Page 61 of Four Firemen For Christmas

“We know.” Samuel slapped Henry’s shoulder. “We were all assholes. Everyone but Derek.” He shoved his hand toward me. “Good job, kid. And I don’t even want to know how you got a copy of that report.”

“Trust me, you really don’t want to know.” But that wasn’t the part that mattered. “You all agree that Emma is innocent and we need to apologize our asses off until she forgives us and agrees to be in our lives again?”

A chorus of “yeses” rang out. About fucking time.

“How am I going to threaten Danielle when the record is supposed to be private?” Alex asked.

“I don’t think she’s going to think that far. She wanted to hurt you. She wants you to know that she did it, otherwise, what’s the point?” I wasn’t worried about Danielle or her friend. The important thing was getting this cleared up and getting Emma. “I’m not ready to give Emma up. She’s the best thing that’s happened to me. To any of us. I’m not letting you ruin this for us.”

I might be the newest guy on the team, but I knew a good thing when it landed in my lap. Emma was a great thing.

“Give me five minutes.” Alex locked his jaw and dialed, putting the phone on speaker.

Danielle’s sticky sweet voice filled the apartment. “Alex, baby. Merry Christmas. I was just thinking about you.”

“Yeah?” Alex dropped the phone onto the counter. “Were you thinking about how you screwed my captain over with that false claim of Tammy’s? Because that’s what I’m looking at right now.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. If Tammy has a problem with Henry, that’s between the two of them.” Danielle’s voice turned snarky and mean. “It’s not like I’d give him the time of day.”

“Is that so?” Alex wasn’t backing down. Finally. The depression from the breakup had flipped, and he didn’t care about this horrible woman anymore.

“That’s right. If she wants to file a sexual harassment claim then that’s her business. Everyone needs to know that Henry is fucking women in his office.”

I glanced at Henry, whose face was set in stone. So, Danielle had caught him and Emma together… or she’d seen Emma come out of Henry’s office with that sexy satisfied look and had known what it meant.

Alex gave a feral smile. “Thought you didn’t know anything about it?”

“Well…” Danielle laughed. “Okay, fuck it. It was all just a big joke, okay. We wanted to piss you off.”

“It worked. And now I’m going to return the favor. Admit it was a mistake and get the report removed, or I’ll call the cops and tell them you’re filing false claims. Pretty sure that carries a prison sentence.” Alex’s smile widened when Danielle didn’t speak for several long seconds.

We were making shit up, but it was no worse than Danielle and Tammy. They’d put a man’s reputation and career in jeopardy. It still might be too late to fix Henry’s forced early retirement that was essentially firing him, but we’d gotten the truth.

“Fine.” Danielle huffed. “We’ll fix it after Christmas.”

“Now, Danielle. Consider it your last Christmas present to me. After this, I never want to talk to you again.” Alex hung up and then propped his elbows on the counter and leaned into them. “Call Emma. You’re the only one she’ll listen to. See if she’s willing to meet you here.”

Henry and Samuel added their agreements. “We fucked up. I’m not ready to give her up either.” Samuel rubbed the back of his neck and elbowed Henry. “Once we do this, it’s for good, right?”

“Yeah.” Henry’s eyes took on a gleam that I was beginning to recognize he only showed when we talked about Emma.

I dialed Emma’s number and waited while it rang and rang, then rolled over to voicemail. “Emma, it’s Derek. I need to see you. Can you come by the apartment today?” I ended the call and added my phone to the counter beside Alex’s. We sat and stared at each other, waiting for a phone call that might never come.

“What if she doesn’t call?” Alex tapped his fingers on the counter. “Anyone know where her grandmother lives?”

We all looked back and forth before finally admitting that we didn’t have a clue. Once we made up with Emma, we seriously had to sit down and talk about life and the future.

Time stretched endlessly as we sat in the tense stillness, our eyes flicking between the silent phones on the counter. The heavy weight of anticipation clung to all of us.

“Isn’t there a Christmas tree in the closet?” Alex asked. He didn’t wait for an answer but rushed over to the closet and started throwing shit all over the living room. He came out wearing a triumphant grin. “Found it.”

The cardboard box was falling apart, but it was definitely a Christmas tree.

“You thinking what I’m thinking?” He shook the box back and forth over his feet.

Henry slid off the stool and smiled. “Let’s decorate it. Let’s decorate the whole fucking place.”

Snow pelted the windows as we all hauled boxes of old Christmas decorations out of the closet and started cracking them open. Stuff I’d forgotten we had spilled out across the floor.

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