Page 14 of Burning for Alexander
“You made me knock over the new napkins!” I shouted.
“Oh Jesus,” Mattie groaned. “Is he drunk? Is that why you’re—fuck, is he spoutingpoetry?”
“Swiftianpoetry,” Ella agreed grimly. “Among others.”
Tavo giggled louder. “Oh my gosh, this is amazing.”
“Don’t worry,” Ella added, reaching for the napkins that had spilled across the bar. “Timber’s closed. We were having a few drinks to celebrate the Fourth, and your brother got carried away.”
“He’syourbrother when he’s like this,” Mattie muttered.
I heard a man’s voice in the background and leaned in to say hi to my future brother-in-law. Before I could say anything, Mattie continued. “Why’re you drunk, Alexander the Grape? Is this about your sex life? Ella and I think your dry spell has gone on way too long. You need some stress relief.”
I blinked at the phone. “You and Ella were talking about my sex life? Ew.”
“No shit, ew,” Ella said. “But we’re right. When was the last time you got laid?”
Never.Thankfully, I wasn’t drunk enough to say that out loud.
“’S been a while,” I said instead. “Looooong while,” I added with a giggle and hiccup. That much was true.
Tavo leaned forward on his stool, flashing a big smile. “I heard there’s a new class up at the rescue academy. They’re, like, medics and helicopter pilots and wilderness emergency people.” He fanned himself with long, slender fingers. “They say the instructors are even hotter than the students.”
“Ew, no,” Ella said. “Our cousin Tommy is one of those instructors this summer.”
I shook my head. “And no adrenaline junkies, thank you very much.”
Been there, done that. I’d fallen for a guy who was stationed somewhere in the Middle East. Worrying about him had been bad enough, but when he’d suddenly gone silent, fear had eaten away at me piece by piece.
Had he ghosted or died? There was no way to know.
I hadn’t even learned his name, which meant his disappearance would forever remain a mystery.
“Whose name, Alex?” Tavo asked.
I shook my head at him. “Huh?”
“You said you didn’t even have his name. Whose name?”
Fuck. I was drunker than I’d thought if I’d said that out loud.
My sisters both made a sound of understanding, and Ella jumped up. “Time for bed. You’re cut off, and we’re going upstairs right now.”
Tavo offered to finish turning off all the lights while Ella dragged my drunk ass upstairs. When she stood behind me in the bathroom doorway, making sure I was brushing my teeth like I’d promised, she asked, “Do you think that’s why you’re giving this fire chief such a hard time? Because of your online guy?”
IndexEcho.
“It’s not the same thing.Indexis…wasa specialist in ARFF equipment and techniques. Aircraft rescue and firefighting in the military is a big fucking deal. They’re the ones who put out like… giant military plane fires and explosions and…” I couldn’t bear even thinking about it. “Chief Kincaid puts out sparklers,” I said, sounding bitter even to my own ears. “Not at all the same thing.”
“Still, maybe the chief is bringing up some shit from that time, you know? Might be worth talking to someone about.”
She meant my therapist. But I’d already therapied this shit to death. “I’m fine. He just needs to get his nose out of my business and mind his own.”
But Ella’s idea had merit. Maybe I wasn’t giving the new fire chief enough credit. Instead of assuming he was an overly picky asshole, maybe I needed to give him the benefit of the doubt.
What if he was just trying to impress the town until his reputation as a competent, safety-conscious fire chief was well established? For all I knew, he was this much of a stickler for everyone.
In the morning, I’d start asking around.
