Reverend Feelgood Read online

  Reverend Feelgood

  Also by Lutishia Lovely

  Sex in the Sanctuary

  Love Like Hallelujah

  A Preacher’s Passion

  Heaven Right Here

  Reverend Feelgood

  LUTISHIA LOVELY

  KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.

  www.kensingtonbooks.com

  To my grandfather, Willie Hinton, Sr.,

  who always encouraged me to write him a letter,

  and to my father, Reverend Willie Hinton, Jr.,

  who told a nappy-headed, ashy-knee’d little colored girl

  that she could go anywhere, and do anything….

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  You would think that the more books I write, the fewer people I’d have to acknowledge. I mean, didn’t I cover just about everybody in the first four books? In actuality, what happens is with every new novel there are more people to thank and more reasons to feel grateful. And while I’ve thanked some people in the past, there are some you just can’t thank enough.

  Like editor Selena James, for instance. So what that I just thanked her in Heaven Right Here, and in A Preacher’s Passion before that, and in Love Like Hallelujah before that. This thank-you is for Reverend Feelgood, y’all, because her input and support were no less valuable in bringing this latest work to fruition. Behind every good writer is a great editor, believe that! Standing next to that editor is an awesome agent, Natasha Kern, and a fabulous, get-her-hustle-on-all-day-long personal publicist, Ella Curry, of EDC Creations. This is just part of “Team Lutishia” that is helping me take this brand to a whole nutha level!

  Another big part of this team is my extended Kensington family: publicist Adeola Saul, Selena’s assistant Mercedes Fernandez, copy editor Ellen Winkler, production editor Paula Reedy, cover designer Kristine Mills-Noble, along with cover photographer George Kerrigan, wardrobe stylist Denise Martin, and hair and makeup artist Lysette Drumgold, who gave those designers such great shots to work with. What draws readers to what’s on the inside of a book begins with what’s on the outside. Thanks for the great work. To the sales and marketing team who work so hard getting my books in as many stores and on as many websites as possible—I appreciate your efforts in making mine a household name!

  I was very fortunate to be able to call my longtime friend Carol Nichols regarding information on “all things Louisiana,” where some of the Feelgood story line takes place. I still can’t believe it’s been so long since I’ve bitten into a beignet or sipped a hurricane. See you soon, Carol. I’m way overdue for a trip to N’awlins….

  Okay, let me put a disclaimer here and say I’m getting ready to start something. Because I’m getting ready to talk about what I feel is a writer’s salt of the earth—readers. And not just any reader, but those collective groups of readers otherwise known as book clubs. Baby! Y’all sistahs and brothahs hold it down on the real tip, and I love, love, LOVE a book club. Y’all don’t hear me, though. No, really, you don’t even understand how deep this love goes! These readers will swim across an ocean, climb Mount Everest, and then head to the moon if there is a good book there waiting. And then they’ll tell everybody else about it. They are the best fans and supporters an author can ask for. Every single book club out there is amazing, and aforementioned disclaimer in mind, I know I’m about to get into trouble by naming some, because I know I’ll miss somebody, but these are the groups I’ve either met or interacted with recently, and without the naming of which, these acknowledgments would not be complete: Nikkea Smithers and Readers With Attitude (Richmond, Buffalo, and LA chapters), Tamika Newhouse and AAMBC, Lacha Mitchell and Woman To Woman Literary Sisters, Claudia Mosley and Sisterhood Book Club, TaNisha Webb and KC Girlfriends, Patricia Crowe and Ladies Of Color Turning Pages, J’Me Adams and Passion 4 Reading, Adrianne and Black Women Who Read, Tifany Jones and Sistah Confessions, Tee C. Royal and Rawsistaz, SBS (Sisters and Brothers with Soul), Women of P.U.R.P.O.S.E., Reading Is What We Do, Sister2Sister, Cedar Hill Divine Women Of Faith, F.A.M.E Book Club, Peace In Pages, Cush City, Page Turners, AA Book Lovers, People Who Love Good Books, Genesis, Phenomenal Women Of Color, and Carlos (Mikkar) and the Delaware Men Of Distinction Book Club. I just have two words: thank you. No, I have four: thank you very much!

  Writing is a solitary endeavor, but I am blessed to have some wonderful authors in my life who make this journey one of camaraderie, mutual support, friendship, and fun! In them, either through personal relationship or literary inspiration, I’ve become a better writer, one who is proud to spell her name w-r-i-t-e-r. This list isn’t complete, by any means, but it highlights those I especially appreciated during the writing of this book: mentor and phenomenal woman Gwynne Forster, the legendary Donna Hill (happy twentieth, Donna!), Renee Daniel Flagler, Trice Hickman, ReShonda Tate Billingsley, Shelia Goss, Alice Heiss, Venise Berry, Vincent Alexandria, Mary B. Morrison, and E. Lynn Harris. It was E. Lynn’s hustle and success story that inspired me to independently publish my first book. (Sadly, just days after sending these acknowledgments to Selena, I received the news that E. Lynn had made his transition.) While I wish I’d been able to thank him in person, I am grateful to be able to thank him from these pages…where I believe he’ll see this shout-out. And while E. Lynn Harris has written his last novel, his life and what it meant is forever written in my heart. There are more names to add to this list…next book, y’all!

