Behind the Altar: Behind the Love Trilogy (11 page)

Dean sat on the front
steps of the church as Leah came outside.

“It went well,” she
said as she sat down next to him. “They’re taking a vote, but Geraldine didn’t
stay around. I have a feeling the remaining four will vote to let me continue.”

Geraldine walked
around from the back of the church.

“I should have known
the two of you’d be together,” she said. “You both are white trash, and you
need to get off the front steps of this church.”

“Geraldine, don’t you
think it’s time to admit that you’re the only white trash around here,” Dean
said as he stood up and faced her. “I bet Leah here would like to know the real
reason I left.”

“You left because you
raped that young girl, and you know it,” Geraldine said. “Now get out of here
before I call the police.”

“On what grounds?
Trespassing on church grounds where we’re both members? Or don’t you remember
that I was baptized and confirmed in this very church under your watchful eye.”

“I tried to tell
Jacob about you two, but he’s been brainwashed by that one,” Geraldine said as
she pointed at Leah. “Maybe she didn’t tell you, but I saw you two that day out
behind the church. You’re both disgusting.”

“I don’t care what
you think you saw,” Dean said. “I happen to be in love with this woman, and you
will not disparage her. You don’t even deserve to be near her.”

“Love her.” Geraldine
spit on the ground in front of Dean’s feet. “What do you know about love?”

“I know about a
mother who does things to her young son to turn him away from love for a very
long time,” Dean said. “Do you want to tell Leah all about that?”

“You’re delusional
and should be locked up,” Geraldine said.

“Big Jim didn’t think
so.” Dean moved closer to Geraldine and looked down at her.

“Stop, please stop,”
Leah said. “This is no way for a family to act. My mother may have been a drug
addict, as you keep telling folks, Geraldine, but at least we loved one
another. You two act as if you’re in a war.”

“We are, Leah. It’s
been one long battle,” Dean said. “That’s why I’ve stayed away so long.”

“He’s not even my
son,” Geraldine said. “Did you know that, Mr. Big Shot?”

Dean looked at
Geraldine and shook his head. “Who’s delusional now?”

Jacob opened the
front doors of the church and came out to join them. He looked from Dean to his
mother and then to Leah.

“You won, Leah,”
Jacob said. “You can open Soup’s On tomorrow, with some limitations.”

“Limitations?” Leah
asked.

“Yes. The day before
and the day of the Woman’s Circle, you’ll have to do it elsewhere.”

“I can do that. I
suggested it. That’s only two days a month.”

“Your budget is being
cut to what you can fund yourself.”

“OK. What else?”

“This reprieve is
only until September when the Board wants to revisit the whole arrangement,”
Jacob said. “They’d like you to make a presentation with all the figures and
maybe some personal success stories.”

“That’s reasonable,”
Leah said. “I hope by September I’ll have the plans in place for moving Soup’s
On.”

“You know you’re no
longer welcome to live at the parsonage, don’t you?” Geraldine asked.

“Mother, you don’t
have anything to say about who lives there,” Jacob said. “I told you that last
night. And as far as you living there, I’m putting you on probation.”

“Probation?”
Geraldine asked. “You can’t do that.”

“Watch me. One more
incident, and you’re gone. And when Leah and I marry, you’ll need to find
another place. There’s always the hunting cabin. You could start fixing that
up.”

“You’re still
marrying this tramp?” Geraldine asked as she pointed to Leah.

Both Dean and Jacob
moved in on their mother.

“One more word, and
you’ll find another place to live today,” Jacob said.

“I warned you not to
say another word about Leah,” Dean said.

“Or what?” Geraldine
stood her ground to the two men who towered over her. “Or you’re going to tell
Jacob what you just told me? That you’re in love with her?”

Jacob moved his gaze
from his mother to his brother. Dean took a step backward.

“You’re in love with
Leah?” Jacob asked.

“Yes, I am,” Dean
said.

“How did that
happen?” Jacob asked. Then he turned to Leah standing back by the steps.
“Leah?”

Leah turned and
walked away toward Susie’s car.

“You’ll be better off
without her,” Geraldine said. “She’s nothing. I thought I could make her into
the perfect wife for you, but I guess I was wrong.”

“Not another word,
Mother,” Jacob said as he walked back into the church.

Dean turned away and
followed Leah to the car, leaving Geraldine alone.

Dean and Leah drove
in silence back to Susie’s house. Dean wondered how Leah felt about his
confession, both his feelings for her and about Geraldine. When she pulled up
in front of the house, she turned to him.

