Behind the Altar: Behind the Love Trilogy (16 page)

When Leah came to the
barn the next afternoon to work, Dean and Stan stood at one of the counters
looking over the plans.

“Hello,” she said as
she joined them. She nearly winced when she saw Dean’s bare chest. She should
be used to seeing his pecs, since he worked most days with his shirt off, even
though the heat pump went in the week before and made the place cool. She
wondered if he did it on purpose to throw her off.

“Hi Leah,” Stan said.
“I was just showing Dean the plans for the loft area.”

“Are we going to be
ready to paint soon?” she asked

“You could start down
here any time,” Stan said. Dean kept his eyes focused on the plans.

“I’ll let Joshua
know,” she said. “He’s going to organize that part. What’s going on with the
loft?”

“We need to install
two ceiling fans up there to help circulate the air,” Stan said. “We also need
to put in insulation. Dean and I were just discussing how we want to do that.
It’s a shame to hide those beams, but I don’t think we have much choice.”

“Whatever you two
decide is fine,” Leah said. “If there’s nothing more for me to do here, I’m
going down to the river to talk to Joshua and Carol about painting. Do you
think we’re on schedule for August?”

“We are, if your
folks can do their jobs in time. We’re at the point where most of what remains
are the finishing touches. Once the painting is done, we’ll start laying the
wood floor down here in the open area.”

“Thanks, Stan,” Leah
said. “You’ve done a great job. I’m thrilled with the kitchen.”

Leah turned and
walked out without saying a word to Dean. But then again, she noticed he hadn’t
said anything to her either.

As she walked toward
Deer River, she heard someone yell her name. She turned around and saw Dean
running toward her.

“I want to talk to
you,” he said. “About last night.”

“You don’t owe me an
explanation. We’re not exclusive.”

“That’s right, we’re
not exclusive. All the time you’ve been seeing me on the sly, you’ve been
engaged. Or did you forget that one little thing?”

“I wasn’t screwing
him in the storeroom at the bar,” she said. “Dean, who are you that you’d do
that kind of thing several hours after you’d been with me.”

“I told you last
night that nothing happened. I got drunk and Sally Jean was there wanting me
with no complications. And she loves me.”

“She loves you? She
loves half the town. And what did she mean by ‘he’s all yours’ when she ran
out?”

“I said your name when
we were hugging.” He looked away and down to the river. “She was a little
pissed.”

“You’re really a
piece of work,” she said.

“Me? What about you?
Every time you leave me, you go back to being Future Minister’s Wife.”

“Not anymore. Jacob
and I officially broke it off last night.”

“Why?”

“Because Jacob and I
like one another, that’s it. We like one another. After I saw you last night, I
ran to the parsonage and decided Jacob and I should do the same thing I thought
you did. Talk about stupid.” Leah looked down at her hand that Dean had just
grabbed.

“And?”

“And nothing. It
didn’t happen for several reasons, but most importantly it didn’t happen
because we don’t love one another, and I’m in love with someone else who’s
bull-headed, mean, and impatient.”

“Wonder who that
could be?” Dean grinned down at her as he pulled her close. “I know what I did
was wrong, but you’ve had me tied up in a million knots. I shouldn’t have
gotten drunk, but I stopped it before anything happened. I could never be with
Sally Jean or with any other woman besides this little do-gooder who’s pushed
her way into my life. I’m hoping she’ll forgive me.”

“She’s going to have
to think about it,” Leah said, as she smiled up into the face of the man she
loved.

“Stan said good-bye right
after you left. Let’s go back to the motor home and talk. We can sit out front
in the lawn chairs if you want.”

They walked with
their arms around each other’s waists. Leah rested her head on his chest.

“Let’s go back to the
barn—to the place where we first . . . ,” she said. She left the sentence
unfinished.

“Where we first made
love?” He looked down at her. “Leah, I’m sorry about last night.”

“Let’s not talk
anymore.”

They entered the barn
where cool air greeted them. Leah pulled a quilt out of one of the closets.

“I put this here a
few weeks ago,” she said. Dean helped her lay it out on the floor.

“What? You don’t like
my jeans for a cushion?”

He came toward her
then and leaned down to kiss her. She reached up and put her hands in his thick
hair, massaging his scalp with her fingertips. They swayed together as they
kissed doing the dance of lovers performing on a stage for two.

