s not like I posed or anything.”

“Well, it worked.” The chief smacked him on the shoulder and headed down the hall to the kitchen. “The donation button on our website’s getting a workout.”

His day wound on like usual. He and Eva headed to a few calls. They stopped at the diner for a quick lunch before rushing to a slip-and-fall on icy front steps. Every time they stopped back at the station, someone else made another comment about the photo.

Ryder let them roll past him. They were harmless, just standard ribbing from the crew. No one would get nasty about it because they respected the job the picture showed. None of them were into it to become heroes, but they all wanted to help people at their most vulnerable.

Something else stuck in his mind besides the comments. He couldn’t stop thinking about Lucas taking that risk and drivingout in such a horrible storm just to get some pictures. If it were anyone else, he’d curse their stupidity. He’d rant about people putting themselves in danger for a thrill, or to get content for their social media pages. Who drove onto an overpass in a blizzard to gawk at a multi-vehicle accident?

All first responders dealt with members of the public who needed to get a photo of a burning house, a car crash, or worse, an injured or dying person lying on the ground. If he and Eva arrived at a scene before enough cops showed up to handle neighbors or crowds in public places, he always had to fight the urge to scream at people. It was sheer idiocy combined with a weird fear of missing out, or a desire to be the ones with the best story to tell.

Something besides idiotic curiosity or a need for attention drove Lucas. Sweet, steady Lucas with an eye for capturing moments in time so very well. He’d proved that with the pet shelter calendar and again with his shots of the crash and Ryder himself. The photo didn’t just show an EMT rescuing a baby. It showed Ryder exactly as he wanted to be deep down inside where it mattered.

Lucas saw him, and he liked what he saw.

Ryder’s phone buzzed as he stepped out into the back parking lot of the station a few hours later, tired and sore from a long day’s work. He slid it out, thumb swiping to answer before he even checked the screen.

“Hey,” Lucas said. “I didn’t interrupt work, right?”

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