Truth Is Like the Sun

Chapter 25

Things got better when Elvis returned to Memphis. He provided happiness on otherwise gray winter days. Vernon Presley picked AJ up from school while Carol Ann joined them after work, never straying far from Elvis' side. They didn't go back to Louann's house until it was time for AJ to go to bed, soaking up and enjoying all the time they could have with Elvis before it was time for him to get back to work.

"It's not gettin' better over there, is it?" Elvis asked one day, as they lay curled up on the couch while AJ read in his room at Graceland.

Carol Ann stalled, but the prolonged silence finally got to her and she blurted, "No."

"Why do you put up with it?"

"Because she's my mother. If your mother was still alive you'd  live with her, wouldn't you?"

The argument wasn't convincing, even to herself. Elvis didn't have to say anything- the look on his face was enough.

"We're stickin' it out till we can get married and move," Carol Ann reasoned.

"That's gonna be damn near a year."

"And looking back it will seem like no time at all."

"You don't gotta live with her if she's gonna be like this."

"She's always been like this. That's just how she is."

"Do you think it's good for AJ to live like that?"

"It's gonna be hard on him either way." Carol Ann sighed. "You're Elvis Presley and you're his daddy. He's gonna have to deal with that and school and-"

"Well, he don't gotta deal with her and her shit," Elvis spat out the last word in a way that made Carol Ann shake her head at him.

"You don't cuss at ladies, Elvis."

"Want me to kiss you with that dirty mouth of mine?" Elvis asked,wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

She ran her fingers through his hair, his mouth just a breath away from hers. "I wouldn't really protest if you did."

Not needing to be told twice, Elvis fused their lips together, effectively ending their conversation. He pulled Carol Ann in his lap the way he was known to do, his hold on her as tight as the hold of his lips on hers.

"If we didn't have to wait so long to get married..." The words escaped Carol Ann's mouth, causing Elvis to stare at her. She immediately regret speaking up when she saw the guilt blanketing his face. "I know why we can't," she amended, brushing a finger up and down his jaw. "...in a way it's like we've been waitin' so long and all we gotta do is wait longer..."

"So you don't really wanna live with her no more."

Carol Ann expelled a sigh. "Elvis, I'm talkin' about my love for you and you start with my mother again."

"Your mother is what we started talkin' about. It's bad over there." Elvis' finger traced her jaw line, settling under her chin so that he could tilt her face up. "I don't want you and AJ goin' through all that with her. Eventually you're gonna live here anyway so you might as well move in now in before we get married. I know that's not how you wanted to do it but sometimes things change."

"Nothin' changed, Elvis. She didn't change. And she ain't gonna change neither."

"That's even more reason to get outta there." She kissed him once more, her mouth lingering against his as she felt him respond, his lips moving beneath hers as she twined her fingers through his hair, leaning further into him even as he sat up to draw her closer. His hands glided up her back, leaving pleasured shivers in the wake of his touch, cradling the back of her head as he took gentle, coaxing control of the kiss.