Behind the Altar: Behind the Love Trilogy (8 page)

Dean rode back to the
motel after buying a six-pack of beer from the convenience store. He thought
about Leah and the way she looked when she went inside the barn and imagined
her Soup’s On being transported there. He made a vow to himself that he would
do everything in his power to help her dreams come true. On Monday, the
fireworks would begin, and he’d spend the rest of the weekend relaxing.

The room depressed
him even though the cool air shooting out of the air conditioner was a welcome
relief from the heat of the day. As the day waned, the sun bore down on his
room’s west facing window. The mini-blinds were no match for Mother Nature’s show
of power as the sun made its way through the slats. As Dean lay on the bed
drinking his first beer, it occurred to him that he should go out to the barn
and spend the night. He loved that old barn. During a difficult childhood, it
was the one place he could go where no one would find him or bother him.

He stopped by the
Victory Tavern and asked Reggie to prepare him a burger and fries to go. When
it was ready, he headed to the barn with the rest of his beer and a bag of hot
food.

He noticed the lock
was off the door as soon as he got off his bike. He was sure he’d locked it
when he left there with Leah and Susie. He had given Leah another key. She
wouldn’t be here on a Saturday night, he thought as he pushed the doors open.
Leah stood in the center of the room holding a sleeping bag under one arm. In
the other, she held a cloth grocery bag.

“What are you doing
here?” he asked.

“I’m sorry; I can
leave,” she said. “I thought since you gave me a key, I could come here. I
decided to spend the night to think about things and make plans.”

Dean began to laugh.
He held up his bag and pack of beer. “I had the same idea. The motel room was
getting to me.”

“I can leave.”

“No, stay. You can
help me eat this greasy food. Maybe drink a few beers and talk about what can
be done here. I won’t bite.”

Leah didn’t answer,
but she put down her bag and started to unroll the sleeping bag. When she
finished, she gestured for him to join her.

“I brought a few
things for dinner, too,” she said. “Maybe we can combine the two. I guarantee
mine’s healthier.”

Dean smiled and sat
down next to her on one end of the sleeping bag. “I don’t know. Reggie says he
used the best beef around these parts.” He pulled the burger out of the bag and
tried to rip it in half. He handed her a ragged piece.

They ate in silence until
Dean handed her a beer.

“I don’t drink,” Leah
said. “But thank you.”

“Never?”

“I’ve never drank
ever or done any drugs,” she said. “I’ve stayed away. My mom was a drug addict;
my dad probably was, too. I can’t afford to test it.”

“I get it,” Dean
said. “I guess I’m jaded. All anyone does in South Beach is drink and do
designer drugs. I didn’t bring anything else to drink.”

“That’s all right. I
brought water.” She held up a red stainless steel water container and then took
a long sip. “Is that what you do? Drink and do designer drugs?”

“I stay away from the
drugs, but I do my share of drinking beer. Occupational hazard as a tat
artist.”

“That’s what you do?
Give folks tattoos?”

“That’s what I do.
Some folks say I’m pretty good,” Dean said. “But enough about me. It sounds
like you had a pretty rough childhood. How did you end up here?”

“I actually had a
pretty wonderful childhood until I was around ten, and then it all fell apart,”
she said. “We lived near St. Pete, and I spent lots of time playing in the sand
and surf. And then my mom starting shooting up heroin, and it was a fast slide
after that.”

“Where was your dad?”

“Gone by then. Within
a year, we were out on the streets, so we camped with the other homeless. The
community was similar to the river camp. In fact, a few of them followed me
here.”

“And that’s why you
want to do everything you can to help them.”

“That’s right,” Leah said.
“I know what it’s like to be in their position. On one hand, they have a sort
of freedom; but on the other, they’re living life as close to the edge as can
be imagined. I don’t want them to ever have to worry about food or shelter.”

“I think maybe I was
wrong about you,” Dean said as he turned to the woman sitting next to him.
“Maybe you’re the first truly altruistic person I’ve ever met.”

“I guess you could be
partly right, though. I’ve thought about it, and I do get pleasure from helping
them, so in a way, I am doing it for me.”

“How about Geraldine
and Jacob? How did that happen?” Dean asked.

“When I was
seventeen, I got a job at a mall,” Leah said. “Geraldine came into the store
where I worked, and we started talking. She mentioned she had a son, and then
she asked me out for lunch.”

“That’s it? And then
she moved you into the house?”

“She said she took a
liking to me right away; said she could see something in me.” Leah shrugged.
“Then she invited me to Victory and to the Sunshine Church to speak about
homelessness and its impact on children. Both Jacob and she liked what I said
to the women’s society, and they asked me to stay to help with the church.”

“You and Jacob fell
in love?”

“I guess. Big Jim
liked me, too, and encouraged us along with Geraldine. I didn’t know anything
about relationships.”

“Jacob’s your first
boyfriend?” Dean asked.

“Yes.”

“That’s something,”
Dean said. “You’re such a beautiful woman, both inside and out. I’m surprised
men haven’t been flocking around you for a very long time.”

