Page 82 of Ghosted By Texas

“Vic, I know you want to believe the best in her because you took her under your wing after her mom died, but it’s no one’s fault she’s leaving town. She made that choice on her own, just like she chose to start all the drama she did.” Houston sat back down and tucked his wife up in his arm. Her eyes were on me though.

“Sorry,” she mouthed to me.

I shrugged my shoulders back. What could we do? I’d entered into this family with a bunch of drama, and it didn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. Truthfully, I’d take the drama over the whole lot of nothing I experience with my own family.

“You all act like Austin’s girlfriend-”

“Wife,” Austin corrected quickly.

“Whatever, you act like she’s not the real reason.”

“That’s because she’s not, Vic,” Houston cut in again. “I don’t know why you felt compelled to come throw this fit tonight, but it’s not cool. Get your facts and priorities straight before running your damn mouth. One day, you’re going to realize life isn’t as simple as you try to make it out to be,” her younger brother lectured.

“Oh, she knows, since she’s dating a married man,” Katy tattled on her big sister.

“What the fuck?” Dallas snarled as he turned toward her. “Tell me you’re not!”

Every bit of color that had been there before, drained from Victoria’s face, before she turned and fled. Dallas charged off out of the house after his sister while the rest of us sat there in stunned silence for a full minute before Jacob growled at Katy.

“Explain!”

“Vic’s been seeing Devin behind Dallas’s back for years, even before he married his long-time girlfriend. Honestly, I think he only kept the girlfriend around to keep Dallas off their backs because he caught them once and forbid them from being together again because his friend was such a player. He only forbade them to protect Vic. The thing is, Dallas wasn’t wrong to do it, because Devin wasn’t exactly using Justice as a typical beard, since they were having sex, too.”

Katy took a quick breath and then jumped back into her synopsis of what had been going on with her big sister.

“Justice ended up pregnant, so Devin married her, but I don’t think he ever stopped seeing Vic. His wife lost the baby a few days after the wedding. So, Victoria thought she still had a chance to be with Devin, who she’s been in love with for years, only I think Devin actually fell in love with his wife after everything they just went through together.”

“Where in the hell did we go wrong with these kids?” Mr. Mercer asked his wife.

“Maybe family dinner isn’t such a good idea this week,” Shirley mumbled. “I’ll pack food up for all of you to take home.”

She left to go to the kitchen and Houston and Austin got up, as if to go ahead and leave. That was when angry Jacob came out. “Don’t piss me off by making your mother more upset than she already is,” he warned his boys. “You will stay long enough to accept the food she packs for you. Then, you can go and talk about the latest Mercer family drama in private. Until then, keep quiet.” He got up and headed for the kitchen to go help his wife, all the while he muttered to himself something about how he should have raised dogs instead of kids because they were easier.

Three Weeks Later

“I still think you look like the best kind of trouble,” Austin whispered in my ear as he came up behind me at the party. He reached around my shoulder and held his palm upright with a beautifully wrapped gift box sitting in it.

I glanced back over my shoulder and smiled at him as I took the gift and began unwrapping it while it rested on my ginormous belly. When I got it opened, there was a charm bracelet inside.

“It tells our story,” Austin explained. He pointed to the charm on the far left near the catch. It was a tiny little die in a bubble. “This is because you were trouble from the start.”

I giggled. “Where on Earth did you find that?”

“Special request from a jeweler,” he admitted. “This one, was for the second chance that I blew.” It was a miniature replica of a popcorn container. "The bow and arrow is actually two-fold. It represents the end of my second chance and the beginning of the third.”

That was a no-brainer, since both happened on Valentine’s Day. The next charm nearly made me cry because it was a sunflower, and I knew exactly what day that represented.

“The best date ever,” he said. Then he pointed to the next charm. It was a ghost. “My worst mistake came next.” He skimmed past that one and tapped the next. It was a baby bottle. “Happiest day of my life, knowing that I’d have a chance to have a family with you, even if it wasn’t how I always pictured it.” Yup, the tears that threatened a moment ago started making wet tracks down my face. He pointed to the last charm on the bracelet. The one that wasn’t a charm at all. It was my wedding ring.

“I think you know what this one was. One day, we’ll move it to your finger.” He lifted the charm bracelet and moved around in front of me to hold my wrist up between us. Austin worked the clasp so that it locked around my wrist and dangled there with the weight of our relationship between us.

“I don’t want to forget a thing because I never want us to become lax and forget that we’re always worth fighting for.”

“Why are you trying to turn me into a blubbering sap at a Halloween party, Austin?”

He leaned in and kissed my nose while sneakily wiping away my tears. “I’m not. I just wanted you to know how much I love you on your birthday.”

Dammit. My husband was too sweet for his own good these days. “I love you, too. Thank you.” I traced the black letters on his white t-shirt that said, “This is my costume.” He kept it simple yet again. That’s okay because I did too. I wore a simple white dress and pinned a nametag on my chest that said: Virgin Bride. I thought it went well with my huge, pregnant belly.

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