Chapter Text
“Did you have a good day at school, buddy?” Eddie asked his son as they dined over their bowls of broccoli cheddar soup at the kitchen table.
Christopher’s mouth was full, so he nodded in answer before taking a moment to swallow, and then he said, “My English teacher wants us to do a book report by the end of the month. Do you think we’ll be finished with Daniel’s newest adventure by then?”
Eddie glanced at the calendar, reminding himself what day it was again. September 10th.
“That should be plenty of time for us to finish. We’re already half-way through, and we have all evening to get lots of reading done before bed.”
Chris gave his dad a pleased grin and shoved another spoonful of soup into his mouth. Eddie tore off a piece of French bread from where it sat on a plate in the center of the table and dunked it into the cheesy broth, letting it soak in completely before he scooped the bread up into his mouth. Christopher scrunched his nose in disgust at Eddie’s eating habits.
“That’s gross,” he complained.
“Nope. It’s delicious. If you’d only try it, then you’d know.”
Christopher shook his head adamantly at the suggestion. He was going through a picky phase for the last few months. Eddie would never force his kid to eat anything he didn’t like, but he did usually encourage Chris to try new things before making a judgment on whether or not he preferred them.
“I bet Daniel tries new foods all the time. He goes to so many different countries, and all those different cultures eat a variety of things we don’t normally have in the states. An adventurous kid like that must have an open mind.”
Christopher paused in guiding more soup to his mouth and glanced at Eddie with wide eyes. But Eddie’s persuasion tactic had done the trick, and Chris tore off a small piece of bread from the loaf and carefully dipped it into his soup before eating it.
Eddie waited patiently for the boy to finish chewing and then raised his eyebrows in question. “Did you like it?”
Christopher couldn’t hide the small smile that was creeping onto his round face. “It wasn’t so bad, I guess.”
Eddie reached over and tickled the back of his son’s neck. “You guess?” he teased, and the boy burst into a fit of giggles.
Later, after homework and showers and teeth-brushing, Christopher lay in his bed, comforter tucked warmly right under his chin, and Eddie was propped up against the headboard, sitting atop the covers and cracking open their newest book to the marked page.
“Do you think we’ll ever get to go to Tasmania, Dad?”
He asked a similar thing every time they started a new book in their favorite series, each one containing plots of some grand adventure in a different country. And Christopher always had imaginative dreams about going to every single one of those places someday.
“Maybe,” was all Eddie could ever promise him. “Ready for me to start?”
“Yes, please.”
The pair of them got lost in a world so much grander than their own. It was a tale of a young boy named Daniel Buck, similar to Christopher in age, who traveled the globe with his archeologist father. Daniel was constantly making new friends in new places, snooping into things he shouldn’t be, sometimes getting into trouble, but always making grand archeological discoveries along the way. The books were very detailed and informative about the various cultures the family encountered in their travels, teaching Christopher important lessons along the way about understanding and respecting life experiences different than his own. But the thing that drew the Diaz boys to the stories the strongest was that Daniel had no siblings and his mother died when he was very young, so it had always just been him and his dad taking on the world together. Both Christopher and Eddie connected to this story on such deep levels that it often had them both tearing up at the more touching moments.
The seventh and newest installment in the series had only just been published at the end of August, and of course Christopher had insisted on buying it the day of release. Now, they were at the midpoint of the Tasmanian adventures of Daniel and Eric (the boy’s father). It would be added to the long list of places that Chris swore he would visit someday.
And Eddie had big hopes for his son, knew in his heart that even if he didn’t have the means to take Christopher on any grand adventures in his childhood, the kid would surely grow up and make his own dreams come true when he was free to pave his own path. Chris was nothing if not determined to do anything he wanted, one way or another.
They made it through three more chapters before Eddie noticed his son’s eyelids starting to droop and had to stifle a ferocious yawn of his own. It had been a long day with the 118, after all. He hardly had a moment to get any chores done or eat lunch between calls, and his entire body was feeling rather ragged and in need of at least a solid eight hours of sleep tonight.
“Okay, mijo. I think this is a good place to stop for the night.”
“How many chapters are left?” Chris wondered sleepily.
Eddie glanced at the table of contents near the front cover to check. “Looks like fourteen more. We’ll have it finished before you know it.”
“And then we’ll have to wait like a whole year before the next one comes out,” he lamented to his father.
“Well, we don’t want them to be rushed, do we? Then the story wouldn’t be any good. I’d rather the writer take his time, hmm?”
“I guess you make a good point,” Chris conceded.
Eddie poked at his ribs through the blanket. “You guess?” he joked in reference to their earlier teasing during dinner.
