Until My Last Breath

by Tiffany Patterson

  “We’re married,” Jason added without preamble.

  “Oh,” Deborah finally stated in the face of my own silence.

  I looked from Jason to the woman and back to Jason again.

  “And does your wife have a name?”

  “Jesse. Her name is Jesse.”

  “Jesse,” I repeated, my eyes going to the woman, who couldn’t keep her eyes on me.

  “And …” Jason continued.

  I looked back to him and the sparkle in his eyes told me he still felt like he had another surprise up his sleeve.

  “We’re expecting.”

  Deborah gasped.

  My eyebrows dipped to a V. “Expecting what?”

  Jesse nervously looked to Jason.

  “A baby.”

  The chuckle that burst from my lips was unintentional but well deserved due to the ludicrousness of the moment.

  “Robert,” Deborah whispered in a warning tone before saying, “Congratulations, Jesse and Jason. We’re sure you both are so happy about the baby and your nuptials.” She sounded so elegant and genuine.

  I, on the other hand, didn’t give a shit. “How the hell are you going to raise a baby, let alone provide for a wife? You can barely wash your own ass.”

  “Fu—”

  “Robert, that’s enough. We’re sorry, Jason. We’d love to stick around and talk more about everything but we have a really important thing to get to. I’m sure your parents will be thrilled to hear your good news.”

  I let myself be pulled away from my moronic brother and his seemingly ditzy bride by my soon-to-be wife. Once we reached the town car we’d arrived in, Deborah began scolding my response.

  “You could’ve been nicer.”

  “Nicer?” I questioned while simultaneously waving the driver off. “We’re going to the airport,” I told him, before getting in the backseat of the car behind Deborah. “How do you expect me to be nicer? Two months ago he was attending our dinner with a completely different woman on his arm. Now he’s married to a another woman we’ve never met and she’s expecting his child. The child of a guy who’s never put in a day of work his whole pathetic life.”

  Deborah frowned as she glared at me. “He was trying to upstage you.”

  I snorted. “You think I don’t realize that?”

  “Of course you realize it but you don’t understand it. He actually looks up to you, wishes he could be more like you. You said yourself, your whole lives, your father constantly compared you two and he always came up short. Jason’s just doing what he can to prove to your father, you, and most importantly, himself that he’s just as good as you are.”

  “And getting married and having a baby proves that how?”

  She angled her head, giving me a leveling look. “Come on. Do you think your parents would’ve thrown this lavish engagement party for him? Even though you didn’t want all of the pomp and circumstance, they still did it. If for no other reason than to show you off. They wouldn’t have done the same for Jason. You and I both know that. And so does he. He probably felt like he had to make a splash or some sort of impact on his own.”

  I ran my hand over my chin, thinking about her words. This was yet another reason why I loved this woman. She made me consider things that would’ve never crossed my mind. To me, Jason was just a screw up I’d had to cover for or protect my entire life. But Deborah’s words helped me to put some things into perspective.

  “You might have a point.”

  “You know I have a point.”

  “Great. Point made. But I’m done thinking about my brother for the time being. We have more important things to worry about.”

  “Such as?” She smiled, lifting an eyebrow.

  “Is that going to be your wedding dress or will we have to buy a different dress for the ceremony?”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Then

  Deborah

  “You’re shaking.”

  I glanced over and laughed, again, taken aback by the huge dark hair, sunglasses, and sideburns of the Elvis impersonator who was going to be walking me down the aisle.

  “I’m sorry,” I stated before covering my mouth the smother the giggles. “I just never thought I’d be getting married like this.”

  I saw a dark eyebrow raise over the brim of the sunglasses. “You know it’s not too late to cut and run.”

  I shook my head immediately. “No, it’s not that. I love Robert. He’s the man I’m going to spend the rest of my life with. And have children with. It’s just that one minute we were at our engagement party, and the next minute, I’m here. Standing at the edge of the altar, ready to be walked down by an—” I burst out laughing as I stared at the man in the tight, light blue, bell bottom bodysuit. “An Elvis impersonator.”

  I glanced at the man, whose real name I didn’t know. He was staring down at me with a small smirk on his face. Somehow, I managed to sober up.

  “My daddy liked Elvis,” I blurted out, reliving a memory of him dancing to an Elvis Presley song one night. We didn’t have any type of music player. My father sang the song out loud as he danced. Suddenly, a wave of sadness hit me.

  “Your parents aren’t here.”

  I looked up, blinking at the man next to me. “They’re gone,” I stated softly.

  “I’m sorry to hear that, little lady.” He glanced down the aisle toward the front of the red and white chapel.

  I followed his eyes and smiled as I saw Robert emerge from behind the side door and take his position. A bubble of laughter moved up my chest, expressing itself through my lips.

  “I knew he wouldn’t wear that powder blue tux.” It’d been offered to him by the chapel, a powder blue and ruffled tux that’d been worn by God only knew how many other men. Instead, he wore the same tux he’d worn to our engagement part, but it looked as if it’d been freshened since we’d departed Williamsport.

