by Tonya Brooks
“You didn't?” He asked in disbelief.
“I did.” Harley grinned as she remembered Matthew's look of shock. “But what really pissed him off, was when I told him that he might look like you, but he damn sure didn't make love like you.”
Mark's jaw dropped in astonishment that she would have dared goad Matt like that. Then again, that shouldn't surprise him. There wasn't much that Harley wouldn't dare to do. Mark knew his older brother would not have taken kindly to an insult like that and was probably furious with both of them.
“You're not still upset, are you?” He asked hopefully. He hated the thought of anything hurting her and could tell that this lapse in judgment had wounded her deeply. It also assured him that Harley was still in love with his brother.
“Only with myself,” she admitted.
Putting his own emotional turmoil aside, Mark was determined to put her in a better frame of mind and he knew just how to do it. “Then what you need is to be tickled mercilessly,” he grinned wickedly as he advanced on her. When his fingertips danced lightly over her sensitive ribcage, Harley wrenched the door open and screamed bloody murder as she flew down the hall to the staircase.
~~~~
When the shouting and door slamming ceased, Jedidiah had hoped they might be able to work it out, but the sound of that scream assured him it wasn't over yet. “God Almighty!” He exclaimed fearfully as he shot to his feet. Matt tore past him and up the back stairs like a bat out of hell, but from the sound of the footsteps above, Harley was heading to the main stairs. Jedidiah ran for the living room just in time to see her rush out the front door with Mark in hot pursuit.
He and his two younger sons made it to the veranda and when his eldest exploded out of the door behind them, Jedidiah barely managed to hold Matt back as he realized Mark wasn't trying to kill her as they had assumed. They watched in disbelief as the couple rolled on the grass, Harley shrieking with laughter as a grinning Mark tickled her. As impossible as it was to believe, it would appear that all was forgiven.
“She must be a hell of a woman.” Jedidiah mused in bewilderment.
“You don't know the half of it.” Matt said dejectedly as he went back into the house.
~~~~
That night, Matt was waiting for Mark in the living room when his brother came home. “You got somethin' to say to me?”
“You're damn right I do.” Mark said heatedly. “You stay the hell away from my Harley.”
“She came after me.” Matt informed him with pleasure.
“She was drunk and you took advantage of it,” he accused.
“Just like you did,” Matt reminded him harshly. “I told you she was too much woman for you.”
“The way I heard it, you're not man enough to handle her.” Mark shot back with malicious glee.
Jedidiah grabbed Matt before he could hit his brother. “Break it up,” he commanded in a tone they knew better than to argue with. “It's over and done with. Let it go.”
“He'd better stay the hell away from my woman.” Mark growled and headed up the stairs, more than pleased that he'd managed to piss his brother off. It was the least Matt deserved after what he'd done.
“I mean it, Matt. Let it go.” Jedidiah warned his eldest child sternly.
“How the hell am I supposed to do that?” Matt demanded angrily as he began to pace the room. “You can't just forget the most incredible night of your life.”
That was more than Jedidiah needed to know. He'd seen enough claw marks on his sons to know the girl was a wild one in bed. A man couldn't just forget something like that without a hell of a lot of effort. “You don't have a choice,” he said bluntly. “She wants your brother, not you.”
Matt did not need to be reminded of that again, dammit. The look he gave his father was bleak. “I was the one she wanted until Mark got her drunk and took advantage of her,” he confessed rawly. “She should have been mine!”
That was when Jedidiah realized that Harley was the girl that Matt had wanted to marry. Good God. The last two years must have been pure hell for him as he watched her with his brother. Now he understood why Matt had taken advantage of the situation and slept with her. He was just amazed that his eldest hadn't killed them both. “Does Harley know how you feel about her, Son?”
“Hell, I don't even know how I feel.” Matt complained as he dropped heavily onto the sofa. “She makes me crazy, Pop. Half the time I want to kill her and the other half... it's all I can do not to drag her off to bed.”
Yeah, he still loved her. Jedidiah remembered the feeling well. “I wish I knew what to tell you, Matt,” he said as he sat next to him. “Mark won't give her up without a fight. Are you sure that's what you want?”
“If he wasn't my brother he would've been dead a long time ago.” Matt assured him grimly before he stood and went upstairs to suffer through yet another night tormented with dreams of Harley.
~~~~
The weeks passed and the couple was inseparable much to everyone's amazement. No one could believe that Mark had been able to forgive Harley for sleeping with his brother, but the evidence proved otherwise. They acted as if nothing had happened. Once again the gossips began to speculate on what they shared that kept them together no matter what. Unfortunately, they were about to discover the hard way that all good things must eventually come to an end.
It was the Fourth of July, and the entire population gathered downtown on the boardwalk built along the bank of the river, to watch the annual fireworks display. Harley made her way through the crowd looking for a familiar face and found Matthew standing under the branches of a centuries old live oak tree with a group of his friends. She walked right up to him and said, “We need to talk.”
Wondering what the hell she wanted, Matt took a swallow of beer and said shortly, “So talk.”
“In private,” she insisted.
Matt led her to a clearing several yards away and asked impatiently, “What is it, Harley?”
