Page 63 of Clean Out of Luck

Jack grins. “Well, you see, a lot of times when a boy likes a girl, he will then ask her out on a date. It’s a special event,where you take her out, buy her food, and hope she likes you enough to do it again. Just try not to bring up any embarrassing family stories on the first date. Not even the third date. Save those for when she’s locked in for good.”

I chuckle at that. “Unfortunately for me, she knows all my embarrassing stories already. It’s why I’m worried I don’t stand a chance with her.”

Jack nods. “It was the way she was looking at you in the courthouse. The way she was looking at you when we went into the Mexican restaurant. It was how she kept looking at you to see if you were watching her. Even when she was talking to me about getting lunch or dinner together, she was watching you out of the corner of her eye. She always knows what you’re doing and who you’re talking to. I knew that day that she wasn’t interested in me. I don’t know if she knows it, or if it’s just a subconscious thing. But I think she’s at least attracted to you or cares about you on a deep level.”

That’s actually encouraging to hear because I’m trying to figure out what to say to her. “I may or may not have kissed her the other night.”

Jack slams the coffee cup down. “You’ve been holding out on me! Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because it doesn’t mean anything yet. I kissed her, and then I went home.”

“No, no, no. You can’t just leave me hanging like that. What did she say?”

“That’s literally it. She was too shocked, even though she was the one who asked me to kiss her.”

Jack’s eyebrows shoot up at that. “Wait, she asked you?”

“I think maybe it was more like her calling my bluff, but then I didn’t back down, and we ended up kissing. She was shocked, and I was flying high, and I knew it was better to have a conversation later. Except she’s been avoiding me the last couple of days.”

“Why don’t you just show up at her place? Seems like you’ve been doing that a lot anyway.” Jack laughs like he’s just told the best joke in the world.

“Because I want to give her time to process. Because I do want this to be something that lasts.”

The siren goes off, interrupting whatever Jack was about to say.

Jack sets down his cup and I shut off the oven, then we both run to get our gear.

“Where are we going?” Jack asks Sergeant Linus as he steps into his boots.

“The Serendipity. That thing’s such an old fire hazard; I’m amazed we haven’t been called there sooner. I would get ready to do some real work. Their fire alarm went off.”

My heart drops to my toes. The Serendipity. And it’s on fire. Scarlett could be somewhere in the building. I glance down at my watch as I head toward the truck and sigh with relief. She’s still at work. Thank goodness. If anything happens to The Serendipity, she’ll be heartbroken. But I’m so glad she’s not home.

But still. There are a lot of apartments to clear—this is going to be an event.

Good thing we drank all that coffee.

When we roll up to The Serendipity, a lot of residents are already outside. Which is good—it means the fire alarm is actually working in all parts of the building.

People are hollering lots of questions at us as we head up the front steps into the building. A Black man somewhere in his thirties is holding the front door open for us, the alarm’s shrill beep spilling outside.

Someone’s yelling at me to grab their favorite sweatshirtfrom their apartment because they forgot to save it. Someone else is telling me something about their important file papers. Everyone has something they want us to save from a fire.

But that’s not my job. I’m not in the stuff-saving business. I’m in the life-saving business. Stuff comes second.

A middle-aged woman is hurrying toward us from the lobby on a mission to get outside. She’s wearing a bikini and nothing else as she rushes toward me.

It takes me a minute to recognize her because the last time I saw her she was fully clothed. It’s the lady who let me into The Serendipity a while ago. I think she’s Scarlett’s friend.

“Oh, thank goodness you’re here!” she exclaims when she sees me. She grabs my jacket with both hands. “I just had to see if Scarlett was here. I didn’t see her out front with everyone else.”

“Oh, that’s because she’s at work today,” I tell her as I grab her hand and start leading her toward the door to get her out of the building. “She shouldn’t be home for another couple of hours.”

“But that’s just it!” Gloria says. “She’s home today. There are no court cases—she actually has the day off. We were sitting by the pool tanning together earlier.”

My jaw tightens, and my stomach sinks.

“She told me she was going to go home and sit in the bath. The pool wasn’t warm enough for us today because it doesn’t actually open until June 1st, and so we were just tanning and reading?—”

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