Epilogue
“Glasses up,” Alec called out to the family and close friends in attendance as he tugged True to a standing position. They were in the best bar in town, the original Haught Spot. “I’d like to make a toast to the newest Haughts Grace and Gavin. I also want to thank the woman I love and chased like I trained in the Olympics to do so, True, for this night.” He saw the questioning looks on the faces he held so dear and chuckled.
“What are you talking about, bro? We are celebrating the twins baptismal and giving the newish mom and dad a night out on the town,” Beau frowned and sipped his drink. “If this is going to be some long ass toast I’d rather drink during it.”
Red had gotten a refill at the bar and was returning to the table. He’d shaved his beard down low and it had been hard not to look at him strangely. There was something about him. The ultra cautious way he spoke and…he just couldn’t put his finger on it. Maybe he’d met him somewhere before because he just looked so familiar. He waited until the man they’d seemed to bring into the fold sat down.
“What did I miss?” Red lifted his drink along with everyone else…beside Beau who seemed to be sipping his beer and not waiting for the toast.
“Nothing, man. You should have stayed a little longer at the bar. When Alec gets all boozed up he has the spirit of a long winded old man.”
“I’d love to hear what the old man has to say.” Red had maneuvered himself into a place of high regard among all of them and Alec considered him a friend.
“I was just thanking True for getting all into your business and fulfilling a dream of mine to see my brothers attached. We didn’t have the happiest beginning but it looks like we are on our way to a happy ending.”
“We can all hope for that,” Camden said.
“To us all. May we keep growing, learning and loving.” Alec took a sip of his dark Guinness and didn’t know when he’d felt so complete. He waited until True was done with her sip of bourbon and had her gaze on him before he leaned in to kiss her. Her full lips flavored with sweet bourbon made Alec want to forgo this celebration with the family and spend some quality time in the horizontal position with True.
“All right…all right. Get a room or something.” Beau clinked on his glass with something as he belted that out. Alec gave True one last peck before he let her go and they both sat down.
True called out. “I’d also like to toast Rosy. We are going to be the best kick ass co-Godmothers ever.” Alec laughed and clinked glasses with both Rosy and True.
“You are genuinely a changed man, Alec. It’s almost amazing.” Gemmi rolled her Shirley Temple around in her hands. She’d been given extra cherries in her non alcoholic beverage because she was nursing two babies…at least that’s why she said she deserved the extra cherries.
“Well, I almost lost someone very special to me. I had to come to terms with the fact that I was going to be heart broken whether I took a chance with True or not. Being that my father died of heart break I had some decisions to make. So however my story ends I’m glad True agreed to be a main character.” Alec couldn’t help looking over at the beautiful woman on his left. Her smile typically made him think of lots of things but in this one he saw his forever.
“Your father didn’t die of a broken heart.”
Alec’s head whipped hard as he turned to look at the man who’d been in their presence since he saved Gemmi from a bad fall at the bar. “What did you say, Red?”
The man cleared his throat and sat up a bit straighter in his chair. “I said that your father didn’t die of a broken heart.”
Alec looked around the room at his brothers and their significant others before returning his gaze to the man who had his head whirling and his heart pounding hard. “What do you know about it? Do you even know my father’s name?” Alec knew he sounded gruff but it was hard not to get up and shake the snot out of this guy. Coming in a place where there were good vibes and happy times bringing doubt and confusion.
“Look I’m sorry I blurted that out. I’m going to just call it an early night.” Red stood up like he was going to leave.
“You don’t get to say shit like that and then tuck your tail and leave. Explain yourself.”
Red sat back down and took a deep breath like what he was going to say took some planning and he hadn’t done the work.
“Your father, Zachary Haught, went to group meetings a few towns away for grief counseling. He’d been going there for a while apparently when he got into an altercation with someone. There was a fight and he got stabbed. He thought he was alright but his lung was punctured and his heart was grazed by the knife, by the time he decided to get checked out it was too late.” Red looked around at the silent guests in the room. “I had no idea that you all didn’t know that.”
The only noise was from the bar area that was muted by the thick wooden doors.
“I guess my question is how do you know that?” True said sounding like a protective mama bear.
“My mother was a witness to what happened. She was in the same meetings as their dad.” Red looked again at the people in the room before his face turned the color of his nick name.
There were so many things he wanted to ask but it was as if the questions were shooting from his mind so fast he couldn’t put the ideas and the words together to make sense. Something was happening…something important but his thoughts weren’t helping him figure it out.
Red stood up like he was going to leave but then stopped by the door and turned around. “All my life I’d heard about you guys. I knew how hard it was for you to lose your mother and when my mother told me about your father I imagined how difficult it had to be to lose him as well.”
The room followed him as he walked slowly around the room like he needed to let out some energy while he said what he had to say. Alec honestly didn’t understand where this was going but he wondered if he should have asked this man more questions when he showed up and infiltrated the friend and family set up they’d all created.
“I was glad that you had each other and I promised my mother that I’d leave you alone, but I just wanted to meet the boys I’d heard so much about. Alec, Beau and Camden. You’ve all been welcoming and inclusive to a stranger and I can’t tell you how much that means to me, but there is something I haven’t shared with you.” Red leaned against the wall and looked like he was carrying a weight around his neck that he wasn’t sure he should take off. “I never should have blurted out what I just did but it’s been difficult keeping all of this to myself.”
Alec and Beau both stood up and walked over to Red, but it was Alec who spoke. “What are you trying to tell us and it better not be any unbelievable bullshit.” It was hard to hear what the man was saying as his heartbeat throbbed in his ears.
“I’m saying that your father had a broken heart when he died but he didn’t die of one.”
“You’ve already said that and I’ll do my research on it, but there’s more to this. I can fucking feel it.” Alec had the man by the arm like he was going to run away if he’d let him go.
“How is it your mother knows so much about us and our father?” Beau asked with more wonder in his voice than anger.
The feel of a hand on Alec’s back calmed him down so that the throbbing in his ears dulled and his anger subsided a bit. He knew it must be True, because that woman just did things to him. Soothed him. The beauty to his beast.
“Red? What’s your real name?” True asked softly.
He looked past the two men who were crowding him to True, took a deep breath and answered. “Draven Haught.”
*****