Southern Seduction (148 page)

When a large hand with a black beetle tattoo on the thumb wiped away the tear on my thigh, I fought back a shudder of pleasure. He left his hand there and stroked the yellowing bruises gently. I kept my head bowed and my eyes on my lap as I watched his perfect hand caress me. I was a selfish woman and didn’t want to break the spell by looking at him.

His left arm slipped around me and pulled me to him while his right hand continued its rubbing. My tears fell uncontrollably, and I fought to keep my hysterics at bay. The hand on my shoulder rubbed me in a comforting way while the hand on my leg rubbed me in a needful way. Between the two conflicting feelings, I was about to hyperventilate.

“I don’t feel so well,” I whispered as the room spun. I felt flushed and lightheaded, my body beginning to shiver.

“I’ve got you, June Bug,” he said softly as he picked me up from the chair. I could hear the murmurs of shock while he carried me to a backroom.

He found a breakroom of sorts and gently laid me on the couch before disappearing. Moments later, he returned with a Sprite and some crackers.

“Sit up, pretty girl,” he coaxed while pulling me to a sitting position.

The room was spinning, and I felt nauseated. I squeezed my eyes shut to keep from vomiting. He opened the can and held it to my lips. I greedily gulped some down, and it instantly started to cool me off. When I felt it was safe to open my eyes again, I took the cracker he was holding for me and nibbled on it.

“Did you not eat anything today?” he asked, brushing the hair from my face so he could see my eyes.

“I got so wrapped up in making the food for after the service that I must have forgotten to.”

“Baby, you can’t do that. You need to take care of our baby by eating right and staying healthy.” His eyes were so tender as he spoke to me, and tears rolled from my eyes once again. The fact that he’d called the baby “ours” had my heart soaring with hope.

“I’ll try harder. Today was just difficult. How are you doing?” I asked, wanting to know how he was holding up.

He stroked my cheek as I ate some more of the cracker and sipped on the Sprite. “Today is going better than I thought. I had a hard time until you got here. Now all I can think about is making sure you’re okay.”

I nodded at his words, because all I cared about was making sure that he was okay. My eyes found their way back to my lap as he swept the hair from my neck. I felt his lips on my neck and I gasped. He gently kissed my neck from my collarbone to my earlobe. My pants were ragged and hungry, a telltell sign of my desire for him.

“June Bug, I love you. Please say we can fix this,” he begged sadly, almost with conviction that I would deny him.

The hand stroking my thigh slid under my dress, and his thumb found my clit through my panties. My head dropped back as he lazily stroked me. I came suddenly, surprising us both. It seemed as though my body craved his touch as much as my mind did.

“Baby, I want nothing more than to make love to you right here. To show you how much I love you. How much I want your forgiveness. But you know we need to get back in there. Will you stay with me? Will you let me love you?”

I turned to him and caressed his cheek, smiling. “I love you, Bobby, more than anything I’ve ever loved before. There’s no way I could ever stop—no matter how much you push me away. All I ever wanted was for you to love me back.”

“God, June, I never stopped.” His lips were on mine in a gentle but passionate way. We kissed until we were gasping for breath. Finally, he pulled away and smirked. “We better get out of here or I’m about to get us both in trouble. I can promise you though—when this is over, I’ll love you all night long.”

I giggled as he dragged me out of the breakroom and back into the chapel.

Bobby

I finally got over my stupid ways and won her back. She had come back easily to me, and I was beyond thankful. I loved her more than life itself. Now she had a growing part of our love inside her, and my heart swelled with pride.

“Bobby, have you no morals?” Donnie teased, wagging his eyebrows at us when we emerged from the breakroom. I squeezed June’s hand, making sure it was real and I still had her.

“Donnie, don’t act like you haven’t done worse,” I joked back, swatting him away. He jumped back and strode back over to Chaz and Manny, chuckling along the way. “Come on. I want you to see Dad,” I told her, leading her to the front of the chapel.

The mortician had done a good job making Dad look healthy and like himself. On the way to the front, we passed the slideshow that was playing on the wall. Manny had surprised me with it this morning. He’d found the camera with all the pictures from the last two months of Dad, June, and me and made a slideshow. While I had been a big dick to my friends and loved ones, they had still been loving and supporting me. I was truly blessed.

June stopped for a moment and grinned as she watched the photos flash by.

“Bobby, it’s beautiful. This is wonderful.”

We watched it for a few minutes more, chuckling over some of the memories we’d had with him in those last moments. Finally, when it recycled again, I pulled her to the front. When we reached the casket, she tentatively reached over and stroked his hair.

“I miss him so much,” she whispered, mostly to herself.

I squeezed her free hand again showing my support. “Me too, babe.”

The reverend did an excellent job of talking about my dad’s life and how many people’s lives he’d touched. When it was time for Dottie to give the eulogy, I was surprised when June pulled a notebook from her purse and stood up to walk to the podium. She winked at me and hurried up there.

