“Oh, tell your little bimbo secretary today,” Savannah added. “I’ll be back tomorrow so we can start planning our life together.”
Savannah blew him a kiss as she headed out the door.
chapter 38
Terrance was still in shock.
He’d spent the last twenty-four hours in a daze, unable to believe what was happening to him. Just to let him know she was serious, Savannah had called last night and told his answering machine good-night (because he definitely wasn’t picking up the phone). She’d wished him sweet dreams, ending the message by saying, “I love you.”
He was sitting at home in the dark at the time. He’d tried to turn to the Bible to find some way to help him handle the problem, but he didn’t even have the strength to open it. This was his punishment for sleeping with Savannah, especially when he knew he didn’t love her and there was a strong possibility that they wouldn’t be together. He’d given in to lust and was now paying the ultimate price.
And poor Raquel, she would be crushed. She’d returned to the church about an hour after Savannah left, but he couldn’t even bring himself to look at her. He’d feigned a stomachache and rushed out. She, too, had been calling him all night, and he couldn’t take her calls either.
He’d played out all the scenarios in his head. He could tell Savannah he wasn’t giving in to the blackmail. But that could mean the end of his career—shoot, the end of everything he’d worked so hard to build—because he knew she was serious on her threat to reveal his secret.
Terrance would have stayed at home this evening, but he was supposed to be delivering part two of his lesson at Wednesday-night Bible Study, and if he missed it, Raquel would definitely know something was wrong. Besides, he probably needed Bible Study tonight more than ever.
Luckily, Raquel arrived just as he was getting Bible Study started so they didn’t have time to talk, but she did shoot him a concerned look. He’d mouthed, I’ll talk to you after we finish, and she’d nodded before taking her seat.
Terrance was about midway through his lesson when he looked up at the back of the church. Savannah had swung both of the double doors open, making a grand entrance. Everyone turned toward her as Terrance fought back the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He hadn’t even thought about her showing up here tonight. Since he hadn’t been at the church all day, he’d thought that maybe he had missed her and wouldn’t have to deal with her until tomorrow. He should’ve known better.
“A…And as I was saying,” Terrance said, trying to refocus, “the word of God says…”
Terrance tried to keep talking as Savannah made her way to the front row and sat down. Several people started grumbling and throwing her nasty looks, but she didn’t seem the least bit fazed. Terrance knew his aunts were furious about the dramatic entrance. They’d been in such good moods since he’d told them he and Savannah were over. In fact, they’d been on cloud nine when they learned he was spending more and more time with Raquel.
After fumbling his way through several scriptures, Terrance wrapped up the Bible Study lesson. “Well, that’s our lesson for tonight. I hope you’ll notate what we discussed tonight and study it some more at home.”
“Amen, Pastor,” Savannah said, waving a handkerchief at him. Since when did she ever carry a handkerchief? Terrance thought. He forced a nod, then turned to another member, who was shooting Savannah dirty looks. “Sister Stinson, can you lead us in a closing prayer?”
“I’d love to,” she said, as she stood.
“You know what, Sister Stinson,” Savannah said, cutting her off. “Please allow me to close out the Bible Study.”
Terrance felt his heart stop. He desperately wanted to say or do something, but it was as if his body were frozen.
Sister Stinson shot Savannah a disgruntled look, but did sit back down.
“Please bow your heads,” Savannah said. “Heavenly Father, we thank you for this wonderful lesson we were blessed with this evening. Continue to watch over us and guide our steps.”
Terrance was praying she’d say “amen” and wrap up, but of course, luck wasn’t on his side.
“And, Lord, please bless Terrance and I as we begin our new life together. I know that marriage won’t be easy, but with you at the center of our relationship, we know there’s nothing we can’t do. These and other blessings we ask in your name, amen.”
Savannah smiled as she opened her eyes and looked around the room. Raquel, Eva, Mamie, Dorothy Mae, and half the members in the room stood with their mouths gaped open.
