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Joyce shoots me a grin. “Hey, maybe we could talk Chief Wainwright into doing a striptease!”
“You’re never going to let me forget this, are you?”
Lucky scents a good story. “Fill me in,” she demands.
Joyce quickly catches her up, and I’m pleasantly surprised when Lucky doesn’t laugh her head off.
“Well, good for you for sticking up for yourself,” she tells me. “And the Chief should be thanking you for an idea like that. I’ve seen those firefighters. He could make a fortune.” She snaps her fingers in a business-like manner. “Okay, ladies, bachelorette party? For gifts, I was thinking lingerie.”
“Great idea,” I tell her. It’s a given that practical Bailey won’t have anything sexier than white cotton granny panties. “Can we throw in some sex toys for fun?”
Lucky tilts her head thoughtfully. “She’s not going to need sex toys with a stud like Nikko, but maybe one, for a photo opp.”
“I’ll get it.” I grin. I’m something of a sex-toy connoisseur, and I think every girl should have at least one.
“But nothing too wild,” cautions Joyce. “This is Bailey we’re talking about.”
“A starter sex toy just for laughs. Got it,” I glance at my watch. “I’m sorry but I have to go,” I say regretfully. “I promised Gigi I’d be back after my meeting with Walden, and I’m way late. Can we work the details out over text?”
“Sure thing. You go spread literacy, I’ll handle the penis cakes,” Lucky agrees.
“But no actual penis cakes right?” Joyce checks. With Lucky, you don’t always know what you’re going to get.
Lucky grins. “Just checking to see if you’re listening.”
4
BLAZE
“I take it the meeting with your brother went well?”
For a sweet-looking old lady with coiffed silver-blue hair, Gigi, my favorite volunteer, can be very sarcastic.
I’ve known her since I was a teenager and she was running the high school library. Now she’s here twenty hours a week and literally keeps the place going. She says it keeps her out of trouble, but I feel guilty that I’m not paying her. Instead, I keep her supplied with mochas, iced or hot, depending on the weather.
I hand her the drink I bought for her at The Flying Saucer and jerk my chin in the general direction of the Addison and the arrogant firefighter beyond it. “You know how they’ve basically been promising us that we’d get the Addison building when it was empty?” I ask rhetorically.
“Uh oh.” Gigi takes a sip of her mocha.
I go on to tell her that it’s now a toss-up between us and the firehouse. Maybe not even a toss-up if the council has already made up its mind.
“And then I went over to the fire station and tried to talk the chief out of asking for the building. I think that might have been a mistake,” I add.
The look on Gigi’s face tells me she thinks it was definitely a mistake.
“What? I didn’t think it could hurt,” I say defensively. “I was trying to be assertive.”
Gigi eyes me through her enormous round glasses. She has the kind with frames that can be swapped out. Today, they’re black and white zebra print. “Not all situations call for assertiveness, Blaze. Some call for tact.”
“You have to be assertive with guys like that,” I reply. “They don’t understand subtlety.”
“Guys like what?”
The skin over my collarbone suddenly feels hot. “Like the big dumb jock type…?”
Gigi doesn’t roll her eyes but I can tell she’s making an effort. “Don’t underestimate the chief, Blaze. He came and introduced himself at the senior center when he first took over from Chief Grafton. He’s very dedicated to the community, and he’s definitely not stupid. Anyway, I’m sorry about the Addison.” She gives me a sympathetic look. “Thanks for the mocha, by the way. Delish.”
“It’s the least I can do,” I tell her. “I wish I could pay you for all the work you do.”