But Chris was too tired to really laugh, simply squirming away and looking up at Eddie with a drowsy smile. Eddie bent and kissed his forehead, running a loving hand through the boy’s brown curls.
“Sleep tight, buddy.”
“Don’t let the bedbugs bite, Dad,” he replies.
Eddie chuckled as he turned off the lamp on Christopher’s bedside and took off down the hall to his own room.
***
October came around, and Eddie had been getting pointed reminders from his son that they were quickly running out of books to read for their nightly reading sessions. They had finished the book in the Daniel’s Adventures series by September 19th, which left Christopher with ample number of days to write a stellar book report before the 30th. They’d also read through a few other stories that had collected on the small bookshelf next to the kid’s desk, but now they were set to finish the very last one within a week or so, and Eddie hated to think how grumpy his kid would be without a new story before bedtime.
So, when Eddie’s abuela asked if they could take her to Best Buy to help figure out a new television to watch her soap operas on, Eddie jumped at the opportunity to also stop by the large chain bookstore that was right next door.
They got Abuela sorted out with her TV first, and after Eddie had loaded it into his truck, the three of them wandered over to Barnes & Noble, Christopher practically bouncing up and down on his crutches with excitement. As soon as they made it through the entrance, Chris took off at nearly a run with Eddie calling out after him in displeasure.
“Don’t worry, Eddie. I’ve got him,” Abuela assured him as she took off after the boy.
This left Eddie to amble around on his own for a while, briefly scanning the adult fiction and nonfiction section for a couple things to read in his downtime at the station. Then, he headed over to the best sellers displays to scan for anything new that Christopher might find interesting. He got about five feet away from the eye-catching shelves when he noticed a handsome man standing there, doing something rather strange.
Eddie tilted his head and furrowed his brow in confusion as he watched the man pick up a book, flip to the inside of the back cover and then write something inside of it with a sharpie. He set the book down and then picked up the next one in the pile, repeating the act.
“Hey!” Eddie called out as he approached him.
The man glanced around behind himself, clearly thinking that Eddie could not be talking to him, but when he realized that there was nobody else around, he focused on Eddie with wide blue eyes.
“I hope you’re planning on buying those,” Eddie scolded him without a moment of hesitation. Perhaps it was force of habit to always be playing the lecturing father.
The man clicked the cap back onto his sharpie and shoved it into the front pocket of his dark jeans. “I wasn’t, no.”
“Then why the hell are you writing in them? I doubt anybody wants to buy a new book just to discover that it’s been graffitied by some asshole.”
The man had the audacity to let out a cute little laugh. Eddie placed his hands on his hips in response, showing that he was being entirely serious and waiting for a proper explanation.
“Well, I’m the author of these books, so I don’t think people usually mind when they get to the end and are surprised to see that I’ve signed it. I promise I’ve already cleared it with the staff here.”
“You’re signing your books?” Eddie questioned incredulously. Surely a published author had better things to do than linger in a bookstore and sign hardcopies.
“Yeah, I uh… It’s just something I started doing after my very first book was published, carrying a sharpie with me anytime I came into a bookstore. I mean, we do official book tours and all that, but not everyone gets to come to those. And the thought of some kid randomly ending up with a signed copy and it making their whole day… I dunno, it makes me feel happy, I guess.”
Eddie’s indignation seeped away from him, and his tense shoulders relaxed. “Oh.” He glanced down at the pile of books the man had been signing, thinking he might get one for Chris then if it’s something he knows his son will enjoy.
Daniel’s Adventures: Book 7
“Wait,” Eddie said in newfound shock, and the man with curly dirty-blonde hair raised his eyebrows, “you’re Evan Buckley?”
He nodded with a small smile.
Eddie walked up to the shelf and snatched one of the books that the Diaz’s already owned. “You’re the author of this book series?” he held it up in front of the man’s face for emphasis.
“Yup,” Evan replied in a joyful tone, “that’s me.”
“Who’s this?” a small voice came from behind him, and Eddie turned to see Christopher and Abuela standing there.
“Uh, Evan Buckley apparently,” Eddie informed them in a tone of disbelief.
“No way!” Chris nearly shouted, “my dad and I have read every single one of your books! I wrote a book report about the newest one and got an A+.”
“Wow, an A+? That’s impressive, kid,” Evan Buckley reached a fist out toward Christopher, and the boy happily bumped his own against it.
“Eddie,” his Abuela said to him then, “I’m going to go look at the romance section.”
“All right,” he waved her off, “Chris you stick with me this time, okay?”
“Sure dad,” Christopher answered, not even tearing his eyes away from the author of his favorite series, “Hey mister Evan Buckley, are you working on the next book already?”
The beautiful blue-eyed man laughed again, and Eddie pretended like it wasn't one of the loveliest sounds he’s ever heard.