“I don’t know why you
said what you did back there,” Leah said. “But I’ve got a lot to think about.
I’m ashamed that I left without talking to Jacob. I wish you hadn’t said
anything at all.”

“Are you saying you
don’t feel the same way about me?”

“I’m saying I don’t
know how I feel. I’ve got a lot to think about, and we’re going to have to
figure out a way to work together if what you say is true about the barn and
the property around it.”

“It’s true. Tomorrow
should take away any doubt about that.”

“And I have to decide
what I’m going to do about Jacob,” Leah said. “I need figure it out without
being confused by you. After all that’s done, maybe then I can think about what
I feel for you.”

“OK, I’ll be
patient,” Dean said. “I have to admit I’m thinking differently about Jacob. He
never stood up to Geraldine as a kid. He always took her side against me, but
today he really put her in her place.”

“I know. I’m proud of
him. I’m also upset about Geraldine. She’s been like a mother to me for these
past few years, and now it’s as if she’s become a different person or grown a
second head. I don’t know her at all now.”

“She’s not what she
appears,” Dean said. “You probably never crossed her before this.”

“That’s true. I never
questioned anything she said or did. Do you want to talk about the other thing?
About your childhood?”

“When I was twelve
years old, Geraldine seduced me.” He said the words before he could think about
their impact.

The birds still sang
outside the car, the crickets chirped, and a butterfly flew past Leah’s window,
but the sounds in the car stopped. Even the breathing from the occupants seemed
to be suspended.

“Seduced you?” Leah
finally asked. “What does that mean?”

“I came out of the
shower one day when Daddy and Jacob had gone to Tampa. Geraldine stood in the
middle of the bathroom with nothing on but a transparent black teddy. She
touched me.”

Dean stopped and hung
his head.

“Dean?” Leah asked as
she touched his face. “What happened?”

“It continued until I
was seventeen. I was dating Sally Jean, which Geraldine allowed for some
reason. But when I started spending time with Mabel, Geraldine lost it. Mabel
and I were both wounded souls, but we never had a sexual relationship.
Geraldine thought something was going on.”

“And Geraldine turned
that into something it wasn’t, didn’t she?”

“Yes, she was enraged
with jealousy. When she made her accusations to Big Jim that night, I left and
never came back.”

“I wonder why she
didn’t feel that way about Sally Jean,” Leah said.

“I don’t know and
probably never will.”

“She needs to go to
jail for what she did to you,” Leah said.

“I don’t want anyone
else to know. You have to promise me. I don’t know why I said anything back
there. The past few days I’ve done and felt things I’ve never felt before.”

Leah rubbed his
shoulder with her hand. “It’s all right. I won’t tell anyone. I’m glad you told
me. It makes things fall into place. Did Big Jim know?”

“Somehow he figured
it out; I’m not sure how. Maybe he always knew,” Dean said. “But a few months
before he died, he found me in South Beach and told me he was sorry that he
never stuck up for me. He didn’t’ say why, but I knew he knew. It plagued his
conscience.”

“So he changed his
will?”

“Yes. I didn’t know
it at the time, but a few months ago, this attorney in Jacksonville called.
He’d just learned about Big Jim’s death. And when he went to file the will, he
discovered another will was already filed in probate, but he told me he had the
latest will and testament of James Dexter Davis.”

“What happens if
there’s two wills?” Leah asked.

“The newer one will
be probated according to this lawyer, but he also said that the lawyer Big Jim
used to draw up the first will knew about the new will, revoking the old one.”

“But he filed the
older one anyway?”

“Seems so, and for
some reason never told Geraldine,” Dean said. “You know Big Jim was pretty
wealthy, don’t you? He came from money and invested wisely. There’s more to the
will than just me inheriting the property, according to the lawyer.”

“What will happen
tomorrow?”

“Jim Moran, the
lawyer from Jacksonville, will contact everyone mentioned in the will and
arrange for a reading, probably at Harlan Landis’s office.”

“Harlan is Big Jim’s
lawyer, right?”

“Right, and he’s the
one who filed the old will instead of this one.”

“Good luck with
that,” Leah said. “Call me afterwards to let me know what happens.”

“Jim’s probably going
to ask me for your contact information.”

“Mine? Why?” Leah
asked.

“Because you’re
mentioned in the new will, according to Jim,” Dean said. “Should be an
interesting meeting tomorrow with you, Jacob, Geraldine, and me sitting in one room
together.”

