Page 30 of Spark
“You made a double batch of red velvet cookies,” Tyler repeated, and she bit her lip.
“They, um, seemed pretty popular last time.”
Ryan snorted.“That’s because Tyler ate all of them in one shift.”
A fact that Chloe knew, because Ryan had given Tyler shit about it at Sunday dinner the following week.Damn it!
But if Tyler was bothered by Ryan’s accusation, he didn’t show it, so she wasn’t going to, either.“I didn’t eatallof them.Hawk had a couple.”
Ryan’s snort did an encore.“There are three dozen cookies in a batch.Plus, you probably only let Hawk have ‘a couple’”—his tone slung air quotes around the word—“because he outranks you.”
Tyler shrugged, although he didn’t argue.“I can’t help it if you were too slow on the uptake the last time Chloe brought cookies in.You snooze, you lose.”He popped open one of the pastry boxes with the red velvet cookies nestled inside and scooped one up to take a bite.
Addison looked at the cookie, then Tyler, then Chloe, her brow slightly furrowed, and ooookay, time to change the subject.“I know we’re meeting to firm up everything for the bachelor and bachelorette party, but I have the finalized wedding cake contract from Steph, if you want to take a look at that, first.There are drawings,” Chloe said, and bingo.Addison’s face brightened, her attention successfully snagged.
“Ooooooo, yes!And after that, we can talk about the party.”
Cookies forgotten, at least momentarily, the four of them moved to one of the seating areas clustered around the fire house’s common room, which was otherwise empty.Normally, the place was bustling with activity, voices knotted in conversation and first responders filling the couches, chairs, and tables.The place felt a little odd, all quiet like this.
“Engine and Ambo are on a call, backing up another house on a car wreck,” Tyler said, as if reading her mind, and hell ifthatwasn’t a scary thought.
“Right.”Chloe nodded, getting down to business.Sliding her laptop from her bag, she powered it up with a few clicks, navigating to the contract her boss had put the finishing touches on a few hours ago.
“Okay.Here’s everything from Sweetie Pies.”Chloe double-clicked the document, turning her laptop screen-out.She confirmed the head count and delivery time and location, then showed Addison and Ryan the hand-drawn images her boss, Steph, had done.“I wish you guys would at least let me help with these,” Chloe said, her chest squeezing at the sight of the whimsical mini-cakes piled into small, delicate mountains on tiered platters.
“You already did,” Addison pointed out with a laugh.“Doing a whole bunch of smaller cakes—which are absolutely adorable, by the way—was your idea, remember?”
“It was the only solution to you having a six-way tie for your favorite flavor at the tasting,” Chloe argued.It hardly counted ashelping, though.
Ryan shook his head, sitting back against the couch.“I’m going to side with Addison on this one.We know you’re good at what you do.”He paused so Addison could mouthso good, then continued.“But not even you can bake cakes and be at the rehearsal dinner at the same time.Anyway, we want you to enjoy this wedding, and you’re already doing so much.Let Steph worry about the cakes.”
Chloe opened her mouth to tell him that she could absolutely bake cakes and still be right on time for the rehearsal—did he evenknowher?—but she was cut off by the piercing sound of the all-call coming through the overhead speakers.
“Squad Six.Structure fire, chemical fire.Fifty-seven hundred Marshall Boulevard.Requesting immediate Haz-Mat response.”
“Sorry,” Tyler said as he and Ryan levered out of their seats, both looking far calmer than Chloe felt.Holy crap, achemicalfire?“I’ll text you later about anything else we need for the party, okay, Chloe?”
She nodded, even though the only thing left to do for the party was show up.“Of course.Don’t worry about it.”
Addison and Ryan exchanged a bunch of nonverbal shorthand that seemed to be an equal mixture ofI love youandbe careful or I’ll murder you.“I’ll call you when we get back,” he promised over his shoulder.He and Tyler hustled out of the common room, but their bootsteps had barely given way to the growl of the squad vehicle’s engine before Addison’s forehead creased.
“What?”Chloe’s stomach tightened.“Are you worried about the party?Because everything is all set.We can?—”
“No, no.It’s nothing like that.”
“Okay,” Chloe said, her tone lifting the end of the word up in question.Something was clearly bugging Addison because now her lips were crinkled up along with her brows.
She slid her cell phone from the back pocket of her jeans, her fingers flying over the screen.“Marshall Boulevard.I know that address.”
Chloe rewound a few minutes to the sound of the all-call broadcasting over the speakers.“It’s downtown, right?Where all those medical offices are?”
“They’re not all medical offices.There’s also a forensic science center.A lab, actually.”Addison looked up from her phone, her wide-eyed stare making Chloe’s stomach spiral to her knees.
“It’s where the Remington Police Department’s analysis lab and DNA storage facility is, and according to that all-call, the place is on fire.”
10
Tyler was a big fan of order.He wasn’t so glued to the stuff to be a candidate for OCD, but having a process—common room to squad vehicle, boots off, Haz-Mat mobility suit on, ass in the back step of the vehicle, directly behind Faurier’s in the operator’s seat, breathe in for four, breathe out for six—made it a hell of a lot easier to manage all the things that could send him tango uniform on a call.
