The Preacher's Daughter (7 page)

She looked at him gratefully.

"You take a lot of risks on my behalf. What if he fires you, Eric?"

The youth minister laughed. "Fire me? And watch all his young members flee to the church in the strip mall? I think he's more afraid of that than Hell."

She giggled at this.

"Will you go with me to talk to my father?"

He shook his head. "No," he said gently. "You need to face him on your own. I think you've tangled your image of God up with your image of your father. You're afraid of God because of it. But the Rev. Fred Kindle is just a man, Naomi. Deal with him in a firm, respectful way and he won't seem so scary. Once you realize he's just a man who makes mistakes like the rest of us you can separate him from God. And then you can work on your relationship with that Father."

"Tall order." She looked down at the floor.

"Yeah," he said. "Being an adult sucks sometimes, doesn't it."

"If you need some motivation, I'll just tell you straight up that if I hear that you've gone off on a rant then I'll spank you harder than I've spanked you yet."

She looked at him in shock. "What? You're kidding, right? You just kissed me?"

"So?"

"
So
," she said. "You said we were in a relationship now. So you can't spank me anymore."

"Who says?" he asked.

She fell silent. "No one. It's just that, well, I just thought..."

"Let me make something clear to you, Naomi," he said. "Even if you're my partner you're still at a place in your life where you need guidance. If anything, I feel even more compelled to make sure you stay on the right path." He paused. "I'm not like most men. I'm not just looking to score a quick hit and move on. If I enter a relationship then it's a serious thing for me."

"Have you ever been in a relationship before?" she asked.

He nodded. "Yea," he said. I actually broke up a couple of years ago with a girl I'd dated for quite a while.

"Why did it end?" she asked.

"Trust issues," he sighed. "But that's in the past. You're a different person. I get the impression that even after all you've been through you're not afraid to open yourself up and experience what matters in a relationship - trust, honesty, love..."

Again she was tempted to tell him about her past. But she was too afraid. He wanted her. He wanted to be with
her
, the preacher's daughter turned street kid with the falling angel tattoo.

"I am ready," she said.

He kissed he again, lightly this time. "Good," he said. "So be good. Even though I don't want to spank my girlfriend if she gets out of line I'll have to do just that."

"OK," she said softly.

"So now what are you going to do?"

She sighed. "I'm going to go talk to my dad."

"Scared?"

"A little," she said honestly. "I'm just going to keep in mind what you said."

"Good girl."

She walked back to the house, trying to keep calm as she went. When she entered she didn't see her mother and then realized this was her ladies club night, when women from the church met in one another's homes to drink coffee and swap recipes from their endlessly growing collections.

Her father was in his office.

"Dad?"

He turned and scowled.

"Naomi," he said, turning back to his work.

"Can I talk to you?"

With a heavy sigh that said he'd rather not, he put the pen down and turned.

"I'm very disappointed in you," he said. Not a good start.

"Stay calm," she told herself.

"I'm sure you are," she said. "And I understand. I should never have left like I did. I should not have lost my temper tonight. I should have waited until the deacon was gone and told you alone what I'm about to tell you."

The Rev. Fred Kindle said nothing, but he was listening. Which was good.

"Dad, I have a lot of things to work out with God. Er---Rev. Feagans has really been helping me. But I prefer to keep things between myself and God. We all fall short of the glory of God. You used to say that all the time. We're all sinners. This confession thing you want to do, I'm not the only sinner in church and to God sin is sin. If I'm going to stand up there Sunday we need to have a confession for everyone every Sunday."

"Naomi," he interrupted. "The parishioners expect..."

"Expect what?" she interrupted gently. "A dirty story? Something to go home and gossip about? I'm not sure how Christian that is, to want to hear the gory details of someone else's life. Dad, has it occurred to you that their interest might be more prurient than Christian?"

He said nothing, but now he cast his eyes down. Yes, she thought, it has occurred to him.

