Page 73 of Burning for Alexander
I can’t decide if your email was snarky or sincere.
It said sincerely, didn’t it?
Smokey the Overbear
I need you in my bed when I get home tonight. It will be after midnight because of another late training session. I left a key under the mat. Tell me you’ll be there.
You’re very bossy.
Smokey the Overbear
Huh. That explains why people keep calling me Chief around here.
Go back to work, Chief. I’ll see you tonight.
All I got in return was a fire emoji.
“You’re checking your phone again,”Lennon said without looking up from his burger.
My sister and cousins had convinced me to comeout for a late dinner at Frank’s, and now they were giving me hell. I slipped the phone back in my sweatshirt pocket.
“What’s new at the ranch?” I asked.
He shrugged and kept eating, so I turned to Rosie. “What’s new at the ranch?”
“Boosters and tags, mostly,” she said, dipping a fry in ketchup. “All the stock is off summer range, and we’re staging hay for winter. The hands are working on equipment maintenance. Checking the plows and stuff.”
Ella leaned in and lowered her voice. “I heard the fire chief is seeing someone up in Billings.”
My ears perked up, and my heart started beating harder. “Where’d you hear that?”
“One of the servers at the Pinecone said she heard it directly from the horse’s mouth. The chief said he was visiting his special friend up in Billings. She didn’t know who the woman was, though.”
I hid a wince. Hadn’t I promised Ella I’d keep my hands off the chief since she liked him, too? I was a shit brother.
“What would you do if he asked you out?” I asked.
“I’d say hell yeah. Why?”
I huffed out a laugh. It was like that, was it? Good. “No reason.” Maybe she’d forgotten our little agreement.
“What about you, Alex the Grape?” Rosie asked. “Tavo said you haven’t been around much. In fact… he kind of implied you’ve been spending the night out.”
Ella turned to me with red laser eyeballs. “Spill. Everything. Right fucking now.”
I was a terrible liar. Judd had been right when he’d accused me of that. I swallowed and loosened my muscles so that I didn’t stiffen up like people do when they get put on the spot.
“Yeah, so. Yeah,” I said.
And then blinked. What? What even was that?
Ella’s eyebrows shot into her bangs. “Oh my fucking god. Who the fuck are you seeing?”
Rosie blinked rapidly, her lips opening but not letting any sound out. Even Lennon leaned forward.
“No,” I corrected. “I mean, yeah, but no.”
Was that worse? I had a feeling that was worse.
