When Solomon Sings (25 page)
Read When Solomon Sings Online
Authors: Kendra Norman-Bellamy
This time, she was marrying a man whose family was going to welcome her with open arms. She was about to become a part of a real, loving kinship, and never before in her lifeâher biological family includedâhad she ever had that. Taking in the full picture, Shaylynn couldn't be more grateful that heaven had sent her a godly man who never pushed the envelope that left her with a decision of should she or shouldn't she. As attracted as she knew he was to her, Neil had never tried to cross the line; not even that one time when he thought she was opening the door for him to. She was thankful, and she wanted to be the best wife she could be.
To get it all started, Shaylynn desired an elegant, traditional wedding; one that reflected both their personalities. Neil was a country boy, a man who appreciated the best, but enjoyed the simple things in life. And even though Shaylynn had never lived on a farm or worked in the fields gathering crop, she, too, enjoyed simple elegance. For the wedding, neither of them needed the fabulous in order to be happy. They didn't have anything to prove to anyone, so a nice, traditional setting would be perfect. Shaylynn's ivory dress would reflect that. It was the proper color to wear for her status in life, but what made the color most appealing was that it also happened to fall into that category of colors that were Neil's favorites.
What better day to be dressed in one of his favorite colors from head to toe? There was no more perfect occasion to have Neil look at her and desire her than on the day of their wedding. Wrapping herself in his pet colors would only make unwrapping her more sensuous. And their wedding day would mark the first day that doing so would have God's stamp of approval. Shaylynn got chills at the thought of it.
“Okay ... let's think about decorations.” She hit the tab key to advance to the next section. It was definitely time to move on from her previous thoughts.
Shaylynn typed the word “flowers” at the top of the new section, and then stopped and laughed at herself. She had been engaged for less than two hours, and she was already planning the details of a day for which they hadn't even set a date. Intuition told her that their engagement wouldn't be a long one. All the key cards were already in place. His family had accepted her, Chase had accepted Neil, and she had a rock on her finger that made it all official. She could hardly wait to tell her son. She could hardly wait to tell the world. There was absolutely nothing that could stand in their way now.
Or so she thought... .
TWENTY-FIVE
Neil felt like he was on some hidden video show, and at any moment someone was going to jump out and yell, “Psych!” But he knew that wasn't going to happen. As he looked across his living room, staring at the twenty-one-year-old who sat on his sofa, Neil knew without a doubt that Sean was his son.
There wasn't a strong resemblance between the two men. Sean looked more like his mother than he did Neil, but there were enough similarities to erase any doubts. Sean shared his height, his skin complexion, and the shape of his lips. He also wore his watch on his right wrist, which meant that like Neil, Sean, too, was a lefty. But the larger convincing came by way of dialogue. For more than an hour, Sean had been reminding Neil, in intricate details, of a life he thought he'd left behind with no trace. People, places, events; Sean knew them all. In spite of the pending consequences, a small part of Neil found a reason to rejoice. Sean was living, breathing proof that Neil wasn't sterile, as he'd feared for so long. But the larger part of him found reason to fear.
Sean represented a life that no one other than his brother, Dwayne, knew Neil had. Dwayne had taken the secret of Neil's offense to his grave, and since it was a bygone that Neil never thought would reappear, he'd never bothered to tell anyone else. Not his mother, not his siblings, not his friends, and not Shaylynn. And the last person in that lineup was the one who concerned him the most. Ella would be disappointed, his siblings would be shocked, and his friends would be taken aback, but eventually all of them would get used to the idea, see Neil's sin as a thing of his past, and move on. Neil was sure of that. But Shaylynn had plainly and openly said that she wouldn't have even given him the time of day if he'd had any children. When she found out about Sean, he could lose her forever.
Sean must have detected Neil's dilemma in his demeanor, because the next words he said were, “I didn't come here to start trouble for you.”
Neil wanted to yell, “Too late!” But he remained silent and allowed Sean to explain himself.
“I just wanted to see you in the flesh. See where I came from. See the man who was never a part of my life.”
Neil's head was throbbing from the overload. He was finding words hard to come by, but he couldn't let Sean think he'd abandoned him. In his past, he'd had the capability of being a lot of things, but a deadbeat dad wasn't one of them. Even though he and Abigail were never an official couple, he would have never knowingly left her to raise his child on her own. That went against everything he believed in. “I didn't know,” Neil told Sean. “I really need you to believe that.”
Sean fiddled with the car keys that he held in his hand. “I believe you. Mama used to tell me that my daddy was dead. I believed her 'til I graduated high school.”
“What happened to make you start doubting her then?”
“That's when she found out she had stage three breast cancer. When she started getting real sick, she started telling me a lot of stuff because she thought she was gonna die at any time, and I guess she wanted to clear her conscience.”
Neil sat forward in his seat. Abigail, or Gail, as everyone called her back then, was one of the nicest people he'd ever known. Granted, he didn't spend enough time around her to say he knew her well, but she was nice to him. She was pretty too, and she had a smile that had the tendency to brighten even his gloomiest of days, and his gloomy days were plentiful at that time. Neil met Gail during the second of three separations from Audrey before they finally just called it quits and got a divorce. Dwayne decided to take a vacation in Detroit, and as much as he loved music, Neil wasn't letting his big brother go to Motown without him. It was there that he met Gail. She was a waitress at a twenty-four-hour café that he went to one night when he just couldn't sleep. Neil found her attractive on many levels, but he didn't love her. In truth, his heart, at the time, was still with Audrey. But Gail treated him like Audrey wouldn't, and before his two-week visitation was over, the two of them had consummated a relationship that never should have been.