“I don’t know about
that, but Jacob’s the first serious boyfriend.” She lowered her head when she
said that, but Dean saw the red blush start at the line of her tank top and
rise up her neck to her face.

“But you kissed me
the other day. You kissed me back, too. It wasn’t just me, was it?”

“No,” she said so
quietly Dean wasn’t sure if he’d heard her or not.

He put his beer down
on his other side, wrapped his arms around her, and pulled her close to him. He
removed the bags of food from between them, and she scooted closer. He was
overcome with the feelings sweeping through him. He’d never felt anything like
it before.

“I haven’t been able
to stop thinking about you,” he whispered into her hair that smelled of apples.

“Me, too,” she
managed before he leaned close and caught her lips in his.

This time they
pressed their bodies together as their tongues sought out the mysteries of
each. The eyes remained open once again as they both drowned in the light from
the sparks igniting between them. Dean could feel her soft and round breasts
pushing into his chest, which stirred him even further. He pushed her gently
back and leaned over her.

“I want to make love
to you more than I’ve ever wanted to do anything in my entire life,” Dean said.
“You’re so beautiful, Leah.”

“We can’t; we
shouldn’t. It’s impossible; we have to stop,” Leah said as she pulled Dean’s
head back to her and began pulling on his bottom lip with her teeth. “We can’t
do this.”

“Why not? Do you feel
like this with Jacob?”

Leah ignored his
question and began kissing his face. “You’re so handsome. Your face floats
above me whenever I try to forget you. I want to memorize it.”

“Love me, Leah.”

He pulled her white
tank top up over her arms. She wore a white lace bra, and he leaned down and
began licking the top of her breast. With one hand, he pulled one of them out
of the bra and began licking the nipple. He heard her moan over the roar in his
ears.

“You’re so
beautiful,” he said between mouthfuls of her hardened brown tip.

“I’ve never been with
anyone before,” she said.

“You and Jacob?” Dean
asked as he pulled his head up and away from her.

She shook her head. “Jacob
said we should wait until we married. You and I have just done more than we’ve
ever done together.”

Dean sat up straight
and put his head in his hands. He shook his head and stood up.

“I’m going back to
the motel tonight,” he said. “You stay here. You’re right, this is impossible.
You need to think about things.”

“You’re leaving?”
Leah asked as she sat up.

“Yes. I need to
figure things out, too. I don’t know what kind of spell you’ve put on me, but
I’ve never felt this way about another woman before, and you’re planning to
marry my brother. Are you in love with him? Or does being with him mean you’ll
never be homeless again?”

“I don’t know. I’m so
confused.”

“You need to figure
out why you so willingly came to me just now and yesterday,” Dean said. “You’re
not the kind of girl who does that, but yet a minute ago, you were willing to
let me make love to you. Why is that, Leah?”

“I feel things with
you that I’ve never felt with Jacob,” she said. “I don’t know why.”

“We both need to
figure this out. You scare me.”

He walked out of the
barn and got on his bike. It was going to be a long night at the motel. Two
nights in a row, he’d turned down women. One he thought he loved a long time
ago; and another he thought he might love after one kiss. As he roared away on
the bike, he swore it wasn’t love. He was overwhelmed by being back in Victory
after so many years away.

Leah wasn’t the only
one with thinking to do. He needed to figure out if his attraction to Leah was
simply his demented way of getting back at Geraldine and Jacob. It certainly
gave him pleasure to imagine walking into the parsonage and announcing that he
and Leah loved one another. He imagined the anger on Geraldine’s face as she
came after him with her red-polished nails. Only now, he could fight her off,
and she’d never be able to take advantage of him again.

When Leah heard the
car pull up to the barn, she thought Dean had changed his mind. She ran to the
doors, but before she even pulled them apart, she realized the sound she heard
wasn’t a motorcycle. She saw Susie get out of the car and come toward the barn
once she opened the doors.

“Susie, what’s up?”
she asked.

“I’m sorry to show up
when I know you’re trying to sort things out, but Jacob’s at my house looking
for you. He’s pretty upset, Leah. I think you should come back and talk to
him.”

“What happened?”

“Geraldine is what
happened, that’s what. Jacob’s at my house, and he really wants to talk to you.
I think he’s scared.”

“What did he say?”

“He told Geraldine
that the two of you were taking a break to think things through,” Susie said. “He
said you were having a hard time letting go of Soup’s On.”

“She should know that
without being told.”

“Evidently Geraldine
threw a fit and said she was going to call the Sheriff and have him arrest the
river camp folks.”

“Would she really do
that?” Leah asked.

“I think she might.
She doesn’t like to have folks go against her, as you’ve just learned. She told
Jacob that she brought you up to their standards, and now you need to be taught
a lesson.”

“She’s going to
punish them because she’s mad at me?” Leah asked. “That’s beyond anything I’ve
ever heard.”

“Jacob’s really torn
up about it,” Susie said. “I’ve never seen him like this before; I always
thought he was kind of a Momma’s Boy, but he really doesn’t know how to stand
up to her.”