“Christopher, you can’t just ask him that,” Eddie scolded.
“Why not? I want to know what happens next.”
“We talked about this. Patience is important, yeah?”
“I’ll let you in on a little secret,” Evan spoke up then, “I’ve got five whole chapters done of the next installment, and I can’t make any promises, but I’m thinking it’ll be ready to print by the new year.”
“Really?!” Christopher was literally jumping with joy now. “Can you tell me where Daniel and Eric are travelling to next.”
“Ah, I’m afraid that one is confidential, kid. But I promise it’s somewhere amazing.”
Chris’ glee was only marginally diminished.
“How about this: since you and your dad here seem to be my two biggest fans,” Evan paused to wink at Eddie, “why don’t I purchase one of these copies, even though I know you already have one. But this one will be special because I’ll write you your very own personalized message inside the cover and sign it for you.”
“That would be fantastic! I can take it to school for my next show-and-tell. All my friends will be so jealous.”
“I bet,” Buck agreed as he pulled his sharpie back out of his jeans. He reached a hand out toward the copy that Eddie had already forgot he was holding. “May I?”
Eddie wordlessly handed the novel over. Their fingers brushed for the briefest moment, and he thought he could make out a heat growing in the author’s gaze.
He cracked open the back cover and then turned to the boy again. “Now, what was your name? Christopher, right?”
Chris nodded enthusiastically.
Eddie stood there dazed, watching it all unfold in a spectacular sort of way with a dumbstruck, dopey smile plastered on his face. This was definitely not how he expected his day to turn out. Not to mention, he never imagined that the author of their favorite book series would be so goddamn attractive.
Evan Buckley took his time writing something out inside the cover, and it was clear that he aimed to use up every last bit of the space there, going out of his way to make Eddie’s son feel extra special in this moment. Once he was done, he led them to the checkout with signed book in hand. Eddie paid for all the other novels that he and Chris had collected between them, and Evan purchased his own book at the next register over. Abuela was still somewhere in the store, and Eddie shot her a text that they would be out in the parking lot waiting for her whenever she was done.
Once they exited the building, Buck handed Christopher the small paper bag with the book in it.
“What do you say, mijo?” Eddie prompted.
“Thank you so much for this, Mister Evan Buckley.”
The man smiled that broad white smile yet again. “It was my pleasure. And please, my friends call me Buck.”
“Thank you, Buck. I’m pretty sure this made his whole week. Truly,” Eddie added. “And I’m sorry I sort of accosted you at the beginning there before I knew what you were doing.”
Somehow, Buck’s grin got even wider. “No worries,” he assured him as he held out the receipt of the book he purchased for Christopher, “and, uh, this is for you.”
Eddie took the receipt with slight confusion, wondering why he would need it when he was pretty sure Christopher would never want to return an autographed book by his favorite author.
“I’ll see you around, Eddie. Christopher.” Buck gave them each a nod and a small wave before taking off down the sidewalk to some other shop.
It was only once Christopher was fully buckled into his car seat and Eddie was positioned behind the steering wheel still waiting for Abuela to finish up with her purchases that Eddie studied the book receipt more carefully. At the very bottom were ten digits in dark sharpie ink. A phone number.
***
“Have you ever met anyone famous?” Eddie asked Bobby and Hen as the three of them played a game of Sorry! at the station.
“Oh yeah,” Bobby replied, “celebrities do a lot of dumb stuff that ends with a need for firefighters on scene.”
“Really? We haven’t gotten any calls like that since I’ve been here,” Eddie told him.
“Eddie,” said Hen, “we literally were in Mario Lopez’s house last week after he slipped in his socks and wacked his head on the corner of his kitchen island.”
“Mario Lopez? That’s who that was? He didn’t look familiar to me.”
Hen and Bobby both shook their heads at him.
“So I’m bad at recognizing faces, I guess,” Eddie admitted.
“You’re hopeless, is what you are,” Hen joked before getting up from the table to grab herself another bottle of water from the fridge.
“Regardless, I’m pretty sure it’s not standard for people in the public eye to randomly give out their phone numbers to people they’ve only just met, right?”
Hen clamored back to her chair so quickly it nearly gave Eddie whiplash. “Hold up. A celebrity gave you their phone number?”
“Okay, celebrity might be an exaggeration. He’s… well, he’s a best-selling author of a children’s book series, but I don’t think many people would recognize his face just from that.”
“And he gave you his number?” Bobby asked for clarification.
“Yeah, I ran into him last weekend at a bookstore with Chris and Abuela. He signed a book for Chris without us even asking him to… and then he gave me a receipt that had his number written on it.”
“What are you going to do?” Hen urged for more details.
“I’m not sure. The whole thing was quite baffling really, so I’m still trying to process it, I think.”
