AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No, girl. You own that shit,” I say, looking her up and down like the queen she is.
“So I did. And it felt so good. So good that I thought, what if what my elders have been telling me my whole life is wrong? What if sex really isn’t a sin? So I decided to break the rules. I snuck over to Hanley’s cottage to surprise him. I thought, maybe seeing me in a negligee would finally make him fall in love with me.
“But when I got inside, I saw him in bed with someone else. And that’s the whole story.”
“Babe, I’m so sorry this happened to you,” I say. I want to take her in my arms and at the same time I want to punch Hanley right in the face. I also kind of want to shake his hand, in a weird way, for indirectly sending Jane into my life.
“You’re a real piece of work, Hanley.”
Hanley sits forward in his chair, puts his elbows on his knees and rubs his face.
“That’s not the whole story,” he says.
“Well, that’s all I remember!” Jane says.
“That may be true, but what you didn’t see was who I was in bed with.”
Jane puts a hand up. “Hanley, I don’t want to know. I don’t want the gossip causing another member to be shunned.”
“It was Bryce,” Hanley says.
Jane looks confused for a moment, and then the realization crosses her face. “Bryce? Reverend Bryce?”
Hanley is still sitting forward, nodding his head, the meaty part of his hands pressing into his eye sockets.
“But that means…”
“Yes, Jane. I’m sorry you had to find out that way.”
“But Reverend Bryce?” She looks shocked.
He puts up his hands. “I know, I know. It’s bad.”
She shakes her head. “I don’t even know what’s good or bad anymore. But it’s impossible because Reverend Bryce is a eunuch.”
“Nope,” Hanley says. “We’re in love. And I’ve seen for myself, he’s got all his parts.”
“What are you going to do, Hanley?”
“I don’t know. I was kind of hoping we could carry on and you would marry me and I could keep seeing Bryce?”
Jane scoffs, “Excuse me? What’s in it for me?”
I can’t stand any more of this and I stand up. “Boy, you think my girl is going to stay here and be your beard, after what you did to her? I don’t think so. Stand up.”
Both Jane and Hanley look at me like I’ve lost my mind.
“Why?” he asks me.
“I don’t know, I feel like hitting something.”
Once again, Jane puts her hand on my arm. “Shep. It’s OK. You know I’m coming home with you.”
She calms me with one look. I don’t know how she does that.
Then she turns to Hanley. “Hanley. It’s time to grow up. You’re a man in love, and you’re going to have to decide what to do. Now, I’m not going to tell a soul about you and Reverend Bryce. But it’s time to put on your big boy pants and think for yourself. I wish you’d just told me from the beginning, then we could have avoided this whole mess.”
“You’re right,” he says. “Wow, Hildie Mae. You’re away for one day and you come back with a boyfriend and a mouth full of sass. It’s like you’re a whole new person.”
