a reason to live(103)

More women exited the ladies’ room and saw the commotion. They took off running into the bar, shouting at the top of their lungs, but I had had enough. Kicking off my heels for traction, I elbowed Brown in the gut, forcing him to let go of my hair, then rounded and shoved him back. I landed a knee to his nuts, and when he started to drop to his knees, I followed with a knee to his chin, knocking him out cold.

I heard Shane roar, “Move!” right before he, Max, and Jack came running down the hall.

I was standing over Brown, panting from exertion, when Shane arrived. He pushed me back and looked down at Brown.

“Jesus, baby, you knocked him out cold.”

“He pissed me off,” I returned with a shrug.

He turned and looked at me, grinning. “Remind me not to piss you off.”

“I’d like to point out,” Jenn said as Jack helped her from the floor. “That I am no longer the only woman in this family that has had two attackers. And I gladly relinquish the crown to Sage.”

Maxine and Gregor pushed through the crowd then, elbowing their way through until they were standing next to me.

“Who has the babies?” I asked.

“Barbie Twins,” she replied, pulling out her phone. Then she snapped a picture of Brown and mumbled, “I’m posting this to Facebook. If you decide to beat the crap out of this asshat, let me know. I’ll record it for you . . .”

***

Shane leaned against the railing on his deck, watching Sage laugh with Mia and Jenn. He chuckled low as he brought a beer to his mouth. Jack and Max joined him with beers in hand, and all three grinned as the women raised the roof as they played with their kids.

“We married nuts,” Max stated.

“We married high-strung, glorious women,” Shane offered.

“Yeah . . . No one ever said I was dumb,” Max pointed out.

“Nor I,” Shane agreed.

Jack turned and looked at both men, then glanced back at Jenn and their wives. He saw beauty, strength, headaches, passion, softness, frustration, and love shining brightly within the cabin. But most of all, he saw his reason to breathe.

Looking back at the men at his side, Jack crossed his arms and informed Max and Shane—with the authority of a man who knew the smartest thing he’d ever done in his life was marrying Jenn—that, “Intelligence runs in our family . . . on the male side.”



The End