The Grunt (18 page)

When they got home the next day, after Courtney left the house to get Cameron, Brett quickly headed to Jacksonville on a mission. Whenever she went to her parents’ house, she normally stayed for a while. And considering they were having dinner, he had a little time. After spending a night alone with her, no kids, no Marine Corps and no barriers, Brett knew that she was the one. He could barely contain himself when they drove home. He wanted to ask her then.
Marry me
, the thought to himself every time that he looked at her. Sure, Old Man Lawless and his son could potentially be a problem, but Brett didn’t see it as a reason to back down anymore. He knew now. There could be nothing to get in the way of him having Courtney for his own.

Impatiently, Joe was waiting for him at the front entrance of the mall with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and a scowl on his face. The sun beat down in his bald head as he paced back and forth. Brett had texted him, then called him earlier, begging him to cancel his plans for the afternoon and meet him for something very important. Being the good friend he was, Joe obliged and skipped out on Judy and kids at the water park.

Brett pulled up to the front of the mall and jumped out of his truck with his shades on and his baseball cap down and ran over to him. “Thanks for coming,” he said with a huff.

“You’re really going through with this?” Joe asked. He knew what the important business was that Brett had without even asking.

“Yep, I’m ready” Brett said in a low baritone.

“You’re glowing,” Joe nodded.

“I am?” Brett smiled. “Well, I should be. I just realized that my future wife has been living with me for the last few months. I woke up this morning with a new outlook on life man. I can’t explain it, but I feel…amazing.”

“It was that good, huh.” Joe smirked. “I’m just fucking with, dude. That’s good. You deserve it.”

“I was hoping you could help me pick out something that is…you know…classy. I’ve seen the stuff that you buy Judy. It’s nice. And I want Cort to really like her ring, considering that she’ll have it on for the rest of her life…
if she says yes
.”

“Oh Brett, I’m honored,” Joe said in a high, mocking soprano. He batted his eyes at his friend and stuck out his butt.

“Can you help me or not, man?” Brett asked nervously. “I’m desperate here. My life is in your hands.”

“Yeah. I’ll help your love-struck ass,” Joe said, flicking his cigarette. “Stop being so melodramatic though. It doesn’t fit you.”

Brett’s shoulder’s slumped. This business with Courtney had made him a bit soft.

“
But
being in love
does
fit you,” Joe said, hitting Brett on the back. “Come on. We’ll pick out something that will take her breath away and put you in the poor house.”

***

The entire family was at the house when Courtney arrived. A little hung over from the drinking extravaganza the night before, she slipped her shades on as she pulled behind David’s BMW and parked. While the date last night had been the best of her life, she knew what was waiting for her on the other side of the front doors. The truth. She’d finally have to answer some questions about Brett Black to her father, and she was done hiding their relationship. Plus, she had never been a liar. She would rather people disapprove of the truth than live her life for her lies. It just seemed so wrong and unfair for everyone involved.

At first, she had shied away from the idea. After all, their relationship could have ended uneventfully and been just one more testament to her bad choices in men. But since she had fallen more in love with Brett, even though they had called off their half-ass engagement, she felt it was time to face her father and admit her feelings. Besides, she wasn’t a child anymore. And she didn’t owe her father anything. Still, there was a mounting hesitation.

While she had never made her father happy, she always wanted to. And every time that she let him down, it hurt her deep in her heart. Whether it was about her not finishing school at Yale, moving in with a surfer, being robbed of all her money or changing her major
excessively
, she had never gone a year in her adult life without thoroughly disgusting him.

Without asking, she knew that he would be in complete disapproval about Brett. Her father had always hoped that she would graduate from college, get a good job and become an officer’s wife. However, every man that he’d ever brought home for her to meet was impeccably flawed. Often boisterous, snobby and elitist, she had found out in the first private conversation with every suitor that her ideas about life did not sync with theirs. In fact, she had even gotten into a debate that led her to hang up on Captain America, the name she had given the guy that her father had brought to Thanksgiving dinner last year.

