Hot Summer Nights (Lucas Brothers)

“What about next year? I could be a June bride…” she reasons.

“You’re marrying me the minute you get out of this hospital, Ida Sue. I’m done letting you call the shots when it comes to this. Before I came here, I thought I’d never have a true home, never have a family. I sure as fuck didn’t want a woman again because I knew I didn’t have a heart left to give one.”

“Jan—”

“You stormed into my life like a Texas dust storm and blew me away. I never knew love like you make me feel could exist. You gave me love and a family. These kids are as much mine as yours. I’d die for every damn one of them. I’d die for you. But, what I’m not willing to do one second longer is to feel like an outsider and have my entire world separated from me. Do you understand?”

“Can you give me a week after I get out? A woman wants to look good on her wedding day, not covered in bruises,” Mom says, and I kind of have to agree with her.

“You can go down to the courthouse with me and tie the knot the same day you get out and then plan your wedding in June, Lovey,” Jansen says. I’m pretty sure that’s the only compromise Mom’s going to get, too.

“This June or next June?” Mom asks, proving she likes to push it. Jansen goes to the bedside and sits gingerly on the edge. He moves his callused hand against Mom’s cheek, brushing her hair away from her face.

“Either one or both, Lovey. Fuck, I’ll marry you every June for the rest of our lives and thank God I get the chance.”

“I love you, Jansen Reed,” Mom whispers.

“I love you,” he responds, and they kiss.

Now, normally watching Mom kiss Jansen when it’s full-on Frenching is a little gross, but it’s just too romantic right now to look away.

“You realize I’m crazy enough to hold you to the fact we’re going to renew our vows every June, right, Cowboy?”

“You realize that if you let Titan or any other man touch you, I’m going to kill someone and spank your ass, right, Lovey?” he counters, right before they kiss again.

“Faith, I think your family keeps getting crazier. And I’m not sure I like being the subject of this latest crazy,” Titan mutters.

“It’s okay, Big Daddy. I’ll make it up to you tonight,” Faith says as we all file outside.

“That better mean I get your mouth,” Titan grumbles.

“Sure, and if you play your cards right, you can knock me up again,” Faith laughs.

Bryant pulls me against him, stopping me and pins me against the wall of the hospital.

“I think I want to make plans like them tonight,” he suggests.

I smile a little, but I look at him, reaching up to touch the side of his face.

“I’m sorry I put you through hell. I guess I never thought about it until I saw how Jansen was tonight.”

“It’s okay, Maggie May. You needed to work through stuff, and instead of helping with that, I backed away because I thought you blamed me. It’s in the past. Now, we face everything together.”

“Together,” I agree.

“Starting with the fact that I should totally get your mouth tonight because Titan is right, your family is crazy.”

“What about knocking me up?” I ask him, my heart beating fast.

“Are you sure you want that? I don’t want you to make a decision because you think it’s what I want, Maggie. If all we ever have is the family we have now, I’m perfectly happy that way. As long as we’re together as a family, I have everything I will ever want.”

“Well, maybe not right away. I think I need to keep going to therapy, but I definitely see it for the future,” I tell him, and I’m rewarded with his smile.

“I’m okay with that,” he says.

“And in the meantime, I mean, there’s nothing that says we can’t practice, a lot…”

“Oh yeah, I’m a firm believer in the idiom practice makes perfect,” Bryant laughs.

“I’m married to the smartest man ever,” I giggle as we walk with our hands joined toward the rest of my family.

40

Bryant

“Bryant,” Maggie whispers, as my hand slides between her legs.

“I missed you, baby,” I groan. I slide my fingers between the lips of her pussy, rubbing the pads of them against her clit. Immediately, her ass begins wiggling against me, torturing my cock.

“God, I’ve missed you, too,” she moans, her head going back to press against my shoulder, her hair spilling against my skin. I kiss along the side of her neck, loving the way her neck arches in pleasure as her sweet juices flood against my fingers.

My cock was hard all the way home as I thought about Maggie waiting naked in bed for me. I’ve been gone for three days, but I swear to God, it felt more like three years. It’s been four months since Maggie and I got married, and each day somehow gets sweeter. We don’t even argue. Maybe it’s because we’ve tasted life apart, and we’re living in a future we didn’t think we’d get the chance to have. I don’t know what it is, I just know that anything that might cause friction we let go of. The most important thing for either of us is the love we share for each other and for our son.