Marriage On The Edge

“I’ll bet it’s the only three-way ever been done by telephone,” Slade said with a wicked grin at the pretty young secretary who’d just brought him his coffee. “Thank you, darlin’.”

“Don’t you ‘darlin” me, pal,” Travis said with a mock growl, “or I’ll fly straight to that fancy-pants mansion of yours and beat you up the way I used to when you were a scrawny twelve-year-old and I was a strappin’ lad of thirteen.”

“Uh-huh. You an’ who else?”

“Me an’ my man Gage. Isn’t that right, Gage?” Travis chuckled. “’Course, it’ll have to wait until the sun gets up in the sky a piece, so my brain starts workin’ right.”

All three brothers laughed. Gage could have sworn he felt that laughter reach out over the miles and enfold him in its warmth.

It never failed to amaze him, how easily they all fell into the teasing repartee of childhood. Months went by now without their seeing each other but it didn’t matter. The small battles they’d fought as kids didn’t matter, either. Put two of them together in a room—or on a telephone line—and the memories flooded back. Put three of them together and it was as if the years had fallen away. Even their accents changed and took on the soft, drawling cadence of their growing-up years in Texas, until Travis finally cleared his throat and got down to the reason for the call.

“Okay, guys,” he said, and sighed. “I wish to hell we could avoid the topic and I’m sure you do, too, but it’s time for a reality check.”

“The invitation,” Slade said.

Gage heard the rustle of paper over the line. “You got yours, too?”

“This morning, bright and early. Trav?”

“Bright and early is right. Mine arrived at six.”

Slade laughed. “And interrupted you and a guest.”

“Go on,” Travis hestitated. “Let’s just say I was otherwise involved when I got this invitation.”

“What a tough life he leads,” Slade drawled.

“I’d expect some compassion from you, kid,” Travis said. “Not from Gage, of course, since he gave up his freedom years ago.” His voice softened. “How’s my girl, by the way? You still treating her right, or is she about ready to use that pretty head of hers and ditch you for me?”

Gage’s smile faded. “She’s fine,” he said tightly, and knew he’d made a mistake the minute he heard the overwhelming silence humming across the lines.

“Gage?” Slade said. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” Travis said. “Is everything all right?”

“Yes.”

“You sure? Because you don’t sound—”

“Listen, maybe you two guys can horse around all day,” Gage said, even more tightly, “but I’ve got things to do. So let’s get down to it, okay?”

There was the sound of throat-clearing on both coasts. “Right,” Slade said. “Uh, business. Well, Travis already put the agenda on the table. What are we going to do about this command performance the old man’s got planned for the middle of the month?”

“Ignore it,” Gage said firmly. “I’ve got—”

“Things to do,” Travis said. “Yeah, I heard that. And believe me, I don’t have any greater desire to go back to Espada for a dress rehearsal of King Lear than either of you guys, but—”

“Lear?” Slade said, sounding puzzled. “Hey, this is Texas we’re talking about, not Stratford-on-Avon.”

“Come on, Slade, give me a break. You know what this is all about. Jonas is starting to feel mortal.”

“Jonas?” Slade snorted. “Our father’s got every intention of making it to one hundred and you know what? My money’s on him.”

“Mine, too. But I suspect the old boy’s looking around, taking stock of that little spread of seven zillion acres he calls home, sweet home, and figuring it’s time he made plans on how to divvy up the kingdom.”

“Well, I don’t need to spend a miserable weekend listening to him snap out orders to know that I don’t give a damn how he does it.” Gage rose from his chair, paced to the door, opened it and mimed that he was drinking a cup of coffee to Rosa, who nodded and slipped out from behind her desk. “I’ll send a gift, phone the ranch, wish Jonas the best…” He smiled his thanks as Rosa handed him a cup. “You two guys can enjoy the party without me,” he finished as he sat down at his desk again.

“Hold it right there, pal.” Slade’s voice rang with indignation. “I never said I was going. In fact, I’m going to be in Baltimore that weekend.”

“Or in the Antarctic,” Travis said lazily. “Anywhere it takes to avoid this shindig, right?”

“Wrong. I’ve put in the past eight weeks on plans for a new bank in Baltimore, and I’ll be damned if—”

“Easy does it, Slade. I was just kidding.”

Slade sighed. “And I was lying through my teeth. Not about the commission, but about why I can’t make it to Espada.”

“Amazing,” Gage said softly. “Here we are, three grown men, all of us falling over our own feet in a rush to keep clear of the place where we grew up.”

“Some people call the place where they grew up ‘home,’” Slade said, trying for a light touch but coming up short.

“Yeah,” Travis said, trying for the same light touch, “but they aren’t the sons of Jonas Baron.”

“The Sons of Jonas Baron,” Gage said, trying even harder. “Sounds like a movie.”

“Not a bad idea,” Slade said. “I can play myself but they’d need to hire stand-ins for you two. Splash those ugly mugs of yours across the big screen and they’d scare away paying customers.”

This time, at last, they all laughed.

“The thing is,” said Travis, “tough as the old man is, eighty-five is a pretty impressive number.”

“So?” Bitterness tinged Gage’s voice. “I don’t much remember him being impressed enough by other numbers. Your eighteenth birthday, for instance. Or when Slade finished his two years of grad school.”

“Or your big fifth anniversary party,” Travis said, and Gage felt the pain of Natalie’s announcement rip through him again. “But, what the hell, gentlemen, we’re bigger than that, right?”

Groans greeted the announcement, but Travis was undeterred.

“Well, we are. We’re young, he’s old. That’s a simple fact.” His voice softened. “And then there’s Caitlin.”

“Yeah.” Slade sighed. “I do hate to disappoint her.”

“Disappoint her?” Gage muttered. “Hell, Catie’ll come after us and cut out our hearts when she hears we’re not coming.”

“Or other, even more important parts of our anatomies,” Slade said.

The three Barons laughed, and then Gage gave a deep sigh.

“Yeah, I know. I don’t like letting her down, but I don’t see a choice here, guys. I’m sorry, but I don’t.”