When Solomon Sings

Book 0: Solomon

by Kendra Norman-Bellamy

Genres: African American; African American Christian; Christian Fiction

Synopsis

Could Shaylynn Ford be the perfect woman for Neil Taylor? Neil certainly thinks so. The problem is, he’s pretty sure he’s not her perfect man—that was her husband, Emmett, a wealthy politician who was assassinated eight years ago.

Neil, the director of a Christian school, is gifted with a singing voice that can heal the sick and bring souls to Christ, but his own soul is burdened by his insecurities and past indiscretions. He feels like he’s in competition with the memory of Emmett—and Neil’s desperation to win Shaylynn’s heart may lead him to do something he may regret.

Meanwhile, Shay herself is head over heels for Neil, and she just wishes he would open up to her. It may take a miracle to make Neil’s heart sing again.

Release date: April 24, 2012

Publisher: Urban Christian

Print pages: 288

Sample

“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.

“What’s going on with you, Dr. Taylor?” As loveable as she was, Margaret’s prying was rarely subtle. She stepped farther into the office space. “For the past few weeks I’ve noticed that you’ve had a lot on your mind. You sure that you and that li’l girl are okay? No matter how mature she might be, she’s still her age and you’re yours. Although the age gap might not seem like a problem going into a new relationship, it could develop into one the more you get to know a person.”

While Margaret’s nosiness was obvious, her feelings about Shaylynn weren’t. Whenever Shaylynn dropped by the office to see Neil, she and Margaret always exchanged pleasantries and got along well. But sometimes Neil wondered how genuine it was on the part of his executive assistant. When she spoke of Shaylynn in Shaylynn’s absence, Margaret’s tone sometimes carried an edge. Neil could detect that edge right now, and it caused him to clench and unclench his jaws. He and Margaret had worked together now for nearly seven years, and because they attended the same church, he’d known her even longer than that. By all accounts, Neil considered Margaret Dasher his friend more than his employee despite the fact that they never referenced each other by their first names. Margaret was fifteen years his senior, and for a while Neil had carried a secret schoolboy-like torch in his heart for the attractive, divorced mother of two. But all of that notwithstanding, if Margaret ever crossed the line and said anything disrespectful about the woman he loved, Neil would introduce her to a side of him that she’d never met.

“You mind closing the door on your way out?” He made the abrupt request while quickly typing in the password that would allow him access to his own cell phone. Neil was growing weary of the small talk and the needless insinuations. It was time to get back to business.

“Does that mean everything isn’t okay?” Margaret could be relentless.

Neil wished he could say something that would convince Margaret that there was absolutely no need for concern, but first he had to convince himself. There was no real evidence of trouble in paradise, but his instinct detected something on the horizon. His hesitations about buying the ring ... the increase of Emmett’s name creeping into his and Shaylynn’s conversations. . . the knot that gradually tightened in the pit of his stomach ...

“Well, does it?” Margaret’s voice snatched him from his thoughts.

An exaggerated inhale and exhale nonverbally accused his secretary of being a hopeless case. Neil pressed the code to listen to his messages, and then placed the phone to his ear. He shooed her away with his hand and forced his voice to be confident and unwavering when he replied with, “What it means, Ms. Dasher, is close the door on your way out.”

Life for Shaylynn Ford was one big hustle. It always had been. Nothing worth having had ever come easy for her, but when she decided to take her life’s biggest faith leap and become her own employer, she had no idea the magnitude of the challenge that lay ahead. Shaylynn desperately needed to prove to herself that she wasn’t the failure she’d been defined as for the majority of her life. Emmett’s life insurance policy had left her with a nice nest egg, but if she lived off of that, it would validate what her former in-laws had always said about her—that she would be nothing if it weren’t for their son.

Despite proving her genuine love for Emmett, his parents, both successful corporate attorneys, were determined to hold fast to the accusation that the Ford family fortune was what had most attracted her to him. As true as it was, they never believed her story that she didn’t even know about their class and ranking prior to falling for Emmett. To solidify their “liar” status once and for all, Shaylynn had to make this business venture work. She had to show attorneys William and Melinda Ford that she had a net worth aside from the small fortune that Emmett had willed to her.

