Committed Passion

by Bonnie Dee

  “Congratulations, you guys. It was a beautiful ceremony,” she said before she led Travis away.

  I chatted with a few of my distillery employees, and with Bud Harringer, an old friend from Sawville.

  Micah, who stood beside me, nudged me with an elbow. “Who’s that?”

  I looked up to see Clay Peters walking across the lawn toward the chapel. No. More like weaving his way. Drunk. Angry drunk. I could tell from his expression.

  “Rianna’s ex,” I answered. “Jesus, how did he know where to find us?”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of this.” Micah strode off, beckoning J.D. to go with him. I wanted to join them, but me ending up in a fistfight on our wedding day wasn’t the kind of memory I wanted Rianna to have.

  By now, she’d noticed Clay too, and frowned as she watched him approach. “Oh no.”

  I leaned close and murmured, “You don’t have to talk to him. Not today. Let my brothers handle this. They’ll get him out of here without a scene.”

  I hoped. But given Micah’s sometimes short fuse, J.D.’s protective instinct, and Clay’s level of drunkenness, it was a fairly combustible mix with potential for explosion.

  *

  J.D.

  “Gotta go, hon. There’s a situation.” I inhaled Leah’s perfume as I leaned to whisper in her ear. She smelled good. I hated leaving her standing by herself in the midst of the wedding guests.

  “Wait. What?” she asked.

  “Looks like some drunk guy is crashing the wedding. Micah’s heading him off, but he may need my help. I’ll tell Gina to come over by you.”

  “That’s okay. Go do what you have to do. I’ll wait here.”

  I gave her a quick peck on the jaw before I hurried to join Micah. He’d almost reached the man who had a bottle in one hand and was yelling Rianna’s name.

  “Is this the ex Jonah told us about?” I asked. A little drunk and in a confiding mood at the bachelor party, Jonah had told us about the guy from Rianna’s past who’d reemerged to try to claim his kid. So much for AA. Clearly, Clay Peters had fallen off the wagon and was in angry-drunk mode.

  Micah nodded. “Let’s get him out of here before he draws attention.”

  We strode fast across the last few yards separating us from the increasingly noisy man. “I just want to see my kid, goddammit. I have rights!” he bellowed.

  We flanked him on either side, barring his way forward with our shoulders.

  “Now’s not the time,” I said calmly. “You can see Travis another day. You don’t want him to meet you like this, do you?”

  He squinted at me. “Who the fuck are you?”

  “Friends,” Micah said. “Nobody wants any trouble here. Let’s just walk over there a ways, and you can tell us all about it.” He pointed away from the park shelter that was set up for the reception, then he made the mistake of touching Peters’s arm to guide him away.

  Clay jerked away. “I got nothing to say to you. I don’t even know you. I’m here to find my kid.”

  I glanced back at the group outside the chapel. People were starting to glance over, and both Jonah and Rianna looked upset.

  “Okay. Time to go.” I didn’t wait for more belligerent arguing or the inevitable first punch. I moved in close to Peters and applied pressure to a stun point near the junction of his neck and shoulder. Immediately the man’s legs started to crumple. I slung his arm around my shoulders to prop him up and Micah did the same on the other side.

  “The Vulcan thing really works!” Micah said. “So that’s the kind of cool shit you learn in the army.”

  An army buddy had taught me the technique. It wasn’t part of our training, but I didn’t bother to explain. Together we dragged Peters around the back of the chapel, out of sight of the curious wedding guests.

  Peters wasn’t completely unconscious, only momentarily stunned, and he quickly recovered and started his rant again. “What the fuck? I got rights. I just wanna see my boy.” Angry drunk turned to slobbery as his eyes welled with tears. “My kid,” he mumbled.

  A kid he’d never supported financially or showed any interest in until now. I bit back my own feelings about deadbeat dads as I exchanged a look with Micah.

  “What are we gonna do with him?” I asked.

  “Throw him in the lake,” Micah suggested. “Cool him off and sober him up.”

  “Tempting.”