“My mother was going to give the eulogy, but it made more sense for me to do it. Mr. Acer, or Sutton as he insisted I call him, was a great man—the best. He loved his son more than life itself. We spent the better part of fifteen years developing a relationship on our mutual loss of Bobby. Every day when I saw him in the diner, we chatted about life, but we also discussed Bobby. Every single time. Not a day went by where that man didn’t express the love he had for his son. So even if his son wasn’t with him, he went about each day never forgetting to mention him.”

My eyes were streaming with tears when she looked over and smiled at me. She continued as I remained speechless and crying.

“When Bobby came back, something changed in Mr. Acer. Gone was the longing and sadness. He came alive with joy. For a man who knew he was dying, he embraced every single day with one agenda—to enjoy his son. It was hard to watch him die a slow, agonizing death. But the truly wonderful thing was to watch their relationship grow. Those two fast became the best of friends. Most people will never experience the unconditional love those two expressed to one another. Mr. Acer, having been a large man, could have been too proud to have his son help him shower and use the bathroom. Not him. No, he just used the opportunity to become amazingly close with his son.

“I watched those two for nearly two months. Bobby looked at his dad like he’d hung the moon. Mr. Acer looked at his boy with such adoration and pride that it was a joy to watch. It was my privilege to witness the beauty of it. As the pain grew more intense, Mr. Acer refused to let it get in the way of his last moments with his son. Whereas most people in his condition would have long succumbed to extremely heavy doses of pain medication, Mr. Acer wore a mask of a pain-free death. When he was hospitalized, we realized just how much pain he was in, but still, he refused to cloud time with Bobby.

“I bestowed Mr. Acer with the gift of a journal. Because of our relationship throughout the years, I knew that he was a closet writer. He shared many short stories, poems, and letters to his son with me. The man was incredibly gifted in this area, so there is no surprise as to how his son became such a creative songwriter. After his passing, I located the journal to read an excerpt to you all today. It was written for Bobby, as they all were.”

She looked up at me and blinked back her tears. My chin was quivering so much as I forced the sobs to stay at bay. I nodded for her to continue.

“Okay, so here it goes, Bobby.
Bobby, my dear son. If you are reading this, I’ve finally moved on. Discovering I had cancer was the best thing that ever happened to me. Most people go through life wishing for health. My life was unhealthy and empty without you. I was already dead. But when I discovered I had cancer and you showed up on my doorstep, I started to heal. I know you’re probably thinking my thoughts on this are downright insane, but you are sadly mistaken.

“The moment you walked back into that house, my heart started shedding the black loneliness and light shone through. Bobby, you were that light. My sweet son came back, a tattooed, badass angel. With each touch, word, and song, you took my heart and nursed it back to life. You turned the black, corroded mess into a beautiful, shining, full-of-life star. At a time when most people would be in despair and hating the inevitable, I was grinning like a loon because I had the only thing that had ever mattered to me. Bobby, you are an amazing man and I am incredibly proud of who you’ve become. I know that you will continue to grab life by its horns and do things that most people only dream of. So, yeah, I thank God for giving me cancer, because without it, I would have never gotten my boy back.

“Bobby, don’t let my death eat away at you with guilt from what you didn’t know or anger toward your mother. All that matters is that we were able to reunite like we’d never spent a moment apart. I feel like I can leave this world with a full heart. Full of life, love, and memories. Those people in heaven are going to get real sick of me when I get up there and tell them all about you. You, son, are my everything. Even in the afterlife. I love you.”

By the time she finished, I was sobbing with a very concerned Mom and Chaz hugging me. Even though the words had been coming from June’s mouth, they had been every bit my father speaking loud and clear to me. June thanked everyone for listening and came back over to me. I pulled her into my lap. She nuzzled into me.

“Thank you, June. Thank you for everything,” I whispered tearfully into her neck.

June

When Bobby finally composed himself, he located his guitar, dragged a chair to face the coffin, and sat down. Chaz went over to the podium and cleared his throat.

“Hi there, everyone. Bobby wrote a song that he wants to play today. It is beautiful, and I hope I can make it through without losing my shit—er, stuff. The song is about both June and his dad. The song is called I Want To Stay Like This Forever. Yeah, uh, let’s get to it,” Chaz sputtered. It was crazy to see a natural performer get so nervous.

The haunting sounds of Bobby’s guitar suddenly filled the room, and I became enchanted with the song as Chaz began to sing.

“I ask you what you want.

You say that you don’t know.

How can you go through life

Always putting on a show?

Don’t you ever want more?

To see life in a different light?

The only answer you have for me

Is, ‘Baby, I don’t know what’s right.’

I want to stay like this forever.

There’s nowhere I’d rather be.

I want to stay like this forever.

With you here with me.

I wish things had been different,

And we could have had more time.

But life had its own damn plans.

Now nothing will ever be fine.

Why did things go so wrong?

That’s what I need to know.

My heart aches so damn bad,

‘Cause when you’re gone, I’ll be so low.

And then things begin to change.

My eyes, they’re never dry.

A whisper trickles from your lips.

You say, ‘Son, please don’t cry.’

I want to stay like this forever.

There’s nowhere I’d rather be.

I want to stay like this forever.

With you here with me.

I took your heart into my palm.