  I don’t know how he’d done it, but Robert had someone meet us as soon as we’d landed in Vegas, the night before, with a beautiful, shimmering white gown that I was wearing at that moment. I couldn’t have picked out a better wedding dress.

  “You sure he’s the one?”

  I glanced to my left at Elvis. “Never been more sure about anything in my entire life.”

  He nodded. “That’s what I love to hear. Let’s get you hitched, beautiful.”

  I wrapped my left arm around the bulky arm he held out to me, and a second later music began playing. Holding up the bouquet of fake flowers I’d been given at the registry desk of the chapel, I proceeded to fall in line with Elvis and the music as we made our way down the aisle.

  “I’ve got it from here,” Robert told Elvis as soon as we made it to him. He took my hand in his, guiding us closer to the second Elvis impersonator, who would be reciting our vows.

  “We are here today, to join this man and this woman …” the officiant began.

  I didn’t hear much of what he said. The only thing I was aware of was the promise in Robert’s eyes as he stared at me, my hands in his.

  “I understand the groom has a few words he’d like to say.”

  I looked to the officiant and then to Robert. “I didn’t know we were supposed to write out our own vows,” I whispered as if there was a room full of people who could overhear.

  “We weren’t but I had something I wanted to add.”

  I stood upright, inhaling deeply as Robert squeezed both of my hands in his. “Deborah, from the first time we kissed I knew you were going to be my wife. There was no amount of time, doubt, or distance that ever made me waver in that knowledge. What I understood then, and am thankful for now, is that we needed those five years apart. I needed to grow into a better man for you. A man you would be proud to call your husband. I have taken that time to grow up, to understand who and what matters to me most. And I promise you that no one and nothing will ever come before you and our future children. This I vow to you on this day and forever more.”

  “Robert,” I whispered his name,
barely able to get it out through all of the emotion swelling in my body. I blinked a few times, to prevent the tears from falling. I was at a loss for words. I hadn’t been prepared to say any vows of my own.

  “You don’t need to say anything, princess.” Reaching up, he wiped away a tear from under my eyes. “Just say I do.”

  I nodded. “I do.”

  A heart-stopping smile covered his face. Elvis said a few more words that I couldn’t make out because my emotions were running all over the place. I hardly remembered Robert slipping the wedding band around my ring finger. But I clearly recalled the kiss he planted on my lips once Elvis finally pronounced us husband and wife.

  He kissed me with every bit of passion that was contained in his body, and I gave as much as I got.

  “No backing out now,” he said when he finally pulled away.

  “I would never dream of it.”

  “Good.” He lifted our clasped hands to his lips, pressing a kiss to mine just before we proceeded to walk down the aisle for the first time as man and wife. I let out a round of laughter when Elvis number one began tossing rice at us as we passed through the doors of the chapel.

  We were official.

  That smiling, laughing couple had no idea that back home, there was more than one figure plotting against our demise.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Present

  Tyler

  “You never told me that that fucking Elvis tried to get you to run away,” my father stated sharply from the head of the table.

  The entire family, including all of the grandchildren, were seated in the dining area of my parents’ home, Townsend Manor. The same place they’d run away from, the night of their engagement party.

  “He was just making sure I really wanted to get married,” my mother soothed, taking my father’s hand in hers.

  “Wait a minute,” I spoke up, all eyes turning to me.

  Before I could even say anything, my father groaned loudly.

  “I told you he was going to pick up on it,” my mother told him.

  I lifted an eyebrow, looking between my parents. “You gave me … us,” I corrected, taking Destiny’s hand in mine, placing them on the dark wood of the table, “shit for eloping on a yacht when you two ran off and got married in Vegas? By an Elvis Presley impersonator, no less? You always told us you’d both gotten married here at Townsend Manor.”

  “We did,” my mother quickly responded.

  “A year after our Vegas wedding,” my father clarified.

  “So your anniversary date isn’t September 19th, 1979.”

  “It is. We always told you the right date, just not the right location.”

  There was a collective sigh around the table. The wrong date would’ve thrown a monkey wrench into my brothers’ and my plans.

  “Anyway, back to my original question. What was with you giving me crap for our quickie wedding when you’d done it yourselves?”

  “Tyler, watch your language at the dinner table,” my mother scolded.

  “Apologies.”

  “And please, I didn’t give you half the sh—” My father paused, looking toward my mother who glared at him, eyebrow raised. “… difficulty my father gave me. Not that it made a difference either way,” he added coolly.

  We’d always known that my father hadn’t had a great relationship with his own father. My grandfather had passed before I was born, so I never met the man, but from the little I did know about him, I wasn’t a fan. However, I do know that some things he’d taught my father had stuck with him until this day. He’d even passed some of those lessons on to us.

  “They really didn’t give us a hard time, babe,” my wife interjected. “Resha was more upset than your parents when she found out we’d gotten married.”

  I glanced down, grinning at Destiny. Her cousin and best friend, Resha, had indeed been pissed off when she found out Destiny and I had married, just the two of us, on a yacht in the Bahamas.

