Dillon was exhausted. It was going on midnight, and he’d just left Taylor’s about twenty minutes ago. He wasn’t sure if he was just tired in general or a bit fatigued from drinking the couple of beers and glasses of wine he’d had. But either way, he was glad he’d at least gotten an hour of sleep before getting dressed to leave. If he could have, he would have stayed at Taylor’s until morning, but he’d known it wasn’t a good idea. Raven was already fired up, and his not coming home would have only made difficult matters worse. He’d actually thought she would have called him by now, but she hadn’t. He wasn’t sorry, of course, but the fact that she hadn’t tried to contact him did make him wonder what she was up to. Knowing her, she thought the silent treatment she’d been giving him and her demand for him to sleep in one of the guest bedrooms would eventually get him to change his mind about vetoing the board’s decision. She was also likely acting as though she didn’t care where he was or what he was doing tonight, trying to pretend she no longer wanted him. The Raven he knew wanted him to believe she was preparing to file for divorce, so he would beg her not to. But he wasn’t falling for it.
When he’d gone to her office to try to reason with her, he’d been hoping that she would accept what was and they could move on. Because truthfully, he didn’t want a divorce, for all the reasons he’d thought about. But now, after tonight, he wasn’t sure. He didn’t want to cause a church scandal, but if there was some way for him to divorce Raven and be with Taylor, he would. He’d heard a number of married men say that no matter how many women they’d dated in their lifetime, no matter how much they didn’t want to be tied down, that one special woman had gotten their attention. They’d willingly (or in some cases unwillingly) met their soul mates, and their lives had been changed forever. Once upon a time, Dillon had thought the same thing about Raven, but when he’d begun seeing Porsha he’d known something was missing. Otherwise, he couldn’t and wouldn’t have started sleeping with another woman. Even if he’d made a mistake and had a one-night stand, he wouldn’t have kept a full-fledged affair going for more than three months, not even for money. Then there was Taylor, who was making things even harder for him. He hadn’t gone looking for her, he hadn’t seen her coming, and they’d met in the most unlikely place—that is, since most pastors didn’t frequent bars. But he was falling for her with record speed, and he couldn’t stop himself.
He was sure Taylor wasn’t perfect, because no one was, but he liked everything about her. He felt good when he was with her, and almost as if he were cheating on her instead of Raven. He knew it was a strange way to think, but he was contemplating not seeing Taylor anymore until he saw how things were going to play out with his marriage. She deserved better, and if there was a chance he could marry her and be with her for good, he didn’t want their relationship to begin like this. He didn’t want it to be based on lies and adultery.
Dillon drove down I-90 and turned on his radio. He wasn’t all that in the mood for music, so he searched through talk show segments. He stopped when he saw the Christian channel he’d heard his dad on last week. Ironically, the same interview was replaying, which Dillon wasn’t shocked about, because lots of shows were repeated late at night. It also didn’t have to be the same show that had aired earlier that same day, if the station had a popular segment that had attracted a large audience.
Dillon kept listening and heard his dad say, “I appreciate that, Jacob. I’d be glad to.”
Then Jacob asked, “So do you meet pastors like this all the time?”
“Unfortunately, I do, and I’m ashamed to say that I know one of the young men very well. He lives right here in Mitchell. And in his case, he’ll do anything to get what he wants, and he has no moral values. He even once had a fiancée who he treated like an animal, and he slept with his own brother’s wife. He’s also done things to other family members, yet he has a pretty sizable congregation.”
Dillon had heard every word the first time he’d listened to the interview, but it still hurt as though he hadn’t. After talking to Alicia, he’d been sure he was going to go see his dad in person, but now he wondered if he should even bother.
A commercial break aired, and Dillon realized that last week his dad’s words had made him so angry, he’d turned off the radio. But it sounded like the interview wasn’t over, so Dillon kept the channel right where it was.
When Jacob returned, the conversation continued.
“So, Pastor Black, while reading your bio, which I must say is very lengthy and most commendable, I noticed that you have children. In particular, a son.”
“Yes, my son Matthew is twenty-three.”
“The reason I mentioned your son is because I’m just wondering if he’s planning to follow in your footsteps.”
“Well, I can’t say, but first of all, if he were to become a minister I would hope that it would only be because God has called him. That’s something I can’t stress enough, just like I was saying earlier. However, if God were to call Matthew, I wouldn’t be surprised because he’s always been the kind of child that most parents pray for. He isn’t perfect, and he’s made mistakes just like any of us, but he is a great person with a huge heart. He always thinks about others first and tries to do the right thing. So needless to say, his mother and I couldn’t be more proud of him. He’s always had a kind spirit, and if he’d been an only child he would have been more than enough. But thank God, we also have two other wonderful children, my oldest daughter, Alicia, and our youngest, Curtina. And of course, we also have our precious grandson, MJ.”
“That’s great,” Jacob said. “So you have one son, two daughters, and a grandson.”
“Yes.”
One son? He meant two sons, and Dillon waited for his dad to correct Jacob. But he didn’t. Curtis moved on to a whole other subject, and what Dillon also thought about was how he’d even counted Alicia as one of his children, even though this interview had aired days before their little reunion this evening. If Dillon hadn’t heard this broadcast with his own ears, he might not have believed it, but now he knew the truth: His dad wasn’t even claiming him publicly anymore. He was acting as though Dillon weren’t his son, the same as he had when Dillon was born.
Dillon drove his car onto the shoulder of the road, threw it in park, and pressed the lever that opened his trunk. He got out, walked around to the back, and opened his cooler. There was no ice in it, which was the reason he hadn’t bothered putting his beer in there before heading over to Taylor’s. But he also hadn’t wanted Raven to see it inside his car when he got home tonight. He doubted she’d come out to the garage, but if she left before him in the morning, she might casually glance over into his car or open it all the way to take a look. If she did, he didn’t want her to see it.
He pulled out one beer, pushed the auto-close button for the trunk, and walked back around to the driver’s side. He got back in and downed the beer almost nonstop. Then he opened his window and threw out the can. As a few cars zoomed by him, he sat thinking. Miss Brenda had been dead wrong about there being a chance to make things right with his dad. It was too late to repair all the damage that had been done. The more he thought about it, had his dad wanted to reconcile with him, he would have called him the same as he’d called Alicia this afternoon. He also would have invited Dillon to join them when they’d all driven over to Alicia’s to surprise her. They’d held a planned family gathering without so much as thinking of him, and no one had to knock Dillon in the head to get their point across. He understood very clearly.
So much so that he dialed Vincent’s number, shifted his gear back to drive, and drove back onto the highway. When Vincent answered, Dillon never even told him hello. Instead, all he said was, “Do it, and do it quickly. My mind is made up.”