Page 23 of Burning for Alexander
Firebug.
It wasn’t the first time he’d called me that. Somehow, it had seemed… almost affectionate. Like an endearment. But I knew that was ridiculous. The man saw me as an annoyance, a pest. And when I’d witnessed him leaning toward the beautiful blonde woman he was with last night, I’d gotten a firm answer to whether or not I might have sensed attraction from him.
He was straight.
I’d been asking around as casually as I could, and so far, no one had any evidence he was anything else. Of course, it wasn’t fair of me to assume a default of het, but it also wouldn’t be fair to allow myself to get my hopes up when so many sexy men were, in fact, into only women.
And why wouldn’t he be? The woman he was with last night was great. Warm smile, easy laughter, outdoorsy and fit.
Maybe I even had her to thank for his one-eighty on the permit. Perhaps all it took to soften the man was a good night in the sack.
A little growl vibrated my throat. My sister was probably right. I’d find any reason to avoid dating someone actually attainable. It was leading me toward wanting unavailable men.
Because I was still obsessed with a ghost.
“Did you say something?” Karim asked as he poured a bucket of ice into the well behind the bar. “Because either you’ve been mumbling lately or I need my ears checked.”
“Yeah, we got the permit to serve at the Slingshot Showdown. Tell Juni we’ll need to call the Sysco guy and update our order.”
He nodded and headed back to the kitchen while I opened the staffing schedule to try and cover both the Showdown and a busy Saturday here at the restaurant on late notice.
While I was grateful to have the permit, I wasn’t about to run the risk of seeing Kincaid in person while retrieving it from the station house. I waited until the lunch crowd slowed before begging Deena to go.
“Bro, for real? I still have a six-top sitting on the patio,” she said, sliding a receipt into the till drawer and stacking the empty leatherette folder on the stack above it.
“Fine, but after that, will you go? Please?”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Promise you won’t make me work the Showdown, and I’ll do it.”
I glared at her. We both knew she was my best server, and I’d never force her to do anything she didn’t want to do, but we also knew she’d be my first choice to handle an event like the Showdown. “You’ll do it anyway because you love me.”
“Only because love hurts, Alex,” she teased. “Fine. But if I’m working the Showdown, promise me Karim will be working the grill. He’s the only one who can handle the crowds without murdering people.”
It went unspoken that my head chef was a moody pain in the ass who didn’t handle change well.
“Do you think I have a death wish?” I whispered. “Karim and I will do the cooking. You and Tyler can be customer-facing.”
She grinned and fist-bumped me. “Perf. Should be done with the six-top in the next few minutes. I’ll grab the permit.”
I let out a breath as she bounced off to check on her last table again. If I could just stay away from the fire chief, maybe I could get past this ridiculous little crush on the guy.
Several hours later, Ella showed up for a drink after work with our cousin Hazel, who also happened to be her boss.
“Where’s Avery?” I asked Hazel, setting down a glass of the Chianti she liked and a beer for my sister.
“Working late at the gallery. I told her I’d grab her pickle pizza on my way out.”
I made a note to tell the kitchen, and then I pulled out a chair and joined them for a few minutes. “How are things going at work? Did the update roll out smoothly?”
My cousin’s tech company was her baby. At least, it had been up till now. But she and her wife were expecting a human baby, which meant Untrace was getting ready to be demoted. Hazel and Ella, along with the rest of the company’s employees, had been working hard on rolling out a big update this past spring, and it was finally over.
Hazel smiled. “For the most part. I’m just glad it’s done. I have plans to take Avery down to the Red Lodge Inn tomorrow night for a nice dinner and overnight. She has a prenatal massage booked the next morning before we head back.” She eyed me. “What about you? Doing anything besides work these days? Anything fun?”
I shook my head. “Newp. Nothing fun at all. In fact, I think the last fun thing I did was come over and help you finish painting and set up the crib.”
“Alex, that was six weeks ago!”
Ella swallowed another sip of beer. “He thinks his job is fun,” she said, like she was making fun of me. Like I was infantile.