“Well, was he good looking?”
“Incredibly so,” Eddie answered, perhaps a bit too breathlessly because now Bobby and Hen were both smirking at him.
“You should call him, then,” Bobby advised.
“What would I even say? Hey, remember that dude you ran into at a bookstore? Well, this is him. Wanna go out with me?”
“I’m sure you can come up with something a little more eloquent than that.”
“You have far too much faith in me, Hen. I’ve barely been on a handful of dates since Shannon died and none of them went all that well considering I’m still very single.”
“You can’t use the fact that you’re pathetically single as an excuse not to date people,” Chimney chimed in as he crested the top of the staircase to the kitchen, clearly having just finished a workout, “that’s counterintuitive, Eddie.”
Eddie glared from the table as Chimney went to grab a bottle of water of his own. “Oh, that’s right. You’re the dating expert now because you’ve found Maddie,” Eddie cooed sarcastically.
The team didn’t know a ton about the woman Chim had been dating for a little over a month, but they had heard plenty of times that she was apparently the man’s soulmate. He’d been known to get a bit poetic about it from time to time, giving everyone else on the team frequent migraines. And Chimney also seemed to think that he was some sort of relationship guru now because of it.
“Yeah, want to know how I sealed the deal with Maddie?”
“Not really, but I’m sure you’ll tell me anyway,” Eddie retorted.
“I actually called her when she gave me her number,” Chimney bragged pointedly.
Eddie groaned, but reluctantly promised, “I’ll consider giving him a call,” as way of ending the embarrassing conversation.
***
“Dad?” Christopher’s voice filtered into the living room from where he was standing at the end of the hallway.
“I thought you were asleep, buddy. Did you have a bad dream?” Eddie gestured for his son to come join him underneath the plush throw blanket on the couch.
Christopher rubbed at his tired eyes for a moment and then slowly crossed the distance to his father. Eddie grew concerned as the kid did not say a word about why he was awake two hours past his bedtime. He worried that there might be something seriously wrong.
“What’s going on, mijo?” he tried again while pulling Chris up onto his lap and wrapping him up to keep him cozy.
“Dad, do you… do you think we’ll ever see Buck again?”
Eddie had to try very hard not to laugh or roll his eyes. Of course that’s what this was about. As if Christopher wasn’t already obsessed with those books enough, now that he has met the author and was thoroughly impressed by the guy’s winning personality, it had become a whole new level of hero-worship. He hadn’t stopped talking about the bookstore encounter for over a week now and how awesome it would be if they were actually friends with the writer of the Daniel books.
Every night before Eddie began reading some of the new books they had bought over the weekend, Chris would insist that they re-read the note Buck had written on the inside cover of his book.
Dear Christopher,
I bet you’re as bright as Daniel and just as brave. And it seems like you have an awesome dad like Daniel does too. Keep up the reading and writing, and I have no doubt you could very well become a published author someday if that’s what you set your mind to (and then my friends would be the jealous ones when I told them that I once got to meet you in a bookstore). Wouldn’t that be cool? Anyway, if there’s one takeaway I always hope for readers to gain from my books, it’s this: we’re never promised tomorrow, so make every day an adventure.
Your friend,
Buck
Beneath the nickname was a signature of the man’s full name.
“Chris, I know it was super great that we ran into Evan Buckley on accident… but I don’t want you to get your hopes up that it’s going to happen every single time we go to buy books now. Buck is a famous author. He’s very busy with writing and doing publicity for his books and everything. We can’t expect him to suddenly become best friends with ordinary guys like us.”
“But in his note he said he was my friend.”
Eddie pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. How was he going to explain his way out of this?
“I know, buddy… but sometimes, famous people say things like that because they’re just trying to be nice. They want to make their fans feel happy and special, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that Buck wants to start hanging out with us all the time and coming over for movie nights or something.”
“But why not?” Chris whined, “he was so nice, and Dad, you’ve been so lonely for so long. I just want you to have someone that makes you laugh.”
Eddie was momentarily taken aback by the honest observation his son had made. Was he really that much of a grump all the time that Chris would be so worried about his happiness?
“I already have you though, Christopher. You make me laugh all the time.”
“It’s not the same. Bobby has Athena to make him laugh. Aunt Hen has Karen. You need somebody too. And you and Buck were making each other smile a bunch that day. I think he could make you laugh a ton all the time if we invited him around.”
Eddie gave a defeated sigh, envisioning the receipt with the phone number that remained unused on his nightstand. He had found Buck really handsome and charming that day, and he had seemed nice enough for Eddie to want to get to know better. But these pleas from Christopher would be the last factor to push Eddie over the edge into dialing Buck’s number at last.
