The sun was still a good distance above scrubby old Mossback when we drove into Marty's yard, piled out and headed for the kitchen and the liquor. I grabbed Marty and brought him up short as the ladies disappeared through the front door.
"Hey, man," I said looking him in the eye and deciding to just lay it out. "I'm ashamed to admit that Shauna and I . . . well, we had sex one night. Kerri knows and . . ."
"What?" Marty looked at me with a puzzled frown.
"I said Shauna and I made love once a long time ago. You're kinda owed a night with my wife."
"Oh, yeah," Marty said, coughing just a little. "Shauna told me about that. She's somethin' else, ain't she? Sexiest woman either of us ever could hope to have, eh? 'Cept for Kerri, of course."
That got my attention. "So she told you about our one, and I do mean one time together?"
"Yep," Marty said with remarkable calm. "She told me, oh, 'bout a year afterward. Can't say that I was real pleased, 'specially after she mentioned that she'd understand if I went out and bedded another woman my own self. Course, she was thinkin' of Kerri."
I looked away, dreaded what he'd say next.
"But, first of all, I never have and I sure as hell never will cat around on Shauna. And second, I respect both Kerri and you . . . and Shauna . . . too much to consider, like, a pay-back."
I started to say that I didn't deserve his respect, but he went on.
"The hell of it is, I b'lieve I loved Shauna even more after she told me about you two together. She swore up and down she'd never done it before, wouldn't ever do it again. But she said she had to have you just once, and that she believed both you and her deserved it. And, I'll tell you, Jimbo, the way she put it, and the way I see her lookin' at you every now and then, I had to agree."
Marty grinned as I stood in astonished silence. "C'mon, man," Marty said then. "There's likker to be drunk."
I followed my old, ex-rat buddy into the house, wondering how I deserved such a man as my friend, such a woman as my wife. I felt another gut-busting wrench of guilt for what Shauna and I had done so long ago.
And now she was making noises about moving in with us someday.
I wondered how much understanding Kerri truly possessed. I also realized, in my admittedly self-centered way, that I ought to be proud that two downright sexy grandmas found me bed-worthy. But I was determined that I'd never again risk losing Kerri.
Nevertheless, I also began to wonder how much longer I'd be able to get it up.
A few drinks and some leftover steak later, we all sat on the front porch in a for-sure September chill waiting for the Demarest daughters and their respective families to show up, discussing Marty's treatment options, trying to figure out how we'd break the news to Diane and Meagan. Actually, Shauna and Kerri were discussing treatments and details, while Marty and I were reminiscing about the day we'd met the two beauties.
Together we recalled the firefight in which we'd found ourselves embroiled. How we'd manned the twenty-millimeter cannons while Kerri conned the boat, nearly running us aground in her initial panic.
I recalled that when my gun was unable to traverse further aft, I'd hopped from the turret and headed toward the stern, thinking that at least I could get a few rounds off from the stern fifties.
We each admirably remembered how Shauna; courageous, resourceful Shauna, had, despite bullets and RPG's flailing the air around her, located the reserve .50-caliber ammo, loaded up the port stinger and added another weapon to the fight.
I recapped with Marty, my stunned appreciation of his future wife, nude and glistening with sweat, blasting away at the receding shoreline. When her weapon had run out of ammunition, she'd crumpled to the hot deck, shell casings hissing and smoking around her, and burst into hoarse sobs. What she'd done that day had gone against her entire nature.
I told Marty that I was about to go to her, to praise her, to comfort her, to do. . . something, when he'd appeared at her side to enfold her so fiercely that I knew he'd been scared witless that he might lose her.