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“What the hell is so funny?” Prosper barked out. That lamp light had ended up being a bitch to put up. Prosper’s shoulder ached from holding the parts at an odd angle, and he was sweating from the damn heat and needed a smoke. Instead of answering him, Maggie broke into a fit of laughter that had her clutching her belly and wiping the tears from her face.
“Look at it!” she sputtered out in between gales of hilarity. “I don’t know what’s funnier, the fact that you installed it upside down or that you still don’t see that you installed it upside down. Mr. Perfect and Precise …”
“I’m looking at the damn thing right now. Not a fucking thing wrong with the way I installed it.” Prosper glowered at her.
“Come here and take a look at it from this angle … how could you … how could you not see it…” She tried unsuccessfully to reel in her hilarity.
“You’ve lost your damn mind, woman!” Prosper turned to walk away from her.
“No, wait!” Maggie hurried down the steps to the driveway. Then she grabbed Prosper’s hand and pulled him back up on the porch. “You have to come here and look … Just look,” she spouted out between spasms of glee. “It’s just that you’re so picky about everything … and now … you have to come look.”
Prosper stomped his way up the porch steps, then stood beside her and looked at the fixture. Maggie pointed at the top of the lantern, then stared at his face and waited for it.
“Holy shit. Itisupside down,” he said incredulously.
The moment Maggie saw that light of understanding cross his face she started laughing all over again. And seeing her laugh like that at him? That should have made the staid, serious Prosper Worthington madder than hell, but instead, it had the opposite effect. Maggie’s laughter was so infectious and genuinely filled with fun-spirited delight that he couldn’t help but chuckle a bit too. Then he laughed a bit more and some more, which was totally out of character for Prosper, who seldom cracked a smile. But now, out in the warm sunlight, looking at the ludicrous lantern and watching Maggie bent over in hysterics, Prosper couldn’t help himself. Soon he was laughing as hard as she was. Every time one of them started to calm down, the other one would point to the lantern and they would start hooting all over again.
And that’s where it happened.
In between the spaces of no holding back, joyous, and raucous belly laughter.
That’s the place where Prosper Worthington fell hard and head over heels in love with Magaskawee Whitefeather.
Prosper wiped the rising steam from the bathroom mirror and took a good, hard look at himself. Long ago he had come to terms with the man he was and with the man he would never be. He lived his life by an established and clear set of standards. The rules he lived by were simple. There were lines he would not cross, promises he would not make, and lies he would not tell. He was a man of clear purpose, little compromise, and honorable intent. But now those carefully honed and sacredly held values were all blown to hell because of Magaskawee Whitefeather.
Prosper stepped away from the mirror, disgusted with his own image. Then he pulled on a new pair of boxers, an old pair of jeans, and the concert tee he’d gotten when Bob Seeger and his boys played Madison Square Garden. A pair of thick cotton socks and his heavy biker boots were pulled on last, then he grabbed his already-packed duffle bag and headed out down the hall.
Dawn was just breaking as Prosper continued to make his way as quietly as he could down the creaking staircase. Every squeak of the bowed floorboards made him wince. The boards were on his repair list. Now that list was in Jack’s hands, and it was up to him if he wanted to fix them or not. His best guess, knowing Jack, was that he would let it go until the wood rotted clear through, but then again maybe not. Jack Winston had been full of surprises lately. That was for sure.
Prosper and Jack had taken the Harleys out on a long ride yesterday, something they hadn’t had a chance to do in too long. It had felt good being together again, just the two of them. Prosper hadn’t realized how much he had missed it: the open road, the cool, fresh wind, the sun warming his back, and the company of a good friend.
A best fucking friend.A friend who deserved better than what he currently had, because right now what Jack had was a guy who lived under his roof and wanted his woman.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife.
That shit was even in the bible. And before Prosper crossed that line in a way, which would not only betray Jack’s trust but Prosper’s own sense of brotherhood and integrity, he knew he needed to get his ass out of the situation, and fast.
“I’m gonna be hittin’ the road first thing in the morning,” Prosper told Jack over burgers and beer. “Thinkin’ you and Maggie might need some time alone before the baby comes.”
Jack took a bite out of his hamburger. “Nah, man. We’re solid. I appreciate the gesture, but you don’t have to do that.”
“Yeah, Jack. I do,” Prosper told him.
“And why’s that?” Jack asked casually between chews.
“If you don’t know the answer to that then you’re not as smart a man as I thought you were.”
At that, Jack put his hamburger down, pushed his plate away, and wiped his hands on a napkin. He waited a long moment before he spoke, “Brother, I’m a hell of a lot smarter than you might think.” Jack leaned forward then; his biceps flexed while his body stiffened with tension. “I’m smart enough to know that no matter how you feel or how youthink you feelabout my pregnant wife, the man you are and the brotherhood we share will stop you from crossing that line.” He paused a moment to wait for those words to settle, then he continued, “We’ve had each other’s back while we sat waiting out our time in that decrepit fucking jail house. Then, the time you and I spent together on the road? Best days of my miserable life. You’ve got to know, brother, that there’s no one I trust to have my back more than you, and I’d like to think you feel the same. It’d be a goddamn shame if you’d let a woman, even one as good as Maggie, change that.” Jack leaned back in the booth, then he crossed his arms and waited.
Both men remained quiet for a few moments, allowing the weight of those words to settle hard between them.
“You’re my brother, man. No other way to look at it and no other way to say it. I consider you my blood, that’s for sure,” Prosper told him.
“Glad to hear it, my man.” Jack nodded, then he added, “Is there abutin there somewhere?”
“You give her what she needs? What that kid she’s carrying needs? I’m one hundred … one thousand percent behind that. But I’m here to tell you, brother, you drop that ball? I can’t promise that I ain’t gonna step right up and step right in,” Prosper replied honestly.
Jack thought about that for a moment, then shrugged in that casual, careful way of his.
