Page 12 of One Night Flame

Again.

Donkey pulled off his gloves. “I swear, Lola Taggert sets those alarms on purpose just to flirt with the crew.”

Moose snorted. “You say that like it’s not working.”

“She offered me a pie,” Twitch added, bouncing in place as usual. “Bourbon pecan. I think it was a bribe.”

“It’s always a bribe,” Peach said, rolling her eyes as she unfastened her helmet. “The question is what for.”

“Attention.” I kicked my boots off with a grin. “Lola’s basically Huckleberry Creek’s answer to Cupid in an apron.”

“She’s got that matchmaking glint in her eye,” Donkey added as we headed toward the kitchen. “Saw her granddaughter there too. Poor thing looked like she wanted to crawl into the dough mixer and disappear.”

“Allie?” Moose asked. “She works front counter sometimes, right?”

“Yup,” Donkey said. “Sweet girl. Fast on the register. Good at hiding.”

“Can you blame her?” I reached for the coffeepot. “If Lola were my grandmother, I’d have an escape route mapped and rehearsed.”

They all laughed, the kind that echoed off the tile and carried through the bones of the building. This rhythm felt good. After a full shift of adrenaline, or a fake-out like today, this was the part that let us breathe.

Still, as I poured myself a mug of joe and leaned against the counter, my brain drifted somewhere else. To someone else.

Lucy Sullivan.

I didn’t know much about her—not really—but the auction wasn’t letting go of me as easily as it should’ve.

Twitch didn’t even wait for mugs to be poured before jumping in to the hot topic of the moment. “Fifteen hundred dollars.” He dumped three packets of sugar into his cup like it owed him interest. “That’s gotta be a department record.”

It was, but that wasn’t the reason everybody was talking about Rhett MacAvoy this morning. No, it was all aboutwhohad bid fifteen hundred dollars on him.

“For one date?” Donkey dropped onto the worn recliner with a groan. “Hell, for that much money, Pepper could’ve bought him a used truck and still had enough left over for dinner.”

I eyed him. “Where areyoubuying used vehicles?”

“Do you think Tater knew she was gonna bid?” Peach glanced toward the duty board as if it might have answers. “He looked like someone hit him with a two-by-four.”

“I mean, wouldn’t you if your ex bid that kind of money on you?” Meatball asked.

Moose leaned his big frame against the doorway. “Think they’re getting back together?”

“I hope not,” Twitch muttered, then caught himself. “I mean—I hope yes. I’m just saying that’s a lot of money to drop on an ex.”

“She didn’t look thrilled about it,” Meatball said. “More like someone dared her.”

Peach smirked. “Or blackmailed her with pie.”

“She was wearing that green dress,” Donkey added. “You remember the green dress.”

“Oh, I remember the green dress,” I said before I could stop myself.

Five heads turned in my direction.

I coughed into my coffee and stared down into the mug like it might save me from having eyes in my head to notice that Tater’s ex-wife was still a curvy bombshell. “She looked nice. That’s all.”

Peach arched a brow, unconvinced, but mercifully didn’t press. The conversation spiraled back into what-ifs and bets on whether Rhett would chicken out or show up with flowers. We hadn’t seen much of him at the station since he got back from deployment with his Reserve unit. He’d gotten injured in a firefight and was still doing PT.

I let them talk around me, the voices fading to background static while my brain replayed a different moment.

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