Page 108 of Tattered Souls
Just then, the sliding door opened, and Sage walked out with two bottles of beer and one can of pop.
Garrick stood, took the bottles of beer from her, and pressed a kiss on her forehead, “Thanks, pumpkin.”
Then my man popped the top, handed the bottle to me, then he popped his top, and took his seat beside me.
Then he held out his hand to Sage.
She grinned, offered him her can, and he popped the tab on that as well.
“My friends talk about how their parents are gross. How they don’t think they really love each other. I told them that because of the love I see that my parents have for each other, I know the type of woman I’m going to be. And I know the type of man I’m going to choose. If he doesn’t worship the ground I walk on like you do for Mom, then I’m going to tell him to get his behind out of my life.”
Garrick grinned, “Damn right you are. But I’ll talk to him first.”
Garrick’s words that day in the hospital while we were waiting for her to arrive... “She’s going to want what she sees. Promise you that, baby.”
I had hoped.
And in this moment, I knew it was true.
And he kept his promise to me.
Never... not once in the twenty years we’ve been together has he ever broken a promise he’s made to me.
My heart had never been taken into consideration; the deepest parts of my soul had been tattered.
But my man, and his Tattered Soul, intertwined with mine, we made each other whole.
“Four hundred and ninety-one,” he murmured against my lips as I had started saying honey when he made me cum.
‘I’ll go to the ends of the earth for you, you don’t even have to ask. As long as there’s breath in my body, and my boots are standing firm on this earth, you never have to worry about a thing.’
– Part of Frank’s vows to Misty 42 years ago.
Epilogue II
Frank
“You know, I worried about Garrick,” I told my wife.
The love of my life.
Her neck twisted as her eyes snapped to me, “Excuse me?”
I grinned. That was my woman.
Ready to berate them for saying a single curse word, but let someone, even their father, talk about them in a light she didn’t like; it wasn’t no, it was hell no.
“Just meant with the way he is, precious. That’s all.” I said, trying to placate her before my ass ended up on the couch.
Thirty years ago, that wasn’t a problem... but now... my back sure as hell isn’t what it used to be.
My woman smirked at me, “I didn’t. I knew it would take a special kind of woman for him. And I had been right.”
I sat there beside her as we watched Garrick and Tatum dancing to their chosen song as man and wife. I grinned, “Who would have thought?”
“Thought what?” she asked.
“That they would be dancing to the same song that they danced to at Carter and Harlee’s wedding,” I said as I recalled that very moment vividly.