"If that might be the case, how can you sacrifice me just to appease that kind of interest. I may not be the perfect daughter, but I
am
your daughter. And as your daughter I look to you to do the right thing. You've always told me to stand up and do the right thing in the face of pressure. All I'm asking is for you to do the same."

Still he said nothing.

"I'll pray on it," he finally said.

He turned his chair back around. Naomi tried not too feel disappointment. He'd not agreed with her, but he'd not said no, either.

She turned to walk from the room but stopped when she heard him call her name.

"Yeah, Dad?""

"I love you," he said with his back still to her.

She smiled. "I love you, too, Daddy."

Naomi walked from the office and shut the door. For a moment she leaned against it, feeling completely proud of herself and happy. Then she went to her room. She couldn't wait to tell Eric what had happened, how well she had done.

She picked up her cell phone so she wouldn't tie up the house phone in case her father needed to use it. But before she could dial Eric's number it rang in her hands. Without looking at the screen she hit the button to answer.

"Hello?"

"Hey, angel."

She felt a chill.

"Come on now," the voice on the other end of the line said. "Cat got your tongue? Surely you can find something to say to the only man who ever knocked your socks off. And don't tell me any one else has ever done it better, either. Cause we'll both know it's a lie.."

"Jasper?" She hadn't wanted to say his name, hadn't wanted to acknowledge the voice on the line.

"One in the same, baby. So how's my Fallen Angel?"

She couldn't answer. Instead she just held the bedpost for support. The one person who could ruin everything for her, the one person who she thought was out of her life for good, had resurfaced.

Chapter Five

"What's wrong? Cat got your tongue? Or are you just so happy you can't speak?" The voice on the other end of the line laughed silkily. "Wouldn't be the first time I left you speechless."

"What do you want, Jasper?" Naomi kept her voice low as she sat down on the edge of her bed. Her stomach suddenly felt sour and she realized her hands were shaking. She wished she had a cigarette.

"Want? Nothing but to know you're OK."

It was a lie. Jasper always wanted something.

"I'm fine." The less said the better.

"Where are you?"

She looked around the bedroom, the familiar wallpaper, the little heart-shaped stickers she'd put in a row across her dresser mirror when she was three. She'd told Jasper she could make it without him, that she had other opportunities waiting.

Naomi wasn't about to tell him she was back home with her parents.

"I'm in the northwest and that's all I'm going to tell you," she said. "I'm happy and I'm working and I'm over you."

The laugh came again, low and delighted.

"Angels are bad liars, even fallen ones. I had you followed. Those guys who work the ticket counters are easy to get information from. All my man had to do was pretend that you'd forgotten your laptop and ask where you'd gone."

He paused. "So how are the folks? Probably took you back in with a heavy sigh. Let me guess, Angel. You're sitting in your old room right now talking to me, aren't you."

She stood up, and angry flush reddening her face.

"Now you listen to me, Jasper," she said. "My life now is none of your business, so if you think you can call here and fuck with me you're wrong...."

"No, you're the one who's wrong, baby," Jasper said. "You are my business. I was the one who got you the job at Pinnacle, remember? I've spotted and groomed some hot girls in my time but you were the best, and the owner of the club was not happy when you jumped ship. He'd like you to come back and is willing to pay to have you back working that pole."

"I'm sure he would," she said hotly. "He'd pay
you
."

"Now, now, don't be hasty. He's more than willing to give you a raise."

"A raise!" Naomi scoffed. "He'd just do like he always does, and take most of it back for costume fees, if you can call what he made us wear costumes. Randy will always pay slave wages, Jasper. So you can tell him to stuff his raise -and is offer - up his fat ass."

"Angel.."

"Don't call me that!" She raised her voice without meaning to and turned away from the door, lowering it again. "And don't call me again. I'm through with you. I'm through with Randy. I'm through with dancing."

"Back to being a preacher's daughter, huh?" he asked. "You can try but you know what they say, sweetie. 'You can never go home again.' Unless maybe you didn't tell them just what a little whore you were on stage..."

"Shut up.."