  Finally, as always, my thanks to Spirit, who has taken me on a wonderful, meandering journey from the religious to the spiritual, and has taught me that this entity is beyond names, denominations, definition, and/or description. Spirit is simply “all that is.” I am all that I am, because of You….

  Contents

  Prologue

  1 Generations

  2 Tangled, Tarnished Traditions

  3 Something Noble

  4 Praying for Mercy

  5 Duty Calls

  6 Keeping Friends Close

  7 Her Heart’s Desire

  8 You Left Something

  9 His Will Be Done

  10 Sleep in the Bed You Made

  11 Handle Your Business

  12 Tell Me the Latest

  13 Gonna Be All Right

  14 Do What You Got to Do

  15 Two New Friends

  16 Wanting Dessert

  17 Real Good

  18 You Be Careful

  19 Give Up Everything and Have It All

  20 California Dreamin’

  21 Uncommon

  22 Big Daddy

  23 Strange Bedfellows

  24 Almost There

  25 Sharing Reverend

  26 Do the Right Thing

  27 A Little Bundle

  28 The Buzz Begins

  29 A Love Song

  30 Gettin’ with That

  31 Good Graces

  32 Plain Pat

  33 Punanny on Lock

  34 Wonderful and Wise

  35 Counting the Cost

  36 The Gospel Truth Faithful

  37 The Pleasure Is Mine

  38 Good Lovin’

  39 Ready to Tell

  40 Love Yourself

  41 I Said Yes

  42 It Needs to Be Holy

  43 House Cleaning

  44 Talk to Me

  45 What God Has Joined

  46 Bliss

  47 Trading Videos

  48 First Family

  49 Come Sunday

  50 Pulpit Pimps

  51 A Higher Standard

  52 Direct and Protect

  53 Naming Names

  54 No Replacement

  55 Two Former Friends

  56 Not Even Death

  57 My Decision Is Final

  58 Ego and Pride

  59 The P
romo

  60 We Fall Down

  61 Remember Rahab

  62 God Don’t Like Ugly

  63 Thanks for Asking

  64 First Lady

  65 Something Noble: Part Two

  66 Elijah Speaks

  Epilogue

  Author’s Note

  DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  Prologue

  The biggest religious scandal in modern American history was about to make headlines. This was an unfortunate fact for the Total Truth Association, an umbrella organization for several dozen ministries around the globe, which had one of its newest members and brightest stars smack dab in the middle of the controversy. Reverend Nathaniel “Nate” Thicke, senior pastor of the Gospel Truth Church in Palestine, Texas, had been caught on tape. And he hadn’t been preaching the gospel.

  King Brook, the interim president of Total Truth, paced his well-appointed church office as he talked on the phone. “We’ve got people threatening lawsuits, and several churches have vowed to pull their membership if we don’t take decisive action—immediately. There’s even talk of a federal investigation.”

  “Federal investigation?” Derrick Montgomery asked. Derrick was a founding board member of Total Truth and King’s best friend. “Why?”

  “Because some are saying the woman on the tape is underage and that Nate may have crossed state lines to…be with her.”

  “No,” Derrick answered. “She’s legal. Barely, but she is.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Trust me, I know. I’ll fill you in when we meet in Texas.”

  King continued pacing. “Man, how in the hell could he have been so stupid as to sleep with jailbait, and then allow himself to be videotaped in the act? Especially right before he was to headline at our convention? His irresponsible actions have put the entire organization in the spotlight, and our reputation, maybe even our nonprofit status, in serious jeopardy.”

  Derrick knew how “stupid” could happen, and he knew King did too. A man often did foolish things when he let the wrong head make decisions. Still, Derrick understood his friend’s frustration. Especially since King had reluctantly accepted the interim president position only after Derrick had pleaded with him to do so, and was therefore the unfortunate spokesperson at this auspicious time.

  Total Truth’s membership consisted of a variety of churches that had split from their traditional Baptist, Methodist, and Pentecostal roots, and adopted a less restrictive, more inclusive nondenominational position. Members under the organization’s auspices recognized and practiced miracle healing, speaking in tongues, the prosperity message, and also more progressive spiritual practices such as the law of attraction, mantras, affirmations, meditation, and a controversial stance on homosexual tolerance within their congregations.

  The sitting president had resigned unexpectedly following a death in the family, and Derrick, knee deep in an interfaith rebuilding effort that had him spending considerable time in Darfur, South Africa, had asked King to pinch hit. King was busy too. His church was in the middle of a major community development project, and his television ministry was flourishing. He’d been president before, when the association was in its infancy, so he knew how much time the role required. But Derrick assured King the position would be perfunctory—a couple conference calls, maybe a meeting or two, nothing more. And only for three months, until elections were held at the July convention. King had been two days away from passing the presidential baton on to a successor. And then the tape played.

