Zander's Firecracker

by Ember Flint

  “I’m not impossible, I’m horny as fuck. Come on, baby, let’s go.”

  “In a minute, Zan.”

  He grumbles, his pout making me laugh harder.

  “Why?” he asks.

  My phone beeps three times.

  “Because of this,” I tell him.

  He looks down at me, puzzled. “What—?”

  A loud blast interrupts him.

  “Look up, love.”

  He does as I say, just in time to see a series of bright, green fireworks detonate into the sky.

  “Wasn’t the display over?” he asks.

  I nod. “This is another display… just for you.”

  “Aww, babe, thanks… and green too! My favorite,” he murmurs in my ear, squeezing me harder and kissing the top of my head and my temple.

  A booming sound shakes the air and up into the sky the green fireworks start to spell words.

  Do you

  Boom. Boom.

  Still wanna

  Crackle. Hiss. Blast.

  Fire me

  Boom. Boom.

  Mr. Bossy-Pants?

  Hiss. Fizzle.

  Or do you

  Bang. Bang.

  Wanna keep me?

  The sky becomes dark again and I turn around, smiling up at Zander.

  He grins back down at me, his smile worth more than any money I could ever earn in a lifetime by setting the sky on fire.

  He cups my face in both of his hands and tilts it upward.

  “For that, my little firecracker, I’m gonna do more than keep you: I’m gonna marry you,” he announces and then his lips once more capture my own in a deep, passionate kiss.

  Epilogue

  ZANDER

  July 4th

  Three years later…

  “Happy Birthday, Grandpa! Happy Fourth of July!”

  Anthony’s kids are all running around on the beach, screaming and laughing, calling out to my Dad and their four honorary uncles —Alexa’s brothers.

  He runs after them, chuckling. He is doing so much better since Alexa and I got married, I sometimes can hardly believe the progress he has made after so many years of quiet despair.

  This year, when it was time to start planning for the 4th, he even helped out with the design of the display.

  He still gets sad and nostalgic sometimes, especially when he does or sees something that Mom loved, but he no longer has that haunted look he used to have, like the pain is still there, but dulled by the joy he finds in our family and in the knowledge that not even death will keep him from the woman he loves forever.

  He told me he just knows he will see her again someday and while I would have had a hard time believing in such a possibility before meeting my little firecracker, I no longer think that way.

  In the end, I guess, Tony was right: when it comes down to love, you don’t understand —you can’t— until it comes around and touches your soul.

  “Happy Fourth of July, baby,” I murmur.

  I lean down to kiss Alexa’s head and I smile.

  She looks up at me and smiles back, her large hazel eyes reflecting the sparks of the firework display still coloring the night.

  “Happy Fourth of July, love.”

  Our two-year-old son smiles too from his perch over one of my arms. “Mommy,” he exclaims, petting the top of my wife’s golden braid and chortling when she looks up at him, making funny faces for him.

  I didn’t do much smiling before I met her; it didn’t come natural to me and when I tried, it felt always forced, but now…

  Now my life is so different, smiling is second nature to me.

  I honestly never knew I could be so happy and despite witnessing Anthony’s joy in his life with Vi, I never really believed one person could bring about such a change in me.

  I thought Anthony was happy because it came easy to him, I felt like there was a failing in me, like I lacked the predisposition to feel that way, but my little scrapper changed all of that, she breathed her soul so deeply into my heart, it was like letting light shine into the darkness and here I am now so happy, so in love I can hardly find the words.

  We are still light and dark, hot and cold and in a constant happy battle we both know no one will ever fully win; we push and pull, we ebb and flow, but we are never apart.

  We are living proof that opposite don’t simply attract: they work perfectly together. She messes up my world and I try to put some order in her chaos and we both love every single fucking minute of it.

  Our life is somewhat tidy and somewhat chaotic, but it’s full of love and laughter and joy through and through.

  The music fades away and one final blast goes off, brightening the dark, starry sky with a slash of white light. I feel my wife sink back into my chest, her hands wrapped around my free arm.

  I cradle Darren closer, my eyes immediately falling on his big curious ones to make sure he’s okay.

  He’s looking up at the giant peony flower that’s drawing a golden and blue circle amongst the stars and he giggles when the fireworks devolves into smaller pieces and finally dive down toward the glistening dark lake in a shower of light blue comets.

  My wife and I were worried our little tyke would find the firework’s rumble too scary and so we put a soft, blue noise-reducing headband over his ears, and he was able to enjoy the full display with not a single tear.

  I cuddle my little family even closer and smile up into the darkness of the night.

  Whenever all the extended family is reunited here at the estate on the lake, I barely get to hold my own son for more than a few minutes at a time since one of the baby-hogging brothers or my Dad constantly take him away from me, so I’m soaking it in, before they come to steal my baby boy from us again.

  I’m starting to think they use the kids as a buffer of some sort to avoid Violet: she was a bit miffed she had no one else to pair off after I met Alexa, but then she cheered up pretty quick when she realized my little firecracker came with four very unattached brothers, the perfect victims to sacrifice on the altar of her match-making gods, and since she won’t rest until they’re all married off, they’d try just about anything to escape, even pretend they miss their little nephew whom they see almost every day back home in LA, ending up using him like an anti ‘just perfect for you chick’ shield.

