Brothers in Blue A Bryson Family Christmas - Jeanne St. James Page 0,72
other. We’re very lucky.”
“Yes, we are. Now you can stop worrying about Matt.”
“I don’t—”
“Bullshit, woman,” Ron said. “Don’t lie to me. No one knows you better than I do.”
Mary Ann pressed her forehead to his jaw and stroked his chest. “Well, do you blame me for worrying?”
No, he didn’t. He’d spent many sleepless nights worrying about his youngest son. Hell, worrying about them all, but especially Matt.
Ron and his brother had both been pressured into following their father’s footsteps. So, they did.
It might not have been the worst decision: to enlist and then become police officers since it provided both his and Randall’s family a good life.
But he had refused to do the same with his own sons. He’d left it up to them to decide their life’s path and would’ve supported them even if they hadn’t taken the same road. Randall let Jet and Adam decide for themselves, too.
Even so, Ron would have shouldered the guilt if any of his sons hadn’t come home. While Matt did come home eventually, he didn’t come home whole.
So, yes, that particular guilt ate at him. Even years later. As it did Mary Ann, who thought Matt staying away was her fault.
Which was far from the truth.
Age and wisdom, plus a lot of therapy, showed their youngest son differently. And now Matt was creating his own family, just like Max and Marc did.
Ron couldn’t be prouder of his sons. They worked hard and loved even harder. He only hoped the next generation did the same.
“You got everything you’ve always wanted.” He turned his head, pressed a kiss to his wife’s soft cheek and slid his hand down her thigh to her knee, where he let his thumb sweep back and forth over the fabric of her housecoat.
“I got more than I’d ever wanted. I now have daughters. I have grandchildren. I have you. Even though it was nerve-wracking and still is, I couldn’t be any prouder that our boys followed in their father’s footsteps.”
“And my father’s,” he reminded her.
Mary Ann pressed a hand over his heart. The heart that would always beat for her. “It’s in the blood.”
“We’ll see what the boys do when they get older.”
She released a soft sigh. “To be honest, I won’t be upset if they don’t join the military.”
With the way things were in the world, Ron wouldn’t be upset, either.
“They could go to college, instead,” she suggested.
“Our boys did good, honey. They served their country and now serve their community. I’m extremely proud of them.”
“I know you are. But our grandbabies should follow their own dreams. If they want to serve and then wear a badge, that should be up to them. Not us. Not Marc, Matt or Max.”
Ron squeezed his wife’s knee, then ran his palm up the inside of her thigh until he found her heat and cupped it gently. “If they’re happy, I’ll be happy.”
Mary Ann wiggled in his lap. “Feels like someone else is getting happy. I think you’re about to make your wife happy, too.”
“You’re not too tired?” he teased, before brushing his tongue along the outer edge of her ear.
“It’s been a very long day and you know the kids will get us up early again.”
“Then I’ll get up with them and let my wife sleep.”
“Oh... Sounds like you’re in negotiations.”
He arched an eyebrow at her. “Do I need to negotiate?”
She giggled, reminding him of when they first met, when they were barely nineteen and twenty years old and they shamelessly flirted with each other. It took him asking her a half dozen times until she agreed to go to the movies with him.
But then, he always liked a good chase.
Somehow with Mary Ann, he was the one who got caught.
Hook, line and sinker.
And once he was, he didn’t fight to get free. He only held on to the hook even tighter. He couldn’t imagine life without her by his side.
Now here they were, almost forty-six years later and still deeply in love. Not too many couples could say that and mean it.
They were lucky they also got to watch their sons fall into the same forever type of love. He only hoped they were around long enough to see the same happen for their grandchildren.
“I’d carry you upstairs but if I pull my back, I might not be able to take care of my woman’s demanding and insatiable needs.”
“If you carry me upstairs and lose your balance, we might both tumble back down and break a hip.”