“I don’t know why Big
Jim would have mentioned me in his will.”

“He mentioned you
because he saw in you what I see, and probably what Jacob sees,” Dean said as
he turned toward her for the first time since he made his confession. “Your
heart is full of kindness and compassion. I knew it the first time I looked
into those green eyes of yours.”

“Dean, I don’t know
what to say.”

“Don’t say anything.
Go on inside and take a break. There’s been far too much drama for a Sunday
morning,” Dean said. “I think I’m going to ride my bike today and spend some
time thinking about my life. Meeting you has changed everything for me.”

“I’m going to take
some quiet time today, too. Maybe I’ll go up river, and sit and commune with
the birds and fish. I used to do more of that when life was simpler. Then, I
have to think about you as a tattoo artist. Are you really as famous as Tommy
said?”

“I gained some
notoriety after a couple of feature articles in some national magazines. How
about I do a Harold Grant original for you?”

Leah smiled. “I think
I’ll pass on that for now.”

Dean leaned over and
kissed Leah on the forehead. “Thank you for listening today.”

They both got out of
the car. Leah headed for the front porch, and Dean hopped on his bike. He
turned around once to see if she was watching him, and he was gratified to see
she was.

Susie wasn’t at home
when Leah came back to the house. She went into the kitchen and began making a
sandwich to take with her on the walk to the river, when Susie and Tommy came
back.

“I hope you don’t
mind if I make a sandwich,” Leah said. “I’ll get some groceries tomorrow to
help out.”

“Don’t worry about
it,” Susie said. “We heard about the vote from Jacob. Congratulations.”

“I’d like to ask you
a few more questions,” Tommy said. “I think this is going to be a great story.”

“Sure. What do you
want to know?”

“Susie told me you’re
very familiar with the homeless situation. Are you OK to talk about your
experience?”

“I think so, although
I don’t want it to be the focus of the piece.”

“It won’t be, but it
makes the story more compelling, and perhaps will give hope to others if they
see what someone who came from the streets can accomplish.”

“I don’t know that
I’ve accomplished all that much,” Leah said. “But when you’re given a gift,
it’s only right to give back somewhere else. Those people down at the river are
my family.”

“I can see that,”
Tommy said. “And they feel that way about you. Tell me how you ended up on the
streets.”

Leah took a deep
breath. She thought back to the day her father walked out after a particularly
awful argument. The day had started out with such promise. The three of them
spent the morning at the beach searching for shells and then the drinking
started. If Leah knew her parents at all, she imagined some drugs were added to
the beer and whiskey. When they went back to the trailer, the mood changed, and
the brightness of the day turned dark.

She attempted to give
Tommy an abbreviated version of her father’s departure and her mother’s
depression.

“By the time I was
thirteen, we didn’t have a home except with the beach folks,” Leah said. “They
took us in and showed us how to live on the streets. I finally managed to get a
job at the mall when I turned seventeen, but by then my mother was dead from a
heroin overdose. Joshua and a few others kept me safe with them and saw to it
that I got clothes so I could go to school. Eventually, I found a job.
Geraldine Davis found me at the mall one day and brought me here.”

After Tommy left,
Leah changed into khaki shorts, a tank top, and hiking boots. Even wearing the
simple clothes, she stood out with her long dark hair piled up on top of her
head under a baseball cap.

“You’re cute no
matter what you do,” Susie said. “No wonder you’ve got two men fighting over
you.”

“Thanks, but it’s not
all that great. I’ll see you later, Susie,” Leah said as she headed out the
door with a backpack slung over her shoulder.

“Do you need a ride?”
Susie asked as she followed her out on the front porch.

“No thanks. I need
some time to think. Too many things are happening right now for me to make
sense of any of it.”

Leah walked down the
dusty road toward the river. She’d cut across the field that the farmer was
leaving fallow for the summer and then into the woods that would lead her to
the cool waters of Deer River. As she walked, a horrifying thought came to her.
What if Geraldine did the same thing to Jacob as she did to Dean? What if she
was still doing the same thing? And what if she’d chosen Leah as his wife to
cover for what was going on in the parsonage? It would explain Jacob’s
reluctance for intimacy. She didn’t have the answers, but if the past few days
had taught her anything, it was to assume the worst and go from there.

