“It was a mistake that—”
Luke held up a hand. “Can I finish my pitch here?”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. Have you heard of the term ‘polyandry’?”
I stared at him blankly.
“It’s basically a reverse polygamy. In polygamy you have one husband with multiple wives, while in polyandry, you got one wife with mul—”
I stopped him from talking. “I get the gist. I won’t do it. It’s crazy.”
Luke leaned forward and lowered his voice. “Simone, please, try to be open-minded. I’m a traditional guy through and through and—”
“Luke, it’s wrong.”
He straightened his back against the vinyl upholstery of the booth, ran both hands through his hair and exhaled deeply.
I could see this wasn’t easy for him either.
“Simone, I don’t think you have any idea the impact on us when you decided to elope with Sam. Even dad was taking it hard. We were so used to have you there for us and suddenly not, to be honest, we felt abandoned. I was angry at you for a long time.
“I mean, how could you do that to us? Just leave without a goodbye? Many times we wondered if we did something terribly wrong that made you want to leave us…”
“You know that wasn’t not the case,” I interjected.
“Now. But back then…” Luke sighed hard. “We were just kids. We didn’t know any better. I carried that anger with me for a long time. Hell, it’s probably one of the reasons I acted up when I was a teenager. After mom died, you’re the one who kept our little family together, and when you left, I was like a loose cannon. I was into so much trouble, Dad was convinced I’d ended up in prison.
“One day, I was arrested for vandalism and the judge gave me an ultimatum: go to jail or serve in the military. I chose the latter. Before I knew it, I was shipped to a warzone.
“And it was…hard. My unit was part of the ground troops deployed in Fallujah. I saw my friends die. I witnessed people doing things there that would’ve earned them life in prison in here. It was hell out there—hell on earth. It poisoned everyone, and ones who couldn’t cope, it drove them crazy.
“The only thing that kept me sane was you. Or should I say, it was the memory of you. I pretended that when I’d get home, you’d be there and everything would be okay.”
I was shocked to hear his revelation. I didn’t know how deep Luke felt about me.
“My brothers,” he started. A pause. “They felt the same way about you. There’s no one who could replace you in our heart. Probably one of the reasons, our personal relationships failed miserably. We still hung on to the notion that one day you’d be back and everything would be like old times again. Whole. A happy family.”
Luke gazed out the window. From this seat, we could see the parking lot of the local post office. The temperature outside had risen considerably and the heat had created mini mirages on the dusty street.
Luke spoke again, a tinge of desperation coloring his voice. “I don’t want to lose my brothers, Simone, but at the rate this is going, one of us is going to end up in a body bag, one going to prison, and the other is going to the nut house.” He turned to me, his eyes boring into my soul. “Please. I don’t want that to happen.”
Chapter Six
I returned to the Cody house and spent the next week like nothing had happened. I did my daily duties as usual. Cooking. Cleaning. Laundry. The brothers acted normal but beneath the placid surface, unspoken tension stretched between them. They were waiting for my answer to choose one of them as the one I’d officially marry.
In that candid heart-to-heart talk with Luke, the brothers proposed a polyandry relationship. Since polygamy and the like wasn’t legal in this state, and to give a fundamental reason for me staying in the Cody household, they felt it was best if I married one of them. They even went as far as to schedule which night I should spend with them.
It was crazy.
And crazy was the game I had to play if I wanted everybody to come out of this safely.
It put so much more pressure on me than before. Never mind Aunt Rebecca’s scolding or me being a pariah in my hometown, the Cody brothers were their own worst enemies. I couldn’t walk away from this problem. Like Nate had said, I used to run when I faced a major life-changing issue. This time, I had to face it head on. The problem was, I wasn’t sure of my own feelings.