Chapter 11 #2
I hesitated all of three seconds before I shot my hand up for a brief wave.
The last thing I wanted to hear was Camy cussin’ me out for not doing what she asked.
Jeret had followed Del out of the kitchen and raised a fist before giving a head nod.
Lance and Del, with similar questioning gazes on their faces, waved.
Rock folded his beefy arms over his chest and glared toward the stage.
“So, what am I, chopped liver?” Ethan asked with a frown.
“But tonight is all about my favorite green-eyed brother,” Camy continued.
Lance picked up a handful of peanuts from the bowl on the bar and tossed them in Ethan’s direction. “You happy now, crybaby?” he asked with a grin.
“You’re sweeping the floors tonight, dickhead,” Ethan shot back.
“Come on up here, Ethan!” Camy shouted into the mic.
“What the hell?” Ethan asked with a frown.
I shrugged. “l don’t know, bruh, but you better get up there before she commands one of us to carry your ass up there.”
“I’m not carrying his bigheaded ass,” Rock said.
Ethan gave him the finger and moved around where Rock was blocking the exit from behind the bar.
As he weaved through the tables and then crossed the dance floor to the stage, all eyes followed him.
When he stepped onto the stage, Camy extended her arm and the mic to Portia, who stepped up onto the stage from the other side.
“Hi,” Portia said softly, but since she was speaking into the mic, we all heard it.
“Hey, beautiful,” Ethan said in response. He moved closer to her, and she extended her free hand to him.
“Umm,” Portia started. She looked out to the crowd. “Hey, everybody.”
She smiled and I grinned. While Camy was a natural born extrovert, it was clear that Portia wasn’t. A fact that still amazed me since she taught sold-out classes on how to give the perfect blow job.
“Well, I wanted to share this happy news with my husband, and since this bar and all of you are part of our extended family, I guess it’s only right to share it with you, too,” Portia said.
“What’s going on?” Ethan asked. His voice was lower, but since everyone in the place was quiet and watching to see what was going to happen next, we heard him.
Portia turned her attention back to her husband. She swung their joined hands and grinned at him. “Ethan, my love,” she said and pulled the hand she was holding forward to place on her flat stomach. “We’re having a baby!”
“Holy shit!” Jeret said from where he stood behind me.
“Lucky bastard,” Del replied with a grin.
“Say what now?” Ethan asked from the stage.
Applause had broken out in the bar, but Ethan had immediately stepped closer to Portia, so his voice traveled through the mic.
“A baby,” Portia repeated.
Ethan wrapped an arm around her waist but kept his other hand on her stomach. “My baby is having our baby,” he said with a wide grin, and Portia nodded excitedly.
So you’re having my baby…
The lyrics from Jodeci’s Forever My Lady blasted through the space and there was laughter and more applause. From the side of the stage where the control board that operated the sound system was located, Camy shrugged. “It’s the only song I could think of that said something about having a baby.”
Laughter and more applause grew louder as Ethan had both arms around his wife now and he lifted her into the air to turn her in circles as the song played.
I was happy as hell for my brother and his wife.
Ecstatic, actually, because I knew this was something Ethan had never considered possible.
None of us thought we’d survive past the rowdy teenage years we’d lived but we had.
The careers we sought were just hopes and dreams, but we were never really certain that our riotous past was behind us.
Tonight, it seemed that Ethan was heading straight into a beautiful future, one where he had the woman he loved and the baby they’d created.
As if she were calling me, my gaze immediately found Serra’s in the crowd.
She smiled and lifted her glass as if to toast to the lucky couple.
I nodded because I knew exactly what she was thinking.
The same thing I was. That Ethan and Portia were indeed lucky to have found love and family.
Serra put the glass to her lips and tossed back the contents while I squeezed my fingers into fists.
Drinking wasn’t an option for me, not beyond one beer while I was working and no more than two when I was at home or hanging at one of my brothers’ homes.
I hadn’t been addicted to alcohol, but any vice for me needed to be something I couldn’t use as a crutch when the pain from my injury hit or guilt and anxiousness rested on my shoulders again.
So I looked away from Serra and waited my turn to congratulate Ethan and Portia when they came back to the bar area. Focusing on my happiness for them, instead of thoughts of what might’ve been between me and Serra was the best I could do to keep from losing my shit in front of everyone.