“All right, kid. I’ll see what I can do about inviting Buck around?”
His son immediately perked up. “You can do that? Really?!”
“I make no promises, and I don’t want you pouting for a month if it doesn’t happen, but I’ll certainly give it my best effort.”
“Yes!” Christopher was positively beaming with victory.
“In the meantime,” Eddie said as he stood up, clutching Chris tightly to his chest and walking back toward the boy’s bedroom, “you have got to get some sleep, mister.”
“Fiiiiine,” but the boy was too excited at the prospect of seeing Buck again for there to be any real sass behind the word.
***
Eddie lay in bed, bedside lamp still bathing the walls around him in a dim orange glow, and he stared at his phone with paralyzing nerves taking hold of the muscles in his fingers. He’d already typed in the number that would presumably call Buck, but he could not seem to make himself press the little green call button.
It was pretty late, and he didn’t want to wake Buck up if he was sleeping. But then there was the better chance that Buck wouldn’t pick up the phone because he was asleep, and then Eddie could simply get away with leaving a voicemail. One which he’d rehearsed in his head at least eight times now and was starting to feel at least slightly confident about.
He took a series of deep, calming breaths, closing his eyes and imagining something soothing. Like the waves of the ocean on a rare beach day with Christopher. Or the sound of his son cooking in the kitchen alongside Pepa and Abuela. Or the entire chorus of childhood joy when Chris, Harry, and Denny all got together in one house.
Eddie steeled himself and called Buck.
It rang four times, and Eddie was starting to grow quite optimistic that it would be the voicemail that picks up, but then, to his dismay, he got the real-life Evan Buckley instead.
“Hello?” his voice sounded far deeper than Eddie remembered, a little bit husky. A lot sexy.
“Um, hi. I’m not sure if you remember me, but, uh, well you gave me your number on the bottom of a receipt at the bookstore last week.”
“Eddie?” Buck asked immediately with the hint of a slur to the name, and Eddie’s heart fluttered at the thought that he might have made such a strong impression on the man.
“Yeah… it’s Eddie.”
“I had sort of given up hope that you’d actually call,” Buck told him, “Usually after three days and no word, it’s a definite rejection.”
“Well, the thing is… I guess I wasn’t really sure why you gave me your number to begin with. Which meant I wasn’t sure if I should actually use it.”
“I thought I made that bit pretty obvious. Did I not?”
“One thing you’ll learn about me, Buck, is that I’m pretty oblivious to nearly everything that isn’t my son. My friends like to say I’m hopeless, actually. So, you’re going to have to make it any intentions crystal clear.”
Buck let out a low, sensual chuckle. “I was flirting with you that day, Eddie. The way you stormed over to me and started giving me a lecture… it was pretty hot, not gonna lie. And then you turned out to have this great kid, and it’s not like I give my number out all that often to randos, but there was just something about you that made me not want to let the moment slip through my fingers, you know?”
This reassurance brought great relief to Eddie’s nerves, and it also filled him with a refreshing giddiness. Buck found him attractive. Buck was interested. Now that Eddie knew the feelings were mutual, he had no qualms about making the next move.
“Wow, okay. I was definitely more under the belief that it was a ‘I’m making a fool of myself’ rather than a ‘hot lecture’ kind of thing, but whatever works, I guess.”
Buck laughed again. It sounded so loose and carefree, and Eddie finally pieced it together with the slight slurring of Buck’s words.
“Are you drinking right now or something?”
“What? Oh, I had some friends over for a wine night, but they’ve all left now. I might be a tad bit tipsy, but not drunk enough to say anything I’ll regret. Promise.”
“So, if I were to ask you on a date, you’d have enough presence of mind to be able to answer?”
“Yes, I would. And my answer would most definitely be an enthusiastic yes.”
Eddie was actually blushing in the privacy of his room like some heroin in a romance flick.
“That’s great,” he breathed into the line, slightly in shock that this was actually happening right now, “when would you be free between all that book writing? I think Christopher would actually kill me if I were the cause of any delays in the next installment.”
Buck was silent for a moment, but there was some rustling of papers in the background. Probably him looking through his schedule for the upcoming month.
“I think I can make next Thursday work if that’s good for you. I mean, I don’t even know what you do for a living. Will you have work that day?”
“I’m a firefighter. And next Thursday is actually perfect for me too.”
“Oh my god,” Buck practically moaned into Eddie’s ear.
“What is it?”
“I didn’t think you could possibly get any hotter in my mind, but you just did. A firefighter, huh? That’s… wow, Eddie.”
Eddie can feel the hint of arousal growing low in his abdomen at Buck’s praising comments. This was a dangerous path they were headed down, and Eddie knew he needed to put a stop to it. They definitely could not have phone sex before they’d even gone on a single date.
