When Solomon Sings (2 page)

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Authors: Kendra Norman-Bellamy

BOOK: When Solomon Sings
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ONE
“Hi, there. Back again, I see.”
At the sound of the familiar accented voice, Neil glanced up from the glass counter and into the face of the same handsome, grey-haired gentleman who had waited on him the last time he'd stopped by the store. And the time before that ... and the time before that. “Hi.” Neil was already looking down again by the time he returned the greeting.
“Dr. Neil Taylor, correct?” the salesman said.
Neil brought his attention back to the man and accepted the friendly hand that was extended toward him. “Yes. Rabbi Ezra Bernstein, right?” He was glad that he could recall the Jewish community leader's name as readily as the rabbi had done his.
“Right. Very good.” Ezra seemed pleasantly surprised, but he shouldn't have been so impressed. It was Neil's fourth visit to his store in the last six weeks. “I see that you keep gravitating back to this same spot,” the man observed. He pulled a copper-colored key from his pocket and unlocked the door to the glass casing before carefully sliding it open. “You like
this
one, don't you?”
Neil's eyes followed the direction of Ezra's hand as it navigated toward the two-carat, emerald-cut diamond set in white gold. It also came in yellow gold, but for some reason, the clearness of the flawless white solitaire against the silver of the brilliant white gold looked more breathtaking. It defined
her
. “Yes.” Neil's fingers tingled, but his hand was steady as he took the ring from the jeweler's grasp and studied it carefully. It was his first time holding it, and it felt good. It felt right. “This one catches the light perfectly.”
“Yes, it does,” Ezra agreed. He hesitated for a brief moment, adjusted the white yarmulke that partially covered his graying hair, and then said, “Am I correct in assuming that you're not quite sure about this one yet?”
“No, it's not that,” Neil assured him. “The ring is extraordinary. I love it, I just—”
“No, no.” Ezra's voice stopped him. “I don't mean the ring. I mean the woman. You're not sure about her just yet.”
Neil's posture straightened, and he shook his head from side to side. “That's not it at all, Rabbi. She's the one. Shay—that's her name—she's the one; no doubt about it. I'm just ...” Neil clamped his lips shut. Why on earth was he about to spill his guts to a practical stranger? This man didn't need to know about his insecurities. “I'm just a careful shopper,” he concluded. And he was. So it wasn't a total lie.
“So it would seem.” Ezra reached forward and reclaimed the jewelry before gently setting it back in its place in the display. “It's always a good practice to shop with care; especially when you're shopping for something as precious as a diamond.” He closed the door of the glass casing, locked it, and then looked across the counter at Neil. “But we do have a thirty-day return policy, you know. If for any reason you're not satisfied, you can return it as long as it's still in the same condition as it was when purchased. That means if the bride-to-be doesn't look at this ring and immediately embrace it, you are at liberty to return it and even bring her in with you and let her pick out something else that better suits her taste.”
That wasn't it either. Ezra was totally missing the mark, but Neil didn't want to tell the man that it wasn't the jewelry that he feared Shaylynn might reject. His reluctance to make the expensive investment had nothing to do with the ring. “That's good to know,” he opted to say. “I'll definitely keep that in mind. Thank you, Rabbi. I suppose I should be getting back to work. My lunch break will be over soon.” Fridays were particularly busy days at Kingdom Builders Academy, the private Christian school where Neil served as director.
“Yes.” The store owner reached for his hand once more. “And I suppose I can look forward to seeing you again in the next week or so?”
Embarrassment heated Neil's face. If he weren't a black man, he would have turned candy apple red. Neil accepted the handshake, but determined in his mind that whenever or
if
ever he decided to ring shop any further, he'd go to a different store. In light of the rabbi's comment, he would just be too self-conscious to return to Menorah Jewelers ... especially if he still wasn't ready to make a purchase. “Have a good day.” Neil figured it was best not to give the man's question a direct answer since he had no plans to return.