  Instead, we dragged Peters to a park bench far away from the pavilion where the reception was, though I could hear the DJ starting music. “Don’t you need to get back to be in the wedding photos?” I asked Micah. “You’re the best man.”

  He cocked his head and studied Clay Peters sitting on the bench, head lolling on his chest. “You got this guy under control?”

  “No problem. Go on.”

  Micah straightened his vest and tie and jogged off to rejoin the wedding party. I sat in the sunshine with the dozing drunk and thought about dads, my dying dad in particular. I’d be a father soon, and even though the embryo inside Leah was little more than a cluster of cells, I could already feel the weight of it. My son or daughter. I couldn’t imagine walking away from that responsibility. Made me want to punch the idiot beside me who’d left his woman and child to fend for themselves.

  I grimaced at the sour stench of alcohol and the drool glistening at the corner of Peters’s mouth. He’d belatedly tried to make amends and show an interest in Travis, but it seemed his new leaf had already dried up and crumbled.

  I couldn’t sit there with the guy all day. I had Leah to get back to. What the hell was I going to do with him?

  “Hey.” I nudged his arm. “Clay, wake up.”

  Bloodshot blue eyes flickered open, and he stared at me.

  “Listen, I know you want to see your boy, but this isn’t the time or the place. You’ve got to make an arrangement with Rianna and not on her wedding day. How’d you know to come here anyway?”

  He glared and ran a hand from his sweaty forehead through his tangled hair. “Not your business.”

  “And this wedding isn’t any of your business, man,” I responded. “Not after the way you treated her.”

  “You don’t know. You only heard her side. She left me. I didn’t leave her.”

  I’d heard enough from Jonah about why Rianna had fled. I had to uncurl my fingers from fists at the thought of this thug slapping her around. But getting mad and punching him wouldn’t do anybody any good. I needed to calm him down and send him away.

  “Why don’t you call your sponsor and ask him to pick you up?” I suggested, keeping my tone easy. “I’ll wait here with you for your ride to come, and I’ll be sure to put in a good word for you with Rianna, tell her she needs to set up this meeting with Travis real soon.”

  Maybe it was a lie. It would be up to Rianna and Jonah how they dealt with Peters, but anything to appease him and get him gone.

  The man had reached a more compliant level of drunkenness. He pulled out his cell phone and squinted at it, searching for a number.

  The sponsor didn’t answer his call, and I’d had about enough of the whole situation. I took out my own phone. “I’m calling a cab.”

  “I don’t have money for that.” He peered at me with a crafty gaze. “You got a few bucks you could loan me?”

  “If you promise to go home and sleep it off. No bars. No liquor stores. You don’t want to give in to that, not when you’ve come so far.” I gave him the sort of pep talk I imagined a sponsor would. “Remember why you’re giving up drinking. Not just for Travis, but for yourself. Swear you’ll go home.”

  “Yeah, yeah. All right.” He didn’t sound very convincing, but I’d given all the rah-rah speech I could manage. I called a local cab company and waited impatiently for a car to arrive.

  “Who the hell are you anyway?” Peters asked after a few minutes.

  “Jonah’s brother.” At the risk of getting him stirred up again, I added, “You can trust Jonah to be a good father to Travis. He about raised me and m
y brother. If you really want Travis to be happy, maybe its best if you keep your distance for a while, at least till you’re sure you can stay on the wagon.”

  Apparently, Clay was sober enough now to register what I said. He didn’t argue or make excuses. His shoulders slumped as he rested his arms on his knees and stared at the ground. “Fucking life,” he muttered at his feet.

  “I hear ya.”

  I glimpsed Jonah coming toward us and motioned him away. Just the sight of Jonah might start another angry tirade. A few minutes more and I’d have the drunk in a cab and out of our hair.

  The older brother I’d known growing up would’ve marched in to take charge. That had always been Jonah’s way. But Jonah had changed since getting with Rianna. He’d learned a little about trusting others and allowing people to help him. From a distance, he gave me a nod and then turned and walked back toward the party.

  At last I spotted the taxi winding its way through the park toward us. With relief, I urged Peters into the back seat and gave him some cash to pay the driver.

