The Cheaty Fire Bowl: A Burning for Alexander Bonus Scene

I recommend reading this short after finishing Burning for Alexander. Enjoy!

Chapter 1

Kincaid

I came screaming down the driveway with lights and sirens. While Lennon’s call hadn’t expressed urgency, I knew that the combination of my beloved and any kind of open flame was a dangerous one.

This wasn’t my first flaming rodeo, as Alex liked to say.

Sure enough, our front yard sported a healthy set of orange flames shooting high into the darkening summer sky.

“Dammit, Firebug!” I shouted, grabbing my ever-present mini extinguisher and throwing my truck door open.

It was the two-year anniversary of my first day as fire chief of Legacy, which had resulted in the crew taking me to Frank’s for burgers and a beer. If only I hadn’t gone out after work, I might have been here to prevent this.

As I approached the flames, I noticed Alex was joined in his fiery efforts by his usual partner in crime. Ella was cackling around the large steel fire bowl like the main character in a witchy movie.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I barked. “We talked about this. Effigies have to burn at two feet or lower.”

Alex blinked over at me, then grinned widely. “Hey. I thought you were going out with your crew.”

“Baby, what the fuck are you burning right now?”

He used both hands in a dramatic gesture to indicate the fire. “Some whore sent you her panties!”

I looked at the tall flames, which were blocking out the sight of the custom cabin Alex and I had spent months designing and even longer project-managing. “You didn’t get that kind of flame column from someone’s undies, babe.”

“There were other things,” Alex confessed. “In addition to the box they came in and all the packaging.”

“Try again,” I said, keeping my eye on the blaze. It was currently contained by the giant fire bowl, but since it was fire season, it would only take one wayward spark to light the surrounding grasses on fire.

Alex’s fevered expression morphed to a more guilty one. “Well, I went ahead and burned the framed print of Amsterdam that Jett gave us for Christmas. And I threw in the stack of postcards that were misprinted for the Slingshot Showdown special. Oh! And I tossed in the fire safety leaflets because they’re stupid, and—”

“Jesus, fuck,” I growled. “How can you stand here during fire season with an illegally high back… front yard fire, telling me that fire safety leaflets are—”

“Tell him about the housecoat,” Ella said with a wicked grin.

Alex flapped his hand. “Your skank girlfriend also sent you some old lady’s housecoat.”

I blinked at him as the word “housecoat” triggered a memory. “Wait. Was the housecoat perhaps leopard print?”

His forehead crinkled before his eyes shot wide, and he pointed an accusatory finger at me. “HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT HER HOUSECOAT?”

And that’s when I realized he was drunk. My sweetest love was adorably shit-faced and burning shit in our front yard.

Again.

It was kind of cute that he’d remembered to use the fire bowl I’d had installed for this very reason. After his and Ella’s epic “Britt Schmidt Effigy,” I’d had to take drastic action. Thankfully, I’d gone out on a call up to Lost Moose Campground and had seen their large fire bowls. As soon as I saw them, I knew we needed one for Alex and Ella’s future “effigies.”

“Wait for it,” Ella murmured.

Alex gestured to the flames that had finally begun to die down. “‘Look at this godforsaken mess that you made me.’”

“There it is,” Ella said with a smile of satisfaction. “You owe me a shot. And Folklore, Alex? For shame. At least try ‘Mean’ on Speak Now. That one mentions ‘wildfire lies,’ for god’s sake. Couldn’t be more on the nose.”

“I know about her housecoat because I’ve been to Maureen Kitson’s house enough to have seen her wearing it. Baby, I hate to tell you this, but you’ve been Kitsoned.”

Alex opened his mouth to say something, then closed it with a snap. Then he huffed in surprise and frowned. “Well, fuck.”

“You’re the one who originally told me about being Kitsoned! Didn’t the fact there was a housecoat in the package tip you off?”

Ella shrugged and reached for an insulated tumbler I hadn’t noticed under a nearby bench. “Nah, we were already partway through a bottle of Jack when the package showed up. Besides, we needed to burn Cody’s favorite flannel and his shitty wool socks. Even though the fuckers won’t burn.” She took a long branch from beside the bench and poked at the charred remains in the bowl. Sure enough, there was a pair of pristine socks in the bottom.

I let out a sigh when I saw the telltale logo. “Those are Nomex socks, El. They’re fifty bucks a pair.”

“Don’t care. I’ll have to shred them instead.”