“Buck…”
“Yeah?”
“I think you should go to bed and sleep off all that wine, okay?”
“You’re kind of bossy,” Buck informed him, but he made it sound like it was a good thing.
“I’ll text you sometime tomorrow with the details for our date, all right?”
Buck hummed in acknowledgement.
“Goodnight, Buck.”
“Night, Eddie,” he whispered back and the line went dead.
Eddie didn’t get a wink of sleep that night, staring at his ceiling and thinking about a tipsy blonde with hypnotizing eyes and a dazzling smile.
***
Buck was late.
Eddie had been sitting at their reserved table at a nice sushi place for over ten minutes when the man finally strolled in, hands smudged with ink stains. But the rest of him was so well put-together that Eddie couldn’t find a reason to complain. His curls had been gently smoothed down with gel, and he wore a crimson button-up that looked one wrong move away from busting open across his bulging pectoral muscles. He was in an equally as tight pair of dark jeans (Eddie suspected those might have been a signature part of the man’s wardrobe) as well as some blindingly white sneakers.
Eddie waved him over to the table that was, thankfully, in a quiet corner of the restaurant floor. As Buck walked over, he flashed a guilty expression.
“I’m so sorry I’m late, but right a I was grabbing my keys to drive over, a new idea flashed in my mind for the book, and I was afraid if I didn’t jot it down right then I would lose it.”
Eddie offered a smile to show that he wasn’t mad. “I suppose that explains the ink stains on your hands.”
Buck examined his hands with surprised eyes, as if only now noticing the state of them.
“Huh, yeah, I guess it does.”
Buck took his seat and immediately opened up his menu before pausing and getting a good look at Eddie.
It had been at least a year since Eddie tried this whole dating thing, but he still had his best blue button up that was always his go-to first date attire. He wondered what Buck thought of it. Judging by the way the man across from him gulped and widened his eyes a fraction as he properly took Eddie in, he’d say Buck was pleased with his appearance.
“Have you been here before?” Buck wondered aloud after awkwardly clearing his throat and shaking himself out of his focused gaze on Eddie’s biceps.
“Once with Hen and Chim.”
Buck gave him a questioning look.
“My coworkers,” Eddie elaborated.
“Right. Do you recommend anything, then?”
Eddie pursed his lips in thought for a moment, trying to remember what he had ordered last time and if it was any good.
“Honestly, I have no idea. I asked Hen where she thought would be a good date place, and this is what she insisted on.”
“Ah. You’re pretty close with your coworkers then?”
“Yeah. It’s sort of always like that in a firehouse. We work such long shifts together, put our lives in each other’s hands. It becomes second nature to think of your coworkers more like a family, you know?”
Buck nodded in understanding.
“I kind of get that. My publicist and editor are my two best friends in the world. We spend far too much time together and drive each other insane, but we’re sort of a family as well.”
“Those the friends you were having a wine night with when I called?”
“Yup. Ali is the publicist, and Taylor the editor. They are particularly fond of telling me what to do every second of every day.”
The waiter stopped by, and the two of them ordered their drinks. Buck simply got an iced water and made an amused face at Eddie’s sweet tea.
“I’m from Texas,” Eddie offered in explanation for his southern pallet.
“Really? When did you move out to LA?”
“It’s been about four years now. Are you from California?”
“Nope. Pennsylvania, actually. But I got the hell out of there the second I graduated high school.”
“Oh?”
“Shitty childhood,” Buck said vaguely, “but we don’t need to get into the details of all that right now. Tell me more about all this firefighting you do, Eddie.” He punctuated the request with a wiggle of his eyebrows.
Eddie smirked in amusement. “What do you want to know?”
“Anything you’re willing to tell me.”
“Um, well I’m stationed at the 118, and our firehouse has one of the best layouts I’ve ever seen. We have this huge open loft kitchen and lounge area, and the captain loves it because he was a five-star chef in another life or something. Bobby insists that the crew eat meals together every shift. Bonding experience and all that. Hen and Chimney are trained paramedics as well as firefighters. I’m EMT certified and have experience as a combat medic, so I help them out from time to time when they need me. Right now I’m training up the new probie. His name is Ravi and he’s—”
“Woah, slow down. Did you say combat medic?”
Eddie bit the inside of his cheek, cursing himself. He hadn’t imagined getting into the Army veteran discussion on the first date.
“I did two tours in Afghanistan.”
Buck’s eyebrows flew up to his hairline. “Wow. That must have been hard to be away from family for that long, especially if it was after your son came along.”
Eddie tapped his foot anxiously, the memories of his time in the military always stressed him. “It obviously wasn’t the greatest period of my life, but I don’t really like to dwell. Christopher and I are inseparable now. I’m all he has in the world, and I’m just thankful for every day I have with him.”
