Irreparable (Wounded Souls) (21 page)

To my surprise, they sit me by Garrett, i
rony at its finest.  I pat him on his knee and look over at him.  “I’m Jameson.  It’s nice to meet you.”

“Garrett.  I don’t really know if I can say it’s nice to meet you though.”  He looks at me with something in his eyes.  I know what it is, because I expected to see it in Declan, Kate, Roger, and everyone else’s when I ran into them.  It’s blame.  He blames me for
Mary-Beth
dying.  It’s not my fault.  She is the one that walked out on me.  Or maybe he blames me for
her not being with him fully. I have no clue.

“Well, I know what it’s like to lose someone. If you need a friend to talk to, I am always available to grab a beer.” I look at him and smile. Hopefully we can let bygones be bygones. The look he gives me says that’s a negative on that, Ghost R
ider. 
Okkkayyy
then. 

“Yeah, I’ll think about that.”  He looks out the window as we take the hour and a half drive to the cemetery
Mary-Beth
will be laid to rest in beside Leila and Mrs. Helen. 

Two hours later we are in the Mustang heading back to town. I see Sam out of the corner of my eye trying to figure out a way to say something.

“Just spit it out, Sam,” I say and look in her direction and then back to the road. My knuckles go a little tighter and I see the glint from her ring so I relax.

“Why didn’t you sing the other song? The one I heard you rehearsing the other night when you thought I was sleeping?” She looks at me, then looks at the ring I bought that she is spinning around on her finger.

“’Cause, this one fit better,” I say with a roughness to my voice even I don’t expect.

“You were worried about what I would think of that song weren’t you?” Damn woman, she is way more perceptive than I give her credit for. She looks at me and then out the window. “That song, it wouldn’t have bothered me. You may have been the one singing it, but, it was meant for everyone. Everyone wishes they had one more day with her. One more day to hear her laugh, or see her smile. I am sure one wishes they had one more day for her to bitch at them. Hell, it was what she was good at.” She smiles at me.

“This is why I am so madly in love with you,
Samantha Lynn.”  I shake my head and grab her hand and kiss her ring finger.  She just understands things.  I smile and think to myself that I am the luckiest son of a bitch on the planet.  I have the most understanding and loving woman with me. 

“Jameson, I know you love me, and I know at one point you loved her, and that’s okay. She was a huge part of your life. She has made you some of what you are today. I don’t detest her for that.
  If anything
,
I acknowledge her for it.  You are a better man, and
Mary-Beth
had a hand in making you that man.”  As she talks I realize I have fallen in love with her more in that one breath
.
.  She is kind and humble and even after the shit life
threw at her,
she is still so trusting and caring.  I realize that I want to be like Sam.   I want to see the world through eyes like her. 

“I love you Samantha and I will spend my every breath trying to be like you. You inspire me. After everything, you can still
sit here and tell me this.”  She smiles and I kiss her ring finger again.  I smile as we pull into the townhouse and she raises an eyebrow.  Oh yeah, game on.

Two months has passed since the day we buried Mary-Beth
.  Things seem to be going back to normal.  Business at Sam’s place has picked up and she has hired Anna to be the receptionist.  I am sure
Mary-Beth is rolling over in her grave at seeing how her best friend is with her mortal enemy. Or who knows? Maybe Mary-Beth
is happy that Anna has someone these days. 

Blake has moved in with Anna and the wedding plans for Sam and I are going strong. We plan to marry in about a year. I love watching Sam and Anna both get so giddy about the plans. I sure wonder what ole’ Paul is thinking now with all the wedding plans going on.
  Bet his ass isn’t thinking about making her jealous over dating one of the other girls now
, not that he ever did. My Sam didn’t want him; she just went out with him to get her mom off of her back.

I am sitting at the house with Blake and Luke and getting the crawfish ready to boil up. I throw them in the kiddie pool that Maggie used to use when she was a puppy.
I look over to see Maggie laying her head down on the ground.  She’s been this way since
Mary-Beth
left.  I can tell she misses her and I wonder if this is what she did while I was gone.  It’s nice to finally have my pup back with me, but my heart aches that it had to be this way.  She gets up and comes over to me and nuzzles my leg.  I pet her
on the head and then pour more salt over the crawfish.
 

“Dude, did you guys hear about Mason? 
He and Karla took a break.” Luke grabs a beer and tosses it my way. Of course, he would know the scoop.

“Wonder why.” I shrug and move the crawfish around. First crawfish boil of the season and damn I can’t wait. These little things are amazing. If you haven’t had any,
your ass is missing out.  I open my beer and then walk into the house
to
grab the garlic, the celery, and the lemons. 
I’m using a
trick my dad taught me at a young age.  Gives the spices a good flavor and who doesn’t like to eat a pod of garlic
?
  It may even save you from the blood suckers in Bon Temps.  Oh wait, that’s fake. 

“I heard she just wasn’t ready to give it up,” Blake says and we all burst out laughing but stop when we see Mase
rounding the corner.  He looks at us all and I know he heard it.

“No, it’s because I couldn’t do it anymore.  We were great together, but it just wasn’t like I thought it would be.”  He grabs my beer and chugs it.  At first I want to yell
at him, but I don’t, because let’s face it, the guy looks like he needs a damn drink. I walk over and pour some crab boil into the pot and then feel my phone buzz in my pocket.

Text from Anna -
Oh, you’re going to love this dress! It’s absolutely beautiful!

