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The night before he had to return to Detroit, Alvin phoned. "I've got to talk to you be fore I leave town," he told her.

"I played it cool on the telephone," says CeCe, "but inside I was jumping up and down."

Alvin and Ronald came to her apartment. Ronald fell asleep on the couch, but Alvin and CeCe talked all night. They shocked each other when they revealed their ages. Alvin looked young for his 33 years, and CeCe's high-profile career and independent lifestyle belied her young age of 17.

"That tripped me out a little," admits CeCe.

"Me too," says Alvin, "but it was too late. By then I felt so strongly that she'd be my wife. I even told her, 'We're going to get married next year.'"

"I told him I just wanted the Lord's will for my life," says CeCe. "He phoned as soon as he got back home and said, 'I called you before I called my mother.' That tickled me. He was so corny."

They wrote letters and talked frequently on the phone, and CeCe came home to Detroit regularly. She prayed like mad about the relationship and sought advice from her parents and her pastor, a strict man who said he'd pray about it. He later told her: "Brother Love's a good man."

Plus, Alvin's mom loved CeCe. "And she usually didn't like anybody I brought home," he recalls.

"Alvin was her pet," teases CeCe.

It meant a lot to Alvin that the Winans family accepted him so readily. "I asked both her parents, 'Do you have any objection to me dating CeCe?' They said 'Do you love Jesus?' That was their only requirement. They knew that if I loved the Lord I would love CeCe. Nobody in her family ever questioned me about my life before I became a Christian."

Only BeBe, CeCe's singing partner, was nervous, wondering how CeCe's marriage might affect her music ministry. A few months before the wedding, CeCe left "PTL," while BeBe stayed on. They kept singing together, meeting up for engagements. Eventually BeBe left "PTL" as well. CeCe feels that God protected them by removing them from "PTL" before the public downfall of that ministry.

On June 23, 1984, less than a year after Alvin's weekend visit to North Carolina, he and CeCe got married. "My brothers sang a song BeBe wrote for me, 'We're Going to Miss You,'" says CeCe. "It had everybody crying."

Alvin was working for Xerox, where he had moved into sales. CeCe kept singing with BeBe but also finished beauty school. By the time she was 19, she and Alvin had opened a beauty salon. Alvin ran the business while holding down his regular job. CeCe's dad, who was a barber, worked there and looked after things when she was traveling.

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