When she reached the
river, she sat on a flat rock close to the moving water. It didn’t move fast,
but it flowed over a few rocks in the center, creating a soothing sound. She
quieted her mind and asked for guidance. She knew how she felt in Dean’s
presence. It was unlike anything she’d ever felt before. When he looked at her,
nothing else existed except the bright blue of his eyes with their flecks of
white when the sun hit him just right. She lost herself in him as if in prayer.
But when she pulled herself away from him, the guilt she felt was agonizing.

Jacob didn’t have the
same effect on her, and he never had. They never stared into one another’s
eyes. She had to think about the color of his eyes for minute before she
finally decided they were hazel. Or maybe brown? She didn’t really know, and
she planned to marry him sometime soon. Why do I know the color of Dean’s eyes
after only meeting him three days ago, she wondered as she stared at the water
without really seeing it flow over the rocks.

She’d be twenty-three
on her birthday in July. She wondered when they’d be married, if ever. Jacob
needed her; perhaps he didn’t want her as Dean did, but there was no doubt that
Jacob needed her. She took care of him and offered him kind words of
encouragement whenever his job and obligations became overwhelming. He often
ruffled her hair and smiled at her when he realized she was right to urge him
to talk to her. She knew she was his only friend and the only woman he’d ever
shown an interest in romantically. He was two years older than she was, and
according to both Jacob and Geraldine, he’d never had a date in high school or
in seminary school. Now that Leah thought of it, it seemed odd. Jacob was
sweet, kind, and generous. And he was tall and handsome; perhaps not so much as
his brother, but he was easy on the eyes. He didn’t have the finely honed
physique of Dean whose chiseled muscles rippled under his t-shirts, but he
wasn’t flabby either. His square jaw line and dimpled chin gave him authority
and a child-like innocence, all at the same time.

She prayed to God to
keep Jacob safe, but she knew in her heart they had to talk, especially after
Dean’s confession today. As she sat there on the rock, she heard her heart
assure her that everything would happen as it should.

And tomorrow there
would be the reading of the will.

“Why did Jim mention
me in the will?” she asked aloud to the trees swaying in the gentle breeze. She
noticed a gator on the opposite bank sunning in a patch of light filtering
through the leaves of the cypress tree. She looked around on her side of the
river to make sure she wasn’t in the way of an alligator trying to bask in the
sun.

By the time she arrived
back at Susie’s, the house was empty. She decided to get a book she’d packed
the night before and sit on the porch where the ceiling fans whirred their
approval. She’d put all of the turmoil of the past few days out of her mind and
escape into the world of romantic fiction. The books she read at night always
seemed to be such fantasies, but as she looked at the cover of the paperback
with the two lovers embracing, she realized she’d always hoped that type of
love existed in the world. Now she knew it did.

Her cell phone rang
as she sat down on one of the rockers. Caller ID showed a Jacksonville number. Joe
Moran, the lawyer Big Jim hired to write his last will, wanted her to attend a
meeting the next afternoon. She agreed to meet with him at 1 p.m. at the
attorney’s office in Victory. She wondered how Harlan Landis, the Davis family
attorney for years, felt about Big Jim going out of town to hire a new lawyer.

The next day, she
took Susie to the dry cleaners so she could use her car to run some errands and
then keep her scheduled time with the lawyer. When she entered the cool of the
small reception lobby of the office on Main Street, the front desk was empty.
As soon as she shut the door behind her, Harlan came out to greet her.

“Come on back, Leah,”
he said as he held the door to the offices open for her to enter. “We’re just
waiting on Geraldine and Jacob.”

He led her into a
conference room with dark paneling, dark red carpeting, with a long walnut
table dominating the room. A man sat at the head of the table, and he rose as
Leah entered the room. As she came toward the table, she saw Dean already
seated to the man’s left.

“You must be Leah,”
the man said as he reached out his hand in greeting. “I’m Joe Moran. We spoke
on the phone yesterday.”

They were shaking
hands when she heard the front door open. In a few minutes, Jacob and Geraldine
entered the room.

“I have no idea why
you’ve dragged us down here today, Harlan,” Geraldine said as she entered the
room. “This is plain ridiculous to think that Big Jim might have another will
that I didn’t know about.”

“Hello, Mrs. Davis,”
Joe said as he moved to greet her. “I’m Joe Moran.” He held out his hand, but
Geraldine ignored him and moved to the other side of the table.

“Hello, I’m Jacob,” Jacob
said as he reached for the hand rebuffed by his mother. “We spoke yesterday.”

“Yes, of course,
Jacob. It’s nice to meet you,” Joe said. “Let’s all be seated and get started.”

