“I have to go to work.” Brylee groaned and lifted up between us.
“Maybe you should call in sick.” I reached over and traced her thigh with my fingers. “We could stay in bed all day long—that’s what sick people do.”
“I wish I could, but I haven’t been there long enough to start calling in sick.” She shifted on the bed and looked over at Jett. “I guess he can sleep through anything.”
“We’re used to catching what little sleep we can at the fire station.” I chuckled and slid over to the edge of the bed. “He’ll wake up when I get the coffee going. You do have time for coffee, right?”
“Yeah, I don’t think I could even get in the shower without a cup after last night.” She scooted over next to me and started to stand. “Ow, fuck—I’m really sore.”
“You were the one that wanted us to keep going.” I extended my arm and let my hand drift down her back until it slid across the curve of her ass.
“I don’t regret it, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be thinking about the two of you every time I get up from my chair today.” She giggled and reached for her clothes.
We went to the kitchen and I started a pot of coffee. As expected, the smell roused Jett from his sleep and he joined us once it was ready to be poured. After we finished our coffee, we shared a round of kisses at the door before Brylee headed back to her apartment to get ready for the day. I was so tired that the coffee couldn’t keep my eyes open for long and I decided that I was going to go back to bed. Jett was feeling the effects of the night before as well. We agreed to sleep for a few more hours and then deal with the stuff from the storage lockers. There was still sorting to do, arrangements to be made for the furniture at the Salvation Army—most of which would be going to Maria, and we needed to find out if any of the collectibles were valuable.
But all of that can wait until we get some damn sleep.
I slept longer than I expected and Jett was already up when I crawled out of bed. I took a quick shower, put away another cup of coffee, and joined him at the kitchen table. He had already started checking the collectibles online and had a few promising pieces that appeared to be valuable. We made a few calls and found someone local that could look at the lot with us. The main thing we had to do was confirm they were real before we sold them. We had run into a few counterfeits, and we didn’t want to accidentally sell something that wasn’t real. With that part of our day out of the way, we headed to the Salvation Army and took care of the furniture. They agreed to hold everything until Maria got her own place, and we donated a few pieces to them in exchange for their generosity.
“Do you mind if we swing by the fire station? I want to check on the Jane Doe.” Jett looked over at me once we got back in the truck.
“You read my mind.” I nodded quickly. “I’ve been thinking about that all day, but I didn’t want to bring it up after we had such an amazing night.”
“It’s been bothering me.” He sighed and turned his head toward the window.
Jett and I stopped by the fire station on our way downtown to see the guy who would be able to look over our collectibles and verify their authenticity. They didn’t have a positive identification on the woman that we found, but they had confirmed it was arson. We knew that without even seeing the evidence based on the way the fire had spread in the warehouse. There were no reports of anyone missing that fit the description of the woman we found. Dental records were next on the list, and they had been sent off to the lab for an analysis. They hoped to have something back the next day if she was in the system. After we got caught up on the investigation we headed downtown and met with the collector who confirmed everything was legitimate.
“It looks like we’re going to break even after all—maybe even turn a profit.” Jett looked down at the box. “I bet most of this stuff sat on someone’s shelf for years and they never knew it was even valuable.”
“Maybe we should start doing yard sales when we’re not buying storage lockers.” I chuckled under my breath. “People sell stuff like that all the time for pennies.”
“Yeah, but we would probably buy a bunch of worthless junk.” Jett shrugged and grinned. “Since we’re this far downtown, do you want to stop by and see mom?”
“You read my mind again.” I nodded quickly.
“Mom, are you here?” I slowly pushed the front door open. “It’s us.”
“Oh my goodness, I didn’t know you were coming!” Mom walked into the living room with a smile on her face.
“We were in the area and thought we would stop by.” Jett walked over and gave her a big hug.
“Do you want to stay for dinner? I’ve got a roast in the oven.” Mom hugged me as soon as Jett let her go.
“There’s no way we can turn that down.” I nodded and smiled.
Mom always invited us to stay for dinner and we rarely refused unless we had something more pressing on the agenda. As much as I wanted to be back at our apartment when Brylee got off work, I couldn’t turn down a home-cooked meal. Our mom usually cooked enough to feed an army, even when she was just cooking for herself. I was pretty sure Jett and I would be leaving with at least half the roast because she always tried to send something home with us. She seemed to be in good spirits, which was nice to see. We drank entirely too much sweet tea while we waited on dinner, and made small talk. We told her about Maria, the latest haul from the storage locker, and apologize that we didn’t find anything to bring her, even though she wasn’t really expecting it. She caught us up on the latest events from her soap operas, and the neighborhood gossip—just like she always did. Once the roast was done, we all sat down at the dinner table to eat, and my stomach started to rumble when the roast landed on my plate.
“This is so good.” Jett closed his eyes and savored the first bite.
“Good? It’s incredible.” I swallowed my first bite and immediately started cutting another one.
“Hopefully you’ll both get married before I forget all my recipes.” A smile spread across our mother’s face. “You need to find a couple of nice girls that like to cook and then you’ll get to eat like this every night.”
I figured she wouldn’t let a visit go by without addressing our love lives—or lack of it, in her eyes.
“Maybe.” Jett nodded and smirked. “I don’t know if anyone could make it like you do though.”
“A dash of this and a little of that.” She waved him off with her hand. “It’s easy.”