Try a Little Tenderness Read online

  Try a Little Tenderness:

  A His-Love.com Novel

  Allyson M. Deese and Isaiah David Paul

  All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Try a Little Tenderness: A His-Love.com Novel

  Acknowledgments

  Prologue - Let’s Not Waste Time

  Chapter One - Breaking News

  Chapter Two - Order in this House

  Chapter Three - Miss Me with That

  Chapter Four - Worship Warrior

  Chapter Five - Sick of the Sorries

  Chapter Six - Old Things New

  Chapter Seven - What To Do

  Chapter Eight - Stackin’ Paper

  Chapter Nine - Train Them Up

  Chapter Ten - My Favorite Book

  Chapter Eleven - Power Moves/Struggles

  Chapter Twelve - Prototype

  Chapter Thirteen - Out into the World

  Chapter Fourteen - Do As I Say . . .

  Chapter Fifteen - No Cookies

  Chapter Sixteen - Making Moves

  Chapter Seventeen - The “First” Night . . .

  Chapter Eighteen - . . . of Terror

  Chapter Nineteen - We Are Not Ashamed

  Chapter Twenty - Jesus to the Back

  Chapter Twenty-one - Provider . . . Comforter

  Chapter Twenty-two - Gimmie the Loot

  Chapter Twenty-three - Do-over

  Chapter Twenty-four - Home Run

  Chapter Twenty-five - La Casa

  Chapter Twenty-six - Teacher Word Day

  Chapter Twenty-seven - Boxing with God

  Chapter Twenty-eight - Get out the Way

  Chapter Twenty-nine - I Can’t Write Left-Handed

  Chapter Thirty - Where They Do That?

  Chapter Thirty-one - Back at Home

  Chapter Thirty-two - Secrets and Lies

  Chapter Thirty-three - Stop

  Chapter Thirty-four - This Is How It Should Be Done

  Chapter Thirty-five - Lawd, Not This Again

  Chapter Thirty-six - It’s Getting Late

  Chapter Thirty-seven - Teenage Love Affair

  Chapter Thirty-eight - Meet the Crew

  Chapter Thirty-nine - The Verdict

  Chapter Forty - The Sentence

  Chapter Forty-one - If He Did It Before

  Epilogue - He Can Do It Again

  UC HIS GLORY BOOK CLUB!

  What We Believe:

  Copyright Page

  Try a Little Tenderness:

  A His-Love.com Novel

  Allyson M. Deese

  and

  Isaiah David Paul

  Acknowledgments

  First and foremost, I give all glory and honor to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. Without you, Lord, none of this would be possible. Jesus, you are the center of my joy.

  I would also like to thank my parents, Dolores and James Deese, Sr., who supported me even when they didn’t agree with me. Mommy and Daddy, I love you with everything I am and ever will be. To my brothers, Michael and James, Jr. and my sister, Quanda, I love y’all.

  To my great-nieces, Kamylah and Makiyah, Auntie Ally loves you both so much.

  To my extended family, I love you so much.

  To my ace, my partner in crime and pen, Jay, your go-get-‘em attitude and spirit has motivated me many a day, and I will always appreciate you for that. Your talent is immeasurable, and I look forward to the day that the rest of the world recognizes the gift that God has blessed you with.

  I want to thank Linda R. Herman, my sister in Christ and of the pen. You’ve always encouraged me, even when I didn’t want to hear it. I love you so much. It’s past time for us to do another collaboration! It was so great to finally meet you and the family!

  To my Auntie (Pokey) Beverly Peppers-Smith and my new friend, Ms. Doris Bennett, thank you so much for your help organizing the 2014 Asheville Literary Reunion. We couldn’t have done this without you.

  To the Literary Divas Spartanburg book club, thank you so much for your support! We love you ladies! See you soon!

  To our thought-provoking editor, Joylynn M. Ross, thank you so much for your dedication and belief in our craft. We love you!

  To Urban Christian, thank you so much for this opportunity to make a country girl’s dream come true!

