Free The Choir Director 2 by Carl Weber

never afraid to overstate the obvious.
    “It’s not just him. He’s the captain of the whole thing. He goes down, so does the choir, the bishop, and me. I have to figure out some way to get him back on track, and I don’t care what it takes.”
    “I don’t know, man. You know how Aaron can be. He’s stubborn as hell, and I’m telling you he ain’t getting in that choir loft anytime soon.” His words tightened the knot in my stomach, because as painful as they were to hear, they were true.
    “Not unless I give him something bigger than his pain.”
    “Tia? How you gonna do that?” Pippie asked.
    I shook my head. “No, I don’t think I could pull that off. No one even knows where she is. I’m thinking that I should meet with that Johnson Morris agent, Jackson Young. Put our heads together and come up with a strategy to elevate his career to the next level.” As much as I despised this guy on sight, even more so after he opened his mouth, I was willing to make a deal with the devil if it meant saving us all.
    I pulled up to Pippie’s place. “Do what you gotta do,” he said, fist-bumping me before he got out of the car.
    I really wished there were some other options, but no one else of Jackson’s stature had come calling before. If I could get him a deal, I could refocus Aaron’s attention on his work, the one area of his life where he actually had some control. As much as Jackson Young bugged me, I had to put Aaron’s needs first and set up a meeting.
    When I pulled into the driveway behind Selena’s car, I was glad to be home, though I wasn’t sure what awaited me behind the front door. Things had been a little intense lately, partly because my wife was pregnant and partly the normal stress of being married. I hadn’t always been the most well-behaved husband. Even though we’d been to therapy and I’d turned over a new leaf, there were still days that Selena liked to remind me of the dog I used to be. Right now, I was seriously hoping for a reprieve.
    I took a deep breath and got myself together before I approached the door. To my surprise, I entered to find my wife in a sexy lace negligee and high heels, just like I like it. Damn, she made pregnancy appear appetizing. She wore a huge smile as she lifted her dress to give me a flash of her sheer white thong.
    “I made you oxtails and pineapple upside-down cake,” she purred.
    “What? Why?” I couldn’t hide my surprise. It had been a long time since Selena had initiated anything sexual between us. And throwing in a meal too? Man, she certainly knew how to keep a brother guessing.
    “I kept thinking about Tia and Aaron,” she explained. “It made me realize how lucky I am, and how I haven’t been such a good wife to you lately.”
    I admit that it was nice not to hear her blaming everything on me for once, but I couldn’t let her accept all the responsibility for our marital issues. “No. Honey, you’re pregnant. It’s got to be hard giving your body over to a little alien.”
    “Having a baby is no reason to forget that I got a good man, and I need to make him feel appreciated. And that’s exactly what I plan to do from now on. Women need compliments, and men need sex. I want us to make it, not just because we’re married, but because we belong together.” She leaned in and gave me a kiss that let me know she meant business.
    In a perfect world, my body would have responded immediately to her touch, but unfortunately, I was so stressed and exhausted from worrying about Aaron that things weren’t working the way they should.
    Selena looked down at my unresponsive member then looked up into my eyes. “What’s wrong, baby?”
    “I’m just worried about Aaron. I’m afraid he’s going off the deep end.”
    She led me to the couch and sat down next to me. Taking my hand, she said, “Baby, he’ll be okay. He just needs some time to heal.”
    “I don’t know, Selena. If he keeps going in the direction he is now, his music career