Page 125 of Last Man Standing

Even Uncle Bas has a beer.

Dying men are allowed to have whatever the fuck they want.

Scarlett freezes up on my left. Her entire body tenses, and for just a single second in time, I know her heart skips a beat. Because so far, dinner has been pleasant enough not to send her spiraling. Besides Mav’s flirting and Koda’s proud declarations of her Super Mario skills, Scarlett has been able to melt into the background of discussion and hide behind a glass of wine.

I lay my arm across the back of her chair and play with soft tendrils of her hair, but over the top of her head, I meet my dad’s eyes and warn him with nothing more than flattened lips.

Don’t even fucking think about it.

“I was just curious.” He maintains his smile for Scarlett’s sake, though I see the soldier in his gaze. The higher rank bristling at a subordinate’s warning. “We don’t have to make it weird. We know you have a brother and both parents. Right?”

Nervous, Scarlett literally fucking trembles under my arm. “Y-yes, sir. One brother and both of my parents. They’re still happily married. Retired and relaxed now.”

“What did your parents do for work?” Bas questions. He’s already less energetic than he was when we sat down. His eyes droop, and his posture ain’t all that impressive for a man I spent my entire life idolizing.

I considered him the strongest, most badass motherfucker on the planet. Even stronger and badder than my own father.

Every adult at this table already knows everything there is to know about Scarlett, her parents, and what they did for a living. But polite conversation is polite conversation, I suppose. And maybe my dad is trying to include the woman who’d rather pretend she’s furniture.

“M-my dad was a high school football coach. State champions for thirteen years running. My mom worked at the hospital.”

“A nurse?” Dad asks.

He knows she wasn’t a nurse.

“Ah… no. She was a cleaner, actually. She worked mostly on the ICU floor.” Finding her spine, she sits just a little taller and dips her chin forward. “It was good, honest work for a woman who never pursued a college education. She was quite young when they had my brother, and six years after that, I came along. She was pregnant a third time, actually.” She looks across to Koda for a beat and smiles. “Two years after I was born. But that pregnancy didn’t make it to term.”

“Oh…” Setting his beer down, my dad’s brows pinch. We didn’t know that tidbit of information. “I’m sorry to hear that. My condolences.”

“Yeah, well…” She settles back and crosses one leg over the other. “It was a very long time ago, and it was a sign, I guess, that allowed my parents to decide they were done. Once I was old enough for school, my mom rejoined the workforce, and now…” She shrugs. “Here we are.”

“Mom lost two of her pregnancies, too,” Mav inserts solemnly, glancing her way and, for the first time tonight, doesn’t tease. “One between me and Sebastion. Then another between me and Koda.”

Bravely, Scarlett peeks toward my misty-eyed mom. Their gazes meet: three seconds. Four. Five. Then Scarlett drops her chin. “I’m sorry to hear that. I can’t imagine how painful it would’ve been.”

“Felt like a sign for us, too.” Fidgety, Mom plays with her cloth napkin. “After Sebastion, before Mav. Losing my baby was devastating, so when I was carrying Mav, I was an emotional wreck, just waiting for the day it would all go wrong again.” Forcing a small smile, she reaches across and takes my dad’s hand. “Paul held me together when I wasn’t sure I’d make it through each day with my sanity intact. Mav baked until he was four days overdue, then he came out spitting and screaming.” Finally, she looks to my brother and smirks, “He hasn’t shut up since.”

“Mother!” He slaps a hand to his chest. “You wound me!”

“Tried again soon after Mav,” Dad continues, curling a lock of Mom’s hair around his finger much the same way I curl a lock of Scarlett’s around mine. “We lost that one early on, even earlier than the other, so we figured we were done. We had two healthy sons and no desire to tempt fate anymore.”

“But…” Scarlett casts a wary glance toward Koda.

“He was an accident.” Guffawing, Mav catches the hands he knew Koda would throw. “Mom! You said we’re not allowed to hit at the table. You used to snap at Bas and me all the time when we fought at dinnertime.”

“Because you and Sebastion were both children at the time.” She reaches across and smacks Mav. “You’re a grown man now, but with the maturity of a five-year-old. Quit it.”

“Does your brother annoy you like my brothers annoy me?” Koda pastes on an angelic smile and pretends he’s not the naughtiest of us all, then he swings his foot to the side and kicks Mav with a resounding thud. “His name is Lincoln, huh?”

“Yeah.” A smile crosses Scarlett’s lips and makes her so much fuckin’ prettier than she already is. “His name is Lincoln. And yeah, he annoys me sometimes. Our six-year age gap is way smaller than the gap you have with your brothers, but he’s always been bigger than me, and he used to say my mouth was too big and noisy for someone my size.” Snickering, she sips her wine and flashes two deep dimples behind the glass. “He was my greatest protector, but the most obstinate person in my life. He didn’t mind tripping me over or rubbing dirt in my face, but if anyone else tried it…”

“Dead meat,” Koda hisses playfully, oblivious to how true his words ring.

Someone did do things to Scarlett, and they are, in fact, dead meat.

Everyone here knows it, except the five-year-old.

“Yes, well…” My mom brushes past the awkward cloud suddenly hanging over our heads and forces her lips into a small smile. “That sounds pretty standard for siblings. My boys beat on each other every single day. They were incorrigible. But the instant someone else stepped forward to mess with them…”