Fire at Twilight: The Firefighters of Darling Bay 1 by Lila Ashe

they don’t call you the crap magnet for nothing, huh?” Hank turned to Samantha. “You okay?”
    “Yeah,” said Samantha in that same soft voice.
    Grace leaned forward. “I’m her sister. Grace. I think we met once …”
    “Oh, yeah,” said Hank.
    But he barely looked at her.
    Grace stared. She remembered loving that her sister had finally been dating someone normal. He’d been going for his fire science degree. He hadn’t been a drug dealer or a gambler, a nice change of pace. Once, when Samantha was living in Florida, she’d dated a dirty cop, for heaven’s sake. Or at least that’s what she’d told Grace on the phone, which meant the reality might have been even worse. This guy, Hank, had been nice. Grace couldn’t remember what had happened to end things.
    “Anyway. You have my cell.”
    Sam had Hank’s cell number? Her sister was full of surprises today, and this guy was the only nice surprise so far.
    “Call me if you need anything.” Hank paused, tugging on his ear. “Anything at all.”
    “As long as he’s not on shift,” Tox said.
    “Hey, I’m on shift now,” said Hank. “I’ll make the guys get in the rig with me, even if you just need ice cream.”
    There it was again, Grace noticed. That pretty pink coloring. Yeah, there was so much she needed to talk to her sister about.
    Samantha yawned.
    But the time for talk wasn’t now. “Okay, boys,” she said, shooing them like chickens with her hands. “Out, out. She needs rest.”
    Tox rubbed his neck and frowned. “You’re right. We’re out of here. Feel better.”
    Grace kissed Samantha’s cheek and told her she’d see her first thing in the morning. “You’re all right here? Because I’ll stay if you’re not.”
    “No, I just want to sleep. I’m halfway there already.” Sam yawned again and waggled her fingers at them as they left. From the doorway, Grace blew her a kiss, just like their mother always had.
    Sam smiled sleepily and caught it, pressing it to her cheek.
    In the hallway, Grace wobbled.
    “Whoops, sit down for a minute,” said Tox, grabbing at her upper arm.
    She shook him off. “I’m fine. I just …” She just what? Just realized how close she had come to losing her last remaining blood relation? The person she loved the most? “No, I want to go home.”
    Hank was already striding down the hallway toward another firefighter, raising his hand in a wave.
    Tox nodded, keeping his hand at her elbow. “Good. I think it’s time. Let’s go.”
    For a moment, just for a second, Grace had forgotten their date, and the fact that technically, they were still on it. “Your truck. It’s still at the pier.” They’d ridden to the hospital, both of them, in the back of the ambulance.
    “Crap. Hang on.”
    Ten minutes later, Grace had taken a ride on the engine. It was completely different from the ride in the ambulance—the engine was utilitarian inside. She sat in an empty jumpseat, and they’d put a headset over her ears so she could hear them talking to each other over the roar of the engine. The four men chatted about something shift-related that she didn’t follow, something about the mandations imminent on B-shift. She tuned them out and looked out the small window next to her, watching the world stare at the fire engine as they passed by. It felt like being a celebrity, the way people waved at them. Also over the headset, she heard a woman’s voice say something about a medical on Turk Street.
    She pushed the button they’d shown her to talk. “Don’t you all have to go to the medical before they drop us off?”
    Hank, sitting in the jumpseat opposite her, laughed. “That’s for Engine 3. If we’d been dispatched on that, you would be holding on for dear life, what with Luke driving today. And you’d be thanking your stars that Tox was back there with you. He’s the worst driver of all of us.”
    “Hey!” Tox said and thumped Hank on the arm with a closed fist. Hank flipped him off.
    Grace