  Then again, I shouldn’t really complain: if Anthony, our father or one of those other four crazy overgrown babies mind our little Tasmanian devil it means I get to be alone with his mommy after all.

  “Da, Daddy, da!”, my son starts to clamoring in my hold again, his little body jumping up and down in his eagerness to be put down onto the warm sand.

  “Pay, daddy, go, pay…”

  I move his headband away so he can hear me. “Not yet, buddy.”

  “Pay!” He gives me an imperious look, his little golden eyebrows drawing together as he pouts, pointing down at the sand with his little chubby finger.

  My wife bursts into giggles. “Man, that was so you one-hundred percent.”

  I roll my eyes at her.

  “Why don’t you put him down, love?”

  “In a minute, babe.”

  “He wants to go play with his cousins and uncles,” Alexa says, her hand drawing a slow, sensuous pattern over my chest that makes me lose my train of thoughts for a moment.

  I swallow hard and shake my head, and the little minx laughs, knowing full well what her touch does to me.

  “Pay!” Darren cries, his little legs working.

  I chuckle, huffing away the sudden wave of lust.

  I raise my son up until his little face is level with mine and lean forward to whisper in the tiny shell of his ear. “Daddy will put you down in a minute, bud. I have a surprise first,” I tell him, putting my index in front of my mouth.

  Darren grabs my beard and grins big. “Suppise?” He whispers back.

  I nod and he giggles.

  “Yes, mo
re fireworks. Daddy needs you to stay put for five more minutes, lil’ man, okay?”

  “Mov Faiewok, Daddy?”

  “That’s right, bud.”

  “K.” My son gives me a single resolute nod.

  “What are you to, scheming up there, you know it’s not fair to exclude me from your little meetings just because I’m short!”

  “Mommy is vewy shot!” Darren declares, his little arms encircling my neck as I slide him back down my chest.

  His mom grumbles to herself and I laugh.

  “Out of the mouth of babes!”

  She huffs and I lean over her to fix her glasses before they fall from the bridge of her adorable, upturned nose.

  Then I tilt my head and see a little spot on one lens, I take them off and clean them against my t-shirt.

  I placed them on her nose again when they are all but gleaming.

  “There you go, babe. Now they’re perfect.”

  Alexa sighs and smiles up at me, rubbing her hands up and down my arm. “Thank you, hon. I would go through life with perpetually foggy glasses if it wasn’t for you. I’m a lucky, lucky bi—”

  “Little ears!” I remind and she bites her lower lip, sending another jolt of desire down my spine.

  “Bi-bespectacled woman!”

  I chuckle. “Good save!”

  I kiss her nose and then her lips softly, our baby boy cradled between us.

  Darren pushes us apart. “Daddy! Suppise!” he screams, slightly exasperated, his little hands tapping my chest.

  Like he’s saying: ‘Daddy, focus: do we really have the time for kisses now if there’s something surprising on the way?’

  Alexa frowns, looking up at me. “What is he saying? What surprise, honey?”

  Just then we hear the telltale crackling of another firework being detonated and I pull the headband over my son’s ears again.

  Alexa looks at me, puzzled.

  As far as she’s concerned that peony was the last pyro of the display.

  This year she only worked on this particular show, her brothers and other sub-contractors worked on everything else. I didn’t want her to overdo it and her brothers backed me up on it.

  Between Tinley Pyrotechnics, Pro Impact —our ecologist foundation— all of CleanerWorld’s engagements, and taking care of our child, she’s already working too much as it is.

  The Tinley men weren’t exactly my biggest fans at first, they weren’t too keen on their sister and myself being an item and I couldn’t stand their officiousness when it came down to trying to tell me how to take care of my woman, but over the years we’ve gotten closer and closer because at the end of the day, we all want the same thing: for Alexa to be happy and be safe and loved.

  She is all of those things with me, just like I’m all of those things with her, so my brothers-in-law have come around, my wife says we bonded over being over-protective, aka driving her crazy.

  “Zander?”

  I turn her toward the lake again, her back pressed against my front, one of my hands splayed on her curvy hip, my thumb diving under the soft cotton of her tank and caressing up and down the naked, warm skin of her side, making her shiver lightly.

  “Look up, baby… surprise! Your brothers helped me to work an extra round of fireworks into the display. This is just for you,” I murmur on her ear.

  Darren jumps up and down in my hold.

  “Suppise! Faiewok!”

  There’s a loud bang and the sky lights up again, Violet sides up to us and takes Darren from my arms just in time for the golden waterfall wall to come up; the sparks climb up into the stars and then fall back to the ground into a cloud of glitters as my son cheers on and jumps up and down into his aunt’s arms.

  I cradle my wife closer still, until there’s not a single inch between us, my lips whispering on the silky softness of her creamy neck.

  “Zander…”

  Red brocades and silvery stars burst high into the sky, their glittery ropes falling down in a rain of sparkles.

