The Wrong Brother

Chapter 23

MONTY

I knew weeks ago that Iris and I were no longer just sleeping together, but making love, but to do it after making those declarations to each other was an out-of-body experience if I’ve ever had one. To say I was in a shit mood after leaving my parent’s place was an understatement. I refused to bring that toxic attitude back to Iris and Nia. They were my sunshine and rainbows, they didn’t need a fucking cloud to bring them down. I don’t even remember the drive home. My apartment felt cold and lonely. I didn’t do anything except stare at the wall waiting for the rage to subside.

Once I didn’t feel anger seeping from my pores, I was overcome with so much sadness. For a long time, I had resolved the idea that the relationship with my parents was done and over. We were too different to see eye-to-eye. They were always going to value and prestige, whereas I was going to care more about a person’s work ethic and heart. While I had come to terms with that, it still broke my heart to hear the words they had to say about the woman I love.

As I drove back across the valley to Iris’s place, I knew the time was now to tell her how I felt. She was an unexpected light in my life. I fell hard and fast and it was time to tell her. It was just an added bonus that her parents had taken Nia for an afternoon of fun. It meant the two of us could spend some time in her bed celebrating our love. The final section of my cold heart was brought to life when she told me that she loved me as well. I’ve never heard sweeter words in my life.

I knew our alone time was coming to an end soon. Either Jade would be home from work or Nia back from her grandparents, but I was going to her in this bed for as long as I could. Iris’s fingers moved lightly across my chest, tracing my tattoos and scars from my years in the military. If it wasn’t for that slight movement, I’d almost wonder if she was asleep. In a turn of events, she was the calm one and my brain was running a million miles a minute.

“Where did these come from?” Iris asked as she traced along the two biggest scars on my lower abdomen.

“Do you want the real story or the one I tell everybody?”

“Both,” she giggled.

I move my fingers on top of hers as she drags across them again, “I got sliced up while climbing over some barbed wire to get into enemy territory.”

Iris glances up at me, “I can’t tell if that is the real story or not.”

“It’s a partial truth. It was barbed wire, but the only enemy territory was some of the guys I was stationed with when my buddy Desmond and I were trying to get payback.”

“But barbed wire?”

“Yeah,” I snort, remembering the night. “They had some comm phones hidden in our room set to go off every hour one night. Just when we found one phone, the next fucking one went off. I didn’t get any sleep that night. Des and I got them back a few weeks later by throwing water balloons into their place. While we were running back to our place, a Staff Sergeant heard the ruckus. We had to hide quickly and the only option was jumping over a fenced area. Didn’t realize it was barbed wire until it was too late.”

“So you got this because you were being an idiot?”

“Yeah, babe. Men never really grow up, ya know?”

“That’s not true,” she says as she laces her fingers in mine. “I think you’re pretty darn grown, Montgomery King.”

“Damn, Iris, I love the way it sounds when you say my name.”

“Does it make you happy?” She asked.

“How could you ever ask that, sweetheart? Everything about you makes me happy. Can’t you tell?”