“I’m not famous, Lyla.”

“I didn’t come up here because you’re semi-famous and about to be super, double, extra famous, Preacher.”

He grinned at me.

Damn.

I looked away.

“Baby,” he whispered, his hands still on me, but he didn’t force me to look at him again.

“I heard the album,” I said to the coffee table.

He rested his forehead against my temple.

So sweet.

Preacher.

God.

I remember that the most.

So, so sweet.

From the very first words he spoke to me.

“This has been intense, but I’m glad.” I swallowed. “I’m glad we got things straight, but you can, you know, use Jesse’s bed and I’ll hang in the lobby until it’s time to—”

“Be quiet, Lyla,” he whispered in my ear.

I shut my eyes tight.

“I’m gonna kiss you now, baby.”

I shut my eyes tighter because I’d wanted that, dreamed of it, fantasized about it.

For what felt like forever.

But now…

“I don’t want a mouth on mine that another woman has had tonight, Preacher.”

“Fuck,” he breathed.

I hadn’t seen him kiss one of them.

Or other things.

But he had.

Damn.

I opened my eyes and again saw coffee table.

“You need to get off me so I can go to the lobby.”

“I thought you blew me off.”

I started pushing at his shoulders. “You need to get off now.”

“You know things about me only Jesse knows.”

I stopped pushing.

“No one, but them…cher, no one on this fuckin’ earth but Jesse knows what you know about me.”

I didn’t say anything.

“I am not a guy to cross,” he told me.

Well, I’d learned that.

“I was pissed, and I was hurt, and when I’m those, I lash out to hurt back. I did that, Lyla. I hold my hand up. I did that tonight to hurt you because you gutted me, you didn’t mean to, but you did. And now it’s done. And I’ve got my girl, and she’s got her man, and you lost your mom and he’s got your sister. And that is my sole fuckin’ focus. Are you with me?”

“Preacher—”

He read my tone and his hands on my head gave a gentle squeeze.

“Are you with me?”

I shut my eyes tight again.

Lyla:

[Looks out the window]

I was with him.

I was always with Preacher.

Always.

[Off tape]

It’s public record your father lost custody of your younger sister Julia and she was returned to your grandparents three months before she graduated from high school, which was one month until her eighteenth birthday, an event which would have allowed her to return home of her own accord.

Yes.

It’s known, in the beginning, you were almost rabidly opposed to doing anything that could be construed as taking advantage of Preacher McCade’s wealth.