  Before I closed the door, Clay looked up at me, his eyes squinting against the sunlight. “You think he’ll hate me?”

  “Who? Travis?” I shrugged. “I don’t know, man. When he’s older, he might understand. Someday he’ll probably appreciate you gave him the best dad you could—even if that wasn’t you.”

  It sounded good. Good enough to make Peters nod slowly as if I’d said something really wise.

  I shut the door and watched the car drive away, realizing maybe it was true. My dad had been an asshole, but he’d left me and Micah in Jonah’s care. It was the best thing he could’ve done for us.

  *

  Micah

  After the incident with Rianna’s ex and standing through a photo shoot and after J.D. returned and gave me a nod that everything was okay, the reception settled into normal rituals: food and dancing, cake and garters, happy people getting a little drunk and eager single women grabbing for the bouquet.

  But it was my girl who caught it.

  I grabbed Gina and pulled her close, nuzzling her neck. “Good job, darlin’. You beat the asses off all the other single ladies.”

  “There were only four, and Leah was pretty easy to push aside,” she joked. The bouquet was crushed between our bodies, and I inhaled the sweet scent of flowers.

  “Still, you wanted it pretty bad, didn’t you?” I asked, halfway serious. “With Leah and J.D. engaged, are you thinking about getting married?”

  “Are you?” she shot back.

  I kissed her neck. “Thinking. Yeah.” And I had been. A lot. But it was a bigger commitment than I’d ever considered in my life. I wasn’t quite there yet. “I know I couldn’t stand it if we broke up and I never got invited to one of your mom’s Sunday dinners again,” I teased.

  She slapped my chest but gave a little sigh as I found that spot underneath her jaw that made her squirm. “You just love me for my mom. I knew it. You should steal her away from dad and run off with her. She can cook for you every day.”

  “I’ve thought of it. Asked her once. She wouldn’t go.” My mouth found its way down to Gina’s throat and headed toward her cleavage.

  She pulled my face away from her boobs. “Not in public! We’re on the dance floor, for God’s sake. If we’re gonna make out, we should go over by those trees or something.”

  She grabbed my hand and pulled me toward a thick grove away from the pavilion. I was more than happy to leave the party as the DJ had decided it was time to Celebrate good times. Come on! That old song never seems to age out at receptions.

  We left the dancers clapping and swaying and entered the quiet of the trees. There was a bench overlooking the lake, set there just for lovers to have a little privacy. I swept a few dead leaves and some bird shit off the bench, and placed my jacket over it so Gina wouldn’t stain her dress.

  Sitting side by side, we held hands and gazed at the sparkling water. Words that had been stewing inside me for a while now came tumbling out. “I want to, you know. Marry you some day. I’ve never been in love before, but I think this is what it feels like. I don’t want anyone else, and I can’t imagine not talking to you every day. You’re the first person I want to tell about anything that happens. We get each other. We’re…in sync.”

  “I get to be Justin Timberlake.” She leaned her head on my shoulder and snuggled close. “I love you too, and it’s okay if we wait awhile. I’m not in a hurry either. These crazy kids and their rushing into marriage.”

  “Not like me to be the sensible, cautious one for a change.” I stroked a hand up and down her bare arm, feeling the silken skin below the little cap sleeves of her dress.

  Pretty soon the idle touching wasn’t enough. We turned toward each other and began to kiss. I plunged my fingers into the tangle of curls that coiled around them like springy vines. And I sampled the wine on her lips and tongue, deliciously sweet.

  Gina’s curves filled my arms and pressed into all the hollows of my body. I loved her pillowy softness and the way she moaned softly as my tongue swept over hers. Combined with the sharp edge of that same tongue when we bantered, she was the perfect woman for me.

  It was impossible to stop at kissing. There we were, in a secluded grove in a public place, and the chance of discovery only added to the tension and excitement. My hand wandered, loosening the front of her dress and slipping inside to fondle her breasts. She unfastened my trousers, and her warm hand encircled my erection tightly. I grew even harder and groaned as I thrust into that tightness and wished it was her pussy.