  To my readers who’ve rocked with me from the very beginning, hard to believe it’s been eight years! Look at God! To my new readers, thank you for taking a chance on me. I appreciate you too. Way too many people to name, but I have to shout out Mrs. Joyce Dickerson and her family. Your support throughout my career has been overwhelmingly amazing!

  To my homie-apple-scrapple Charles Wallace of Massages by Chuck of Washington, D.C., thank you for all of your support from the beginning!

  To anyone that I may have forgotten, please charge it to my head and not my heart. I do thank you.

  God Bless,

  Allyson M. Deese

  First, I give honor to God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit for everything, even when I don’t deserve it. I appreciate You making this project come to fruition with my wife, Allyson. Without the Trinity, none of this would be possible.

  Allyson, I love and appreciate you and the hard work we put in to make the project and our marriage happen. In it for the long haul.

  Mr. Tyree, I remember the first time we spoke about me publishing a book. You’d just released A Do Right Man in paperback, and I was about to turn seventeen. I was on the humble because I had just talked to E. Lynn Harris again via e-mail (RIP) and your Uncle Joe Joe had to be the most patient man on earth. He answered twenty (plus) questions about how to get my book published and where I needed to take my literary career. I wanted to know more about the business of publishing and how you published yourself before signing with S&S. You gave me some advice out of the kindness of your heart, and it took me a long time, but I finally got it, and now I’m here. I pray you get to enjoy this book and see that my wife and I FINALLY made it to this side of the publishing game. Now I can say I’ve experienced almost everything.

  To the Imes, Deese, Hagan, Simmons, Phelps, Tinsley, Peoples, and Odom families, I’m still writing books. I hate that I don’t get to spend as much time with you all as I should, but do know that you are loved, thought of, and prayed for. My church families at The Lord’s Church of Asheville and Restoration Church, we appreciate the love, prayers, and checking in on us.

  Joylynn M. Ross, you’ve been rocking with me since I was at A&T. Before we were affiliated with one of the legendary street labels of all time, I was treated like family before I became family. For that, I am greatly appreciative. Mr. & Mrs. Carl Weber, the first time I saw Drama Queen by LaJill Hunt in Walmart I knew then I’d eventually get it together to join the Urban Books family. I respect the time and the patience in waiting on me to mature to truly appreciate this opportunity. I want to thank the three of you for the work you’ve done in helping make sure Try A Little Tenderness is the best book possible.

  To our Urban Christian label mates, we’re here. Shana Burton, Tyora Moody, Leslie J. Sherrod, and K. T. Richey, thank you for supporting and participating in the Asheville Literary Reunion. If it’s the Lord’s will for us to do this again in 2016, let’s get that group picture together. To Dwan Abrams, Tiffany L. Warren, Shana, who knew that the picture Miranda Parker (RIP) took would foreshadow all of us being on affiliated labels. Rhonda, Sherri, and E. N. Joy, I hope y’all enjoy the Woman’s Revenge series as much as I enjoy being able to contribute to them. I pray that y’all are pleased with the stories I’m writing.

  To the old school Triple Crown label mates, K’wan, Nikki Turner, JOY, K
aShamba Williams, Tu-Shonda L. Whitaker, Keisha Ervin, T. N. Baker, Trustice Gentiles, Joy Deja King, Kane & Abel, Jason Poole, and of course, Victor L. Martin—when we first came out, we were considered literary bastards. People had the nerve to curse us and told us to our faces we would amount to nothing. Over ten years later, I think about the impact we’ve had on all of those who came after us. We run this. Y’all accepted me because I did everything for Victor humanly possible with what I had, and y’all continue to show me how a real publishing family moves and acts. Toy and Charisse Washington, for continuing to hold me to the dream and helping me with the store. Shannon Holmes for always being a wealth of wisdom and encouraging me to take my own path. And Vickie Stringer, with the ups and the downs, we’ve learned with and from each other. Continue to move forward.

  Mrs. Wahida Clark, sister, mediator, I still have most of the letters you wrote to me while you were locked up. It is a pleasure and honor to work with you outside the walls.