“I'm pregnant,” she said bluntly. “It's yours.”
“Pregnant?” Matt barely breathed as the bottle fell from nerveless fingers and hit the ground with a thunk. His eyes roved over her slender form in disbelief as his mind tried to comprehend what she was saying. “You're sure?” He wheezed and felt light headed.
“Positive.”
Matt shook his head in denial. It couldn't be his. He always used protection. Always. But he hadn't that night, he recalled with blinding clarity. He'd been so damn hot to get her in the back seat that he hadn't even thought about it. Until now. Oh, God. Harley could be pregnant. “You're sure it's mine?”
“I'm six weeks pregnant, Matthew. You do the math.”
Math? Hell, he couldn't even think, and she wanted him to count? He had no idea how many weeks it had been since they'd made love. Forcing his brain to work, Matt realized it could have been six, but that didn't prove anything. He wasn't the only man she'd... “You had a date the next night. It could be his,” he accused.
“I canceled it after you threatened him,” she lied since there had been no date to begin with. “It's yours, Matthew. You'll have to marry me. I won't have my child labeled a bastard like me.”
Marry her? Was she kidding? The stubborn set of her jaw assured him that she was serious. “Dammit, Harley, you can't do this to me.” Matt complained loudly.
“Why the hell not?” She shot back. “You did this to me.”
He couldn't deny that it could be his, so he conceded with, “If it’s mine we'll get married.”
“If?” She shouted at him furiously.
“I need proof, dammit!”
“You'll get it just as soon as the baby's born.” Harley assured him.
“I'm not marrying you until I know for sure,” he flatly refused.
“Oh, you will,” she informed him confidently. “Or you’ll rot in jail.”
“Jail?” He barked in surprise.
“I won't be eighteen for three more weeks.”
On top of eve
rything else, that little bombshell nearly sent him to his knees. “You said you were.” Matt rasped.
“I lied,” she stated without remorse. “It's your choice, Matthew. Marriage or jail.”
“You bitch,” he whispered viciously and grasped her upper arms, the obsidian eyes blazing with all the fury of hell. Matt was never sure whether he had intended to shake some sense into her or just kiss her senseless. Either way he was certain that he would have had a hell of a fight on his hands if his father and Luke hadn't grabbed him and dragged him away.
Harley had been aware of the crowd that had gathered to watch the spectacle they made and she lifted her head proudly as she walked through the throng of curious onlookers. She made it as far as the front of the courthouse before the trembling became so bad that she leaned back against the trunk of a tree and sank to the ground.
Dear God. She had really dreaded telling Matthew and it had been even worse than she had imagined. The scene at the diner was nothing compared to this. For a second there she'd actually thought he wanted to kill her. Harley had never seen anyone so furious before and she laid her hand protectively over her abdomen where their child was growing.
Matthew couldn't have made it any plainer that he didn't want her or their baby, and the knowledge pierced her to her very soul. The saddest part was that Harley wasn't upset because she was pregnant. She had been shocked and more than a little scared at the idea, but deep inside she was thrilled that she was having Matthew's baby. If she couldn't have him, his child was the next best thing. This baby was a part of Matthew and she was going to lavish it with all the love and affection that she had wanted to give its father and couldn't.
“You should have told me,” an all too familiar voice accused angrily.
She looked up to see Mark silhouetted against the streetlight behind him. “I didn't know how.” Harley admitted in a voice that was weary beyond her years.
“You could have found a better way than that,” he said with a bark of laughter that held no humor.
“At least you weren't the last one to know this time,” she grumbled and yanked a handful of leaves off of a bush in frustration. Now everyone in town knew she was pregnant and forcing Matthew to marry her.
“We could have pretended it was mine.” Mark said quietly as he knelt in front of her. “I would have married you, Harley.”
She had known he would make that offer and that was why she had chosen to tell Matthew first. There was no way in hell she could let Mark make such a sacrifice for her. All he’d ever wanted to do was play professional football and the only way he'd get recognized by the pros was if he was in college for them to see him play.
“And drop out of school to support us?” Harley asked dryly and shook her head. “That's not even an option, Mark. You will make it to the pros, dammit. I couldn't live with myself if I let you make a sacrifice like that.”
He'd known she would say that, but he had made the offer any way. Mark would have married her and given up his dream of playing professional football just to help his friend, because she was more important to him than anything else. Harley was family. There was nothing he wouldn't do for her, and she knew it. “What are you gonna do if Matt says no?”
“I don't know,” she sighed and laid her head back against the trunk.
“One thing’s for sure,” he said in resignation. “Game over. Matt wins.”
~~~~
“Stop telling me to calm down, dammit.” Matt growled as he paced the living room like a caged tiger filled with pent up fury and frustration.
“I don't know why you're so upset,” his father complained. “Harley's pregnant and wants to marry you.”
“How do I know it’s mine?” He demanded furiously. Hell, for all he knew, it could be Mark's baby. Or half the men in town, if the gossip grapevine was right.
“You think she'd lie about it?” The older man asked in surprise.
“She lied about her age so I'd sleep with her,” he shot back. “Why the hell wouldn't she lie about this?”
