Page 12 of Fire and Icing

“Captain, donuts are here!” Patrick shouts through to the office. “Come get your chocolate donut before the rookie eats it.”

David steps through the doorway as quickly as if the alarm just went off. “Did I hear someone say donuts?” His smile iswide. “Emberleigh, you didn’t have to do this. We’re here to protect you from fires and whatever else you need. You know that.”

He walks toward the box, pulls out the chocolate cake donut with white glaze. It’s larger than a usual donut and when he bites down, I can tell it’s softer.

I step toward the box, realizing my error as soon as my hand is about an inch from a maple bar that’s covered in pieces of bacon—real bacon, not mamby-pamby bacon. No. This bacon looks like it came from a ranch.

“Eh. Eh. Eh,” Patrick tuts.

Cody follows him. “Let’s see if Emberleigh wants you to indulge in her gift.”

Cody looks at Emberleigh. “Do you want the rookie to have a donut?”

Emberleigh nearly looks as if she’s going to say no. She folds her arms across her chest and taps her finger to her chin, deliberating.

“I brought them for the station,” she finally says. “It’s up to y’all how you divvy them out.”

The guys look amongst themselves and after a beat, David says, “Help yourself, Dustin.”

I try to be cool, lifting the maple-bacon bar out of the box like I couldn’t care less whether I eat this or some leftovers in the fridge, but the moment the first bite hits my tongue, I actually moan.

“Oh, man,” I say around the bite. “This is good.”

The guys crack up. Emberleigh grins for a moment until she sees me noticing.

“Is he actually trying to puppy-dog his way into my good graces?” she asks Greyson.

Greyson cooly responds, “Probably trying to fix the botched first impression.”

“It’s going to take more than charm and boyish appreciation of my baked goods to fix that oafish first impression,” she declares, not even glancing at me.

“Oooh,” Cody and Patrick say in unison.

I take another bite of my donut, all the more determined to convince Emberleigh I’m not an oaf. I might be large and lack some self-control at times. But I’m not an oaf. She’ll see.

After Emberleigh leaves, everyone’s going back for their second donut.

I’ve got my eye on one that’s the color of berry juice with a dollop of thick whipped cream on top.

“I don’t think Emberleigh wanted you to have any of these,” Patrick teases, blocking my approach with an outstretched forearm.

“Yeah, it was pretty clear these were for everyone but you,” Cody agrees.

“It’s pretty hard to make Emberleigh your enemy,” Greyson quips quietly. “She’s basically the nicest person in town. Too nice for her own good.”

“Hey,” Patrick says, moving his arm back and tipping his chin toward me in a move that says I can go ahead and grab a donut. “I’ve got an idea.”

“Oh? Great,” I say, grabbing the berry donut before anyone else tries to stop me.

The guys chuckle.

“Yeah,” Patrick says. He turns and addresses Greyson and Cody. “Dustin needs to win Emberleigh over.”

I couldn’t agree more. But I have a feeling their idea of me winning her over isn’t going to line up with mine—at all.

“What if he had to pick up baked goods every day from Baker From Another Mother?” Patrick suggests.

That must be the name of her shop. Does she have a partner?

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