  For the alumni of North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University, especially that Class of 2004, thank you for rallying behind my first novel and still showing love for the work I do now. For the alumni of Winston-Salem State University, my home away from home, the mentorship and camaraderie are greatly appreciated. And to the alumni of Western Carolina University, for making graduate school a wonderful experience, to you I say thank you.

  A toast to the brothers of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated—especially Sherrod, Sam, Mike, and “POPS”—the journey continues. Onward and upward . . .

  To the Vera Pathways students, continue to dream and to look forward as you leave the camps and regain control over your lives. Use this “second chance” wisely. And to the ladies at Swannanoa, thank you for answering some of the questions I had. I really appreciate it.

  I know I may have forgotten some people. Charge it to the head and not the heart. Lord willing there will be a next time.

  —Isaiah David Paul

  Prologue

  Let’s Not Waste Time

  “This is Mateo Valdez, and I’m calling to find out whether the Chase card provided to me can be used to pay for this room.” Mateo spoke into the headset as he watched the couple in front of him get touchy-feely with one another.

  Mateo looked up from behind the counter. He could see a few coworkers were helping other guests bring in luggage or cleaning various spots in the motel. He silently thanked God for the Dr. Scholl’s insoles that made the Johnson & Murphy wingtip shoes he had been wearing for the past nine hours comfortable. The shoes were a far cry from the Timbs or the Jordans he rocked on a regular; they signified maturity beyond the three hundred dollar pair of shoes he was used to wearing.

  “And you’re calling from the Heaven’s Inn motel in Asheville, North Carolina?” the customer service representative asked.

  “Yes,” Mateo replied.

  “Mr. Valdez, I’ll have to place you on hold while I find out what I can do for your customer,” the customer representative told Mateo over the phone.

  “What’s taking so long with this room, man?” the woman at the front counter yelled so loudly that all of the patrons and workers of Heaven’s Inn turned their attention to her.

  He took off his headset and hung it on the screen of the Lenovo computer he was working on. Mateo rubbed the left side of his head. As he stood, he quickly scanned the lobby and met every eye that wanted to see what he was going to do next. He could hear the woman tapping her fingernails on the oak counter as if she were banging keys on a piano. “Ma’am,” Mateo started his reply. He sounded like he had a frog in his throat. “We’re waiting on Chase to approve the card your friend gave us as payment. When I attempted to process the card for payment, they gave me an eight hundred number to call to verify funds in the account.”

  Mateo tried his best not to go off on the woman and the nervous young man standing next to her. He’d only been saved for six months and found the temptation to get unprofessional hard to resist.

  Mateo thought he recognized her, but he wasn’t sure. He tried to remember the woman’s name but kept drawing a blank. What he did know was that he wanted the woman and her “man for the night” out of his face.

  “Chase needs to stop tripping and take this card.” The woman at the counter continued to amplify her voice as if she were broadcasting the play-by-play in a football stadium. “I don’t mess with no low-budget dudes, and Fredrick Acropocolips better not be no low-budget dude.”

  Fredrick looked at her, rolling his eyes before settling his view on her backside.

  Yeah, she’s tricking, Mateo thought as he picked up Fredrick’s Chase credit card and verified that the young guy in the shirt and tie in the picture matched the man standing before him trying to get a room.

  Mateo noticed that he and Fredrick were polar opposites. Fredrick was at least six foot three, wafer-thin and wiry, like the frames used for a cheap pair of eyeglasses. His extremely pale skin reddened every time his “woman for the night” opened her mouth to speak. Mateo was much shorter, five foot six, one hundred and fifty-six pounds of muscle.

  Mateo looked every bit of the self-proclaimed thug he used to be. The extra-long white polo shirt he wore that bore the black inscription Serve Them, Inc. was a command and mantra of his spiritual mentor and boss, Minister Stanley Hammer. The logos for Heaven’s Inn and the Christian Cab Company represented the spiritually guided businesses the man they called Hammer ran out of the motel. Mateo’s black slacks hugged his waist appropriately, with the guidance of a belt—not barely hanging on, exposing the shape of his rear end. No one besides Mateo knew what type of underwear he had on.

  However, this outer appearance and desire to serve God did little to change some of his ways. Mateo was and would always be a street dude.

