He got two, “Yes, sirs.”
“We’re having chicken,” Gramps decided.
He then took off to go buy chicken.
“That man,” Gram groused, and she took off too, probably to go give more stick to Gramps then ride with him to go get chicken so she could talk him into hitting up the DQ after to get dilly bars.
I got up, grabbed my guy and took him to the mudroom.
When we were away from the others and I’d situated him so his back was to the dining room, shielding us, I asked, “How did you wring that miracle?”
He grinned smugly. “Told you it’d go great.”
“How did you wring that miracle?” I repeated.
He got serious and said, “I told him he had a meeting with a firm of lawyers in the city on Tuesday and they already have a court date to win back custody of Julia. I also told him the lawyers, and Tommy, had hired private detectives who were digging into your dad, and because of that, Julia would be home soon.”
It was my hands that landed on his chest then when I couldn’t hold myself up because of what he said and all it meant.
Preacher took my weight, and for good measure, slid his arms around me.
Even feeling all I was feeling, which was a lot, I said, “That’s not it because Gramps is proud and that sounds like a handout.”
“This isn’t about pride. This is about family and getting Julia away from that dickweed and back to hers.”
Okay, I could see that.
But…
“Preacher—”
He dipped his face close and his voice low. “Baby, before Tommy joined our conversation, I also told him you were a virgin and you were gonna stay that way.”
I blinked.
“I told him the way I had to court you, bein’ on tour, might not be conventional, but I’m courtin’ you and I would not disrespect you, or him and who he is to you, what he’s done for you, by bein’ that guy.”
I kept blinking, just more rapidly.
“So, I assured him he could trust me. I was gonna sleep on the couch over Christmas and he had no worries I’d try anything, disrespecting him under his own roof. And when you join the tour for spring break and come out to LA in the summer, and for as long as there’s a you and me, he has my word you will never get anything but respect from me.”
Lyla:
[Off tape]
You and McCade had not had sex?
[Shakes head]
No.
Preacher’s growing-up years were far from great, but regardless, something leaked into him down south and he was truly a southern gentleman.
[Smiles softly]
He was kind of Rhett and Ashley put together.
I credit Loretta Williams for that.
In other words, he did not lie to my grandfather not only because he was actually courting me, and he was the kind of guy who called it that.
But because Preacher would never lie to a man like my grandfather.
“We’re not gonna have sex?” I asked.
“No,” he answered.
“Ever?” I squeaked.
Okay, we slept together every night, and on the bus and in the hotel rooms, we cuddled and made out, we did it often, and when we did, there was a lot of groping, but Preacher always stopped it before it got too far.
I was a virgin, I’d told him that our first night and that didn’t change in the time in between because I’d met Preacher and really, no one had come close to measuring up to him.
But from the kissing and groping and, well…all that was Preacher, I was ready to go there.
And when we were kissing and groping, I was really ready.
He grinned again and replied, “Not under your grandfather’s roof.”
“Spring break?”
He took my head in both hands in that way of his I liked a whole lot, tipped it down, kissed the top of my hair, then tipped it back to look into my face again.
“Cher, it’ll happen when it’s supposed to happen. And it is not supposed to happen now. You’re gonna get what you deserve. A man who has a mind to you and knows you as you before he takes something from you it isn’t his to have until you’re ready to give it.”
I looked at his ear and mumbled, “I’m feeling ready to give it.”
He chuckled, and I looked back at him.
And then he got serious.
“And I’m ready to have it, Lyla. Absolutely, baby. Best gift I’ll ever get, already know that. But that’s just not gonna happen in the home of the man who raised you.”
I had to admit, it was the right thing to do.
And it was super sweet how he said all that.
But spring break was over three months away.
And I was already twenty years old!
I pushed through his hold on me and planted my face in his chest.
He slid his arms around me again.
“First things first,” he said, “Christmas and getting Julia back.”
“And avoiding Gram making her macaroni and cheese.”
“And that.”
I smiled against his shirt and wrapped my arms around him.
He gave me a squeeze.
“You guys suck!” Amber shouted. “All sweet all the time. That’s not rock ’n’ roll! You jumping his bones in the airport, that was rock ’n’ roll!”
And I started laughing.
A couple of days later, we were kissing and groping on my bed in my bedroom.
Sonia was off with some friends.
Gram and Gramps were at some holiday cocktail party at the golf course.
Tom had gone up to Chicago to touch base with his family who he wasn’t really close to, but they got along.
So, I had Preacher all to myself.
In my bedroom where, after meeting him, night after night I thought of doing with him all the things I was right then doing with him.
I felt him hard against my stomach, and I’d felt that before, I wanted to feel it better, like I had wanted before, but had been foiled in getting, and also like I had before, I went for it.
He caught my wrist, rolled to his back, tucked me to his side then his hand slid up my back to my head and he shoved my face in his neck.
“Cher, give a guy a break,” he said thickly.
Shoot.
“Preacher—”
“Not gonna happen.”
Damn.
I watched down his body as he stretched his legs out, crossed his feet at the ankles, and from that, I knew I could beg or promise the moon and the stars, but it was not going to happen.
I sighed, relaxed, and that was when Preacher started playing with my hair with the fingers of one hand, also playing with my fingers with his other.
I let him, and since my arm was trapped under me and I couldn’t return the favor in some way, I pressed closer.
“You got a pretty room, cher,” he muttered.
I closed my eyes.
Tight.
“We have girls, we’re gonna give ’em rooms just like this,” he said.
God.
I opened my eyes and I didn’t want to do it because I never wanted to do it.
After she was gone, I came undone.
The ensuing custody battle, and losing it, I didn’t think I’d be able to pull myself back together.
But then I did, as best I could, so I had to keep a hold on it.
But Preacher was stretched out on the bed Mom bought me, and she’d like him just as much as Gramps did at first, and just as much as Gram did after he was all Preacher and he earned it.