“I hate your girlfriend,” I say at Blake and he laughs.

“I gotta say, Sam looks pretty good in that dress.”  He smirks and I throw a crawfish at him.

“You’ve seen it?” I say as I grit my teeth. I look at him, and if looks could kill I swear he’d be dead. “Maybe, I shouldn’t have saved your ass.” I smile to show him I am just teasing and he just smirks.

“Maybe not, after seeing Sam in that wedding dress, I may need to steal her away.”

“HEY! That’s my sister so
let’s not go there.  Even though J, I do have to say she looks beautiful.” Luke is reclining on the chair and Maggie is in his lap, all thirty-five pounds of golden la
b
sitting in his lap.  It makes me chuckle.

“You all remember this when your women go through it.” I huff out and make my way back to the house. I hate when they do this shit to me. Rib me like this, my primal animalistic side comes out, and I very well can’t just grab Sam and carry her to the room like a damned gorilla when she gets back to the house. I am not an animal; I am a man, but I’ll be damned if I don’t want to make her remember who she belongs to.
  I sure want to prove it to every man out here talking about her in that damned wedding dress.

Two hours later and the girls get here just in time for the first batch of crawfish to come out of the boil. I notice Mom is smiling a bit more than usual as well. It’s nice seeing my mom so happy. She and Roger went to the justice of the peace and got married a few weeks ago. Surprised the hell out of me she didn’t ask me to be there, but she said she wanted an intimate thing with Roger. I just said that’s cool and didn’t let on that it hurt me. She is my momma after all.

We are all sitting around the table with our mouths full of crawfish tails, and a few of us are brave enough to suck the heads of them. I will suck the heads on occasion,
but damn these are spicy today.  Skylar keeps looking at us like we are crazy, and barely touches anything.

“What’s wrong with you, babe?”  Luke asks as she stares at the mud bugs in front of us. 

“How can you even eat that?” She wrinkles her nose in disgust and takes a bite of the potato in front of her. I can’t help but laugh.

“The same way you’re eating that potato that was boiled with them,
” I say and laugh louder as she drops it. 

“EW!!! I just ate something boiled with a bug!” She starts freaking out and I laugh. Damn Yankee.

“Here babe, try this.” Luke grabs a crawfish tail and shoves it into her mouth and she looks like she’s going to throw up.  I laugh and then I see her face change and her eyes light up.  “See, not so bad. Here I’ll show you how to peel it.  Twist the head off like this. Grab the little tail on the end and peel it back like this.”  He shows her a few times and then she is like the rest of us digging into the little bugs. 

“It’s just like a really small lobster,” I say and Sam busts out laughing. I look down and Anna is making faces at Skylar with her fingers beside her head. I laugh and realize that Anna is coming out of her shell now. She isn’t standing in someone else’s shadow;
she is becoming her own spotlight.  I knew Anna was a good person
;
she just didn’t have the right friend.   I feel a pang of guilt and regret over
Mary-Beth, but I know that she was a part of my past for a reason.

“I want to make an announcement.” Roger stands up and looks at us all. I look at him expectantly and wait for him to speak. “Sam and Jameson,
I want you to both know that I am so appreciative of being a part of this family, and I am excited to be a part of what the two of you are becoming. 
Having said
that, Jennifer and I would like to send you off on your honeymoon.  You let us know where you want to go and we will book it within the month.”  I look at him and then at mom like they have lost their minds and Sam is up and hugging them both.  I guess I will have to talk to mom.  Maybe they can pay half, but I had planne
d on taking Sam to Tahiti, to the resort where that movie
Couples Retreat
was filmed.  Who doesn’t want to sleep over the ocean
?
 

“Thank you both,” I say and kiss mom and hug Roger.

“Thank you.” He looks at me with a knowing glance and I know he is thanking me for taking care of his son and also for giving my blessing to marrying my mother. I mean, I’d be stupid to not give my blessing. My mother lights up when he walks into the room. She looks at him the same way I look at Samantha and everyone deserves a love like that. I haven’t seen my mother light up like that since my father died. She deserves happiness too. She may be old but the woman isn’t dead.

We all eat and drink and have a good time and then clean up the mess. I smile as I see Sam, Anna,
and Skylar all three hugging and saying goodbye.  It is great to see all of us settling down.  I know Mason and Karla are on the fritz right now but I know one day he will be happy like the rest of us.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After everyone leaves,
Sam and I decide to watch a movie.   We sit down and put in
American Hustle
with Jennifer Lawrence, Christian Bale, and Bradley Cooper.  I
lie
on the couch and scoot to where she can lay down with me, and I wrap my arms around her.  Again
,
the feeling of not being able to feel her legs on mine gives me a pang of regret in my chest, but I know that it’s not something I did on purpose.  Christian Bale comes on the screen and the first thing I can think is oh shit.  They
made that dude look like shit. That’s what he would look like if he wasn’t famous, if he was just some common man like the rest of us. It’s amazing what Hollywood can do to someone.

Sam is starting to doze off about halfway through the movie, but as she does that’s about the time that Maggie comes and lies
on top of us.  Sam rolls over and falls on her ass onto the floor and I can’t help but laugh. 
She looks up at me with a scowl and then at Maggie like she wants to kill her. Maggie lifts her head and cocks it to the side and then slides her tongue over Sam’s mouth and nose. I can’t help but laugh and so does Sam.