Hot Summer Nights (Lucas Brothers)

“Dad, you kind of got to marry her now,” Terry answers before I can find my voice to yell out in victory.

“I do?” I finally respond, my gaze never leaving Maggie’s. She’s smiling at me, her eyes shining with unshed tears. She’s smiling a smile that makes my chest hurt because I’m so happy.

“Yeah, she asked you. You can’t say no when a girl asks you to marry her, Dad. It would hurt her feelings and you always tell me I shouldn’t hurt a girl’s feelings on purpose.”

“I do say that, don’t I?” I laugh and Maggie and I share a smile.

“You really want to marry me, Maggie May?”

“I really do,” she whispers.

“There’s only one way I’m going to agree to marry you, Maggie Matthews,” I tease.

“What do you mean?” she asks, and I think I see some of her nerves returning.

“We do it this week before you overthink it and try to back out.”

“Yay!” Terry cheers.

“You realize that only gives us like….”

“Three days,” I agree.

“You want me to plan a wedding in three days?” she asks like she can’t quite believe it.

“What else do we need? We have the three of us and your family. Our wedding will be full of love, and that’s all that counts.”

“But there’s flowers, a cake, a dress….” she argues.

“You can show up naked, for all I care,” I respond.

“Can I be naked, too?” Terry asks.

“No,” I forbid.

“Absolutely not,” Maggie says at the same time, sounding scared.

“Aw, man,” Terry complains, making us both laugh.

“I guess I better call Mom,” Maggie says. “If anyone can pull a wedding off in three days, it’d be her.”

“Just make sure she doesn’t include any of the toys she tried to give us before in the ceremony, please?”

“For sure,” Maggie laughs.

“Wait! I love toys! I want them!” Terry says.

Maggie and I look at each other and start laughing. Terry doesn’t understand the hilarity in it, but that’s okay. With any luck, he won’t understand for many, many years.

36

Maggie

“My baby girl is getting married,” Mom says, dabbing her eyes like she’s crying—she’s not.

“Mom, it’s my second wedding,” I point out for like the millionth time.

“Lucas women always get married in white. Hell, even the ones that are knocked up wear white to their wedding,” she grumbles.

“Hey, I’ll have you know, I didn’t get knocked up until after the wedding. Well, I’m not sure, I was really drunk, so it’s all a little hazy. Hell, it could have been during,” Faith shrugs.

“Faith!”

“What? You’ve seen my man, Mags. If he’s offering, I ain’t turnin’ him down,” Faith says, practically salivating just talking about Titan. But then, she would. She and Titan are ridiculously happy.

I smile because, finally, I know that feeling with Bryant. Therapy has helped me a lot and I know it will get a little better each day. Finally releasing my guilt and sharing it with Bryant was huge. After we called my mother about throwing a wedding in three days, Bryant and I took Terry to meet his sister. We hadn’t before. It was a judgment call. He’s young, and we didn’t want to worry him about death and dying. We sat down as a family beside Brylee’s grave, and we told our son about his sister, skating over her death and just telling Terry that God needed more angels in heaven.

It felt good, though. We were including Brylee in the family we are now and that felt like a great beginning. Bryant and I have been in love with each other practically our whole lives and finally, it feels like we’ve got this right.

This is forever.

“Can’t say as I blame you. I’m just glad you learned from me.”

“Learned from you?” I ask Mom, almost afraid to ask, but needing to know.

“I taught Faith how to make sure that sexy Godiva chocolate bar was hers,” Mom brags.

“Mom, I don’t think that’s—”

“Ida Sue, I think you’re reaching a bit. Big Daddy was hooked from the word go. He said he liked my ass.”

“I always knew he’d be an ass man,” Mom says as if she takes pride about that fact.

“And my tits,” Faith says with a smirk.

“Nobody likes a bragger, Faith. Any-who, I gave Faith a little lesson in cooking, Maggie.”

“Oh,” I respond, realizing what she’s talking about. “You gave her the meatloaf talk.”

“She did. Which actually made a lot of sense until she started talking about Viagra and vitamins.”

We share a laugh, which doesn’t exactly make Mom happy, but she doesn’t say anything.

“I’m delivering the ring bearer. The flower girl is M-I-A. She’s sitting in the crowd with her daddy,” Petal says coming in and, thankfully, breaking up the conversation before it can travel more into that topic. “Sis, you look gorgeous.”

“Thanks, Petal. For the first time in a long time, I feel it.”

“Mommy, you’re so pretty!” Terry says, excitedly.