Page 43 of Engulfing Emma

I look out the window. Emma is walking around the corner. It’s not as if I’ve been waiting for her or anything. Except that I totally have. Just like an adolescent in heat. “Bria, I have to go.”

“Wait, is she there? I almost forgot she was coming. Are you so excited? Are you going to ask her out?”

“Slow down. I don’t know yet. Once she makes it inside the school, she might not want me around anymore. I have zero idea where this is going, if anywhere at all.”

“She’d be crazy not to want to date you. You’re the whole package. And if she says she doesn’t want to, introduce her to Leo. That kid is a chick magnet.”

Emma comes inside. I watch her from the common area. “I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay. I’m going to want details. Good luck.”

I laugh. “I’m not the one auditioning to join a famous band.”

“Eeeek!” she screams again. “Bye.”

“Oh, hell yeah,” Justin says when Emma appears with a tray of goodies. He hops off the couch and gives her a kiss on the cheek. “What’s for breakfast?”

She peels back the corner of the tin foil. “Individual coffee cakes. I wasn’t sure what you’d like, so I made cherry, cream cheese, and apple.”

“We all want to marry you,” he says. “I hope you know that. Even the ones with wives.”

She blushes and looks in my direction.

“Good morning.” I take the tray from her. “You don’t have to keep doing this, but it sure is appreciated.”

“I like doing it, especially in the summer when I have more time on my hands.”

I put the tray on the table and pick up a cherry coffee cake, eating it in two bites. “Dang, Emma. These are heavenly.”

Dispatch comes over the loudspeaker, and my heart sinks. Damn, there’s only ten minutes left on shift.

“I’m really sorry,” I say, turning and running to the rig. “I’m not sure how long I’ll be. If you don’t want to wait, I’ll understand.”

She shrugs. “I’ll wait a while.”

“You can stay here if you want, hang out in the common room.”

She follows me into the garage. “Nah. It’s really nice outside. I think I’ll go wait on—”

“Our bench,” we say at the same time and then smile.

“See you soon, Emma.”

“Okay, Lieutenant.”

Fuuuuck me. The way she says it almost gets me hard, even when I’m racing out the door to a fire.

I watch her as she walks out of the garage after the trucks pull out. I can’t tear my eyes away from her. And apparently, she can’t tear her eyes away from me either.

Twenty minutes later, the call having been a false alarm, we’re pulling back into the garage. I hop down and wave to Emma, holding up the fingers on my right hand, indicating I’ll be five minutes.

She flashes me the okay sign.

“What’s up with you and the brunette who always sits on the bench?” Kent Hayes, from the next shift, asks.

“I’m still trying to figure that out.”

He smirks. “If you can’t figure it out, I’m sureIcan.”

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