Now, she was about to walk into her family’s house and tell her father that she had found someone. Only, Brett wasn’t wealthy. On top of that, not graduating from an Ivy League school, he had absolutely no college education, and
he probably never would
. He was a widower and a father to a child that wasn’t biologically his. He was raised on a farm by a poor family and he was die-hard, enlisted Marine. But he treated her like gold and made her feel important, which was more than any of the men that she had ever been with before had done.

“You can do this, Courtney,” she said to herself as she stepped out of her truck. The sun shone down on her, giving her strength as she made her way up the stairs to the house. Turning the knob, she felt butterflies erupt in her stomach and nearly pick her up and lift her inside.

“Hello,” she said as she heard Cameron giggle.

“In here,” her mother called out.

Taking off her shades, Courtney slowly walked through the house into the sunroom where her mother was sitting with Cameron watching television and cutting coupons.

Mrs. Lawless looked up with a warm smile and put down her paper. “How was your date?” she asked as she motioned with her eyes that her father was in the far corner of the room in his chair.

“It was great,” Courtney said, stepping down the steps in the room. Cameron jumped up from his seated position on the floor and ran to her to give her a big hug.

“Where’s Daddy?” he asked as she pulled him up in his arms.

“At home,” Courtney answered, kissing his cheek. “Did you have fun with Grandma Lawless?”

“She said to just call her grandma,” Cameron corrected in a whisper.

“Just
grandma
it is,” Courtney said, setting him down. “Boy, you’re getting heavy. In just a minute, you’ll be picking me up.” Turning around finally, she looked over at her father who sat in his favorite chair reading a book. “Hey, daddy.”

“Hello, Courtney.” He put his book in his lap and pulled at his glasses. With his legs crossed and wearing a pair perfectly starched khakis and a polo, he looked even more formidable than in his uniform. He always had. “I want to talk to you,” he said, looking at Cameron. “Alone.”

Courtney knew what that meant. She gave her mother a nod and then followed him out of the room to the kitchen, where she sat down at the table with David, who was using his laptop.

“What’s up,” David said, stuffing a sandwich in his mouth.

“Hey,” Courtney said, grabbing a cookie from the plate in the middle of the table.

“I’ve noticed that you’ve acquired an entire family since you started working for this Marine,” Colonel Lawless said, without beating around the bush. He ran a glass of water in the sink and looked out the window at his backyard.

“Well, I’m not just working for him anymore, Daddy. We’re seeing each other.” Courtney’s voice was calmer than it was when she usually spoke to him. Looking across at her brother, she pulled the cookie from her mouth. “He needs to talk to me alone, David. Take a hike.”

“He can stay. His input will be relevant,” Colonel Lawless said, turning around. He looked at his daughter with concern. All he had ever wanted for her was the best. Now this? How could he manage to continue covering up her antics?

“What could David possibly add to this conversation?” Courtney asked with a snarl. “All he wants to do is meddle.”

“He’s his commanding officer,” the Colonel answered. “But I’m sure that you already know that.”

“Yes, I know it.” Courtney sighed. “But why does that matter?”

“Do you think that you’re in love? Is that it?” the Colonel asked. He walked over and sat at the head of the table across from both of his children like he had done their entire life.

“I
am
in love,” Courtney confirmed. Her eyes were bright with conviction.

“Courtney, he only needs a babysitter. Once he comes back from deployment, he’s going to get rid of you,” David said in a matter-of-fact tone. “Plus, he could only be doing this to stick it to Dad.”

“He didn’t even know that I was the daughter of his colonel until after I took the job,” Courtney defended. “And after he found out, he wanted to let me go. He didn’t want any trouble.”

“But he didn’t let you go, did he?” the Colonel asked.

“No. I insisted. Plus, he needed me,” Courtney answered honestly.

“So you’ll admit that this relationship is about convenience,” the colonel said flatly.

“It started out as one. We both needed something from each other,” Courtney said with her nostrils flaring. “But we fell in love.”

