Love Means_. Freedom - Andrew Grey

forever, but we need your help, he needs your help, to get better." Preston's father sniffed, and Stone heard him swallow hard.
    "I'll let you go. Please, think about what I said. It's important for him."

    Stone swallowed, trying to make his throat work. "I will." He hung up the phone, his hand feeling disconnected from the rest of him. Dazed, he walked toward the house.
    Hanging up his coat, Stone could hear excited voices from the living room. "If we invest the proceeds for three months, you can make an additional four percent." Preston's voice sounded so animated, like he was about to bound into the room at any minute. Stone continued to listen, but most of it was nonsense anyway. What the hell was depreciation and amortization anyway?
    "They've been talking like that since you left. It's enough to make your head spin," Adelle commented softly as she opened the oven, pulling out one of her sweet potato pies, the scent filling the room.

    Stone sat at the table with a cup of coffee, sinking into his own thoughts. The sounds from the other room receded, with only Preston's excited voice cutting through his thoughts.

    "What's got you so quiet?" Adelle sat next to him, a hand squeezing his.

    Stone pulled himself out of his woolgathering. "Did you ever let someone you loved go for their own good?" He saw a wistful look on the older woman's face.
    "Lord, yes." Now she smiled, a big warm toothy grin. "I was in high school and smitten with Chad Montgomery." Her eyes got all fluid. "He was handsome and very nice to me. We met at a dance, which was really rare." Stone looked at her quizzically. "You have to understand that we're talking about the segregated South in the sixties, and he was white."
    Stone nodded his rudimentary understanding, and she continued. "We used to meet on the road behind my house. He'd pick me up, and we'd drive to a fishin' hole he knew. We'd talk for hours. He used to ask me all kinds of questions, a real firebrand he was." She stopped, and Stone could tell by her eyes that she was back there, reliving the happiness.
    "What happened?" Noise from the living room drifted in, and Preston's clear energetic voice reached his ears. Whatever he was doing, he sure liked it.
    "His family was getting ready to send him to college, and he told me he'd take us away and move both of us north so we could be together." "That's wonderful." Adelle's story was getting to him and he wiped his eyes.
"It was, and for a second, I considered it. But he had great things to do, and I couldn't stop him. He'd have been throwing his life away to be with me.
    An interracial couple then?" She shook her head slowly. "I told him he had to go and that I'd miss him." Her smile faded. "He knew I was right, and a week later he left."
    "Did you see him again?"
"A few times, but from a ways away. He became a lawyer and worked hard for civil rights."
She looked so proud.
"Where's he now?" Stone almost hated to ask.
    She swallowed and patted his hand. "He was killed trying to help people exercise their right to vote. He did good, lots of good for lots of folks, and none of that would have happened if I hadn't let him go." She wiped her eyes and got up from the table. "That's enough of that." With a final pat of his hand, she went back to work.
    "I CAN'Tthank you enough, young feller." Stone jumped as he heard the man with the strong booming voice step into the kitchen. He really needed to stop his daydreaming. "You may have saved my farm. Do you really think I can do this?" He looked happier than one of Stone's father's pigs in slop.
    "From a financial perspective, yes, and you should be on your way to making a good profit even if prices fall." Preston glided into the kitchen, an excited flush on his face. Stone had seen that look before, and he looked away, as everyone could see him blush. "Just stick with the plan." The man put on his work-stained coat, slipping on his boots and gloves before calling and waving a cheerful good-bye, the door banging behind him.
    "Thank you, Preston. That was a big help." Geoff squeezed Preston's shoulder before walking back toward his office. Stone followed Preston into the living room, and he joined him on the sofa. He noticed that Preston was able to move from his chair to the sofa without help, but still couldn't walk. They sat for the rest of the evening, curled together quietly, with others moving in and out of the room, but Stone had no intention of leaving Preston's side.
    "I have to get