“Are you telling me that your mother is dead?”
Sean shook his head. “No, she's not dead. She had a mastectomy and went through a few rounds of chemo. Lost all her hair at one time, but it eventually grew back. She's in remission now. She's a three-year breast cancer survivor.”
Neil sighed. “Thank God.” He didn't know why the news relieved him. If she were dead, it would better his chances with Shaylynn. At least then he could assure her that “the other woman” wouldn't at all be a part of his life. But Neil was glad she'd survived the cancer scare. Gail deserved a second chance just like anyone else. And her being alive meant their son hadn't been without both parents for the past three years. At least one of them was doing their job, and from the looks of things, Gail had done it well. Sean was clean-cut, well-mannered, and articulate. Neil cleared his throat. “When she finally told you the truth about me, what all did she say?”
“That you were married and that what happened between the two of you was a one-time mistake.”
That wasn't exactly the truth. They'd spent two nights together, but Neil wasn't going to tell Sean that. “I was separated from my wife at the time.”
“That's what she told me. She said you were just visiting Detroit when she met you, and she really wasn't sure in what part of Mississippi you lived. She mentioned that you were honest and upfront with her about where your heart was, and when you left you told her that you were going back home to try to work things out with your wife, so she didn't even bother to try to find you even after discovering she was pregnant.”
Neil felt bad and thankful at the same time. Gail shouldn't have had to keep Sean a secret, but he was glad that even in his sin, God had mercy on him. Neil realized that as little as he'd known about Abigail Thomas, she could easily have been the type of woman who would have tracked him down and caused him grief for the first eighteen years of Sean's life. “Did she tell you anything else about me?”
“Uh-huh. She told me that I got my ability to sing from you.”
Neil's eyebrows arched. “You sing?”
When Sean smiled, Neil saw Abigail. “Yeah. I do a'ight, but I hear that you da man.”
Neil would have blushed deeper if the memories hadn't flooded back. It was at church where Gail had heard him sing. Dwayne had run into a pastor when he went to get a haircut at a barbershop in the area, and once finding out that Dwayne was one half of a singing duo, the preacher had invited the brothers to come to his small storefront church and share their ministry. Neil had invited Gail, and he remembered her being taken with his voice. That was on a Friday night. Saturday night, they slept together for the first time. What a disgrace. Singing for God one night, and sinning for the devil the next.
Neil shook off the shame and addressed Sean's compliment. “Thanks. I wouldn't describe myself as
da man,
but I do sing. Just about everybody in my family sings.”
da man,
but I do sing. Just about everybody in my family sings.”
“So tell me more about your family,” Sean said. “I think you know just about everything about me and mine. What about you?”
For the next several minutes, Neil told Sean about the family he'd never met. The young man looked blown away when he found out how many uncles and aunts he had by way of his father, and Neil detected a spark of sadness on Sean's face when he heard the stories of his grandfather's death and the passing of his Uncle Dwayne. Neil also told Sean about his job and his church affiliation.
“So, you're not married anymore?” he asked after Neil finished speaking.
“No. It didn't work out. I've been divorced for fifteen years now. I'm engaged to be married though.”
“Oh, yeah? When's the wedding?”
“No date has been set yet. I just proposed a few hours ago.”
“Oh ... For real?”
“Yeah.”
“Congratulations. My mama's about to get married too.”
Neil smiled. “That's great.” He was feeling more comfortable now. “So how long are you gonna be in town?”
“Just 'til the weekend. I gotta get back to the D. I can't miss too many classes, plus I gotta be back at work on Monday.”
“Classes?”
“Yeah. I'm an education major at Wayne State. Got one more year to go.”
Neil beamed without even knowing it. “I majored in education when I attended college too.”
“Yeah. I hear you got your doctorate. I'm not sure I'm gonna take it that far. We'll see.”
Neil wanted to press Sean to reach for the highest possible goal, but he didn't feel that it was his place. They'd just met. He hadn't earned the right to push the boy to do anything yet. He watched as Sean stood and stretched his body.
“Thanks for opening the door and letting me in. I know I took you way off guard, but I had been searching for you for two years. When I was finally sure that I had found the right Neil Taylor, I said I'd better go ahead and do this before I lost my nerve. Like I said, I just wanted to meet you. I don't want nothing from you, so you don't have to worry about that.” He reached his hands in his pockets and pulled the insides out so that Neil could see them. “I didn't bring no cameras or recording devices, so you don't have to worry about that, either. I won't be uploading stuff on Facebook or calling your family or your fiancee and telling your people that I'm your long-lost son. We can keep on living like we been living. It's good to meet you, and I'm glad to find out that you're a cool brother and all, but you don't owe me anything.”
Neil stood too, and he couldn't believe his own words. “So this is it? You're just gonna appear out of nowhere, spend a couple of hours with me, and then just disappear again?”
Sean shrugged his shoulders. “Isn't that what you want? You didn't know anything about me, which means nobody else does either. I was a mistake you had with another woman while you were married.”
“I never called you a mistake, and I wish you wouldn't either.”
“Well, I wasn't exactly planned,” Sean said. “I'm just trying to help you out of something you didn't mean to get into anyway. You just sat here a few minutes ago and told me that you're a lead deacon in your church, and the pastor is your best friend. People look up to you. You can't possibly want them to know about me. That would just be crazy.”
Sean was right, and Neil knew it, but now that he had been made aware of his son, he couldn't pretend he didn't exist. That would be even crazier. Even at the risk of losing it all, he couldn't let Sean just walk away.
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