***
Twenty minutes later, they were entering Krissy’s house via the garage when Becca’s phone rang. The ringtone told her who it was.
Hurriedly dropping her overnight bag in the kitchen, Becca retrieved her phone from her purse and answered it.
“Good evening, sir,” she greeted the fire chief of Carlsbad.
“Good evening, Roberts,” Chief Leland Comstock replied. “Sorry to disturb you on your day off.”
“Not at all, sir. What can I do for you?”
“I just wanted to say damn fine job at that scene last night, Roberts. Damn fine job.”
Becca was glad this was a phone call and not an in-person meeting. During an in-person meeting with the chief of the entire fire department, it would have been unseemly for her to be smiling as widely as she was now.
“Thank you, sir,” she said. “It was…a tough one.”
Chief Comstock grunted.
“It’s too bad we lost the building,” he said. “Not to mention that civilian.”
Becca couldn’t help but shudder, still remembering the sight of…
What was it again?
…Josh going up in flames. She knew she’d never forget those screams.
“It could have been worse, sir,” she said.
“And thanks to you, it wasn’t,” Chief Comstock said. “That was some serious action movie stuff you pulled off on that roof, Roberts. You made us all proud.”
If it was possible, Becca’s smile got wider. Praise like that from this man meant a lot to her. And it wasn’t just because he was the head honcho of the entire fire department. She genuinely respected Chief Comstock. Not only was he a straight-up, old-school firefighter from back in the day, but he was an advocate for diversifying the ranks of the department and had been instrumental in ensuring more minorities and women now wore the uniform.
And of course, he was the one who had promoted her to battalion chief.
“Anyway, there’s another reason for my call,” the Chief went on. “Press conference. Tomorrow. Eleven a.m. City Hall.”
“Yes, sir.”
“That ought to get those jackals away from your house,” Comstock added. “I know you’re modest, Roberts—that’s one of the reasons I like you—but when you manage to do what you did last night, people want to hear about it.”
“I understand, sir,” Becca replied.
“Dress uniform,” Comstock instructed. Becca wanted to groan. Tomorrow was also her day off and she was going to have to put on her dress blues? She knew it made sense, of course. An official press conference meant that all CFD personnel would need to look their best. To that end, it wouldn’t do for Becca to turn up in her normal day-off gear of denim cut-offs and an old tee.
“Understood, sir,” she said.
“Enjoy the rest of your day off,” Chief Comstock said. “Again…damn fine work.”
“Thank you, sir, I appreciate that.”
When the call ended, Becca let out a breath. She suddenly felt better than she had since learning about all of that Lesbian Wonder Woman bullshit.
“Everything okay?” Krissy asked, coming from the direction of her bedroom. “The pie is in the fridge, by the way, and I already ordered the pizza.”
Becca smirked.
“Trying to remain the best girlfriend ever, huh?”