“Don’t be so naïve,” the colonel said, reaching his hand out to touch his daughter. He looked down at her little hand and felt a swell in his heart. She was so beautiful, so precious. All he wanted to do was protect her. “I
love
you. Your brother and mother
love
you. This boy is seeing you because he needs someone to watch his son. He can’t deploy if he doesn’t. I’ve read his file. He’s going up in the Corps. Having this child now will only slow him down. This is about his career, Courtney. He is using you.”

Tears ran down her face. Why couldn’t he see what she saw? “No, it’s not about his career anymore. He loves me, Daddy. I know it.” Her voice cracked.

“Then why hasn’t he come over here yet? I’ve seen Cameron more than I’ve ever seen him. Why hasn’t he come here to introduce himself, to let me know that he loves you? Instead, he keeps you over there like a kept woman. Why would he do that if he wasn’t using you?”

Courtney couldn’t answer that. She wiped the tears and looked over at her brother, who was moved by her tears but unmoved by the very idea of Brett Black. “I don’t know. I’m sure he was afraid of how it would look…just like me.”

“You make sacrifices for love. You stick your neck out for the woman that you love. You don’t hide behind her skirt,” the colonel explained. Reaching for a napkin, he passed it to her. His voice was softer now that he realized that he was getting through to her. Moving a strand of hair from her face, he touched her chin. “I’ve decided that you can stay here until you finish school, and I’ll even pay your tuition,
if
you let this boy and his son go. Cameron is a good boy. I can see why you fell for them, but I have to think of you now. You’re my child.”

Courtney was flabbergasted. Her eyes were wild with pain. “No,” she said, shaking her head. “No, I love him. And I’m not leaving them.”

“Courtney, take this. It’s a good offer,” David pleaded. “Plus, we deploy in December. Are you going to stop your entire life to raise his kid while he’s gone?”

“Yes,” Courtney answered. “I love Cameron, and he needs me. Brett needs me. How many times do I have to say it?”

“What about you?” the colonel asked. “What do you need? I never saw you as the barefoot and pregnant type. That is about all he can offer you. And he probably plans to do so without marrying you. He’s going to ruin your life.”

“It’s not like that. We connect on a different level. He makes me happy. He makes me feel important.”

The Colonel cringed. “A man shouldn’t make you feel important. You should do that on your own.”

Pushing away from the table, she stood up and walked over to the counter. Turning away from them, she clasped her shaking hands together. “All I’ve ever wanted in this world was to make you happy, Daddy. I wanted to live up to the standards that you set out for us. And it was painful when David could always rise to the occasion, and you could always count on me not to.” She wiped her face again. “I’m sorry, Daddy. I really am. For all the times that I let you down, I am so very sorry. But I love Brett.” She turned around to face him. “And I’m not giving him up.”

“That’s quite enough, Jeffery,” Mrs. Lawless said, stepping quietly into the kitchen. Looking over at her husband, she gave a deathly admonishing look that made him sit up straight in his chair. “And David, who are you to talk about relationships? You’ve put the Marine Corps first since before your little testicles dropped. I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t get a wife until your father issued you one.”

David’s eyes narrowed on his sister, who cracked a smile even in her tears.

“There is someone here to see you,” Mrs. Lawless said, walking up to her daughter. “He’s in living room.”

Courtney’s eyes grew bright with confusion. “Brett?”

Mrs. Lawless shook her head. “Yes. He called me on my cell and asked for
directions
to our house.” She looked over at her husband. “I expect you gentlemen to give them the privacy that they need to talk.”

“Yes, ma’am,” David answered as he looked over at his father.

The colonel, however, did not speak a word.

***

Sitting alone in the living room on the end of the couch, Brett waited for Courtney. Never in his life had he been so uncomfortable, so nervous. His commanding officer and battalion commander were in the next room, probably tearing his girlfriend a new one, and here he was in the living room, unannounced and unwelcomed. Still, he knew what he was doing was right. And there was an urgency in him that wouldn’t let him wait a second longer.