“I love you,” he said
as he pulled his lips from hers. He looked down into her green eyes and she
gazed up into his crystal blues.

“I love you,” she
said. “I think I’ve always loved you.”

He picked her up in
his arms and gently laid her down on the quilt.

“You better be sure,
because I’m not going back now. You’re stuck with me,” he said as he brought
himself down on top of her.

“Aren’t you
overdressed?” Leah asked.

“Aren’t you?”

They laughed, as they
began pulling at their clothes. Dean kneeled next to her and helped pull the
tank top over her head. As he began fiddling with the snaps of her bra, the
barn door slid open.

“Well, well, now
isn’t this a cozy scene,” Geraldine said.

Leah and Dean looked
up and saw Geraldine leading a gagged Jacob into the big room. His hands were
tied behind his back and a .22 was pointed at his head.

“We can have a family
reunion,” Geraldine said. “But I bet this wasn’t the way you envisioned it was
it, was it, Leah? You wanted to keep my boys to yourself while stealing
everything you could from me. Now, you’re all going to pay.”

Leah scrambled for
her tank top as Dean leaped to his feet.

“Don’t come any
closer, or I swear I’ll blow this one’s brains out,” Geraldine said as she tilted
her head toward Jacob whose eyes were bulged. He shook his head at Dean.

“Geraldine, let’s
talk,” Leah said after she’d pulled her top over her head and stood. “If you
want me to give you the money Big Jim left me, I will. No questions or no
accusations.”

“That’s pretty funny
for such a smart little girl,” Geraldine said. “I bet these boys, who can’t
seem to get enough of you, would like to know how it was when I found you.”

“They already know.”

“They don’t know you
were sleeping with the manager of that store so you could keep that job.”

“You’re lying,” Dean
said. “Leah’s not like that.”

“Tell him, Leah, tell
him the truth,” Geraldine said as she tightened her grip on Jacob’s arm. He
winced in pain.

“I never had sex with
him, if that’s what you mean,” Leah said.

“Please, Bill
Clinton, we all know what you had to do, and it didn’t have anything to do with
you standing on your feet.”

“It doesn’t matter,
Geraldine,” Dean said. “What do you want from us?”

“I want you to leave
town, and I want everything returned to me.”

“What about the
letter the lawyer has?” Dean asked. “How will we cover for that? The terms were
pretty specific. I’m willing to listen, if you have any ideas.”

“All three of you
sign an affidavit saying it’s the only fair thing to do,” she said.

“OK, we can do that,”
Leah said. “Right, Jacob?”

Jacob nodded his head
vigorously.

“Dean, we can do
that, right?” Leah asked.

“Yes, that’s fine.
Anything you want, Geraldine. You’ve always gotten your way, you might as well
now.”

“Call Harlan,”
Geraldine said as she reached in her pants’ pocket for her phone. She threw it
to Leah. “He’s in my contacts. Tell him to get out here with a witness.”

Leah reached in her
shorts’ pocket for her cell phone. “I have him in mine, too.” Leah hit a number
without picking up Geraldine’s phone off the floor.

“Hello, Harlan,” Leah
said. “Geraldine is out here at the barn with us, and she’d like you to come
out with a witness.” Leah listened for a second.

“Right now would be
preferable. Thank you.”

“Give that phone to
me,” Geraldine said. Leah handed the phone over to her.

“You stupid bitch,”
Geraldine said after she looked at the screen. “Get down there on the blanket.”

Geraldine walked over
to a pile of tools, pushing Jacob in front of her. “Get over here, Dean, and
pick up that wire. Now go and tie it around your little sweetheart’s wrists and
ankles.”

When Dean didn’t
move, Geraldine hit Jacob on the side of his head with the gun. As blood ran
down the side of his face, Dean moved and picked up the wire.

“Good, make sure it’s
nice and tight,” she said. “I’m sure Reggie called the cops by now, so I have
to hurry. It’s too bad your girlfriend made that mistake because now you’re all
going to have to pay.”

“We can still sign
that affidavit,” Leah said. “We’ll tell the police it was all a
misunderstanding, and then we’ll go to Harlan’s office.

“Shut up, you stupid
little whore,” Geraldine said.

Dean kneeled down
next to Leah, put her wrists behind her back, and began winding wire. Then he
worked on the ankles.

