But yes, that’s exactly what happened, Eileen cycling through dancing with John, her father, her new father-in-law, Robert and Stuart, then Brandon, while John danced with his mom, mother-in-law, his sisters, and Kim.
Then the buffet opened, and Jake and his brood were once again left to wait with everyone else while the first tables were directed up after the happy couple got their food.
Eventually, as the evening progressed, Stuart noticed Jake starting to make the rounds of the room, speaking with people, shaking hands, acting like this night was about him and not Eileen.
Pretending to be a loving, doting big brother he had never once in his life been to any of them.
Brandon and Stuart had a dance of their own, gently tricked into it when Miranda and Lara had gotten them up on the floor to dance with them, then playfully switched off so the men had to dance together while the sisters danced.
Brandon smirked. “I think we have been given orders.”
“I think so, Sir.”
The song had been halfway over when the sisters pulled their switcheroo, and once it ended, Brandon leaned in and brushed a kiss across Stuart’s lips before the sisters swooped in again and hugged the men for being good sports.
“Eileen asked us to get you up dancing,” Miranda admitted as she hugged Stuart.
When he glanced over to his sister, who was sitting at her table, she lifted her water glass at him in a toast with a wide, playful smile on her face.
It felt…good.
In a way his family had never felt before.
Stuart should have known it was too good to last.
He had to use the bathroom and wanted to do it before the cake was served. He’d literally ignored Jake today, especially his attempts to get Stuart to look him in the eyes. The bathroom door had no sooner swung shut behind him than it opened again and…he knew.
Jake stalked over to him before Stuart had even staked out a urinal. “Disgusting.”
“It’s a bathroom, Jake.”
“Dancing like that with that guy. Letting him kiss you? What the fuck’s wrong with you? You’re embarrassing the fuck out of me in front of my friends, and embarrassing our parents! When are you giving this shit up and moving home?”
As far as Stuart knew, Jake hadn’t even spoken to their parents since his arrival at the event. He was honestly still trying to process the insanity Jake had just spouted, and that he’d actually said what he’d said, when the bathroom door swung open again.
Enter Brandon, closely followed by John’s three friends.
“There a problem here?” Brandon asked.
He noticed Brandon had ditched his jacket since Stuart had left him only a minute or two earlier.
Brandon was a slightly above-average forty-two-year-old man in terms of physical condition, but compared to Jake he was a fucking Adonis on steroids. Stuart knew damn well what kind of physical strike Brandon was capable of.
Stuart backed up and to the side and kept his mouth shut.
Jake seemed to understand he was outnumbered and with a snarl pushed his way out of the bathroom.
“Damn,” one of John’s friends muttered. “I was really looking forward to punching him.”
Brandon walked over to him. “You all right?”
“Yeah.”
“What’d he say?”
“Same shit, different day. It’s fine.”
John’s friends returned to the reception, but Brandon waited until Stuart had finished, then he used the bathroom, and they finally returned together.
* * * *
Brandon cursed himself for letting Stuart leave the room alone. He’d been watching him walk out. He’d immediately spotted the way Jake’s head tracked his progress and how he left his table to follow a few steps behind his little brother.
Motherfucker.
John’s friends, who’d also watched, were already moving toward Brandon as he shucked his jacket and hurried to follow.
They returned to the reception room and Brandon immediately noted the three empty chairs where Shelly and her sons had been sitting. Glancing around, he realized they’d left.
Jake, however, was still there, now talking to someone and shooting dark glares at Brandon.
For the rest of the evening, Jake kept his distance. Carl had taken his suit jacket off, and Brandon couldn’t help but notice he occasionally rubbed at his chest while wincing.
Lara seemed to notice, too, because several times, Brandon caught her watching him.
Finally, when the older man was sitting down again while Ellen was up talking to a cousin, Brandon leaned in. “You feeling okay, sir?”
Carl shrugged. “Heartburn. Ellen’s been bugging me to go see the doc, but I don’t have time for that. I took something a few minutes ago. It’ll settle down.”
Jake must have driven himself, because he clung to the party like a sandspur on a sock, even as people started filtering out. When someone he was talking to made their departure, he’d latch onto another poor victim. Several times, Brandon spotted him handing out business cards.
Clueless fuck.
There were still about twenty guests there, in addition to the families and John’s friends, when Jake made his last-ditch attempt to regain his perceived lost manhood. He sauntered over to their table and stared down at Stuart.
“If you had a decent bone in your body, you’d be living with Mom and Dad and helping him with the farm.”
Not this again. “I have a job. A career. And a family.”
“I can’t believe you had the nerve to bring him here.”
There’d been minimal alcohol served, champagne for the toast, and beer and white Zin. It appeared Jake had managed to get more than his fair share. His breath blew across them with a hops-scented funk.
Brandon slowly stood, his gaze locked with Jake’s. This time, Jake stepped in, but it was a miscalculation. It forced Jake to have to look up at him.
“At least I’m not a drunk,” Brandon said, not blinking.
Jake had drawn back to hit him when Miranda, who’d walked up behind Jake without him seeing her, caught his fist and used the leverage to shove him back, hard, throwing him off-balance.
