Page 54 of Absolute Valor

The key to a successful marriage is to argue naked.

Granddaddy would have loved this, to see the day when Dylan tossed in the towel and asked a girl to marry him. He would have teased him relentlessly, and then threatened to castrate him like a bull if he stepped out of line.

It’s almost the same with Austin. He believed he was too smart and worldly to ever be tempted into matrimony. Yet here he is, showing anyone who will look at the photos from his honeymoon; at least the appropriate ones.

Lainie had called me after she spoke with Audrey, agreeing to run interference for me since she and Audrey grew up similarly. “You can’t describe the ocean if you’ve never seen it.” She was able to get through the maze of emotions built up in Audrey from years of swallowing her true feelings. Never again will she have to suffer at the hands of a man, not as long as I’m the man she has at her side.

Dylan’s party was on the mild side of casual—about fifty guys between his old unit, Daddy’s office, and the high school friends who still lived locally. Austin had the food and drinks catered, as the idea of a bunch of drunks handling fire was never a good idea.

Audrey worried I would be late to the party if I helped her bury her past, but I didn’t care. I wanted to help her as much as she had me, helping me see how following my attraction for her and not the lie Ginny had built was the right thing to do.

I hadn’t planned to toss my coin over the side, but as I watched the pain and suffering leave her face as she tossed each rock, I questioned whether the same thing would happen over a wish I wanted to come true.

“Hey, handsome,” a female voice in my ear startled me out of my memory. Turning, I faced the girl who had nearly taken my happiness away. “Care to buy a girl a drink?” She looked at me through her lashes, something I’ve learned girls do to be coy. Portia is anything but.

I pulled my arm out of her grasp, “It’s an open bar, help yourself.” I absently nodded in the direction of the crowded bar.

“What? Are you upset with me, baby?” She moved closer, and while I wanted to remind her of what she had done, I didn’t want to cause a big scene and ruin my brother’s night. Catching Austin’s eye, I tilt my head to the back patio letting him know I needed him to keep an eye out.

“Follow me.”

“Now we’re talkin’.” She rejoiced.

“Which is exactly what we are doing…talking.”

I refused to offer a hand, or let her go through the door first, but somehow I knew momma would send me a pass for this one. She takes things to the extreme, and the manners I have would be misconstrued and twisted before the sun came up in the morning.

“Portia, you’ve got some nerve. Coming here, uninvited, after the stunt you pulled last night. Now, I know Dylan and you have a history, but I have been nothing less than decent to you and for you to go and say the things…”

“Oh, lighten up, Chase. Your little girl didn’t understand anything, and if your Baby Momma is so worried about me, then maybe we should give her something to cry about.”

Not many things in my life have left me speechless, but this girl… “You know, Portia, this afternoon I asked myself why my brother preferred to be with you the way he always did. Now, looking at you, and listening to the shit coming out of your mouth, I understand completely.” Closing the distance, her smile from a moment ago faded like the youth she once held. “He treated you, and fucked you, like the whore you are. In your ass—not giving a flying fuck if you enjoyed it or not. He shoved his dick into a part of your body where a baby could never be created. Now…” I pointed to the room just inside the door, “…he has a girl he wraps himself around every night, making love to her and imagining how his future children will have her eyes. You are a drunkin’ mistake, a part of his careless youth, and nothing but a girl he fucked for practice.”

I had to distance myself from her, stepping around her stunned form, I ignored her calling my name. Heading for the bathroom, I felt the overwhelming need to hear Audrey’s voice and see my Grace as she slept in her bed. But as I crossed the room, Austin blocked my path, nodding behind me. Confused, I turn and watch as Portia leads two of Dylan’s former co-workers toward the bathroom. There’s not a question in my mind of what is about to happen, with or without the door closing.

Alcohol has been known to ease pain, loosen lips, and remove panties. In Dean Morgan’s case, it gave him permission to brag to the room how firm and tight certain parts of momma were. Austin and I took the glass of whatever he was drinking and poured him into a taxi alongside Carson, who found the courage to tell the crowd he was a virgin when he married Miss Georgia.

Dylan laughed and drank himself into a hardcore sleep. Austin and I picked him up and placed him in his bed, snapping a few shots of him cuddled around his pillow, and then sent them to Claire.

After all the guests were either safely in taxis or crashed out on the floor, Austin and I grabbed a beer and headed for the deck. In less than forty-eight hours, our brother would be a married man, leaving me as the remaining single Morgan man. And while this was factual on paper, it was the largest lie that ever lived in my mind. Every cell in my body belonged to Audrey.

“Can you believe he’s really getting married?” Austin asked as he took a long pull from his beer.

“Actually, yes I can.” I responded pointing the top of my beer bottle in his direction. “Claire isn’t like the girls in his past. She turned her nose up at his charm and good looks, refusing to be a number he called when he needed a release. She challenged him at every turn, giving him exactly what he needed all along.”

“I’m just shocked it wasn’t you first, I mean you’ve wanted a wife since you were in kindergarten.” I wouldn’t try and deny it, at one point I wanted to marry momma, cause she was so pretty.

“I still do, just waiting until the right moment to ask her.”

“Any words of advice for your brother?” Daddy had nursed quite a hangover yesterday. He sent momma to a spa in town so he could have the house quiet as he died a slow death.

“Yeah,” I chuckled, “don’t get too drunk later and miss your wedding night.” During daddy’s speech of how to keep a woman happy, he let it slip he partook in too much libation, resulting in him passing out on the floor of the honeymoon suite, and nearly missing their flight due to his visit with the toilet.

“Of all the things I’ve taught you, this is what you remember the most.” Tossing up his hands, a smile on his face. “When I learned I was going to have not one, but three sons in the same day, I questioned your granddaddy whether I could handle this. He told me to remember who was in charge—your job as father and husband is to make her happy. Children learn the most from what they see and hear. I did my best to keep her happy and I know you will do the same with Claire.” They shared a back slapping hug and a few hidden tears. He’s proud of us, each in our own special way. Dylan, for his courage to do what he wants. Austin, for seeing the beauty within, and not the blemishes we try to hide. And my sense of valor, doing what is right even when it isn’t popular or beneficial to just me.

“I think you were eight…no, nine, you were nine the summer our neighbor got married in Myrtle Beach.” He was looking up and to the left, as if searching hard for the memory he wanted to share. “Your Granddaddy had taken the three of you out to watch the sailboats before the ceremony started. Dylan, you swore that when you grew up, you were gonna buy a boat just like the ones in the water. You stomped your foot and vowed there would be no women allowed on this boat, because girls ruined everything. See, the bride had an accident as she was coming in the building and had to fix her dress. It was hot in the church and the three of you had started fidgeting because you hated the suits your momma had put you in.” Daddy’s arms joined in the story, adding animation to convey the picture in his head. “The two of you decided this was the best idea, except, Chase, you wanted your momma to come since she was so pretty. And Austin wanted Nana VanBuren to come because she always had butterscotch candy in her purse. And if you were going to be fishing all day, you would certainly need some candy.” I didn’t remember the boats or the scratchy suit, but I will always remember the story he shared with us as the wedding coordinator gave us the five-minute warning.

“When I married your momma, my father took me to the side and handed me this coin.” Daddy placed an aged, flat coin in the center of Dylan’s open hand. “He told me to get an old Mason jar and put it on my night stand, and for the first year of marriage, place a penny alongside this coin inside the jar every time you have sex. Then, for the second year, remove a coin every time you have sex and see which year goes faster.” Dylan closed his hand, shoving the coin in the pocket of his tux. “Dylan, if you’re really my son, you’ll need to borrow some money toward the end of that second year.”

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