by Warren, Rie
Military was in my family’s bloodline from the time my great-granddaddy enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1918. Being a Devil Dog showed in my dad’s stature.
“Well, how-do, New Miss.” He sent a half bow and a big smile at Veronica, all the while never sparing a glance at me.
“Dad, this is Veronica Hartley—” I started.
Ma cut in. “She’s a doctor!”
“And V, my dad, Renny.”
“A doctor in the family. Well, how about that then?” He boomed a big laugh as he shook her hand.
“Uhh, we’re not married or anything.” I interjected.
“We know that, Bo. What was I just sayin’?” Ma crossed her arms over her bosom and scowled at me.
“Oh well, he’s had more women than a tomcat but none of them stick, you see?” Dad continued to help Ma rip my already questionable reputation to shreds all to V’s visible amusement.
I silently fumed as I watched the proceedings. Veronica’s lips quirked.
“Welcome, Miss Veronica, at any rate. I won’t subject you to a hug, I’m sure the wife has handled you enough already.”
“And Imma take a broomstick handle to your backside, Renny, next time you call me the wife.”
With a huff and her nose in the air, Ma took Veronica’s hand in hers. “You come on inside with me. Men don’t have enough sense to know when to stop from makin’ fools of themselves, and they nevah figured out when a woman has had too much of the sun and just needs a quiet cool off with a nice little drink of somethin’ strong.”
My dad and I planted ourselves side by side as we watched our women retreat into the coolness of the house.
As soon as the front door closed, Dad pulled me to him with a hard hug that hit me right in the heart.
“I opted out, Pop.” My voice strained, muffled against his shoulder.
“You think that’s a good enough reason to stay away?” Thrusting me an arm’s length away, he squinted at me. “I reckon you had a damn good reason for it. Only thing I care about is you don’t opt out of this life.”
I’d been close to that too, a time or two. Some things my parents didn’t need to know.
His rough hard hands clasped the sides of my face. “Don’t know why you thought you couldn’t come home, but I sure as hell hope you aren’t ashamed. I understand you got in some squirrely situations. You may have killed people you didn’t want to.”
My gaze locked on his, I didn’t flinch from the truth of his words.
“You watched good men die. Your men.”
A watery skein of tears immediately clouded my vision. I blinked them back.
His big hand reached around, and he took me against his shoulder as he patted my back. “You’re not the first. You won’t be the last. Doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to hurt. But you always come home to us, hear me?”
I finally let a few tears leak out, my shoulders shaking.
He didn’t let me go. He just held me until I composed myself. “It’s the fucking war, son, and you survived it. Damn glad you did, Bo. Damn glad.”
When we parted, we both knuckled beneath our eyes. I took my first deep breath in ages—accepted, welcomed by my family, with V by my side.
Dad slung an arm around my shoulders. “What say we head in and put a stop to them drinking through the all the bottles in the sideboard before they cackle the house down around our ears?”
Just then a burst of feminine laughter rolled out through the open windows.
“Sounds like we’re too late.”
“I got a good bottle of whiskey. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.”
We found them in the kitchen with the bottle of fancyrosé wine V had brought. It was about two-thirds diminished already. I dropped my and V’s bags on the floor and accepted a tumbler of whiskey from my dad. The four of us clinked glasses, and as evening rolled in with the rumble of thick thunder and a flash of summer heat lightning, Ma moved from the stove to the fridge, laying out homemade southern nibbles: pickled green beans from her garden and pimento cheese spread on fresh baked bread.
The conversation flowed like the drinks: on tap. Dad got up to help Ma prepare dinner and V offered her assistance but was quickly shooed away to the living room with me bum-rushed after her.
The Cracker Barrel house was virtually the same as when I’d grown up. Gingham curtains, shelves lined with knick-knacks, dark wood paneling, and thick carpets that caused shocks from static electricity.
Ma hung her head outside the kitchen. “Y’all just go on and freshen up now. But don’t you get fresh with each other. I put Doctor Hartley in Lacy’s old room, and you’re in yours, Beauregard.”