“What did you just say?” Mamie finally managed to say.
“Oh, that God should bless us all?” Savannah asked innocently.
“Naw, the other part,” Dorothy Mae snapped.
“Oh, the part about Terrance and I getting married.” Savannah was all smiles as she walked forward and took her place next to Terrance by the podium. “Yes, my baby and I are tying the knot.”
Everyone in the room looked at Terrance, confused. He lowered his head. Terrance couldn’t even will his mouth to open. This was definitely not how he wanted to handle this, but right now, he still couldn’t find his voice.
Savannah gently pushed his shoulder. “Baby, since the cat got your tongue, I guess I’ll do it.” She pulled Terrance closer to her. “I would like to tell each and every one of you how much I’m looking forward to working with you here at Lily Grove. As Terrance’s fiancée, I want you to see me as an extension of him.”
“What in the world is going on?” Mamie yelled. Several other people started talking as well.
Terrance closed his eyes and wished he were anyplace but here.
“Terrance Deshaun Ellis, what is she talking about?” Eva demanded.
Terrance opened his eyes, but still didn’t respond.
“Tell them, sweetheart,” Savannah urged, a triumphant smile across her face. “Tell them, or I have so much I could tell them myself,” she said when he didn’t respond.
Terrance glared at her, wishing at that moment he wasn’t a man of God so he could choke the crap out of her right there in the pulpit.
Finally, he turned to his members. “Sa…Savannah and I are…together,” he managed to say.
“‘Together’? What does that mean?” Dorothy Mae demanded.
“Yeah, Terrance,” Raquel softly added. “What does that mean?”
Savannah pursed her lips and glared at Raquel. “It means, sweetheart, that you won’t be spending as much time with my man.” The smile returned to Savannah’s face as she squeezed his arm. “Now that we’re engaged, he won’t be needing your…your companionship as much.” Savannah stuck out her hand, displaying a small diamond ring. Several people gasped. Terrance was one of them. They’d never said anything about getting a ring. Tears welled up in Raquel’s eyes.
“Is this true?” she asked, struggling to keep her voice steady.
Savannah squeezed Terrance’s arm again. “Well, tell her, sweetie.”
Terrance felt like someone was taking a knife and turning it around and around in his heart. Devastation was written all over Raquel’s face.
“Terrance, I asked you a question,” Raquel repeated. “Is it true?”
Terrance slowly nodded. He didn’t want to add to her pain by prolonging this, not to mention there was no telling what Savannah might do next.
“I can’t believe you,” Raquel cried as she turned and fled from the sanctuary.
Several of the members had sat back down, no doubt telling themselves this drama was much better than anything they had to get home to.
“Terrance, do you want to tell us what is going on? When did this happen? I thought you two broke up.” Eva tossed the questions at him.
“We decided to work it out,” Savannah offered.
“I’m not talking to you,” Eva snapped.
Savannah’s eyebrows raised. “Now, now. We’re going to be family, so we really need to get this animosity under control.”
“You will never be our fa
mily,” Mamie hissed.
Savannah shrugged. “Have it your way. I’ll hate, and I’m sure Terrance will hate it as well, to exclude you from his life. But we’re a package deal now, and if you can’t accept that, oh, well.”
Terrance finally got his bearings about him. He had to get out of this sanctuary, especially with the evil and ungodly thoughts that were floating around in his head. “I need to go,” he muttered.
“Yes, we do need to go,” Savannah repeated as she followed Terrance toward the door. “Everyone enjoy your night. My fiancé is very tired and I want to get him home to bed.”
“Terrance, you’re not going anywhere!” Eva yelled. “Not until you tell us what is going on.”
Terrance stopped, turned around, and looked pleadingly at his aunts. “Look, everything Savannah said is true. We’re together now. Can we leave it at that? I’ll talk to you all later, okay?” His head was pounding. His heart was hurting after seeing the pain in Raquel’s eyes. And he wanted nothing more than to get out of the church.
