Chapter 8
“Fancy meeting you here,” Gemmi came around the corner and wrapped her arm around his.
“I guess it would seem odd to see me coming out of my apartment that is on the top floor of The Haught Spot.” Alec smiled down at Gemmi. He could tell that she was nervous around him like most people were before they knew him…sometimes even after they knew him. “Is there a reason you’re looking for me?”
“Actually, there is a reason I wanted to talk to you.” She turned to face him and he looked down at her and her huge belly.
“Should we sit down?” He steered them both back to his apartment.
“No,” Gemmi whispered. “I don’t have a lot of time. Camden is waiting for me downstairs and I want you to talk to him.”
“What’s the problem?”
“I’m being held prisoner.” She smiled when she said it, but Alec was still a bit worried.
“Explain.” His voice got terse when he was upset and he could see he was scaring her.
“I was joking about being held prisoner…well, kind of. I’ll be on modified bed rest so I’m supposed to take it easy, but I don’t have to be in bed. He follows me around constantly and don’t think I haven’t figured out that he has you guys watching me too.” She looked miserable and he didn’t know if that’s just how you look when it appears you’re about to topple over or if this was normal. He hadn’t been around any pregnant women so he was at a loss.
“Gemmi, Camden never met our mother because she died giving birth to him. For a good long while it appeared that he didn’t think he deserved to be happy with a wife because he’d taken one from our father. I know he planned to get prepared to have a baby, but I don’t think he ever would have been.” Alec took a deep breath and looked into the face of the woman his brother loved so much. “I’m trying to understand it from your perspective and I can’t imagine what it must feel like to be as heavily guarded as you feel you are.”
The smile she gave him was huge and he felt good that he was able to give her something to smile about.
“What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to tell him that I’m going to be okay and he doesn’t have to watch over me so closely.” She latched on to his arm and moved toward the steps but he guided her to the freight elevator.
The elevator came fairly quickly and they both stepped on. “Here’s the thing. I don’t know if you’re going to be okay. I wouldn’t feel comfortable telling him that. I hope you and my nieces or nephews are good, but I can’t promise they will be.”
“Okay then can you tell him that if he doesn’t lay off then I may need to move home for a while?” The look on her face was about a woman on the brink of a breakdown. That isn’t what anyone wanted.
“I’ll talk to him.”
Gemmi sighed deeply and her belly stuck out even more. “Thank you.
*****
“Hey there, Brother.” Camden was looking at something on his phone while sitting at the bar.
“Hey, yourself. What are you up too?”
“Just waiting for the babies. We’ve got about 12 weeks left. Can you believe it?” Camden had a smile on his face but it was brittle.
“How do you really feel, Cam?” Alec pulled his chair out so he could sit next to his brother on the stool.
Camden put down his phone and turned to his brother. “Why do you ask?”
“Well, I know you and you’re wound up pretty tight, but your wife accosting me in the hallway to say she is feeling a bit like a prisoner is what put it in perspective.”
Cam put his head down on the bar and spoke so Alec had to strain to hear him. In the end it didn’t work.
“Put your head up, Buddy, I can’t hear a word you’re saying.”
Camden picked up his heads. “There was a time when I knew what I was doing. I helped women. They came to me with issues…I helped them…they left. That was how it went and I was okay with it. I wasn’t ever supposed to have a family of my own.”
“Sometimes the way your life goes isn’t the way you thought it would go. There are times you promise yourself something wouldn’t happen to you, but just because you made a dumb promise the Universe turns it around on you and that’s what you get.” Alec didn’t think he’d ever seen Camden so down. “But you got something great. You and Gemmi are like magic together and you’ve got Haught Twins right out the gate.”
“It’s a good thing because I don’t want to have any more.” Camden grabbed hold of his stomach. “This time is killing me, I can’t imagine doing this again. I’m going to get a vasectomy.”
“Whoa there…does your wife know this?”
“If everything goes well with this pregnancy and she has two babies, she said she’ll be happy with that.” Camden looked like he was going to put his head down again. “You just don’t know how it feels to feel like life just gave you something so it can snatch it away. I pray that my wife makes through this pregnancy. I love her so much. Since I was young and found out I was the cause of death to our mother, I’ve always wondered if that same karma would happen to me if I had a child.”
Seeing his brother hurting so bad broke his heart. He wasn’t sure if it was because the man’s despair was palpable or because he felt the same damn way. Sharing wasn’t Alec’s strong point, but he almost felt compelled to tell Camden why he was so miserable. If he thought about it too hard it wasn’t going to happen. He was just going to have to cut open a vein quickly and bleed so his brother didn’t feel like he was alone.
“Zachary Haught was the best man I’d ever known. He was a great father with a big heart, kind smile and full hugs. I wanted to grow up and be like him.” Alec had limited the time he’d thought about his father and now he remembered why. It hurt like hell when they lost him. Maybe because Alec hadn’t gotten used to his beautiful mother who could kiss boo boos and make cookies like no other being gone. It stands to reckon that the day he found out he had a new brother, but no mother he jumped on his bike and took off. The tears in his eyes weren’t the most helpful with navigation and he crashed into a ditch filled with old, rusty car parts. That shit nearly tore his face off and left him with the scars he still bore today.