“Out, asshole,” she said. “Now. You’re done.”
He stared at his parents, who sat there watching. “You gonna say anything about this? You gonna let these worthless spics talk to me like this? I’m your son!”
Carl shrugged. Brandon didn’t like his color. The man looked paler than he had at the start of the evening. “The major said get out. I’d listen to her, if I were you. She looks feisty. I think she can kick yer ass.”
“How can you take their side over mine? I’m your son! I gave you two grandchildren! I’m not a—”
Carl stood, but now Brandon totally focused on him. The older man swayed on his feet a little and had to reach a hand out for the table to steady himself. “Let me tell you something, you drunken, self-righteous little…”
Carl’s eyes rolled back in his head as his knees gave way. Brandon caught him and eased him to the floor as cries of alarm went up. Lara shoved her way through the throng and knelt next to Carl, her face serious as she took his carotid pulse.
“Call 911!” she yelled. “And someone get me the AED from the lobby!” Then she ripped his shirt open and started chest compressions. Someone brought the emergency defibrillator, and she got it hooked up, activating it once it beeped it was ready.
From there…
Brandon had all he could do wrangling Stuart and keeping him out of the way as Lara took charge of the EMS crew that arrived. She climbed in with them, barking orders and asking for stuff as the doors swung shut behind them and it peeled out.
“Let’s go,” Brandon said. He’d grabbed their jackets and overcoats and jogged for the rental car as the rest of the wedding party scrambled behind them.
“Mom!”
She waved them on. “I have my car. You go—I need my purse.”
Brandon already had the car
started when Stuart climbed in. He’d lost sight of the ambulance, but Stuart gave him directions.
Fuck.
This wasn’t exactly how he’d pictured the end of tonight, and hoped it didn’t undo everything he’d tried to do for Stuart’s confidence against Jake.
Chapter Sixteen
Stuart had never been so glad for Brandon as he was that night. Brandon and John took charge, making sure everyone had coffee, that people had information…everything.
As Stuart sat huddled with his mom, Eileen, Robert, and Kim, he tried to…
Breathe.
This was too…real. It was too easy to imagine himself sitting in a waiting room like this at some point in the future and awaiting word about Jeff or Brandon, especially when he remembered the scare they’d had with Jeff.
That was something he didn’t want to contemplate, because the thought of losing either of them made every cell of his being painfully ache.
Lara finally made her way out to the waiting room. “He’s going into surgery now. They’re going to place a stent. Hopefully he’ll pull through this, but I can’t promise you that.”
His mom jumped up, tearfully hugging her. “Thank you! Thank you so much.”
The waiting began again. Jake showed up at some point, sullen, quiet—fortunately—and didn’t speak to anyone.
Which was fine, because no one wanted to talk to him, either.
It was only then that Stuart realized Jake hadn’t followed them from the hotel, and he wondered what the man had been doing in the interim.
It was close to midnight when a doctor wearing scrubs came to talk to them. “He should recover. He’s going to be in the ICU for tonight to monitor him. And we’ll have to talk about him going through a cardiac rehab program. But everything looks hopeful.”
His mom, Stuart, Eileen, and Robert went to see him.
His mom ordered Jake to stay out in the waiting room, and Brandon, John, and John’s friends were happy to make that happen.
While they were in there, his dad opened his eyes, smiled at them, and told him he loved them.
And asked them not to let Jake come back.
By the time his mom insisted everyone return to their hotels or go home, it was nearly three in the morning. Jake had already departed, once he realized he wasn’t going to be allowed to see his father.
Stuart and Brandon stripped and fell into bed, Stuart clinging to Brandon.
Breathing.
Brandon held him close, his chin resting on top of Stuart’s head and a leg draped over him. “This’ll be okay.”
Obviously, the plans for tomorrow had been discarded. Everyone would converge on the hospital in the morning.
“I feel like this is my fault,” Stuart finally whispered.
“It’s not your fault.”
“If I hadn’t been here, Jake wouldn’t have started in.”
“Jake would have started in on someone. That’s what the Jakes of the world do. It’s their reason for being. You did not give your father a heart attack.”
The next morning, Brandon sicced Jeff on Stuart over the phone and left the two of them to talk while he went into the bathroom.
“Buddy, listen to Master. You know he won’t bullshit you. It sounds like your dad was having health problems before this. Brandon said he saw him rubbing at his chest on Friday.”
“I still feel guilty.”
“Just because you feel guilty doesn’t make it valid. Isn’t that what you keep telling me when I’m whining because I can’t work?”
“That’s different.”
“How?”
“It…” Stuart tried to think of a way to answer him. “It just is.”
“Buddy, stop and try to clear your head. If your dad was going to blow up at you, he would have done it when you and Brandon showed up at their house unannounced. And he didn’t. Did he?”
“No.” In fact, his parents had surprised him by their reactions.
“See? Please try to logic this out in your head, okay?”
He blew out a long breath. “I love you.”
“I love you, too, buddy. Put Master back on, please.”
Perfect timing, because Brandon had just emerged from the bathroom to wash his hands. “He wants to talk to you again, Master.” Then he headed into the shower to get started. It was a little after seven local time, and he wanted to go see his father.