“They’re reinforced with Kevlar. Maybe just give them to me to take back to him.” I studied her. “I thought you and Cody were going strong. What happened?”

She waved the tumbler through the smoky air. “He wants to move in with me.”

Alex moved closer to me, completely ignoring his sister’s statement. “Mrs. Kitson is a great librarian, but maybe she’s been reading too many first-responder romances,” he muttered before leaning into me and wrapping his arms around me.

He smelled like smoke but also like home.

“Hey, Firebug,” I murmured, leaning down to taste his lips. “Thank you for using the bowl this time for your fire-based outrage.”

“I’m nothing if not fire-safety-conscious,” he added.

I snorted and wrapped my arms around him. “Yes. That’s you. All about fire safety.”

“What? I am. Wasn’t I the one who decided to add a sprinkler system to the new house design?”

Ella stopped stirring the pot and threw the branch in. Then she sprinkled it with whatever was in her tumbler, and the flames grew again.

I focused back on Alex. “I seem to recall that decision being made once the architect mentioned how much we’d save on our home insurance.”

“That, too.” He snuggled into my chest. “The letter from your secret admirer claimed you’d been watching her in town.”

“I checked out a book on how to build an outdoor pizza oven,” I explained. “Which didn’t actually have instructions in it. So I had to check out a different one. Maybe she thought from the repeated visits to the library, I—”

“Oh my god, that’s so sweet!” Alex crooned. “You were gonna build me a pizza oven?”

“He already has one, you know,” Ella muttered, giving the fire another sip of her drink. “And who the hell wants to make pizza at home when you’ve been making it all day at work? But okay, I guess it’s sweet.” Her eye roll indicated she was being sarcastic.

I met her eyes. “Tell me about Cody. Why don’t you want him to move in? You love him. And he’s head over heels for you.”

“Yeah, well.”

Alex grinned at her. “Tell him the rest.”

She turned her head away and sniffed. When she didn’t say anything, Alex turned to me. “She also burned her birth control pills.”

I took a step back from the smoke and pulled Alex with me. “Thank you for that hormonal toke, Els,” I said dryly. “I needed a hit of estrogen right about now.”

She rolled her eyes again. “It was only the sugar pills, don’t worry.”

Alex broke out of my hold and did a little shimmy dance. “Ella’s gonna have a baby! I’m gonna be an uncle!”

I glanced at the drunken duo before lifting my eyebrow at the jug of Jack Daniels she was currently using to refill her tumbler. “Is that right?”

“Douse your flame, Chief,” she said. “Not yet. He just said he wants to start a family. I informed him our lives would be ruined if that was the case. No more sexy single shit like… like… anyway. And so I burned his date night shirt. And his work socks. Because forget dating anymore, and this is going to impact his career—by the way, I’m only telling you this as my bro-in-law, not his boss. So like, fire chief–client privilege or whatever.”

I nodded solemnly, as if confirming that was a thing. Cody McMasters was a fantastic firefighter. There was no way his becoming a parent would change how I felt about him on my crew.

Alex found another stick and poked at the fire. “She also burned her stilettos. But that was more out of annoyance than symbolism,” he explained. “She turned her ankle last time she wore them, so they were already personae non grata.”

“Fucking high heels,” she muttered. “Patriarchy’s chains. But fuck if they don’t make them cute as hell.”

“So you’re going to do it?” I asked, excited. “You and Cody are going to try and start a family?”

Alex and I had already talked about volunteering to foster older kids. We were currently working through the necessary paperwork.

“Yeah, but you can’t tell anyone,” she said. “Especially Papa. He can’t handle it.”

“Correction,” Alex said, burping a little. “You can’t handle him handling it.”

“Same thing. You have to admit he’ll be a nightmare.”

I pulled Alex back into my arms and enjoyed the warmth from the fire now that it was dying down to a small set of embers. “Blue Marian as a grandfather,” I said with a grin. “That is not something anyone is prepared for.”

Ella suddenly looked more sober than before. “You guys will be there for us if we do this, right?”

I nodded and moved over to pull Ella up into an impromptu group hug. “Of course we will, Els. We’re your family. And family supports each other through everything. Or so all you Marians keep telling me.”

Ella turned and gripped me tightly, tucking her face into my neck and letting out a little sob of nerves. Alex rubbed her back and snuggled in behind her as I held her.

Standing there with both of them pressed against me, smoky and ridiculous and wholly mine, I realized the truth: sometimes love looks less like fire safety and more like standing watch while the people you can’t live without dance near the flames.