  I tweaked a nipple, and Gina sucked a breath between her teeth. “This is so wrong. Anyone might walk by and see us. Don’t stop!”

  I laughed and slid my hand underneath her dress this time, between her thighs to the moist scrap of underwear that barely covered her. I pulled it aside, wriggled my fingers underneath, and while she stroked my cock till I could hardly see straight, I teased her clit.

  The stone bench was hard, cold, and uncomfortable. After twisting around for a few moments, trying to find a comfortable position, I gave up and dragged Gina onto the ground with me, to hell with our formal wear. In a carpet of last year’s leaves and this spring’s green growth, we pushed against each other and writhed in pleasure. I would’ve gone down on her, but that was pushing the envelope too far, even for me. If some little kid happened by, we could quickly take our hands out of each others’ pants and pretend we’d only been making out. My face in her crotch would be a little harder to conceal.

  But hands only were enough. As excited as we both were, it didn’t take long to climax from touch alone. The unexpected encounter left us both panting and sweating, charged up and cells tingling.

  Gina wiped the result of my orgasm from her hand onto the grass, and I gave her one more long deep kiss, then a little peck on the lips like a period on a sentence. “I love you, Gina Torrio. You’ve fucking changed my life.”

  Her smile was so bright, it stung my eyes. “I love you too—even if you do like my mom’s cooking better than mine.” She cradled my face between her hands and added softly, “I got the best of the Wyatts.”

  Well, I’d sure as hell never been called that before. It made me kiss her all over again and wish I had a ring in my pocket like J.D. I vowed when I did finally ask her officially, it was going to be the most extravagant and memorable proposal ever.

  We got up at last and straightened our clothes before returning to the reception. There was a gift table, but the present I’d gotten for Jonah and Rianna I wanted to deliver in person. Gina and I joined the newly married couple and J.D. and Leah at a table.

  “So, I got something kinda special for your wedding gift, but you need to open it now.” I thrust the box across the table.

  Rianna passed it to Jonah. I’d let her in on the secret in order to make plans. “I think this one’s mostly for you, honey.”

  I jiggled my leg as I waited for Jonah to peel back the wrapping in his ridiculously painstak
ing way.

  He took out the sweat- and grass-stained baseball jersey and shook it open. One of Jonah’s favorite Lexington Legends players, Felix Escalona, had scrawled his autograph on the front. A hero among the ’01 league championship winners and the first Legends player to be called up to the majors, he represented everything my brother admired about baseball. Jonah gazed at the shirt as if I’d given him the Shroud of Turin and he saw Jesus’s face. Then he reached into the box and took out the rest of the gift.

  “Remember that time you got tickets—back when we couldn’t afford them—and I claimed I was too busy to go with you?” I asked. “I wish I had. Anyway, I thought maybe we could all go together now.”

  “Tomorrow’s game,” Rianna put in. “Micah and I arranged everything. I talked some of the season ticket holders in our zone into selling us their seats so we can all be together. We don’t have a honeymoon planned till later this summer, so I thought this would be a nice substitution.”

  Jonah looked from the T-shirt and tickets to Rianna, then me. “Thank you. This means a lot.”

  I hardly knew how to deal with a world in which Jonah and I weren’t going at each other. We’d always had each other’s backs in a fight, but a life without bickering was just too weird. “Well, it’s not all about you, ya know. Rianna’s a big fan too.”

  “The biggest.” She smiled as J.D. and Leah threw in their thanks for the tickets too.

  Gina bumped my knee with hers under the table and put an arm around me. “Perfect wedding present. You did good,” she leaned to whisper while Rianna and the guys regaled Leah with baseball stories and explained why the Legends were the best farm team in recorded history.

  “Worth me getting in late the other night?” I asked.

  “Definitely. You’re a good brother.” She lowered her voice even further. “Not to mention a good lover. Like I said, I got the best of the Wyatts.”

  Chapter Nine

  Leah

  “The batter’s up to the plate. He’s waiting for the pitch.” J.D. was as excited as a little boy on Christmas morning as he set the scene for me.