a reason to live(85)

Jenn started the Jeep and pulled out. Once she was out of the parking spot, she looked in the rearview.

“You don’t handle men like Jack, Max, and Shane. You survive them.”

“Ha!” Maxine laughed, “Trust me; they think the same thing about you girls.”

A slow grin pulled across my mouth. I didn’t know these women well, but from what I’d seen so far, they were a force to be reckoned with. Jack and Max probably got through each day with copious amounts of alcohol.

“I predict Shane will have his hands full once she settles in,” Jenn threw out.

“I don’t know. I can hold my ground with most people, but Shane breaks through my defenses. I feel safe around him, which is saying something because I haven’t felt safe since my dad died.”

“I’ll confess I sleep better knowing Thor’s in my bed protecting me. In fact, I’ll go even further and admit I don’t actually buck Max except where my bears are concerned. Actually,” she mumbled, her brows creased in thought, “now that I think about it, it’s a turn on when he goes all caveman on me.”

“Mhm,” Maxine agreed. “Foreplay all day long.”

Mia smiled at her. “I’d never thought about it until just now, but you’re right, and that surprises me.”

“It surprised you I’m right?”

“No, that it happens at all.”

Maxine snorted again. Clearly, she had a different opinion about the state of the relationships between both couples.

Jenn pulled onto country road seventeen and we made the five-mile drive to the cemetery in silence as Mia pondered her revelation. The sun was slowly fading as we drove further from town, and a sense of excitement had my heart racing.

When we arrived, Jenn pulled behind an old mausoleum and parked. I started to open my door when she turned to the rest of us and sighed dramatically.

“Problems?” Maxine asked.

“I was thinking about what Mia said and if I were truthful, too, the only time I cross Jack is where a story is concerned. And I’ll also admit that when he growls and puts his foot down, it’s kinda hot.”

Mia gasped and turned in her seat. “Are we saying that other than our jobs we, God help us, like it when they boss us around?”

Jenn’s brows pulled together in a frown, then she nodded.

“How did this happen? I’m an educated, liberated woman. I’ll lose my sister card if anyone finds out.”

“A liberated woman who knew full well she was marrying a knuckle-dragging Neanderthal who likes to get his way,” Maxine pointed out. “And if my memory serves, which it usually does by the way, you call him Mad Max in a breathy voice. Face it, you’re not as liberated as you think.”

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it,” she wailed.

“Why? Because society says you’re weak if you depend on a man? Honestly, you young people are so busy battling for equality you’re missin’ out on the big picture.”

“And what’s that?” Jenn asked.

“That being a woman means we’re uniquely different from men. We weren’t created to do the same things; we were created to do what they can’t.”

Maxine looked each of us in the eye, making sure we were listening, then continued. “Women were given the gift of creating life. We’re gentler in nature, softer-skinned than men, so when we cradle our babies to our breasts, they feel the warmth and softness rather than hard lines and hairy chests. We give them comfort, a sense of being loved and cherished from the moment they are born. We were created by God so that life could continue. That makes us infinitely superior to men in every way.”

“Even Max?” Mia grinned.

Maxine didn’t take the bait. Instead, she schooled us further, imparting a bit of wisdom that I think Jenn and Mia already knew deep down.

“Men like Jack, Max, and Shane were created by God to protect, to stand guard over those who can’t defend themselves. To safeguard their families against a sometimes evil world. They’re just like warriors of old; the loyalist of men. Men who are, in my opinion, in short supply. Yet you ladies’ see somethin’ wrong with allowin’ these gentle giants to take care of you, God’s gift to humankind. Honestly, it’s a little disappointin’ you don’t see what’s right in front of your eyes.”

“And what would that be?” Jenn asked, her attention riveted to Maxine.

“Those men are easy to live with if you’ll remember they love you more than life itself and will do anything within their power to keep you safe. Includin’ keepin’ you safe from yourself. Once you realize they aren’t disrespectin’ you or your abilities as equals but protectin’ somethin’ they cherish more than life, the fewer struggles you’ll have.”