The irony that he now wanted to go see his dad didn’t escape him.
* * * *
Late Sunday afternoon, Stuart’s mom hugged him. “What time you flying out tomorrow?”
He glanced at Brandon, because he hadn’t had a chance to talk to him about this. “I was thinking about delaying my flight.”
“Why?”
Stuart blinked. “Why?”
“Why?”
“Um, Mom, Dad just had a heart attack.”
“And he’ll be in a regular room tonight. Discharged in a couple of days. You heard them.”
He stared at Brandon for advice. Brandon only arched an eyebrow at Stuart and cocked his head.
Stuart took a deep breath. “Won’t you need my help or…something?”
She placed her hands on his shoulders. “He’s not dying. Lara said so, too. I think they know better than we do.”
Robert had come back to the hospital while his wife had stayed home with their kids.
Jake had not returned.
“It’s okay, Stu,” Robert told him. “Eileen and John are here for a few days yet. It’s all right. You have a job to get back to. We’ll keep you posted.”
“I can ask for time off.”
His mom shook her head. “They’re depending on you. Now, if things were not looking good, I’d feel differently. But you heard the nurse. He was fussing at her for not letting him have coffee and bacon this morning. That is not a man on death’s door.”
“But…last night. He almost died.”
“I almost died a couple of months ago when the truck in front of me lost a hay bale and I had to swerve to avoid it. You think you needed to come home for that?”
“That’s different, Mom!”
“No, it’s not.” She pointed at Brandon. “You understand what I’m saying?”
He nodded. “I do, ma’am.”
“I’m not trying to run you off, Stu. Honey, like I keep tellin’ you, I love you. Differences of opinion aside, if I thought you needed to be here, I’d tell you. If I think he’s going downhill and you need to come back, I’ll tell you that, too. If Eileen and John had to leave tomorrow, I would be saying the same thing to them. Or to Robbie, here. It’s okay.”
It still didn’t feel…right.
But with everyone obviously of the same mind, including Brandon, as he cuddled with him that night in their hotel room, Stuart tried to go to sleep. They’d have to be up and out early in the morning, before five, to make their flight.
He only hoped this wasn’t a decision he’d hate himself later for making.
* * * *
Monday afternoon, Stuart called his mom when they reached their car at Tampa International.
He put it in speaker mode, too, so Brandon could hear. “How’s Dad doing?”
“Lara said he’ll be discharged tomorrow, probably. He’ll be fine. Thank goodness for her. She is amazing. And he argued with the nurses this morning over his breakfast.”
Stuart logically knew he shouldn’t feel guilty, that he didn’t cause this, but he couldn’t help it. “That’s good. I’m sorry I had to leave.”
She made a noise. “Honey, again, we told you to go. Wasn’t like you could do anything but sit there staring at him, and he doesn’t like people hovering over him anyway.”
She sighed. “Look, I don’t agree with what you’re doing, but you have a life down there, and you’re happy. Brandon seems like a nice enough guy and he obviously loves you. I’m sure that other guy does, too. Forget any nonsense Jake said. I don’t know why Jake has that in his head, but it’s bullpucky. Your father
and I don’t want you to move back here and work on the farm. You paid good money and worked hard to go to vo-tech. We’ve got men working for us. That’s why we pay them. Jake was out of line, and there’s no two ways about it. If he is so hot to trot to help your father, he should quit his job and do it. Jake doesn’t make the rules around here. And since he’s too lazy to work at a real job involving physical labor, he needs to butt out.”
Stuart was honestly a little shocked to hear her talk like that.
Sticking up for him.
Sort of.
“Thanks, Mom.”
“And no, I don’t think Jake being a jerk caused this any more than I think you showing up with Brandon caused this. Dr. Corning has been nagging him for five years to get a stress test. His cholesterol has been high and he won’t do anything about it. Your father’s just plain stubborn. He’d been having some chest pains on and off for weeks and insisted it was heartburn. Well, now he has to listen to the doctors. If anything, it was God’s will that John’s sister was there and able to save your father and prove what a good family they are. I take that as a sign. Jake might not like that, but oh, well. John’s family are perfectly wonderful people, and Eileen’s lucky to have married that boy.”
“I don’t know what to say.” Which was the truth.
“I don’t expect you to say anything. I’m sorry we don’t see eye-to-eye on things, but you’re my son, and I do love you. Just like Jake being a jerk and a bully doesn’t mean I don’t love him. I can love him and still hate that he is the way he is.”
Well, the elephant had at least been addressed.
Sort of. “He’s been a bully for years. Ever since we were kids.”
“I know. Your father told me early on to stay out of it. That either you other kids would learn to stand up to him, or you wouldn’t. I had too much on my plate to worry about it. You weren’t beating each other up, so I let it go. Although I had hoped he’d grow out of it.”
“No, now he’s raising two as bad as he is.”
“Don’t be too sure of that. I think he might be divorced in a few more months. I think Shelly is sick of him. Never saw her grow a spine the way she did Friday night. And they drove in separate cars to the wedding.”
A Case of You Page 14
