Page 122 of Forever Fickle

Reaper looked completely distraught and swallowed audibly before speaking.

“I can’t,” he whispered, his voice laced with pain. “I absolutely would, brother, but Sophie is due in January with the baby, and I can’t use my vacation time yet. I’ve got to be there when she has the baby.”

“I completely forgot,” Jace uttered, and this time he felt like a heel. “I’ve been so focused on everything with Karen that…”

“You don’t have to explain,” Reaper cut him off, smirking. “Trust me – you do NOT have to explain. It’s the same for me with Sophie.”

“I’d be proud to go,” Caboose said, getting to his feet.

“I’ll go,” X-Ray said, looking at Jace. “I’d be happy to support you.”

“I’ll go,” Vapor volunteered, surprising everyone, including Jace. “What? I’m happy for the guy and I can be nice sometimes, you know?”

“I can’t,” Houdini said apologetically.

“We both don’t have any time off coming,” Sparky finished, looking at the other man. “Handsy? You going?”

“I can’t. I’ve already put in a request for time off to go see Meredith for Christmas,” Handsy said quietly. “I wish I could, Hot Cakes. I would go in a heartbeat but…”

“Brother,” Jace said openly, his voice gruff. “She’s your wife. Of course, you need to go see Meredith – especially if you are at least talking now. Besides, we all know Reilly won’t let all of us off at once.”

“Nope,” Vapor said grimly. “Which means, as the groom, you better go put in your vacation request first, because that would be a real shame if you couldn’t go and someone else got approved.”

“Don’t even think it, Vapor…” Jace muttered, getting to his feet to go fill out the form, as Vapor patted him on the shoulder.

“See? This is me being ‘nice’…” the man taunted knowingly. “Hurry, because I’m filling out my form next.”

“No, you aren’t…” Caboose snapped behind him. “I’m next Vapor, then X-Ray, and you can fill yours out last.”

“Wanna bet, old man?”

“You are going down, kid…”

Jace practically ran from the barracks, not wanting to be involved if they got caught fighting again.

CHAPTER34

KAREN

Yonder, Texas

She was getting married today.

Again.

Her nerves were a mess and she spoke with Jace last night, who did the sweetest thing… he stayed at her parents’ house last night, trying to get to know them a little better and to mimic what he would have done to begin with. She was touched by the gesture, if not a little lonely, but it was nice to be able to have him miss out on her checking, double-checking, and triple-checking her list.

Jana and Emily were practically having to pull her off the ceiling anyhow.

“If we had waited to get married, I wouldn’t have seen my bride before the wedding then… so I’d like to do the same. It’s been several months, and I am coming to you as humble, full of love, and grateful for your heart as a man can be,” Jace had said over the phone.

At first, she was surprised, but then she realized he truly had a noble heart. Everything he did, how he acted, was not the actions of a ‘fickle’ guy as Firefly and Alpo warned her. Instead, it was of a man, desperately searching for the ‘one’… and the fact that he thought it was her – was a miracle.

Sitting there at the church, she let the women curl her hair, pinning her veil into place, while both Emily and Delilah took photos. Her sister was using Karen’s cell phone and Delilah was taking professional photos while Armadillo was watching both children.

“Y’all are so incredibly sweet, renewing your vows like this…” Dixie said gently, smiling at her and moving a curl into place before spraying it with hairspray.

“You don’t think this is silly to do something like this when we are already married?” Karen said nervously, thinking back at the expense of it all and their discussions of an airplane in the near future.

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