“Good-bye, ladies,” Savannah said. “Or shall I say, good-bye, aunties.” She was on top of the world as she floated out after her fiancé.
chapter 39
Day seven of Savannah, and Terrance was going out of his mind. He had tried to go into hiding, avoiding his aunts and everyone else by saying he was sick. It wasn’t a total lie. He was sick to his stomach at the thought of being blackmailed into a relationship.
And Savannah couldn’t care less. She had all but moved into his place and had literally taken over his life. She talked like she wasn’t blackmailing him at all.
“So, sweetie, what would you like for dinner?” she asked him this morning. “I have a beauty shop appointment, then I’m going to the grocery store. I want to make you a special dinner.”
He’d done what he’d been doing for the past week: glared at her, then fell back into bed. She’d shrugged and left.
That was two hours ago. Terrance suspected she’d be returning soon, and he wasn’t in the mood to deal with her happy attitude, like they were blissful newlyweds or something.
He threw back the covers, climbed out of bed, and hopped in the shower. After a ten-minute, scalding-hot shower, he felt a little better. He hurriedly got dressed and headed out before Savannah returned.
Fifteen minutes later he was parked outside the church. He sat in his car, said a brief prayer, then tried to get up the nerve to go inside. He had to snap out of this daze. Yes, his life had totally been screwed up. But he’d made this bed. It was time to lie in it. And there was no sense in his walking around moping about it.
Terrance slowly made his way in the back door and down the hall to his office. He was relieved to see that Raquel wasn’t at her desk. He wasn’t ready to face her, but he knew at some point he was going to have to tell her something.
Terrance wasn’t in his office five minutes when there was a light tap on his door. He took a deep breath, then replied, “Come in.”
“Afternoon, Pastor.” Deacon Tisdale stuck his head in the door. “I saw you come in and, well, just wondered if you had a minute?”
Terrance nodded at the man, who was old enough to be his grandfather. “Sure, come on in and have a seat.”
Deacon Tisdale walked in, followed by Carl Baker and Phil Wilson. Terrance forced a smile as he noticed the extreme look of concern on all of their faces.
“Gentlemen, what can I do for you?”
“Well,” Deacon Tisdale began, “we know you been a little under the weather, and we wanted to see how you were doing.”
Terrance nodded. “I’m doing much better, but I know you three aren’t all in my office for a welfare check.”
Carl stepped forward. “Actually, we’re here to try and find out what’s going on. You’re not really engaged to that Savannah woman, are you?”
Terrance knew he owed them, as the church elders, some type of explanation. But he definitely couldn’t tell them the truth.
“Well, Brother Baker, I understand you were the main one questioning my manhood,” Terrance tried to joke. “Because I didn’t have a woman, you didn’t know if I was the right man to lead the church. In fact, didn’t all of you suggest that I might need to be replaced if I didn’t find a woman soon?”
None of the three men responded.
“Now that I’ve found a woman, seems to me you got what you wanted.”
“Yeah, we wanted a first lady,” Deacon Tisdale said, his voice hurried. “But not Miss Savannah.”
“Do you know we’d be the laughingstock of the Baptist Association if she became our first lady?” Phil added.
“Come on, now, she’s not that bad,” Terrance said. She really is, he wanted to say, but of course he couldn’t.
“I don’t mean to disrespect your woman, Pastor, but everybody in town knows she’s a little loose,” Deacon Tisdale remarked.
“A little?” Carl retorted. He personally knew three men who had been with her, two of them within days of one another.
“She done been with half the male congregation,” Phil added. Sure, he was exaggerating a bit, but in his mind, if it was more than two men, it was the same thing.
Deacon Tisdale shot Phil a menacing look. They’d agreed not to come in and outright attack Savannah. They just wanted to gently remind Terrance about her storied reputation.
Terrance didn’t really feel like coming to Savannah’s defense, but if this thing with her was going to work, he had to shut down all of this negativity. “Look, Matthew, chapter seven, says, ‘Judge not, lest ye be judged.’ None of us are any better than anyone else. And that includes Savannah.”