  “Godiva.” Mateo finally remembered her name.

  “Yes, Mateo.” Godiva looked up and smacked her thick lips. Mateo knew he remembered her name. He tried not to stare at her lips, but those lips and her body called for him to rekindle the lust-filled night they had shared two years before Mateo found Jesus. Mateo’s body was calling her curves and her nicely stacked five foot six frame, but he had to stay true to the promise of celibacy he took when he got saved.

  “The customer service rep still has me on hold. As soon as he gets back to me, we’ll be able to find out what our options are,” Mateo informed them as he flipped the card in his hand like a quarter.

  “Well, they need to hurry up. I got work to do.” Godiva pouted as she put her hand on Fredrick’s face and rubbed it like she was proud of her latest pet.

  Mateo had shown growth. The old him would’ve pushed the computers, telephones, and other electronics used to facilitate business off the counter and handled his business with the loud mouth. If Mateo let his carnal rage have its way, Godiva would be screaming for mercy and calling his name like he was God.

  That was not the Mateo he was striving to be.

  Out of instinct, Mateo put his hand in his front left pocket. The knot he’d grown accustomed to carrying was gone. Instead, Mateo had to rely on his ability to read Braille and feel the denominations. He had $52.67. The $52.67 represented the direction Mateo needed his life to continue going in. The $52.67 was legitimate money made working at Heaven’s Inn motel.

  The money also had to last him until he got his next paycheck the following Tuesday.

  Mateo enjoyed working at Heaven’s Inn and not having to watch over his shoulder to make sure the FBI wasn’t trailing the counterfeits he used to produce and peddle. When he swiped his pre-paid MasterCard, he knew exactly what was on it and how the money got there.

  “Yo, how long before our room is ready?” Godiva talked over the customer service representative, who was returning to the phone line to let Mateo know whether the card could be used.

  Mateo wanted to put his finger up to his lips to politely tell her to be quiet, but he didn’t want to come off as rude. Instead, he sucked in his lips and gritted his teeth and t
ried not to tell Godiva that acting like a low-budget hussy wasn’t going to make him get her into a room any faster. He also wanted to tell her that she wasn’t that good to be charging anyone for her services. Yet Mateo chose to keep those two thoughts to himself.

  “Godiva, I apologize.” He let his lips loose quickly and returned them to his gritted stance after he asked the representative on the line to hold. “Until the bank can give us permission to bill these charges on the account, we can’t use this card for payment.”

  Godiva started to ask another question, but a frustrated Mateo held up his finger. She pierced her eyes at him. Mateo put on a smile that would’ve made his dentist proud. He really wanted to say something smart, but the service representative from the bank was on the line.

  Godiva paced back and forth and talked trash about Mateo and Heaven’s Inn. Mateo’s ability to remain meek was being tested. “Come here, Fredrick.” Godiva gave him a hug from behind. “We may have to go somewhere else if they don’t get their stuff together.”

  Mateo started to tell Godiva and Fredrick to take their business elsewhere. Instead, he tried to ignore them as they engaged in a heavy amount of public display of affection.

  Even though Hammer frowned on such displays, a customer was a customer. “You should treat them the way God would treat them.” Hammer was quick to remind Mateo and the other staff members of Heaven’s Inn’s policy.

  So Mateo held his tongue and instead turned his attention back to the rep on the line. “I’m sorry about that. What were you saying?”

  “Yes, sir, Mr. Valdez, are you still on the line?” Mateo heard the rep ask him.

  “Yes, I’m still here. I’m waiting on approval to process this payment for eighty-six eighty-three at the Heaven’s Inn motel.” Mateo looked back at Godiva, who was allowing Fredrick to palm her backside. He remembered the days when he used to do that, publicly staking his claim on the female he was being intimate with at the moment. Grab her, pull her close, and kiss her on the lips or the neck. If he was up for it, he might’ve given her some tongue action. Then he would open his eyes and watch as the guys who looked on from a distance got jealous with envy. He got a thrill from seeing the looks on the other men’s faces as they wished his girl was their girl.