Saving Savannah by Sandra Hill

taken his engagement ring off the chain around her neck and put it back on her finger, where it belonged. It about killed him that she’d had to pawn it a couple times just to eat.
    “What’d you have in mind?” Savannah asked in a sultry voice she seemed to have cultivated in his absence. He couldn’t wait to see what else she’d cultivated.
    “I want to make love to you, honey. Every which way I can, and then some,” he told her, and he didn’t care if Charmaine heard him, either. “I have a lot of years to make up for. So, what do you say? Want me to rock your world?”
    “That depends. Can I rock your world, too?” she replied saucily, reaching up to kiss, then nip, at his chin.
    To hell with chins! He wanted kisses in other places, lots of other places. He pinched her butt and said, “We’ll rock the night away, both of us. Guar-an-teed, as the Cajuns say.”
    “Holy Sac-au-lait! I’m gettin’ turned on just listenin’ to you two,” Charmaine said, with a laugh. Then, she yelled, “Rusty! Let’s go home!”
    Matt smiled and tucked Savannah into his side with an arm over her shoulders. “I hope you brought that Daisy Duke outfit with you. I have plans.” He waggled his eyebrows at her.
    “Hey, I have one of those outfits at home, believe it or not,” Charmaine told them.
    As if I care! And, yeah, he would believe it or her. Charmaine was the first to call herself “a bimbo with class.”
    When Rusty answered his wife’s call and stepped up beside her, she smiled at him. “Guess what, sweetie? When we get home, we’re gonna play a game.”
    Rusty’s groan indicated he wasn’t too excited about the suggestion.
    “Lil’ Abner and Daisy Mae.”
    Now Rusty was excited. He smiled, a lazy twitch of the lips, and winked at his wife.
    Savannah sighed. Now, she was excited.
    Charmaine slanted her eyes with a sideways glance at her husband and licked her Screw-Me Red, probably Botoxed lips, real slow.
    “Darlin’,” Rusty drawled out. “I am so good at games.”
    Matt was getting turned on watching them all. Time to get this show on the road. Grabbing Savannah’s hand, he led her over to Tante Lulu, who was at the folding table still piled high with food, everything from shrimp é touff é e to crawfish and shrimp gumbo to lazy bread to sweet pralines. Pitchers of sweet tea, beer, and soft drinks on ice.
    “We’re going to leave now,” Savannah said, giving the old lady a hug. “Thank you so much for keeping Katie overnight. We’ll be back in the morning to pick her up.”
    “My pleasure, sweetie. When you get here, we’ll start makin’ plans fer the weddin’.”
    We , Matt thought. Uh-oh.
    “You’ve done enough,” Savannah was quick to say as she squeezed his hand, sharing his dismay. “We’ll probably just elope or have a courthouse wedding.” She glanced at him. “We really haven’t discussed details yet.”
    In fact, they’d had almost no time alone at all since he’d arrived at the strip club. Dammit!
    “You cain’t do that!” Tante Lulu declared. “You gotta have a priest, or a preacher if yer not Catholic, ta seal the deal, proper like. Doesn’t hafta be a big weddin’. Mebbe jist yer family and friends, Savannah. Matt’s family and friends. And all us LeDeuxs. The reception hall at our Lady of the Bayou Church kin handle up ta two hundred people, in a squeeze.”
    Matt stiffened at the idea of his parents at his wedding. “I don’t have any family to speak of, and my friends are mostly military, scattered around the world.”
    “Two hundred people!” Savannah squeaked out. “I don’t have any family, and I don’t have any close friends.”
    Matt’s anger rose once again, knowing she’d been forced to avoid friendships because of his parents’ threats. Hard to have a girlfriend, or guy friend, over for a drink when you’re living in a car. He blew out a frustrated exhale and said, “I wouldn’t invite my parents to a dog fight, let alone my