Leah began rolling up
her sleeping bag. “Let’s go,” she said as she began walking to the doors. “If
Jacob really wants to stop her, then I need to help him.”

“I was thinking about
Tommy Jackson as I drove out here,” Susie said as she headed down the dusty
road.

“Who’s that?”

“A guy I dated in
high school, but he left town right after graduation, about the time I started
dating Reggie,” Susie said. “He went to college in Gainesville at UF.”

Leah glanced over at
Susie as she drove. She wondered how Susie could be thinking about some guy
from high school with the river folks in danger.

“He’s a reporter for
the
Tampa Tribune
,” she said. “I don’t know why I didn’t think about him
before today, but I bet if I called him and told him about the situation here,
he’d consider doing a story on it.”

“An article? How
would that help?”

“I read Tommy’s
stuff; he’s a proponent for the little guy. He’d write something that was
sympathetic to the Deer River Camp, I’m sure.”

“Geraldine and
Sunshine Church could come off in a bad light,” Leah said as it began to dawn
on her what Susie was proposing. “Bad publicity would put a damper on the
donations the church receives for its missionary work.”

“That’s right,” Susie
said. “The threat might even be enough to stop her.”

“I think it’s a great
idea. There is something Jacob could do immediately. Donald Cameron is the most
sympathetic of the board members, and almost everyone respects him. If Jacob
can convince him to convene an emergency meeting, maybe they can be convinced
to take another vote.”

“And with the threat
of negative publicity hanging over their heads, it might just work,” Susie
said. “But you know this will make things more difficult for you and Jacob.”

“I’ve thought about
that,” Leah said. “And with Dean here, it’s even more difficult.”

“I forgot about Dean
and the barn. I wonder when he’s going to drop that bombshell.”

“He said something
about Monday.”

“You’ve talked to
him?” Susie asked. They were stopped at a stop sign at the end of the road. She
looked at Leah.

“He came out to the
barn earlier, just after I arrived.” Leah could feel herself blushing, and for
the second time that day, hated her lack of pigment.

“What’s going on with
you two? First, you hate him; now you seem to be friends.”

Leah couldn’t stop
the blush. Susie was her best friend. Maybe she’d be able to help her sort
through her complicated feelings.

“We kissed,” she
said, and Susie pulled the car over onto the shoulder. They were still on a
dirt road, and there wasn’t any traffic.

“You kissed Dean?”
Susie asked after waiting for Leah to continue.

“Yes, yesterday, and
then again today,” Leah said. “And I enjoyed it more than anything I’ve ever
experienced.”

“I don’t know what to
say. I mean, I can see you and Dean together better than I can you and Jacob,
but you’re engaged to Jacob and Dean’s his brother. And they hate one another.”

“I know; I know,”
Leah put her hands over her face and shook with the emotion leftover from the
kiss. “There’s something about Dean. I’ve never felt that way about Jacob—ever.
I know that sounds awful.”

“How does Dean feel
about all this?”

Leah took a deep shuddering
breath. “He stopped us from going any further back at the barn. I told him I
was a virgin, and Jacob and I were waiting until we were married. Susie, the
awful thing is, I was ready to make love to him. I wasn’t thinking about
anything at all except about how good it felt.”

“Did Dean tell you
how he feels about you?”

“He said he couldn’t
stop thinking about me, even though we’d just met. I feel the same way. There’s
something that happens when we look into one another’s eyes.”

Susie shook her head.
“It’s hard to tell if it’s love this soon; it’s certainly lust. And you, dear
Leah, have led a very sheltered life as far as men go. I’m glad Dean came to
his senses. You need time to think.”

“The thing is Jacob
and I talked before I went to the barn, and he was so vulnerable and sweet,”
Leah said. “I could really see us together married, but living on our own
without Geraldine around. I could make it work, couldn’t I?”

Susie sighed. “Leah,
I don’t know. You might never be able to forget what it felt to be really on
fire with another person. I have a feeling that no matter what happens between
you and Jacob, you’re not going to get that feeling with him, if it hasn’t
happened yet.”

“Do you have that
with Reggie?”

Susie put the car
back in drive and pulled onto the road. “We did. We still do sometimes. Let’s
just say I know what it feels like, and I’ve never felt it with anyone else but
Reggie.”

“Maybe it will come for
us once we’re married,” Leah said. “Dean and I can work on this project
together, but that’s all. I love Jacob.”

Leah held her head up
and straightened her shoulders. “Thanks for listening, Susie. You’re the best
friend I’ve ever had.”

“I’m here for you,
Leah. Friends are hard to come by; I’ve had a few, but no one I ever fully
trusted until now. I trust you.”

“And I trust you,”
Leah said. “Now let’s go talk to Jacob and make some calls. We’re in a battle, so
let’s get ready. Can I still move into your spare bedroom? It probably will be
a more permanent move than I thought.”

“You bet. Staying
with Geraldine will not be an option after tonight.”