“Did you know that I
couldn’t have kids?” Geraldine asked. She started laughing from her belly until
the noise reached up through her chest and out her mouth. She leaned back her
head and howled. “That’s the biggest joke of all. I couldn’t have children.”
She wiped tears from her eyes as she continued making a noise that sounded
almost like laughter, but not from a human.

Dean stopped what he
was doing and looked at her. Leah turned her head so she could see her.

“Big Jim got some
whore pregnant the first year we were married,” she said. “Then he came home
and asked me to raise the bastard that Carleen Cornish had. Didn’t you ever
wonder why you didn’t look like me?”

“Why couldn’t you
have children?” Leah asked more to buy time than to get the truth.

“I’d had too many
abortions by the time your father decided I needed saving,” Geraldine said. She
directed her comments and her stare to Dean. “I was damaged goods.”

“That’s why you didn’t
want me to get involved with Mable?” Dean asked.

“That’s right—she was
your half-sister” Geraldine said. “Another whore.”

“What about Jacob?
Who’s his mother?” Leah asked.

“I told Big Jim to
get someone else pregnant, so we could have a boy and a girl. But Big Jim
couldn’t even do that right. He brought us home another son.”

“Why did you do what
you did to me?” Dean asked. He’d stopped working with the wire and sat back on
his heels and stared at the monster he’d once called his mother.

“It was fun. You were
so handsome, even from the time you were ten years old. I waited as long as I
could. You know you enjoyed it as much as I did. I bet that’s one part of the
story he forgot to tell you, Leah. Dean loved me.”

“He told me,” Leah
said. “Jacob loves you, too.”

“Then why did they
both reject me?” Geraldine started sobbing, but she still had a tight control
on Jacob’s arm and held the gun to his back. “They both hate me.”

“No, they don’t,
Geraldine,” Leah said. “They didn’t understand things, but they never hated
you.”

“That’s right,
Geraldine,” Dean said as he kept he eyes drilled onto hers. “I didn’t
understand because I was so young, and I thought you were my mother. I thought
it was a sin. If only I’d known, it would have been so different.”

Geraldine stopped her
crying and looked at him. She loosened her grip on Jacob’s arm at the same time
Reggie came up from behind and hit Geraldine’s wrist making the gun fall to the
ground. Dean pounced and grabbed Geraldine’s arms, pulling them behind her.
Jacob staggered away and fell next to Leah.

“I used to pray I
wasn’t related to you, you bitch,” Dean said, holding Geraldine close.

Leah closed her eyes.
She heard the sirens in the distance. Reggie came to her and began undoing the
wires.

“See to Jacob first,”
she said. “She hit him pretty hard on the side of the head.”

As soon as the police
came and took Geraldine, Dean went to Leah, who sat on the blanket rubbing her
wrists.

“Are you all right?”
he asked.

She nodded her head.
“About what she said…”

Dean placed a hand on
either side of her face. “I don’t care. It doesn’t matter.”

“Is Jacob going to be
all right?”

“He might have a
concussion, but I’m sure he’s fine.”

“I need to go see
him,” Leah said as she stood. “He’s going to need a friend. And he needs his
brother.”

Dean nodded. “We need
to talk to the police before you can see to Jacob, but I’ll take you.”

They brought Jacob
back to Susie’s house after his release from the emergency room. He wore a
band-aid on his forehead. The doctor gave instructions to watch him carefully
over the next few hours. Leah was relieved when the doctor said there didn’t
appear to be a concussion.

“You can stay here as
long as you want,” Susie said once she settled Jacob on her sofa in her living
room.

“Thank you,” Jacob
said. “I’ll probably spend the night like the doctor suggested, but then I’ll
go back to the parsonage tomorrow.”

“Do you want me to
call Donald about Sunday?” Leah asked. “You’re not going to feel like writing a
sermon.”

“You can call him and
ask him to find one of the lay ministers to fill in,” Jacob said. “Can you also
ask Donald if he can meet with me as soon as possible?”

“Sure. Today?” Leah
asked.

“If he can come over
tonight, that’s fine. I’m going to resign as minister.”

Dean came from the
kitchen with a bottle of water that he placed on the TV table next to Jacob.

“You’re going to
resign from Sunshine Church?” Dean asked.

“Yes. It’s time. I’d
been thinking I’d give them notice so they could find my replacement. But now,
I don’t think I want to do that. I’m going to do as Dad suggested, starting
with a trip somewhere I’ve never been.”