  The firework spell the words:

  My little firecracker

  Alexa gasps. “Oh, my God, Zander… how… when—?”

  Another blast shakes the night and then golden words form into the inky black sky.

  Thanks for all the messes

  Blast.

  My life wouldn’t be the same

  Crackle.

  Without them

  Bang.

  Without you

  Hiss.

  You are my world

  Blast. Blast.

  My life

  Fizzle. Boom.

  I Love you

  Boom.

  Now and Forever

  The final blast goes off and the golden words disappear, a giant pink, glittery heart taking their place, and then the sky above us it’s just twinkling dark calmness again.

  Alexa turns around to look up at me.

  “Zan, I… I… I love you so much, That was so… so,” she trails off and I smile down at her.

  I can see the emotions glinting in her large hazel eyes, they are prettier than any firework money could buy.

  Her hands are shaking when they reach for me.

  I pull her clear off the sand and up into my chest as she starts to laugh and cry at the same time, her small hands cupping my face, her scent of sweet apples surrounding me.

  “That was… that was…”

  I kiss her hard and she kisses me back as one last firecracker goes off above our heads, but we’re no longer looking. We no longer can.

  There’s no fire, no spark that shines brighter than my little firecracker and she’s the only light I want to look at right now.

  Epilogue 2

  ALEXA

  July 4th

  Ten years after that…

  There are two impossible-to-catch unicorns in the life of a curvy woman: one is the perfect man that will love her not simply for her curves and not in spite of them, but just for who she is, and the other is the perfect bra that could actually contain her girls and be comfy all at the same time.

  There’s no way that bra has been invented yet, but I did catch the other unicorn: I got myself the perfect man all those years ago and it’s still true today.

  With Zander and our babies, I’m happier than I’ve ever thought I could be —that any person could be.

  Before I met him, I thought all those stories about falling hard and fast at first sight and just knowing you had found the one were just that: stories.

  I was wrong and I couldn’t be happier about it, especially not right now, while I’m hiding in a closet in my own house, all wrapped around him, his lips pressed down on my own, my back against the wall and my legs around his hips.

  My hubby and I still can’t keep our hands off each other and our passion still burns as bright as our love and devotion do.

  Unfortunately with five kids sometimes it’s not easy to get our alone time, especially when it comes to naked alone time.

  We just couldn’t stop after Darren, so now we have also Lizzy, named after her late grandma, who is nine-year-old, Gilly who just turned seven, Zoey who’s only three-year-old and baby Amber who’s gonna turn one-year-old in September, our poor boy has his hands full with four little sisters to look after, particularly since he really takes after his daddy and uncles when it comes to being over-protective, he keeps begging for a little brother to help him out, but every time we end up having little girls.

  Being here on the Estate on Lake Tahoe —my own favorite for pretty obvious reasons since it’s here my hubby and I fell in love—, it’s always magical and every summer we can’t wait to leave LA behind and finally get some peace and quiet and all the time in the world with our babies and our family.

  The traditional retreat still lasts a week, but we actually come down here in June and never leave until at least the first week of September, both my darling husband and his brother —not to mention my
own— put an end to all of that workaholic crap after we all started to settle down in our lives.

  I love being here, I really really do, there’s only one problem: there’s simply too damn many of us here to celebrate July Fourth.

  Anthony, Violet and all their kids, my father-in-law, my brothers, their wives and their broods and our own children, so the little undisturbed time Zander and I manage to cut out from family’s obligations and work at home, pretty much disintegrates here: there’s no privacy to be had in this mansion no matter how enormous it is.

  Hence the need to get it on in the closet while our nanny and dear ones keep an eye on our kids and the party is in full swing on the beach down at the lake.

  My smartwatch goes off.

  “We’re gonna miss the fireworks,” I gasp on Zander’s mouth, breaking the kiss.

  He looks up at me, his hands tightening on my hips. “Want me to stop?”

  I shake my head. “You crazy?! Those fireworks have nothing on the ones we’re about to make here.”

  He chuckles, but it turns into a desperate groan when I start to grind against his hard erection, still trapped in his dark linen pants.

  “You absolutely have a point, my little firecracker.”

  God, I love it when it calls me this particular endearment.

  I mean, I love it any way he calls me: my big protective giant is very sweet and has many special names for me, but this will always be my favorite.

  He pulls my glasses off my face and, still holding me up against the wall one-armed, cleans them on the front of his tee before putting them down on the cleaning supply shelf.

  “There was a little spot,” he explains.

  I giggle: he’s forever gonna be my neat freak, but I wouldn’t change a single thing about him even if he does drive my still scattered messy ass crazy sometimes.

  He grins up at me, his hands molding all over my curves and my breath catches in my throat: the sight of his smiles is still my favorite thing in the world.

  When he’s really really happy and he looks down at me, his eyes crinkling at the corners and the smile hits his lips just right, there’s a light coming from inside of him that’s showing on his face, something I’m pretty sure he used to keep well-hidden before we found each other, I swear he could keep the skylights of all the main cities around the world shining forever with it, it burns so bright and when he tells me that my spark it’s what turned that light on, I swear I feel like I’m floating.