“Told you no hanky-panky here,” I grumbled, leading the way upstairs.
“I can’t believe I just heard you say hanky-panky.”
“Wiseass.” I squeezed a helping of Veronica’s ass as soon as my mom’s head disappeared back inside the kitchen.
****
Ma gave us all of half an hour to freshen up before she called us down from the bottom of the stairs. Thirty minutes was plenty of time to get up to no good in her estimation. She was right. No sooner did I show V to Lacy’s bedroom than I had the door shut and her backed against it.
Her soft moan had caressed my lips, and I burrowed a hand underneath her hair to hold her head at the angle I wanted. With my tongue tasting along the side of hers, I pressed her legs open until her hips cradled my groin.
The kiss became feverish. I only broke away when I was in danger of groaning too loudly. My pelvis continued to kick against her as my gaze locked on her low-hooded eyes.
We hadn’t fucked since the wild kitchen sex last week and the strain of not being with V showed on my face and definitely inside my jeans. The damn zipper dug into my cock.
I’d groped down to her ass. “Wanna fuck you so hard right now.”
“Oh yeah? How would you take me?” She’d reached low, brushing the back of her hand against the bulging fly of my pants.
I’d licked my way between her lips again.
“Would you rip my jeans down to my thighs?” She kissed the side of my neck where the tendons were taut. “Open my legs and lift me up onto your hot cock?”
I swallowed roughly.
“Slam me against the door and hold me up as you thrust that delicious dick deep inside me?” Arching her back, she drew my attention to the large mounds of her tits as she undulated against the door.
Dragging her leg over my hip, I’d grinded into her. “I’d fuck your hot little pussy up and down my cock until you screamed my name, then I’d carry you to the bed, turn you over, lift up your hips, and screw you doggy-style until you climbed the walls. I’d pull out and come all over your ass and back.” I thrust against her hard, my cock on the edge of explosion.
She slipped sideways from under me with a naughty grin. “Too bad you can’t.”
A raw laugh chugging from me, I’d rubbed a hand across my mouth. “What am I supposed to do with this now?” I glanced down at the thickness stretching my jeans.
Shoving me toward the door, she’d smirked. “Ever heard of a cold shower?”
After Ma called for us, I collected V from my sis’s old bedroom. She stopped me at the threshold with a hand braced against my chest and a smile on her lips.
“Not so fast, hot stuff. You’re not getting back into this bedroom with me. I’m not risking you trying to get into my pants again. We don’t want to get in trouble with your parents, remember?”
I let out a frustrated groan, one that dragged on when I saw she’d fluffed out her hair and changed into a simple sundress that accentuated all her curves.
Downstairs in the large kitchen, Ma reigned over the stove while Dad manned the knife, chopping vegetables on command. I started mixing and pouring drinks, and Ma put V to work setting the table that sat in the middle of the room, long bench style seats on either side of it.
A horn sounded in the driveway, and I rushed outside to see my older brother Sh
ane get out of his truck.
“Bo!”
We sprinted toward each other. I’d just reached out to grab him to me when he drew back his fist and planted it in the pit of my stomach.
Taken by surprise, I bent over as the wind rushed out of me.
“That’s for forgetting where you belong, asshole.”
I knew he had to have hurt his hand, too, when he held the thing up and blew across his knuckles. “Wearing armor under there or what?”
Righting myself, I patted my belly, only flinching slightly. “Nothin’ but pure muscle.”
“Nice to have you home, loser.” He hooked an arm around my neck.
I tripped him, and he fell flat on his ass on the gravel driveway. “Awesome to see you too, pecker breath.”
I turned to Lily, Shane’s pretty wife of two years, swooping her into my arms.
“Don’t you listen to Shane. He was damn worried about you.”
Setting her gently on her feet, I raised an eyebrow at her swollen belly. “I’d say he’s got enough to worry about himself.”
“True enough. And if you’d kept in touch you’d know I’m due in July, Uncle Bo.” Lily pinched my arm with a twist of her fingers. “But you’re gonna do better now, aren’t you?”
