I guess you can stay [quietlikehim]

[cantbewithhim]

Ennis had allowed Alma Jr. to stay for a little while, keep some healthy distance from Mark. It seemed like the boy was here all the time, calling after her, even once sleeping over on the pull-out. And as Ennis lay awake, listening to them kiss and nothing else - his heart stirred, hating him. He had resigned himself to his own loneliness. Jack

Comments

[quietlikehim]

Junior was glad that her father had let her stay with him for a little while longer so that there could be some distance between her and Mark. As well as Mark's father who was annoying the hell out of her. She noticed too that Mark seemed to be calling a lot, or showing up and even staying over one night. Not that she minded but she didn't want to make her father uncomfortable which was why she had kept it to just kissing the night Mark stayed over. She knew it made her dad miss Jack and she wondered when Jack was going to show up.

Approaching him, she nibbled her lip as she noticed the way he looked at her and she knew that he knew right away that something was up. She didn't know how he would take the idea of her going off and eloping with Mark but she hoped that he would support it.

"Hi daddy." She smiled, shoving her hands into her pockets, "Can I ask you something?"

[cantbewithhim]

"Well, sure ya can," he said softly, shoving his hands in his pockets.

[quietlikehim]

She drew in a slow breath and looked down, nibbling her bottom lip, "Mark and I wanna elope, and we wanna know if ya wanna come be a witness."

[cantbewithhim]

Ennis was quiet for a long moment. How did one respond to something like that? He thought about what Jack Twist would say... about how it were romantic or some crock. Alma would never forgive him this - didn't the girl want her mother there?

He knew Mark surer than he knew what to say. Mark was Alma Jr.'s Jack Twist. He'd do anything for her and nothing in his own life could meet up to this expectation he had for her. He couldn't very well deny her the one thing he had kept all his life. Since Brokeback, leastways.

"I'm.. not sayin' no." A beat. "Not sayin' no no more."

It was a joke of sorts, but then he sighed.

"Don't you 'least want yer mama there?"

[quietlikehim]

She didn't even know how the hell she had asked it, much less trying to figure out how her father was going to respond. She knew that it was a strange request, considering a few days ago she had said that she wanted to wait a few months but now she was ready to go off and elope.

From the stories that she had heard, when her father would tell her anything, she was coming to understand that she was basically his Junior and Mark was Jack's. They were another generation of that love story, except it was one guy and it was one girl.

She blinked a little at his odd joke and then she shrugged, "Ma left yesterday, remember? Her, Jenny and Pa," What she called her stepfather, "They went for two weeks to see his family."

"Plus if I wait for her, then she'd want me to wait for other people and seriously, Daddy, the idea of a big wedding is kind of...scary."

[cantbewithhim]

He couldn't argue with that. His own wedding had been quite the production, and had scared the shit right out of him. Running a hand back through his hair, he looked up into his daughter's pleading eyes, seeing very much his own junior staring back. 19 and so full of hope...

"That Brokeback got us good.."

"Alma'll kill me, y'know." He still weren't saying no...

[quietlikehim]

Junior wondered if that was half of her fear, the whole idea of having a big production and all that focus being on them. She got a little panicky and she didn't want to do it anymore. She still wanted to marry Mark, she knew she loved him and she knew that he loved her.

At his answer, the left corner of her mouth curled in a smile that was so similar to his. "She'll kill me worse."

[cantbewithhim]

"Oh, I don' know about that," he teased, still looking real nervous. "At leas' she likes you."

[quietlikehim]

"Dad." She gave him a pointed look, "She doesn't hate ya."

Then she drew in a breath and blew it out, "So we have the appointment with the Judge this afternoon. Will that work for ya?"

[cantbewithhim]

"I know that," he said softly. And he did. Didn't mean she liked him. Hell, he wouldn't like him neither.

He didn't really.

"Uh.." Then something dawned on him and he nearly laughed, a bit startled by his own reaction. "Y'knew I were gonna say yes all th'time, didn't ya?"

[quietlikehim]

She wasn't going to argue with him because she couldn't speak for her Ma but she was sure that she didn't hate him.

As he laughed, she couldn't help but giggle as she ducked her head a little bit. "Yes." Then she wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging him tightly before leaning up and kissing his cheek.

"Thank you, Daddy."

[cantbewithhim]

He tried to look put-upon. He really did. But it was about as hopeless as if Jack Twist had asked something of 'im. Least it hadn't taken clear over a decade.

"How's Mark's daddy gonna take this? I don' wantcha gettin' him mad before you an' Mark is even started." He paused, deciding to reveal his true worry. "An' he's got money, ain't he? If ya don' respect 'im, he won't be able'ta help you two... an' I ain't in no place t'help yet."

A lot of words for one Ennis del Mar.

[quietlikehim]

She saw that he was trying to look put-upon but she knew that he wasn't. She knew that it would mean something that she had asked him to be there for her wedding even if it was them eloping.

"He should be fine." She rolled her shoulders in a shrugging motion, "He wants Mark to get married and that's what we're doing." She caught onto his true worry and she smiled softly, "We have some money saved up and I'm going to get a job."

"We've talked about moving to Montana."

[cantbewithhim]

Ennis' eyes lit with surprise. When Junior had told him she wanted to move out with him and Jack... He had to admit he thought it were a dream. That of a young girl who would miss her daddy, but move on, have her own life...

"An' he wantsta?" he asked instead, voice very small.

He knew Mark had been brought up almost as harshly as he had - he couldn't ask the boy to accept .. whatever it was Twist and he had.

[quietlikehim]

She knew that he had thought that maybe she was just saying it, that she wanted to move to be near him but hadn't been serious. She was though. She tilted her head, nibbling her lip a little bit.

"He does, he says he wants to see it first but we don't really want to stay around here." She shrugged a little, thinking it would be good to get away from his Dad.

Then she whispered, "I haven't told him yet. I wanted to ask you first."

[cantbewithhim]

"Maybe we shouldn't tell 'im," Ennis said instantly, knowing what she was talking about somehow. It was weighing on his own mind, that's how, but he wouldn't rightly admit to that...

He knew this were stupid. Childish, even. With Mark and Junior so close, there was no way Mark wouldn't figure it out. Two men livin together? Alma Jr.'s un-remarried father? He sighed, looking at her pleadingly.