Page 4 of Lick

Pushing through the screen door of the kitchen I’m hit with the aroma of sautéed onions and garlic. Both Lily and Bianca are moving around the kitchen preparing the food for the cookout we’re holding. “How’s everything coming along?” I ask Bianca and Lily as I enter the kitchen.

“We’ve got it under control, mija,” Bianca says, giving me a wink. “You think this is the first gathering this club has seen? It may have been years in the making, but believe me. I know how to cook the food.”

“No doubt, Bianca,” I tell her pulling out the ingredients I need to make my famous salsa from the refrigerator.

“What are you doing?” Lily asks, stirring the fresh pinto beans.

I’ve come to adore Lily, and admire her strength and courage. She isn’t intimated by the life her husband lives. Love is love, and sometimes it doesn’t matter what you have in mind because in the end your heart always wins.

“I’m making salsa.” They both stop and stare at me. “What?” I continue to pull out what I need. “Do you think a white girl can’t make salsa? It’s not rocket science.”

“You said the white girl comment, not us,” Lily teases.

“It’s not that, mija. You simply can’t cook. You burned soup last week.” Bianca gives me a wink.

Okay, so I forgot to add the water. It was a simple mistake, but it wasn’t my fault that Lick came over and distracted me. “It’s not cooking, which I can do by the way. I’m freaking southern. I can fry and cook anything, but it’s chopping. I can do that. Believe me. It’s good. I promise.”

“I brought my salsa. Don’t worry Bianca. We’ve got it covered,” Lily says as she continues to stir.

“We love you, but someone who burns soup, yeah, I’m not sure I’d trust you to boil water, let alone know what to do with the chilies.” She laughs. “Just leave it, mija. I’ll chop everything up when I finish this last batch of rice. You go and make sure the boys are doing everything outside. Tell Cut to get the grill fired up.”

I’m not going to win the argument, so I decide to bow out gracefully. “On it.”

I leave the ladies to the cooking and head out back.

I know I’ve only been here for more than a few months, but these people have become my family. They have shown me that it’s not about the blood bond that makes you family, it’s about the loyalty and love. You’re family because you want to be.

When I told my father and mother that I was leaving to help Savannah, they said that I was ungrateful, uncaring, and selfish. That I wasn’t living up to who I was supposed to be—the daughter of a Southern Baptist Pastor and, because of that, I was a disappointment as both a daughter and a woman. But I knew a long time ago that I would never live up to their expectations…

“I will not allow this,” my father bellows.

“You don’t understand. I just need to make sure she’s all right.”

“She’ll never be all right. That girl has made her bed, and it’s up to her to lie in it. No daughter of mine will rut with pigs.”

“Daniel,” my mother starts. “She needs to do this.”

I’m shocked that my mother is standing up for me, and against my father, no less. If it’s one thing you know in our house, it’s that the wife never goes against her husband.

“There are many things she needs to do, but this, Rebecca, is not one of them.”

“How can you think you have the right to continue to choose my life decisions for me? I’m no longer a child, and I haven’t been one in some time. You have no place to say what I can and cannot do. I’ve only told you out of courtesy. I’m going, Father,” I confirm. “I’m not asking permission.”

“Maybe if she took her brother with her,” my mother adds, trying to smooth the situation.

“Take me where?” My brother enters the kitchen from the back porch, with his Bible in hand.

“I’m not taking Jacob. I don’t need a babysitter.”

“Why do you need a babysitter, sister? What has Satan waved in front of you now?”

Sometimes he’s like a mini version of my father. Oh, how I wish he would think for himself. Do for himself. Figure himself out before it’s too late and his life is set in a way that he’s not happy with. But maybe I’m being closed minded. Maybe this life is exactly what he wants.

“No matter the hours I have prayed for the opposite, your sister has always been weak to temptation, son. She is a prime example as to how strong the evil of the world is.”

I shake my head. “That’s not true, Father. If it were, then I would have been tempted to leave this house long before today. If I were tempted by the devil, then you would have lost me to the world the day I became an adult.”

“You forget the mischief you get into when you’re with that girl. How she allows so much evil to brush your soul just by her friendship.” He shakes his head. “I don’t understand how such fine people could raise such a hellion.”