  King was not a stranger to scandal. As the handsome, forty-something pastor of Mount Zion Progressive Baptist Church in metropolitan Kansas City, he’d had to ask God for forgiveness more than once. Like Nate, he drew women to him like steel to a magnet. The two men even looked somewhat alike: both tall, dark, a study in rugged masculinity. But where King kept his black hair closely cropped, Nate let his texturized locks grow almost to his shoulders, and maintained a tidy goatee.

  It was within this framework of understanding that King empathized, even as he denounced what his ministerial brother had done, even as he understood that decisive action would have to be taken to disassociate Total Truth from Nate’s irresponsible actions.

  “There’s no doubt that Nate and his congregation will have to be completely severed from the association,” King said. “We’ll have to clearly and unequivocally break all ties with and support of that ministry.”

  Derrick listened intently, shifting the receiver from one ear to the other as he looked out the window of his home office and beheld a beautiful California afternoon. He passed a weary, deeply tanned hand across his handsome, clean-shaven face. It seemed that for the past five years there had been one church drama after another for him to deal with. Would the scandals ever end?

  “I’ll try to keep an open mind when we get to Texas tomorrow. Let’s hear his side of the story,” Derrick finally said. “But a picture is worth a thousand words. I hate to completely sever our relationship with his ministry, but unless he repents, steps down as senior pastor, and agrees to extensive counseling, we will have to. He was caught live and in living color. And the way it happened, fully exposed, before God and everybody…Jesus!”

  “Kids in the sanctuary, church mothers, celebrities, the media.” King plopped down heavily in the well-worn black leather chair behind his desk. “Lord have mercy. Somebody sure set out to ruin that brothah. Looks like they got the job done.”

  After making sure their travel plans for the emergency board meeting were properly coordinated, the friends hung up. But each man remained in his office—contemplating the catastrophe, and the possible ramifications for all involved—for a long time.

  Derrick was especially troubled. It was bad enough that a pornographic video featuring a clear shot of Nate Thicke’s glistening backside had been spliced into what was supposed to be a promotion of the Gospel Truth Church’s holiday cruise. It was unconscionable that almost five seconds of the explicit tape was then seen by some of the record-setting twenty thousand attendees who’d gathered for the convention, before being abruptly stopped by a stunned yet quick-thinking technical director. And it was both shocking and devastating that Derrick had immediately recognized the woman moaning and thrashing beneath Nate’s rhythmic thrusts, licking her lips as she turned her face toward the camera.

  She was a former member of the ministry he headed, Kingdom Citizens Christian Center, and at sixteen—fast, feisty, and too much for her fifty-something parents to handle—had been sent to a Christian boarding school near Baton Rouge, Louisiana. That was about three years ago, Derrick figured. And he figured something else. Melody Anderson had moved again, to Palestine.

  1

  Generations

  Three Years Earlier

  Nate Thicke yawned, casually stretched his six-foot-three-inch frame, and gave the woman beside him a kiss on the forehead before getting out of bed. He strolled from the king-sized showpiece to the master bath in all his naked glory. At twenty-eight, he was in the best shape of his life, thanks to a mindful diet and the recent addition of a personal trainer to his church’s official staff.

  The woman in his bed, his administrative assistant Ms. Katherine Noble, admired his plump, hard backside and long, strong legs as he left the room. She especially loved how his dark brown blemish-free skin glistened with the fine sheen of sweat that had resulted from their lovemaking. They’d been lovers for a long time, and while she knew their relationship would never be more than that—had known from the beginning—she had fallen in love with him anyway. Even though she knew the day would come when he would take a wife and start a family. Even as she hoped he could continue to be her spiritual covering, her sexual satisfaction, as both his father and grandfather before him had been. Katherine had been a Thicke woman for generations.

  Katherine rose and walked to a floor-length mirror that occupied a corner of the elegantly decorated bedroom, the black, tan, and deep purple color scheme her design. She eyed herself objective
ly, critically, turning this way and that. At fifty-three, her body easily looked ten years younger. It still held most of its firmness, her butterscotch skin was still smooth and supple. The stretch marks from her single pregnancy thirty-two years ago were long gone, rubbed away with cocoa butter and the luck of excellent genes. She tossed her shoulder-length hair away from her face, brought her image closer to the mirror. The fine crow lines around her eyes and on her forehead were deepening slightly, she noticed, and she detected a puffiness that hadn’t been there five years ago. There was a slight sag to her chin, and even though she’d been the same weight for twenty-five years, it looked as if her cheeks were sunken, hollow, and not in a good way. These imperfections were not noticeable to the average observer. Most people who saw Katherine either admired or envied her for the attractive woman she was.

  She turned to the side and continued her perusal, a frown accompanying her critique. Her butt had never been big, but it had always been firm. Until now. Now it hung loose and soft, like a deflated balloon, obeying the gravity that she tried to defy. A discernible dimpling of unwanted cellulite challenged her vow not to age. She cupped her cheeks, pushed them up, and thought about butt implants.

  “Get out of the mirror. You’re still fine.” Nate walked from the bathroom into his massive closet and began to dress.

  “I’m sure you say that to all your women,” Katherine responded, without rancor. “But even if you’re lying, it makes me feel so good.”