“Any idea where?”
Dean asked.

“I haven’t been to
many places. I could just open a map of the world and drop a finger. I’d
probably find a place I’d never been.”

Susie walked over to
the corner of the living room where a globe of the world hung on a maple stand.
“Spin it and see where you land,” she said when she placed the globe and stand
on the floor next to Jacob.

He closed his eyes
and gave it a spin. He opened his eyes. North America faced him. He closed his
eyes again and lifted his forefinger in the air before placing it down on the
globe.

“Vancouver, Canada,”
Leah said. “I’ve heard that’s a great place.”

“It is,” Dean said.
“I went to a tattoo convention there a few years back. Beautiful weather,
especially this time of year. So what do you think, Jacob? Vancouver?”

“I think it sounds
like the perfect place to start,” Jacob said. He looked up at Dean and smiled for
the first time that day. “What about a trial? Will I have to testify?”

“Yes,” Dean said.
“But the charges of child abuse are up to us, if we want to bring them. Joe
said since we were both under sixteen when they began, there’s no statutory
limits for pressing charges.”

“I’d like it to be
all over,” Jacob said. “The thought of facing her again makes me sick.”

“It’s too soon,” Leah
said. “I think you should go away. When it’s time for the trial on the
kidnapping charges, you can come back then. You and Dean can decide what you
want to do about the other at that point.”

“I don’t know what I
want to do about it either,” Dean said. “But I promise you, if I decide to
press charges, and you don’t want to, I won’t draw you into it.”

“I promise you the
same thing,” Jacob said, and the two brothers shook hands.

“One other thing I
need from you,” Dean said. “I hope it’s not too soon to talk about this, but I’d
like you to be the best man at my wedding.”

“Your wedding?” Leah
looked up at him, not understanding what he meant.

Dean turned away from
Jacob and looked at Leah.

“Our wedding. If
you’ll have me, I’d be honored to be your husband.” Dean knelt on one knee and
pulled a ring box out of his pocket. Inside, a ring with a small diamond in the
shape of a heart sparkled back at Leah.

“Dean, Jacob.” Leah
looked from Dean on his knee to Jacob on the couch. Jacob lay there grinning at
her.

“He already asked me
if it was all right,” Jacob said. “At the hospital. I told him it would make me
very happy to see you two lovebirds together. Aren’t you going to answer this
poor man’s question? He’s getting kind of old to be on his knees all day.”

Leah turned back
around to Dean and put her hands on either side of his face. Tears flowed down
her cheeks, but she made no sound. Dean stood up, still holding the ring box.

“Yes. Yes. I’ll marry
you,” she said.

Susie started
clapping and Jacob whistled. Reggie walked in the front door to find Dean and
Leah hugging, and Susie leaning over Jacob and kissing the top of his head.

“What the heck is
going on?” Reggie asked.

“Dean and Leah are
getting married,” Susie said. “Isn’t that the most romantic thing you’ve ever
heard?”

“Married? I don’t get
it,” Reggie said.

“You need to pay closer
attention, Reg,” Jacob said. “These two were made for each other.”

“There’s one other
thing,” Leah said as she looked up at her new fiancé. “You need to mark me with
one of your tats.”

“You bet. Want a
snake like mine?”

“I want a heart put
right here.” Leah pointed to the spot over her own heart. “It has to be red and
tasteful. Do you think you can handle that?”

“I can handle
anything you want me to handle,” Dean said, and he picked her up and twirled
her around the room.

“Isn’t this so
romantic, Reggie?” Susie asked as she moved next to him. “Right here in my
living room.”

“Sure, sure.” Reggie
patted Susie and then walked over to Dean and shook his hand. “I don’t know
what happened here, but you Davis boys sure know how to take a lemon and
squeeze it until it’s a sweet lemon drop.”

“Get out of here, you
two,” Jacob said. “I’m fine, and you probably need to talk about some things.
Susie’s going to help me research Vancouver.”

“First, I’ll call
Donald,” Leah said. “And then I’m going to sit this man down and make him
commit to a date.”

When she finished her
call, Leah hopped on the back of Dean’s motorcycle and pressed herself as close
as possible. He handed her a helmet.

“It’s not required,
but I don’t want a hair on that beautiful head of yours damaged,” he said.