  “I can’t believe you kept that secret from us all of these years,” Joshua added, the rest of the family nodding their heads in agreement.

  “Some things aren’t your business,” my father stated with a shrug.

  “Your wedding day isn’t one of those things, Father,” Aaron added, surprising most of us.

  He of all people was one to talk about secrets. The man had had an ongoing relationship with his wife that produced two children long before any of us knew about it. Granted, he didn’t even know about the children until they were five years old, but still.

  “We’re not the only one with secrets.” My father’s eyes narrowed on Aaron and then on the rest of us. “What happens in your relationship is best left between you and your spouse. Remember that, boys. It’s okay to share some things with the outside world, but at the end of the day, remember who it is you come home to at night. Who you curl up next to in the bed before you go to sleep, and who you open your eyes to every morning. Your loyalty, first and foremost, is to your wife. A man who can’t be faithful to his family is a man who can’t be trusted, period, point blank.”

  We were all silent for a good thirty seconds, ingesting and digesting my father’s words. I couldn’t see them, because I was too busy looking at my own wife, but I was certain my three brothers were also looking at their wives, delivering silent promises with their gazes that lined up with my father’s words, as I was.

  An hour and a half later, I found myself trailing behind my wife, watching the sway of her ass in the knee-length, sleeveless, floral dress she wore, as she strolled down the hall, carrying Travis, our youngest triplet, in her arms. I firmly held Annalise and Tristan at either one of my sides.

  We both worked to change the children’s diapers, dress them in their pajamas for the evening and warm their bottles to give them before putting them down to sleep. With three babies, all eight months old, it was a task to get everyone to bed on time but it was one we were getting better at.

  “Stop!” Destiny, whisper yelled, swatting at my hand after I’d just pinched her ass on the way out of our children’s bedroom. We kept them all in the same room, for now, since the room was directly across the hall from our bedroom.

  I frowned and then growled, grabbing the slip of a woman I’d married, pulling her soft body to my hard frame.

  Giggling, she wrapped her arms around my neck. “You’re incorrigible.”

  I grinned. “You know I love it when you use big words like that.” I dipped my head, biting her chin before licking her neck. I lifted my head with her still in my arms. “We should have another baby.”

  Destiny sucked her teeth and pushed from my embrace, turning her back on me to head into our bedroom. I was expecting that exact response.

  “Tyler Townsend, are you out of your mind?” she began as I entered the bedroom behind her.

  I pulled open the top drawer of the mirrored nightstand that sat next to my side of the bed, reaching for a remote, before plopping down on the bed.

  “Yup. Any other questions?” I pressed the power button on the remote, and the familiar noise of the retractable mirror that was above our bed sounded as it began to emerge from it concealment.

  “Don’t you dare,” Destiny warned but she was much too late.

  My gaze trailed down the length of her five-foot-two-inch frame. I licked my lips as the sight of the smooth, chestnut skin of her legs, anticipating having those legs locked around my waist.

  “I’m going to take a shower.”

  “Let me get you dirty first,” I growled, moving so quickly from my position on the bed to the other side of the room, she startled when I grabbed her from behind, spinning her around to face me.

  My hand went to her left shoulder, slowly guiding the material of sleeveless dress down her arm along with the strap of her bra.

  “We’re not making another baby tonight.”

  “Says who?”

  “Says this IUD I had inserted.”

  I frowned, my face morphing into a scowl at t
he remembrance of the copper hindrance to my impregnating my wife.

  “Get it taken out,” I ordered.

  “No.” She shook her head at the same time the back of her legs hit the bed.

  “Why not?” I demanded.

  “Tyler, how many children do we have?”

  I lifted my face toward the ceiling. “Here we go.”

  “No, answer the question. How many children do we have?”

  “Three, Destiny.”

  “And how many times have I been pregnant with your children?”

  “Once.”

  “Exactly. I gave you not one, not two, but three whole children at one time. And now, you’re begging for another.”

  I smirked. “Yes.”

  She rolled her eyes again. “See? Incorrigible.”

  I growled deep in my throat before cupping her face, bringing her lips to mine. Her lips parted instantly, as they always did when we kissed, because no matter how much she protested or how irredeemable she found me, she still knew who she belonged to. Her body knew, her mind knew, and her soul knew.

  I tugged on the drawstring at the back of her dress, releasing it. The top half floated down to her waist and I wasted no time, quickly pushing the offending fabric the rest of the way down, leaving her clad in the silk bra and panty set she wore beneath. I knew the set well. It was a pair I’d purchased for her a few months back. She had made some ridiculous comment about not feeling sexy after giving birth to three children.

  “Three is not enough,” I growled, unclasping the bra.

  “Tyler.” She let out on a sigh while I pushed her back against the bed, moving over top of her.

  “We deserve more babies. Another son or daughter that looks like you with your sharp wit and attitude.” I pressed a kiss to the side of her neck before moving down to her chest, licking the tops of her breasts.