When she first metaphorically opened the doors of Shay Decor, Shaylynn spent the better part of her days praying for God to send business to her home-based interior decorating company, so that defeat wouldn’t force her back into corporate America. That was over a year ago, and just as it is promised in scripture, God had done exceeding abundantly above all that she’d asked. These days, she sometimes found herself praying that He would allow her a breather between assignments. Shaylynn loved what she did, and she knew that a prosperous Shay Decor signified a blessed Shay Decor, but still ... she needed a break, or at least a good assistant. She would love for Saturday to be a day of relaxation for her, but it just wasn’t possible with her workload. There never seemed to be enough time in the weekdays to get it all done.

“Mama, can we go to the park or something?”

And now, here was someone else who wanted to shorten her Saturday. Shaylynn stopped flipping through her design binder and looked up in time to see her son stomping his way down the stairs. Considering Chase’s slim build and early growth spurt, most would probably think the boy would be interested in basketball, but that wasn’t his sport of choice. Chase had a genuine leather regulation-sized football tucked under his right arm, and a helmet dangled in his left hand. Was he crazy? Saturday morning had greeted them with twenty-eight-degree temperatures. As the afternoon settled in, it had warmed to thirty-six, but that was still too cold for Shaylynn. Plus she had far too much to do to donate time to the park. She sighed. Moments like this one caused her to miss Emmett even more than normal. If he were still alive, regardless of the outside elements, she was sure that he would have no qualms with taking Chase to the park for some outside playtime.

“No, son, we can’t do that today.” Shaylynn watched him stop midway down the stairwell. His shoulders slumped and his face fell. The sight of it sank her heart. She never took pleasure in disappointing her only child, but ... “Mama has a lot of work to do, Chase. Besides, it’s just too cold outside. The park is really for spring and summer, maybe early fall. But in the winter it’s too frigid for playing outdoors. Nobody plays outdoors in this kind of cold unless they’re playing in the snow.”

“Ah-huh.” Chase bobbed his head up and down as he challenged her declaration. “We still go outside and play at school. When you run around, it gets your blood pumping and warms you up. It helps you to think better too. That’s what Dr. Taylor says when he runs around with us on the playground.”

Shaylynn placed her design binder on the coffee table and gave Chase her full attention. “Dr. Taylor goes outside and plays with the kids during recess?”

With one elbow propped on the banister of the staircase, Chase looked at her with a know-it-all expression. “Yes, ma’am. Not every day, but sometimes.”

Shaylynn cocked her head and eyed her child. His story wasn’t believable; it didn’t make sense. “Dr. Taylor wears a suit to work. Are you trying to tell me that he goes outside and plays in his dress clothes?”

Chase’s laugh made Shaylynn feel like she was on the verge of crossing into idiot territory. “Of course not, Mama. He couldn’t run around with us in a suit. He changes clothes when he plays with us, and then he goes back inside, takes a shower in the bathroom that’s in the back of his office, and puts his good clothes back on. He says that getting our blood pumping helps us to get our work done better and faster.”

“He would say something like that.” Shaylynn mumbled the words to herself.

“Hey.” Chase said the single word as though a light switch in his head had just been flipped into the on position. “Maybe if you go outside and play with me, you can get your work done faster too.”

Shaylynn couldn’t help but smile at both Chase’s rationale and at the mental picture she had of Neil on the playground running after children or having them pursue him. The newsflash shouldn’t have taken her by surprise. Neil’s energy level had reaped the benefits of his new, healthier lifestyle. He’d been carrying on a love affair with the treadmill for more than a year now. His body was cashing in too. Shaylynn liked that best of all, but that was a secret she kept to herself.

Neil was becoming quite the sportsman. He’d participated in the six-mile Peachtree Road Race last July, and though he didn’t even come close to winning it, for a middle-aged rookie, he had a very impressive fifty-eight-minute finish. And Neil had always taken special interest in the children at his school, so it only made sense that he’d take his interaction with them to such a level. At first, Shaylynn thought it was just a “Chase thing.” In the early days of their courtship, Shaylynn figured that Neil was trying to impress her by being so actively involved with Chase. But the more she got to know him, the clearer it became to her that he wasn’t being biased. He genuinely loved childr. . .