The waiter returned with their beverages, and they placed their food orders. Buck got the Tekka-Maki, and Eddie the Salmon Teriyaki.
“I think that’s part of why we’ve been such big fans of your books for so long,” Eddie went on once they were alone at their table once more, “the way you write the father/son connection between Daniel and Eric is so poignant and relatable for us. Even though it’s a series aimed at children, as a single dad, I find so many elements there that I can connect to as I’m reading it with Christopher.”
Buck’s cheeks flushed slightly, and Eddie noticed that the pink shade of the birthmark above his eye got slightly darker as well. He was clearly still not accustomed to people praising his work so plainly.
“I’m glad you enjoy the stories, truly. That’s half the reason I write them, in hopes of touching people’s lives in a positive way.”
“What’s the other half?”
“Huh?”
“The other half of the reason you write?”
Buck suddenly became very focused on the grooves of the wooden table where they were seated. “We’re really doing a bad job of avoiding the heavy stuff,” he remarked with a dry humor in his tone.
Eddie flinched. “I’m sorry, Buck. I didn’t realize it was another sore subject.”
Buck shook his head to show that he wasn’t upset. “You know what? Why not get the heavy stuff over with now? Do this whole dating thing a little bit backwards and maybe it will actually turn into something good for once.”
Eddie appreciated his bold attitude, the way he so easily admitted that he’s had his fair share of relationship troubles.
“Get right down to the nitty-gritty, huh? I’m in if you are.”
Buck beamed at him. Then, he cleared his throat nervously before starting. “I had a brother who died when he was seven years old. I was still a baby, and so I never really got to meet him. His name was Daniel.”
“Oh, Buck,” Eddie uttered softly, feeling like his heart has been twisted into a vice.
“He had leukemia, and my parents had me to be the perfect donor. It didn’t really work out as they had planned. Daniel still died. My parents sort of always resented me for it, I think… the fact that I was supposed to be his savior, but I couldn’t be. And they were really distant for my entire childhood. I honestly don’t even know if they actually loved me.”
“Dios, that’s…”
“Pretty fucked up? Tell me about it. But don’t worry, I’m in therapy.”
“Was it only you growing up then? After he died?”
“No, I have an older sister, but there’s a nine-year age gap between us, so she was moving off to college and getting married by the time I hit middle school. The fighting with my parents increased tenfold without her there to mediate.”
“And so that’s why you left immediately after high school, I’m guessing?”
“Spot on. I only applied to universities on the west coast so that I could move as far away from them as possible. I had no real clue what I wanted to do with my life, but I started going to therapy pretty early in my first year of undergrad studies. My therapist is great, Dr. Copeland. She suggested at one point that journaling might help me sort through some of my feelings about Daniel and my parents. Once I started writing, I couldn’t stop. I declared a major in creative writing, and then in my free time I began spinning all these ideas in my head about what a life could have looked like for Daniel if he had gotten the chance to live… I wanted to give him that in whatever small way I could… wanted to let him live out some grand adventures after all. That’s how the books were born.”
“That’s incredible, Buck.” Eddie bit down on his tongue. “I mean, not about Daniel and your parents. That part was horrible, and I’m so sorry you had to go through all that and that you and your brother didn’t get to grow up together… but the fact that you made something so amazing as a result of all that pain. Well… it’s simply incredible.”
“Thanks,” Buck answered shyly.
Their food was served and their drinks refilled. The pair of them paused in conversation for a few moments to dig into their respective plates. Once Eddie’s stomach was slightly more satiated and no longer growling at him in hunger, he took a deep breath and looked at Buck again.
“I guess it’s my turn?”
Buck nodded. “Let’s hear all about that Texan upbringing.”
Eddie grinned. “It wasn’t too bad, honestly. I have two sisters who are a few years older than me and always saw me as the most annoying baby brother, but they still looked out for me, nonetheless. My parents loved us, but they’ve always been a bit too controlling, putting pressure on the three of us to be the most perfect version of ourselves that we could be. Adriana and Sophia succeeded in that regard, whereas I was continually the failure.”
“How so?”
“I had no interest in college, and then I started dating a girl that for whatever unknown reason my parents sort of hated. Then I got said girlfriend pregnant, and that turned into a real shitshow. They insisted that I marry her because it was the right thing to do. And for once in my life I took their advice. Should have known it would be the worst mistake I’d ever make… I was terrified of being a husband and father, was struggling to provide for my family with my meager job as a mechanic. So, I enlisted without really running it by Shannon. The next thing I know, I was being shipped off to the Middle East.”
“Was she angry with you?”