"Every cock in the room saluted you the minute you walked in." He went on, ignoring her. "The real sin in this world is hiding something like you behind walls. Or clothes. Tell me, Angel? Do your folks even know what you did?"

She didn't answer.

"Thought not. And now you're pretending everything can be like it was. Let me guess. They even set you up with some white bread Bible salesman boyfriend with a flag pin on his lapel and a Republican Party card in his pocket."

Naomi felt herself began to panic. While the description didn't entirely fit Eric, the idea that Jasper suspected that she had a decent Christian boyfriend made her uneasy.

"Relax," she told herself. "He's just fishing. He's just trying to get a rise out of you." But no amount of self-reassurance could calm her down.

"We're finished," she said. "What I'm doing now is none of your business, got it? So don't ever contact me again, you got that?"

She hit the "END" button on the phone and raised her arm to throw it and stopped. Naomi put the phone on the bedside table, sat down on the mattress and lowered her face into her shaking hands as she willed herself not to cry.

Now was not the time to get angry or emotional. She needed to think ahead so she could avoid what she feared might be heading her way.

Jasper wasn't one to give up, because Jasper didn't know how. Jasper only knew how to do one thing, and that was win over people and get his way.

Naomi could still remember the first time she met him. She'd been standing at the corner of Front and Vine carrying the groceries that represented the last of the money she had from panhandling. The sky above had been as grey as her mood, and she'd been too busy worrying about where she'd stay that night to look where she was going. It had been Jasper who had grabbed her and pulled her back from in front of the Chinese delivery biker, who swerved around her cursing in his native tongue.

Naomi's bag of groceries fell on the ground. A can of Pringles rolled into the gutter, followed by the two apples. Only the can of sardines remained at her feet.

Sitting down on the curb she began to cry.

"Hey, hey," Jasper had sat down beside her. "Come on now. It's just a little bit of food. It's better than you falling in that gutter, which may have happened if that guy had hit you."

She shook her head. "You don't understand. That was all the food I had."

"Let me guess," he said. "You came out here expecting to make it big and now you're broke?"

She nodded, sniffing pitifully.

He stood and offered his hand. "Hey, don't feel bad. There's a million more just like you. Stand up."

Naomi sighed and took his hand.

"A million more," he repeated, looking at her. "But most aren't as pretty."

She looked at him then. He was handsome, too, with dirty-blonde shoulder-length hair in a surfer-boy cut. His face was tanned, his eyes light blue. He wore a shell necklace, a Billabong t-shirt, long cargo shorts and flip-flops.

Naomi had seen a lot of people on the street that made her feel uncomfortable, but Jasper wasn't one of them. His boy-next-door charm instantly put her at ease, which was - she later learned - part of his plan.

"I'm Jasper," he said, putting out his hand.

"Naomi," she replied, accepting his handshake.

"Naomi," he repeated. "That's pretty. It's from the Bible, right?"

She nodded. "Yeah, my parents are real religious."

"Ouch," he said, beginning to walk as he beckoned her to join him. "Religious people freak me out."

Naomi smiled. "Me, too. That's why I left."

He took her to a Greek restaurant the next street over and bought her a chicken gyro so good it almost made her cry. Over a desert of baklava she told him about her stifling childhood, her father's inflexible nature, her mother's inability or unwillingness to intercede and how all of it had made her decide to leave.

"I just wish I'd known what was waiting here," she'd concluded. "It's one thing for a fifteen year old to run away and end up like this, but I was in college."

"Yeah, but it was crappy Bible college that didn't prepare you for the real world, let alone the streets of LA," he'd said.

"So how is it that you're making it?" she asked. "You look to be about my age."

"Well, first of all, I'm a local," he said in first of many, many lies he would go on to tell her. "I have a degree in theatre and this year lucked out landing a job."

"You're an actor?" she asked, intrigued.

"Nah," he replied. "Maybe one day. Now I just work lining up talent for a theatre and dance company."

Her eyes widened. "Really?"