Page 50 of Son of a Preacher Man

“With Kit and his wife.”

“Ex-wife,” he corrected her.

“Everyone seemed so surprised he was married—everyone except the guys, that is.” She gazed up at him. Even in the darkness, her blue eyes sparkled. “Did you know?”

“No, but I didn’t know him then.”

“True, but don’t you find it…I don’t know…odd?” Her shoulder did this quick up-down thing underneath his arm. “He’s never mentioned it. No one has.”

“Maybe it’s too painful,” Kodiak reasoned. “People usually don’t like talking about what hurts, you know? It’s probably best forgotten.”

“Is that why you don’t talk about your wife?”

He stopped in his steps. Kelly wasn’t anywhere close to being ready to hear this chapter of his story—at least not all of it. More than that, knowing he’d probably lose her once he did, he wasn’t ready to tell it.

“Yes and no.” Pulling her to stand in front of him, Kodiak kissed her forehead. “You haven’t asked about her, so I wasn’t sure you wanted to know.”

“I’m asking, unless it’s too painful, of course.”

No, not painful. It only crushes my soul.

“Was it bad?” she asked, searching his eyes for the answer.

He resumed walking. “Yes.”

“What happened? Did she do you dirty, like Kit’s wife?”

His laugh brisk, Kodiak scoffed, “No, that would be my father.”

Apparently confused by his statement, Kelly pulled her brows together. Her tongue peeked out, wetting her lips, and then she rubbed them together, as if to stop herself from speaking.

“You have to understand how things were inside that church.” Not that she ever really would. No one could unless they’d lived it. He held her closer against him. “His congregation didn’t go to Sunday service to worship God, you see. They went to worship my father—their savior here on Earth. His word was gospel. No one ever dared to question him. He made up the rules and we obeyed them.”

“Sounds like a cult.”

“Yeah, I guess you could call it that. Course, I didn’t see it for what it was back then.” Because it was all I knew. “Anyway, he decided who married who, and when.” Kodiak snickered, adding, “It was God himself who ordained him to do so.”

Realizing where this story was going, he saw her eyes go wide.

“Being I’m his son, I was made to be an example. The ceremony was quite the spectacle. There, on an altar of lies, I was betrothed to my future bride, the girl God had chosen for me when I was sixteen.” A daughter shall fall for a son. “She was six.”

Her jaw dropped. Literally.

“And you married her?” Kelly asked like she didn’t quite believe it.

“On her eighteenth birthday. Fucked up, ain’t it?”

He knew now that it was, but then? To spend a lifetime with her was everything Kodiak had waited for, suffered for, paid penance for. His heartache, his salvation, and his only hope.

“I was stationed in Alaska at the time, and she was still in high school, so it was by proxy, but yeah, we were married. There was a big wedding planned for when I came home on leave, but it never happened.”

Leaving the park, they stepped out onto the empty sidewalk. Kelly was quiet, and strangely enough, so was First Avenue. Not a single car drove by.

She looked up at him, the wind carrying the soft sound of her whisper, “Why not?”

“When I got there, she was gone.”

“What do you mean, gone?”

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