“Absolutely livid,” Eddie confirmed, “I was able to make it back for Christopher’s birth. We sort of patched things up between us the best we could. Things seemed okay for a while over our phone calls and letters… but then Chris got diagnosed with CP and we had all these doctor and surgery and physical therapy expenses, and I knew we couldn’t afford it anymore if I was discharged, so I reenlisted for a second tour.”
“Did you run it by her that time?”
“What do you think?”
Buck snorted. “Of course you didn’t.”
“Nope. I think she was so mad she might actually have killed me if I wasn’t already in a warzone.”
“What made you finally come home after the second tour?”
“Didn’t have a choice… was in a helicopter that got blew out of the sky. And then I got shot multiple times. They sort of make you take some time off after something like that.”
“How the hell did you survive that?”
Eddie shrugged and subconsciously fingered at the Saint Christopher medallion he still wore around his neck every single day. “I dunno. But thankfully, we only lost one member of our team that day.”
“Still, that’s insane. And it really sucks. I’m sorry.”
“I didn’t have much time to dwell on it, I guess. I came home and Shannon was immediately on my case 24/7, which it’s not like I could really blame her since I’d left her to raise our kid alone. But I’d literally just got shot, you know. I could have used a sliver of a grace period. Anyway, we had this huge screaming match a few months later, and it ended with her shouting at me that she wanted a divorce. It hurt, but I was stubborn, so I agreed that I wanted one too. Then, Christopher started crying from listening to us fight. He was barely six at the time. She said she needed some space from us, and so she took her car and bolted… I got a call a few hours later that she’d been in a fatal car collision.”
“Oh, Eddie,” Buck said with that same sort of bewildered sorrow that Eddie had expressed earlier.
“Now it’s just me and Cristopher against the world. Just like Daniel and Eric. We moved out to LA for a fresh start barely a year after the funeral,” he finished.
Buck reached out and cupped his hand over Eddie’s where it rested on the wooden table. Although it was unconventional to talk about such things on a first date, Eddie also was glad that they did it. It was a bit cathartic to already have the ugliest parts of themselves laid bare. They didn’t have to dance around the most frightening skeletons in the closet. They’d already done the impossible in facing their worst moments together, and now everything going forward would feel as light as walking on clouds.
***
Eddie insisted on paying for dinner since he was technically the one that asked Buck out. They chatted about happier topics for a while after their plates had been cleared and the dinner crowd had thinned out. Buck told Eddie more about what his schedule was like, clearly hinting that he’d be interested in a second date. He explained that he technically had specific times planned for writing and editing his next manuscript, but that if the inspiration simply wasn’t there, Buck liked to get out of his apartment and have some fun instead. And there would be other times where the inspiration struck out of nowhere (like right before their date tonight), and Buck would have to give into the urge to write a few things down for fear of losing it.
Eddie let him know what his shift schedule was like: 24 hours on and 48 off. He lamented about the nights when his home health care aid, Carla, had to be there to read to Christopher before bed instead of him. They discussed movies and then other types of books Eddie enjoyed reading that weren’t geared toward children. Buck informed him that he actually didn’t read any fiction at all these days. He spent most of his reading time engrossed in nonfiction books on history and geography and anything else that might inspire plots for Daniel’s Adventures.
“I also read autobiographies for fun though,” Buck clarified.
“For fun,” Eddie mocked with a smirk, “yeah. Makes sense.”
***
Buck walked Eddie to his truck. He let out a long whistle as they approached the driver-side door. “Nice ride, man.”
Eddie huffed out a laugh. “Thanks, I uh, bought it on a whim about a year ago.”
“Mid-life crisis?” Buck presumed.
“Something like that.”
“Guess I’ll just have to do a little more work to piece together the entire mystery that is Eddie Diaz.” Buck's voice had dropped an octave, coming out deep and sultry as he subtly shifted closer to where Eddie stood with his back against the side of the truck.
“Guess you will,” Eddie flirted back.
“How about next weekend? We could do something a little more adventurous than dinner?”
“I dunno, I’m kind of fond of food.”
Buck flashed a sexy grin. “Fair enough. Perhaps both then?”
“Both sounds good.”
Buck’s face kept creeping closer, leaning forward so that there was barely an inch between them.
“I’d really like to kiss you right now, but I’m afraid I’m being too presumptuous,” Buck confessed in a whisper.
Eddie bit at his lower lip seductively. “Come on, Buck. Where’s your sense of adventure?”
And then they were making out in a dark parking lot against the side of Eddie’s truck. He got lost in the expert way that Buck’s lips and tongue slid against his own, in the fire that was ignited between them, burning so bright behind Eddie’s eyelids and simmering all the way down to his toes.
He thought that it might have been the start of the greatest adventure Eddie had ever been on.