When Geraldine headed
for the other side of the table, she stiffened at the sight of Dean. She sat
down at the opposite end from Joe. Jacob and Leah sat across from Dean. Harlan reached
over Geraldine and picked up a folder and legal pad sitting in front of her
before sitting down next to Dean.

Joe cleared his
throat and straightened a pile of papers in front of him. “Harlan, thank you
for letting us use your office today for the reading of this will.”

“Glad to be of
assistance,” Harlan said.

“I’m surprised that
you filed an earlier will,” Joe said, “when you knew Big Jim had another one
drawn up a few months before he died. That makes things a little more
complicated, but once a judge sees the two wills, the one with the later date
will prevail.”

“I didn’t realize
there was any difference when Big Jim brought the new one to me,” Harlan said.
“I didn’t pay any mind to it and just put it in his file. Must have gotten
confused.”

“Let’s hope, for your
sake a judge sees it that way,” Joe said.

“Now you listen here,
I didn’t let you use these offices so you could throw around threats,” Harlan
said.

“Calm down, Harlan,”
Joe said. “No harm intended. Let’s just get on with the reading of this will,
which represents the final wishes of James Dexter Davis.”

He read all the legal
language at the beginning and then started with the bequests.

“To the Sunshine
Church, I leave an endowment of one million dollars to be used for church
improvements and programs to further the church’s ministry to the community and
to the global projects we sponsor.”

Jacob and Leah smiled
at one another. The money would take a great burden off the budget, and maybe
keep Geraldine from being so miserly with supporting the church’s programs.
Leah knew that meant a lot to Jacob.

“To my oldest son,
Dean Charles Davis, I offer my sincere apologies for not doing more to take
care of him over the years. I hope he finds peace, and can find it in his heart
to forgive me. Because I know he always loved the farm and hated it the day we
stopped operations, I leave him the entire property of two hundred acres,
including all buildings and their contents. May he return to the land he once
loved so much. I also leave him one million dollars to do with as he sees fit.”

Leah looked over at
Dean who kept his head down, staring at his hands. Leah wasn’t sure if Dean
knew about the money or not. Big Jim’s public acknowledgement must mean more
than any of it, Leah thought.

“How can you let this
travesty continue, Harlan?” Geraldine asked from her end of the table. “What
kind of game is being played here?”

“I can assure you
this is no game, Mrs. Davis,” Joe said.

“Geraldine, please
listen to the man,” Harlan said. “There’s nothing you can do about it.”

“To my son, Jacob, I
leave my sincere wishes that he find what it is that will make him happy,” Joe
read from the will. “He went to seminary school because he thought it would
please me, and he came back to Victory to take over the ministry to please his
mother. Neither of those things were what he really wanted, and I’ve always
known that. I want him to have the freedom to discover what makes him happy,
and not anyone else.

“When Dean left, he
tried every which way to please us to somehow to make up for that heartache,
but he forgot to do the one thing that would have made me the happiest. Jacob
forgot to take care of himself. To ensure that he finds what it is he wants to
do with his life, I am leaving him a trust fund of one million dollars. I urge
him to go out into the world.”

Geraldine let out a
loud snort, but didn’t say anything. Leah turned to Jacob and touched his arm.
They smiled at one another, and she noticed that his eyes were hazel, just as
she’d thought yesterday. Big Jim hit on something Leah had always suspected.
Jacob made the motions of a caring minister because he was a good person, but
there was nothing behind it. His faith often left him, and that’s why Leah
spent much of her time with him bolstering him up. Joe started speaking again,
and when she heard her name, she turned to the head of the table and began
listening again.

“Leah Bryant came
into our lives a few years ago and blessed us all with her goodness born of a
loving heart and generous spirit. Not only is she beautiful on the outside, but
she’s even more gorgeous on the inside. The work she does with Soup’s On is the
true definition of Christianity as Christ envisioned it. I know it’s been a
struggle at times to keep the kitchen open with the concerns of the church
budget. I want to ensure that she never has to worry about where the next meal
will come to feed those in our community who are unable to feed themselves. A
trust fund for Soup’s On will see that Leah’s efforts are supported financially
for the rest of its existence with Leah as the executor of that fund. I also
leave a trust fund for Leah of $500,000 so she will never have to worry about
where she lives again.”

Leah looked up at the
lawyer with tears in her eyes. Big Jim had just given her everything she’d ever
wanted. She looked across the table at Dean, who was smiling at her. Everything
she had wanted until three days ago, she thought as she smiled back at Dean.