Technically, it wasn't even winter yet, but cold temperatures had arrived in metropolitan Atlanta on an early flight. With the wind chill factor, the temperatures had been in single digits for three consecutive days, and even wearing a coat, hat, gloves, and scarf, Neil felt chilled to the bones as he climbed in the driver's seat of his SUV. The black Toyota Highlander had served him exceptionally well for seven years. After turning the key in the ignition, Neil sat behind the wheel and listened for the engine to idle down. While he waited, a photo caught his eye, and he slowly picked it up. It was a picture of Shaylynn and Chase. Shaylynn had given it to him just yesterday. During the Thanksgiving holiday break, she and her son had taken Christmas photos at Stonecrest Mall, and she had given Neil one eight-by-ten that he'd immediately framed and hung on his bedroom wall, and another that was so small that she'd presented it to him in a thermoplastic frame that dangled from a keychain. Neil had placed the frame in the built-in cup holder beside his driver's seat.
“That ring would be a great Christmas gift.” He whispered the words while brushing his thumb over Shaylynn's image. “I wish I were sure of where your head is ... and
who
your heart is truly with.”
Neil didn't doubt Shaylynn's love for him. Every time she looked at him, he could see the love in her eyes. But as strong as her feelings were for him, he knew they were stronger for someone else. Emmett Ford still owned her heart, or at least the better part of it. The flowers that Emmett had presented to her on the day he proposed were as dead as he was, but eight years after his passing, she still had them. Just the thought of it made Neil subconsciously shake his head. He tried to avoid looking at them whenever he visited Shaylynn, but with them sitting on the mantel of her fireplace, those annoying, dried, pressed violets were like the centerpiece of her entire house. They were like some bizarre kind of urn of Emmett's ashes, and to Neil they served as a painful, constant reminder that he'd never be Shaylynn's one and only.
Would she accept a marriage proposal from him? The inward battle continued as Neil placed the frame back in the cup holder, shifted gears, and began backing from his parking space. Accepting would mean permanently wearing his ring on the same finger from which she'd only recently been able to remove Emmett's. Was Shaylynn ready for that? Being Neil's steady was one thing, but would she be willing to be his
permanent
? Only when the sound of a horn resonated in the air did Neil realize that he was mindlessly holding up traffic at a green light.
The ride back to Kingdom Builders Academy took twenty minutes. Neil walked through the front doors just as lunchtime was ending, and the children were walking in straight lines on their way back to their classrooms. The enthusiastic reception he received made him forget his troubles. Temporarily anyway.
“High five, Dr. Taylor!”
Neil laughed out loud as he went down the line, slapping the hands that were attached to the chorus of voices that had given him his orders. The children, and especially the boys, loved it when he high-fived them, and Neil loved doing it. Twenty years from now, when he retired from this job he held so dear, Neil was sure that it would be the thing for which he'd be most remembered. Not all of the late hours that he'd put in without pay. Not the many times he'd gone beyond the call of duty and visited the homes of the students to check on their wellbeing. Not even for the incident last year where he used the Heimlich maneuver to save the life of an eight-year-old student who began choking while eating her lunch. He was honored by the school and the church for his quick reaction in the crisis situation, and the
Atlanta Weekly Chronicles
, the city's most popular newspaper, even printed a feature article about it. But it wouldn't be what the teachers or students would remember most. The high fives would be Neil's legacy, and truthfully, it would probably be what he would miss the most.
“Where've you been, Dr. Taylor? What did you have to do ... go slaughter the cow before making the burger? And why didn't you answer your phone? I tried to call you twice.”
Missing his mother hen of a secretary would probably run a close second. Margaret Dasher was a sixty-year-old who swore that she would die working. The word
retirement
wasn't in her vocabulary. Although she was somewhat hearing impaired, Margaret was an amazing-looking woman who easily looked ten years younger than she was. She had been talking loud all day long, and that was a clear sign that she'd chosen not to wear her hearing aid today. She adamantly denied her constant need for it. Neil stopped in front of her desk and removed his sunglasses. “Sorry, Ms. Dasher. I had some business to take care of and got caught in a little bit of traffic coming back.” He glanced at his watch, and then back at her. “But I'm not late. I have five minutes to spare.”