Physical abuse. It was how we Mavericks showed our love and concern.
Shane had stood up and brushed off his backside, and with Veronica approaching across the lawn he watched every step she made.
He let out a low whistle that wouldn’t reach her ears. “Holy shit, bro.”
Lily, who was a looker in her own rights, merely rolled her eyes and shook her head.
“And you can keep that thought to yourself, bro.” I jammed my elbow into Shane’s ribs. “Besides, V could probably kick your ass. She has massive Muy Thai moves. She’s more than a pretty face, just like Lily here.” I winked at my sister-in-law then turned my gaze to V striding toward us.
The setting sun behind my woman made the damn sundress appear little more than sheer gauze wrapped around her body. Hmm. Very hot, but not a view I wanted to share. I quickly hustled to her side, looping an arm around her hips as I escorted her the rest of the way to Shane and Lily.
Lily—blonde and petite aside from the burgeoning baby belly, with a batch of freckles across her nose and on her shoulders—looked like a glass doll next to my brother. He’d managed to close his mouth, and he towered over his wife with a linebacker’s muscular frame that hadn’t gotten soft since his days as a high school defenseman.
“Veronica, this is my older brother Shane and his lovely wife Lily. Y’all, Veronica Hartley.”
Shane shook her hand. Lily hugged her arm. Shane ogled her until I socked him on the shoulder, and Lily commented on her hair. Thus V was welcomed into the madcap fold.
She was laughing at something Lily said, the two of them scanning Shane and me in a disquieting manner, when the telltale thunder of motorcycle pipes sliced through the air.
“She still got the Indian?” I asked Shane.
He crossed ham hock-sized arms over his chest. “Yup. But she doesn’t have Dana anymore so don’t mention her.”
“I thought it was Anna?”
“That one was before Stella,” he said.
“Holy shit. Someone sure gets around.”
Shane knocked me on the back of the head. “Not you for a change.”
Lacy dismounted from the classically restored, maroon and maize ’37 Indian Sport Scout wearing raggedy jean shorts, military boots, and a S*M*A*S*H*E*D* T-shirt in olive green. Three guesses who’d been the rebellious kid in the family growing up. At thirty, she didn’t look a day over twenty and was apparently still breaking hearts all over Chesterfield County.
Chick’s hearts.
Chapter Ten
“V, C’MERE, DARLIN’.” I held my hand back to her and she stood beside me. “Meet Shane’s twin, Lacy.”
Lacy left her helmet behind and long-legged it over. She pumped V’s hand like it was a tire jack. “Veronica. Wow.”
Lacy’s look was a little too appreciative for my liking, and since she was proving herself to be a ladykiller, I stepped up. “Okay now don’t get any funny ideas. She’s taken and she’s straight.”
“Pleasure to meet you, Lacy.” Veronica returned each hand pump, her eyes glowing. “Very pretty name.”
My sis sighed and disengaged, pushing her fingers through long nearly-black hair. “Well, I got lucky. Mom was gonna call me Shanna. Can you imagine? Shane and Shanna?” She shuddered as she glanced over at her twin. “Thank fuck she came to her senses. Bad enough sharing a womb with that lug, would’ve sucked to share a name too.”
V laughed at all the right places then Lacy turned to me and affected Ma’s voice, “What you standin’ there for, boy? C’mon over here and gimme some sugah!”
Lacy shrieked when I lifted her in my arms. She punched me in the arm when I asked, “You broke up with Dana?” just because Shane had told me not to.
“She got clingy. I hate that.”
“Jesus, girl. Why don’t you just grow a dick while you’re at it.”
“Don’t have to. You’re dick enough for both of us.”
V observed the sibling interplay with a wide smile.
“Where are the ’rents? We don’t warrant a welcome home?” Shane wrapped Lily in his arms, his hands joining across her round belly.
“Pop’s helping Ma cook,” I said.
“No shit? And he hasn’t set the kitchen on fire yet?”