“Can't think of a reason why she would.” Jedidiah pointed out reasonably. “Harley could have claimed it was Mark's baby, and no one would have doubted her. But she says it’s yours, so there's gotta be a reason why.”
“She wants to drive me insane, that’s why,” he accused bitterly and raked both hands through his hair. His head felt like it was going to explode.
“Harley wants to marry you.” Jedidiah repeated.
“I know that, dammit!”
“She'd be yours. Nobody could dispute that,” his father assured him.
“She'd be mine.” Matt repeated as it sank in. Harley would be his wife and there wasn't a damn thing that his brother or anybody else could do about it. He'd have the legal right to make love to her every day for the rest of his life, just like he'd dreamed of doing since the night he'd met her. “Mine,” he said again as the idea took root in his mind.
“It bears thinking about.” Jedidiah suggested shrewdly. “That is, if you want her.”
If he wanted her? Hell, Matt couldn't remember a time when he didn't.
~~~~
The next morning he showed up at her front door much to her surprise. “What do you want, Matthew?” She asked shortly as she stepped out onto the porch instead of inviting him inside.
“You were right. We should get married.”
That was not what she had expected to hear. Harley stared back at him suspiciously. Matthew had done a complete one eighty and she wanted to know the reason why. It sure as hell hadn't been because she'd threatened to have him locked up. He didn't respond well to being pushed and she had really pushed him last night. “Why?” She asked bluntly.
“Why?” He repeated as if she were daft. “You're pregnant.”
“I was pregnant last night when you refused to marry me until you had proof the baby is yours,” she pointed out. “What changed?”
“I thought it over,” he admitted as he snagged her hips and pulled her body against his. “Being married does have its benefits.”
“Sex is not one of them,” she told him bluntly and took a step back.
“What?”
“Since giving the baby your name is the only reason for it, ours would be a marriage in name only,” Harley informed him.
“Like hell,” he flatly refused and released her. “I will not marry a woman that I can't touch.”
“There's always jail,” she shrugged as if it didn't matter to her one way or the other.
“You actually expect me to spend the rest of my life with a woman who won't sleep with me?” Matt demanded incredulously. Harley had to be crazy as hell if she thought he'd agree to that.
“Hell, no. As soon as the baby is born, I'll have the marriage annulled.”
“Annulled?”
“It's faster and a hell of a lot cheaper than a divorce.”
“What's the difference?” He asked at a loss.
“You can't get an annulment if the marriage has been consummated,” she lied without a qualm.
Now he understood her reasoning and he sure as hell didn't like it. “I'll pay for the damn divorce.” Matt growled. That is if he decided to let her have one. He was going to do everything in his power to keep Harley once she was his.
“I'm not having sex with you again, Matthew.” she said flatly. “Once was enough.”
“No sex, no deal,” he refused adamantly; stung deeply by the reminder that he wasn't the one she wanted, dammit.
“I'll see you at the arraignment,” she said and went back into the house.
~~~~
Harley didn't have him arrested, but they did get married. Jedidiah didn't give his eldest child a choice in the matter. She arrived at the courthouse with her mother and sister and met the Baker men on the steps. Matt was so drunk he could barely stand up. They made a very odd pair as they stood before the judge.
She was wearing a simple yellow sundress and he had on a faded pair of jeans and a T-shirt that proclaimed, Lif
e's a Bitch. Matt had bought the shirt just for the wedding and refused to get married unless he wore it. Both of them looked like they were going before a firing squad and Mark looked like he was losing his best friend, which he was.
Judge Lawton Daniels shook his head in dismay. Harley had come to him for advice the same day she discovered that she was pregnant. The young woman had been adamant about not allowing her child to be illegitimate and he'd told her if that were the case, she'd have to marry the father. That had upset her so much he'd thought she was going to cry. Instead, she had shocked him by asking how long she had to be married before she could get an annulment.
Lawton had insisted she tell him what was going on and he'd been incredulous at what he'd heard. Like everyone else, he had heard the rumors about her sleeping with her boyfriend’s brother but hadn't paid them much attention. It looked like the gossip grapevine had gotten something right for a change. It seemed the poor girl was in love with one brother and having the other ones child. God, what a mess.
He had told her that she needed to live with the father until the baby was born in order to retain a measure of respectability, even if she didn't plan to sleep with him. He'd also told her that she didn't have grounds for an annulment. Refusing to consummate the marriage and being incapable of doing so were two entirely different things. And since the young man wasn't forcing her into marriage, it simply did not apply to them.
Harley had asked him if would apply if she forced the man to marry her and he'd agreed that it would. She had nodded her agreement, thanked him and left. The next thing he knew, they'd gotten into a shouting match down on the Riverwalk and the whole town knew that she was forcing Matt into marriage.
Before the ceremony ever started, Matt said, “I think I'm gonna be sick.”
Jedidiah shoved a wastebasket in his hands and told the judge to get on with it. They repeated their vows and glared at the judge when he told Matt to kiss the bride. He didn't comply. Once the marriage license was signed, the men took Matt home to sleep it off and helped Harley move her possessions into the bedroom across the hall from her husband’s.