Deacon Tisdale was just about to say something else when Terrance’s door flew open.
“Terrance Deshaun Ellis, have you lost your mind?” Eva bellowed. “You been avoiding us all week, and that hussy you call yourself engaged to wouldn’t even open the door and let us in to check on you. All up in your house like she already live there. I swear to God if I wasn’t saved…” Eva gritted her teeth as she shook her fist.
Terrance rubbed his head in exasperation. All three of his aunts stood in his doorway, looking like a pack of angry wolves. Terrance forced a smile. They obviously didn’t see anything worth smiling about, because they all stood glaring at him with scowls.
“Did you have an alarm go off or something to let you know when I arrived at the office?” Terrance joked, trying to ease the tension.
“I ain’t here to play with you, funny man,” Eva said. “I’m here for some answers.” She glared at Phil and Deacon Tisdale, who were sitting in the chairs in front of Terrance’s desk. They quickly gave up their seats. “And we aren’t leaving until we get those answers,” Eva said, sitting down in one of the chairs. Mamie took the other.
“Yeah,” Mamie added. “You got some serious explaining to do. Did you know Raquel quit? You done broke that child’s heart and run her off from the church.”
Terrance’s heart dropped. That was the last thing he wanted.
“Now, you tell us that you had a bad reaction to some food and were delirious or something when you agreed to be with that she-devil,” Eva demanded.
Terrance swallowed as his mind replayed Savannah’s threat. You’d better act like you love me or I’ll tell them everything.
“Terrance,” Dorothy Mae prodded. “Please tell us this is not real.”
Terrance leaned back in his chair. I’ll tell them everything, Savannah sang in his head. “It’s real, Aunt Dorothy Mae. I wish everyone around here would accept that.”
It seemed everyone in the room groaned at the same time.
“I’m sorry if you all don’t like Savannah, but I’m doing what’s best for me.” He hoped his lie was convincing because he definitely didn’t feel convinced.
Eva eyed him suspiciously before saying, “So you mean to tell me you honestly think she is the lady to lead this church?”
“She may need a little work, but she has great potential. And she wants to be acc
epted so bad. But the bottom line is…I…she’s the one I choose to be with.”
No one in the room looked like they were buying his declaration.
“I will ask each of you, out of love for me, please try to respect my decision, and my”—Terrance struggled to get the word out—“and my fiancée. This discussion is finished,” he firmly said. “Now, if you all will excuse me, I have a week’s worth of work to catch up on.”
He buried his head back in his work, hoping they’d get the message and leave. He sighed with relief as they all left the room. But something told him their fight was far from over.
chapter 40
She has surely lost her mind. That’s all Eva could think of as she watched Savannah as she all but took over the committee meeting for the Christmas celebration, which was all set to take place the Sunday before Christmas.
“…And I really don’t think the choir should wear those old stuffy, ugly blue robes. I would like to see them wear blue jeans and white shirts.”
Everyone in the room looked at her like, who died and made her in charge?
Eva could no longer take it. She leaned forward. “Let me get this straight. You actually think our award-winning choir should perform at the hundred-year anniversary in their street clothes?”
“Forget this,” Mamie snapped, looking around the room. “First, she come up in here talking about an outsider is gonna emcee the First Ladies’ Brunch. Now this? Y’all can sit in here and act like you’re okay with this woman coming in here trying to change and run things. But I refuse to do it.” Mamie turned her attention back to Savannah. “You can’t come up in here changing stuff.”
Savannah frowned in protest. “I’m about to be first lady of this church.”
“About to be,” Mamie challenged. “You ain’t yet.”
“And you never will be if I have anything to say about it,” Eva mumbled, rolling her eyes.
“Ladies,” Deacon Tisdale interjected. “We’re getting nowhere with this bickering. Sister Savannah, I think the proper way to handle this would be to take a vote among the committee members in regards to the choir robes.”
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