Camden picked up his head and turned in his seat to look at Alec. This wasn’t something he was going to repeat again, so he was glad his brother was paying attention.
“That man loved his wife. It was a palpable feeling that I’ll always remember. He’d walk through the door and look for her until he found her. It didn’t matter that we kids were jumping up and down like a rock star had entered the house. He’d pat our heads until he found what he’d been looking for. Then he’d hug and kiss her like he’d been gone for weeks. After that he played with us and gave us his attention.” Alec pointed at the full bottle of water Camden had sitting next to him and motioned for it, but when he got it in his hands he waited to open it. “The feeling of losing Mom hurts so much, even to this day. I’m a lot of things when it comes to you and mom, but mostly I’m sad you didn’t get to meet her. She was fun, smart, and so full of everything good. I missed her so damn much…until I lost dad.”
Camden sat there so quiet and attentive Alec wondered if the man had been starved for this type of information. He was an ass to have kept it from him, but this walk down memory lane was painful as all hell, but he loved his brother more than he loved his own comfort. His father and grandfather had shown him that taking care of the ones you love is what a good life is about.
“Then what happened?” Camden’s voice was like gravel…harsh and choppy.
“I promised myself that I’d be here for you guys and I wouldn’t love a woman as hard as dad loved mom. It may sound off or strange but I still live my life with that promise in mind.” Alec opened the bottle and drank down the water like he was washing the taste of the story out of his mouth.
Camden was looking at him oddly and as much as Alec didn’t really want to know what he was thinking, he asked anyway.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I’ve had more conversations about mom and dad with Beau than I’ve had with you. We never knew what your deal was.”
Alec didn’t say more, but he was mildly shocked that they’d spoken about this with each other and not him. “You could have just asked.”
“Haha…do you know yourself? You don’t give a lot of answers that you don’t want to give. You’ll stare, answer with grunts that aren’t definitive or just shake your head and walk away.” Camden smiled. “When we really want something we’ll get True involved. She’s the only one who knows how to get answers out of you.”
Alec shook his head. “The reason I told you that story is because we all have residual hang ups about our parents and their early demise but you shouldn’t let them ruin your now. You are smothering Gemmi.”
“I know.”
“If you really want to do something about feeling like you’re going to lose her, make each and every moment great. If this is going to be her one and only pregnancy, then don’t let her remember a prison sentence…make her remember what a wonderful and thoughtful husband she has. I’ve watched you with all the women you helped before Gemmi and I’ve always been impressed at how you seem to know exactly what each woman wants. Do that and more for Gemmi. Give her your best you. That’s all we can really do since we have no control over anything else.” Alec felt good about that advice and hoped he’d staved off any chance of this couple going down any other road but the one towards a happy family. He was through with this conversation for a good while. Just looking at the place he’d unloaded all this information was turning his stomach. “We good here?”
Camden nodded his head and looked at the counter. “Yeah, we’re good.”
Alec stood up and prepared to see how Rosy was coming along with the gender reveal decorations.
“Wait!” Camden reached out and grabbed his shirt.
“What?” Alec really just wanted to take a shower and start this whole day again, but that was not going to happen. He looked down at his brother’s face and knew he wasn’t going to like whatever he had to say. Alec wasn’t sure how he knew that, but he did.
“What about you?”
“I just keep moving. That’s all I can do. I still think about mom and dad, but I’m doing okay.” Alec took a step away, but Camden was still holding on to his shirt. “Anything else?”
“That promise you made…the one you still live by.” Camden stood up, let his brother’s shirt go and walked in front of him.
“Yeah?”
“You should follow your own advice.”
Alec knew he wasn’t going to like the shit his brother was saying but he couldn’t say anything about it without sounding like a hypocrite.
“Back to the stare down, huh? I get it. Honestly, I do. What you told me was good and honest, but I think we should both follow it.”
“I’ll keep it in mind.”
“You’ve been a father figure to me for as long as I can remember, but listening to you now I can see that you’re as fucked up as Beau and I are. I’m going to try to do what you suggested, but I want you to do it too. We’ll be in it together.”
“I don’t have anything to work on really.” Alec’s stomach clenched at the lie that came out of his mouth.
“I’m not going to dispute what your saying, although I don’t believe it. We’ve all watched and we all know what we’re seeing. Two sharks circling each other. It’s been like that for years, but now I know why.” Camden walked backwards while keeping his eye on Alec. “You can stop the circling anytime and get some of the happy for yourself.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Camden smiled. “While you were doing your best imitation of a father figure for us, trying to keep this place financially stable and growing, we have been doing nothing but watching you. We see more than you like to let on. I know exactly what I’m talking about and so do you.”
They stared at each other for a few seconds and Alec wished someone would distract them and break up this line of questioning. That was his wish until the door opened.
“Can someone help me?”
Alec knew that voice like it was his own. It was the one he heard when he wrapped his hand around his hard cock and stroked himself off before sleep and the one that he sought during all his waking hours in one way or another.
“True,” Camden said, grinning at Alec. “We were just talking about you.”