Oregon Coast Ch. 05

"So why did they name the baby Eric? No one seemed to want to explain it but it sounded like it meant something."

"Eric Jones was Al Miyahara's cousin and my best friend in Afghanistan. They named the baby after him."

"Will I get to meet him sometime?"

"If we're ever in D.C. I'll show you his grave at Arlington."

"Oh. Sorry."

"Don't be. Doc was broken up about it for a long time. He ran sixty yards through a kill zone like a duck in a shooting gallery to reach Eric after he got hit, and dragged him all the way back. It's a thousand to one miracle that Doc lived. Eric was just too badly injured to survive. It wasn't until he met Al and fell in love with her that Doc faced up to the fact that it wasn't his fault. I think people are still nervous about saying much about the whole thing around him."

"That's why you guys respect him so much?"

"That was just one incident. Doc did things like that all the time."

"My God. I've known him for a couple of years now and never suspected."

"Whatever you do, never call him a hero to his face. He'll never admit that he did anything more than his job."

"What were you doing while that was going on?"

"Manning a grenade launcher mounted on a Humvee. There was a traffic jam and we didn't get there until after the artillery had broken up the ambush. All I did was help mop up."

She thought about that for a while.

"Hey, Manny?"

"What, sweetheart?"

"Can we agree that from now on we'll tell each other when we're letting our pride get the better of us? I'd like that a lot better than fighting and being apart."

"Honey, this is one hell of a lot better than being hurt and angry."

"It sure is. Hey, what are you poking me with?"

"You want three guesses?"

"No need."

She lifted her leg and guided me inside her without shifting any further.

"Oh, this is nice. Keep doing that..."

Somehow the slow, gentle lovemaking made the final mutual orgasm even more intense.

"I could get used to having you here."

"You might as well, because I plan to be here a lot. Let's get some sleep."

She firmly moved my hand from her upper arm to her left breast and dozed off.

Once we worked that problem out, the relationship just seemed to flow. We had fun together, supported and respected each other, and the sex was great.

Later that year two of her brothers came out to visit and, she hoped, look at moving to Oregon permanently. She invited them to my house for a barbecue the first weekend they were there, since there wasn't room at her place. Emily was glowing with happiness at being around her family again. They seemed like decent enough guys, if a little inarticulate. After dinner Emily carried the dishes into the kitchen, and I moved to follow her in from the deck. Patrick stepped in front of the door. He was the smaller of the two but still towered over me.

"Hold up, lad, we'd like a word with you."

"What's up?"

"We see what's going on with you and our sister, and we're not entirely happy about it."

"If it's me you've got a problem with, I can't do a lot about that. I'll fight every Mick in Boston for her, but I'd rather not put her in the middle."

"It's not you, lad. We've checked a bit and you seem a decent man, and we haven't seen her so happy in years. It's her sleeping in your bed more than her own that's the problem. When are you going to make an honest woman of her?"

They both looked more than serious. My mind was racing as I thought the issue through. Sure, I saw us headed that way, but I wasn't ready to have it shoved in my face like this.

Seamus, the other brother, scowled at me.

"Theah's only one correct ansah to that question, lad. What do ye need to think about?"

"I'm hopelessly in love with Emily, and I like the idea of marrying her. I don't want her thinking that I'm doing it because you guys are making me, though. Hell, you know her better than I do. She'll refuse to do it just to make a point. Step back a little and I swear I'll marry her if she'll have me."

Actually saying that out loud suddenly made the whole situation make a lot more sense. Patrick smiled and slapped me on the shoulder, almost knocking me over the railing.

"Good lad. We'll not tolerate anyone treating our sister like a plaything, but you strike us as an honest man. We'll be watching you, though."

Emily popped back out the door.

"Damn it, Patrick, I'm way past high school. Ah you trying to intimidate my boyfriend still? I'll end up in a convent if you lads have yoah way!"

It was funny how she fell back into Irish speech patterns and didn't pronounce Rs when she spoke to her family. Seamus wrapped a huge, friendly arm around my shoulders.

"I don't think this lad scaeahs that easy, Emmy. Something tells me yoah not going to end up alone, eithah. Is theah any moah Guinness in theah?"

"God forbid I run out with you lot around, although you shoah do your best! Ah, go on with you and watch the damn Celtics game."

She kissed both of them on the cheek, kissed me lightly, shooed all of us into the living room, and brought a round of beer. The love in her brother's eyes as they watched her walk back to the kitchen lit up the whole room.

"She's a girl in a million, Manny. I hope you know how lucky you are."

"She sure is, Patrick, and I do know it."

When the Celtics finally won the game, her brothers said goodnight and trooped out, shaking my hand and kissing her on the way. As soon as the door closed behind them she turned and jumped into my arms, kissing me hungrily.

"I've wanted to do that all night. How do you like my brothers?"

"Good guys, and anyone who loves you that much is OK with me. I can see how they scared boys off, though."

I carried her over to the couch and laid down with her mostly on top of me.

"They obviously didn't scare you off."

"I'm yours as long as you want me, Emily. As long as my pretty girl loves me, all the giant Irishmen in the world won't scare me away."

"I do love you, Manny."

"I love you too."

"Of course, but you're easy."

I got the same response every time I said that. She giggled and kissed me.

"Did you lock the front door?"

"Of course! You think I want those guys back in right now?"

"It would be worse about five minutes from now."

"Why?"

She sat up and pulled her dress off over her head. The modest size of her chest made it easy for her not to wear a bra most of the time, and I encouraged that as much as I could by repeating and trying to demonstrate that anything bigger than a mouthful is a waste. If her brothers had caught her fooling around with me with nothing on but a bright green thong, I'm sure the commotion would have been heard all the way back in Boston.

"Because of what I'm about to do to you."

She leaned down and kissed me again, and started working her way down my chest unbuttoning and kissing as she went. Within five minutes she was on her knees next to the couch, and if her brothers had caught their conservative little sister doing what she was doing then I'm sure the Trinity explosion would have been dwarfed. Whatever sexual inhibitions she had vanished as soon as she decided to go to bed with me. Of course I was impatient to return the favor, and one thing led to another from there. I think we finally made it to my bed about 3:00 AM.

Once I was confronted with it, it was pretty obvious that I was being stupid by not proposing to Emily. I couldn't imagine loving anyone else the way I loved her, and she seemed more than willing to put up with me. When I asked her if she wanted to do it for the rest of her life, she jumped at the idea. The Girls loved beach weddings, and had ours down to a science.

We did get a slightly raised eyebrow from the priest who baptized little Diarmuid Rodriguez a couple years later, but what the heck, we make it work. Emily cooks a mean pollo en mole, and I've developed a taste for drinking Bushmills with her brothers when they aren't drinking tequila with me.

The key, of course, is that my little redhead has to be handled like dynamite: carefully, but when you do, the results are amazing!