Page 31 of Engulfing Emma

“Sir, do you happen to know the boy’s name? The older one?”

“Jaylen Tiffin,” the man says, shaking his head. “Seemed like a decent kid until his dad passed. Shame.”

“Do you know how his father died?”

“He had himself a bad heart attack—you know the kind no one survives.”

“They call them widow-makers,” I say.

“Yeah, that kind. Poor guy was only forty-five.” He pounds his chest. “I done been smokin’ and drinkin’ for sixty years, and mine’s still ticking. Don’t seem fair.”

“And Jaylen’s mother. What’s her name?”

“Brandi, with anI.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“You’re welcome, son. Thank you for your service. You boys did good today.”

I tip my helmet at him and return to the truck.

Jaylen and Brandi Tiffin. I pull out my phone and add their names to my notes so I won’t forget.

~ ~ ~

Back at the firehouse, fresh from a shower, Denver walks up behind me and whacks the back of my leg with a rolled-up towel.

“What’d you do that for?” I ask.

“I thought it might wipe that shit-eating grin off your face.”

“Thewhat?”

“You got something going on today?” he asks.

“No,” I say innocently.

“I’m calling bullshit,” Bass says, coming around the corner. “I know exactly why you’re in a good mood, and it has nothing to do with baked goods.”

I shake my head and smack my lips together, admitting nothing.

“You gotta keep that one around,” Justin says, emerging from the shower. “The woman canbake.”

“I’m not with her, guys. She’s not mine to keep around.”

“But you want some of that, right?” Justin asks.

I shoot him a scolding look.

“What? You gotta quit living like a monk one of these days, Lieutenant. Why not today?”

Yeah, why not today?a voice rings in my head.

“Lieutenant!” someone yells from down the hall. “Someone’s here to see you.”

I throw on clothes and a little extra cologne. When I pass the mirror and get a glimpse of myself, I realize Denver was right. I do have a shit-eating grin.

Chapter Twelve

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