“Bet there’s steam blowing out her ears though.” Lily covered Shane’s hands with hers, lifting them to her lips.
“Don’t go gettin’ frisky on me now, woman. Got dinner to sit through.” He winked at me. “Pregnancy hormones. So awesome, braw.”
“Not gonna be so awesome when I make you sleep in the front room if you think you’re gonna start talkin’ about our sex life out in the open.” Lily pushed him away.
Lacy hooked one of her arms, V the other, and off the trio swished to the house.
Shane and I lagged behind.
“Nice catch,” Shane remarked.
“You better not be watching her ass.”
“’Course not. Eyes only for my Lily.”
We started after them, crossing the yard.
“Gang’s all here except Thomas, huh?” I asked.
“Nerd boy has finals.”
“You are such a useless waste of gray matter.”
“Awww. I love you too, brother.”
Thomas was the youngest of the family. At twenty-four he was in the graduate program at Clemson studying Historic Preservation. Introspective and brainy, Thomas was completely atypical from the rest of the rowdy, boisterous Maverick clan. Although, come to think of it, I guessed we all marched to the beat of a different drum: Shane, the high school biology teacher, Lily a hospice nurse, Lacy the mechanic . . . and me, the ex-Jarhead.
“I bet Tommy’s a freak in the bed though.” Shane bumped my shoulder.
“I don’t really wanna think about that.”
“What? C’mon. The geeks get all the hotties.”
“Pussy hound.”
“Only pussy I hound dog over is Lily’s.”
“Sweet.”
“What about you and the doc?”
I tilted my head, watching the sway of V’s hips ahead of us.
Shane’s big shoulders jerked as he stopped in the middle of the yard. “Aw yeah, you’re so screwed, blued, and tattooed, braw.”
I couldn’t disagree.
We ambled inside after the women, the kitchen filled to capacity. Veronica wasn’t just taken under wing, she was set to work along with the rest of us.
Doors and windows open, big fan blades turning overhead in the overheated kitchen, we finally sat down to dinner with crickets chirping and squirrels chuckling from outside.
“Shane.” Dad linked hands with Ma on one side and Lily on the other, nodding at my big brother.
Around the table, hands joined and voi
ces silenced.
“Dearly beloved—”
Ma cracked him one on the back of his head.
Lacy and I snuffled our laughter.
“Ow! Gotta be like that? Okay. Fine.” Shane ducked his head. “Dear Lord, we give thanks for the bounty of this table and for the family and friends joined around. Thank you for returning Bo to us safe and sound while so many have fallen in battle. Please grant peace upon those families who’ve lost good men and good women for the sake of our country. Amen.”
“To the soldiers.” My dad raised his glass.
Ma wiped her eyes and kissed my cheek. “To the fallen.”
I couldn’t speak, too choked up, but I managed to clink my glass with the others, and when all was said and done, I brought V’s hand to my lips, because she was the one who’d saved me from myself.
The cheers grew more boisterous, less solemn after that, and Lacy rounded it out with, “Amen and pass the gravy!”
Platters of home-cooked food passed between us, and bottles tipped over empty glasses. The meal was fun and fun-loving, and I was absolutely grateful to be home again with V right next to me.
“Hear tell you’re a doctor.” Shane asked V over dessert of banana cream pie.
“A psychologist to be exact,” she replied, narrowing her eyes on him.
Lacy made the sign of the cross, grinning, and Shane pushed half-off the bench like the Polter-psych was catching.
That didn’t stop him from putting V through the hillbilly paces. “So how did you meet our Beauregard?”
Asswipe. He might be my older brother, but he wasn’t that much bigger. Ass kicking, coming later.
You know, brotherly love and all that.
“Actually, she was my psychologist.” Yeah, I was ready to own up to my shit.
There was a momentary silence around the table, not the praying type but the awkward kind after I outted myself. V turned pale. Clearly she hadn’t intended to tell them.
Then Shane chuckled. “Oh, don’t worry, Missus Doc. We always knew he wasn’t right in the head.”