Margaret was shaking her head as she rose from her chair. “You must have
Mrs
. Ford on the brain. Is that where you were? I'll bet you did have business to take care of. Did you have
lunch
with her?” She made quotation marks with her fingers when she emphasized the word. “That's about the only person who could make you forget that you had an important one-fifteen conference call with Pastor and the KBA Education Ministry Board.”
Neil slapped himself on the forehead. He hated it when Margaret insinuated that he and Shaylynn had already consummated their relationship, and he disliked it even more when she referred to Shaylynn as
Mrs
. Ford. But he was too disappointed with himself for not remembering the important business call to scold her for either offense. “CJ is gonna kill me. How in the world did I forget?” The question was more to himself than her, but Margaret was ready with a reply.
“Dr. Taylor, when you're with that young thing, you forget your own name. It's a wonder you remembered to come back to work at all. I done told you to watch yourself. You can't spend too much time with a person you're in love with and attracted to. The devil will sneak in the mix and have you doing all kinds of ungodliness. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?” She looked at him over her reading glasses like some crazy mix of schoolteacher and overbearing mother. Then with an accusing tone, she added, “Of course you do.”
Neil released a sigh. He knew he didn't owe Margaret an explanation, but it was the only way he would be able to shut her up. “First of all, Ms. Dasher, I was not with Shay; I was taking care of business just like I said. Okay? Secondly, as I've told you a million and one times already,
Ms
. Ford and I have not broken any rules. We've not gone there, and have no plans to go there, so you can stop worrying.” In the back of his mind, Neil wondered if the thought of going
there
with him had ever even entered Shaylynn's mind. He'd be lying if he said it had never entered his, but he couldn't help but wonder if her desires to
go there
with anyone had died right along with her beloved Emmett. Neil swallowed the bitter bile that rose in his throat.
“Never underestimate the power of the enemy,” Margaret warned. “The Bible tells us that that filthy, low-down, stankin' devil is out to kill, steal, and destroy. All you have to do is let your guard down just a little bit, and he'll slither his way in and trip you up. Not a single one of us is so saved that we don't get tempted once in a while.”
Without replying, Neil walked the fifty feet that would deliver him to his own office space, removed his jacket, and hung it on the coat rack behind his desk. He placed his hat, scarf, sunglasses, and gloves on the nearby credenza before pulling out his chair and sitting. He didn't need Margaret to fill him in on the woes of temptation. He and temptation weren't only on a first-name basis; they sometimes ate dinner and watched movies together. He looked that little imp in the eyes every time he touched Shaylynn or she touched him. Neil knew all too well that he wasn't beyond being tempted, and he knew he wasn't beyond yielding to temptation either. He'd denied his flesh for more years than he cared to calculate, but that hadn't always been his testimony. Even so, Shaylynn was different. She was worth waiting for. He just wondered how long he'd have to wait.
“Are you hearing me, Dr. Taylor?”
Neil looked at Margaret, who was now standing in his doorway, but he avoided her examination. It was time to change the subject. “What did Pastor Loather say when I wasn't here for the conference call?” He was one of the few church members who knew the pastor intimately enough to refer to him as CJ, but he rarely did so around others.
“He didn't seem upset, if that's what you're worried about.” Margaret rested her ample hips against the frame of Neil's open door. “I'm surprised he didn't just call you on your cell.”
Neil slapped his forehead again, and then swiveled his chair around so that he could reach for the coat he'd just hung. Just before entering the jewelry store, he had set the volume of his ringer on silent and dropped the phone in his pocket. After leaving the store, he never thought to change the setting. As Neil slipped the BlackBerry from its case, the first thing he noticed was the message on the screen that notified him that he'd missed three calls. “Aw, man!” he whispered.

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