Chapter 14
SOLOMON’S WORDS doused her thoughts like spilled glitter, popping up on every surface of her mind no matter how much she tried to swipe them away.
“How about I stay here?” he’d said. Stay here.
Here.
I stay.
Stay. Stay. Stay.
I want you to stay, Solomon! Kenya groaned and shifted in her favorite waiting-room chair as the doctor approached.
Siri, can you turn off the playlist of his that’s been running through my head since yesterday? Especially when he walks toward me like that.
Her thoughts couldn’t be helped. She couldn’t easily unhear the words that had lodged themselves in her brain or unfeel the way his arms felt as he steadied her the rest of the night.
He basically bowled twice each round. Stepping up to rack up an impressive score of 175 and then helping her earn a satisfactory 150.
She loved every minute, even though her ankle didn’t love her this morning.
Served her right for pushing herself. But Lord knew she would do it again in a heartbeat. And for all the wrong reasons.
Just a few weeks ago, it would have been all about the thrill of the game.
But today, it was all about the thrill of his nearness.
Of how close and attentive he was with her the whole time they bowled.
And then he had the audacity to say, “How about I stay here?” and set off a stream of thoughts in her head that would not shut down.
But it was not like that made up for his initial rejection.
Girl, yes it did. You know you got all twitterpated for that very reason.
Ugh, her brain was neurodivergent and a traitor.
She needed air. “Ready to take our talk outside?”
Solomon glanced out the window. “Wasn’t it just raining?”
“It was just a light sprinkle, and it stopped. Besides, that will cool down the air for at least a few minutes before the sun comes back out to melt all our resistance.”
She watched the conflicted thoughts pass across his face like clouds before the wind. “But,” he sputtered, “you need to rest your ankle.”
“Then you can push me in a wheelchair. Come on, you promised we could go for a walk after I finished my therapy session as part of my additional treatment.”
“That was before you forced your friend to take you bowling.”
She ignored that. “I need some fresh air, and you probably do too. Downtown Hope Springs always does me good.”
“Take the woman out, Solomon.”
Kenya looked up in surprise at her physical therapist. “Ah, thank you for coming to my rescue, Jermaine.”
“Jermaine!” Solomon looked from his supervisor to her. “He’s not Doctor to you?”
Dr. Allen chuckled and leaned against the open patient door. “How archaic of you, Solomon, to expect her to call you Doctor. I’m on a first-name basis with all my clients.”
“But . . .” He looked her way, but if he thought she would explain her naming logic to him, he should think again.
“Never mind.”
Kenya giggled. Jermaine obviously had no idea what that was about between them, but he waved them away and left to talk to the receptionist. He had a grandfatherly way about him that had immediately put Kenya at ease when she first started coming.
And she had Solomon to thank for that referral.
Doctor Solomon, lest she forget how she enjoyed teasing him.
After a few minutes, Solomon had her nestled quite comfortably in a borrowed wheelchair from the clinic.
“I admit I’m not usually one for romantic walks in the park.”
Solomon coughed.
She pulled folded sunglasses out of her tote, shook them out, and placed them on her face. “You good there, Doctor?”
He pounded his chest and cleared his throat. “Is that what this is?”
Kenya cackled. “No, definitely not my thing.”
Solomon chuckled.
She continued, “I’ve been brainstorming ideas for your parents’ vow renewal. I had a vision of your parents walking toward this gazebo, or maybe the renewal could be on that bridge.”
Solomon followed where she pointed.
“Maybe they want something more.” She jutted her chin toward the hotel across the way.
Solomon pushed the wheelchair forward. “So you’re agreeing to help plan their vow renewal too?”
Kenya shifted her body to look up at him. “Wasn’t that part of the deal, Dr. Anruchi?”
He looked pleased. “Well, yes, it was. I just thought you’d forgotten.”
She turned forward again. “I may get things mixed up from time to time, but I don’t forget.”
“My parents can sometimes be hard to please. They are used to . . . um . . . extravagant things.”
They followed the rounded path, the curve leading them past a manicured patch of late summer blooms.
“So maybe this is the time to surprise them with something simple. Simple can be elegant and meaningful. Just like these lovely Formosa lilies.” As if reading her intention, he paused so she could gaze at them longer.
“You don’t need a lot, just the right creative mind.
” She tossed her head back, flashing a smile at Solomon.
“And lucky for you, I’m the woman who can pull it off. ”
He continued their trek. “Just as soon as you get this ankle better.”
Kenya flicked her wrist as if her injury were an obnoxious insect. “Meh, that’s not going to be an issue.”
“Maybe that’s the mentality that landed you in the hospital in the first place . . . and second.”
“Um, excuse me, I signed up for physical therapy, not a therapy session, okay?”
Solomon chuckled. “We made a deal, but I don’t want to make a martyr out of you.”
Kenya crossed her arms. “Deal or no deal, not only is it my pleasure to do the event, consider it my much-needed prescription.”
“You keep on saying things that sound like they need to be unpacked.”
“Don’t read too deep, Doctor. I just like being busy, especially with everything else on pause right now.”
He chuckled. “I’m sorry, I’m not usually the one to get into people’s business, especially so they don’t get into too much of mine.”
“Hmm.”
“But since you have me out here pushing you in a wheelchair, why not?”
She sighed. “Well, I had a meeting with my supervisor a few days ago, and she is making me take time off.”
Solomon remained quiet, not responding in shock or even pity, just giving her the space to continue.
“Thankfully I’m not fired. And from the outside, the meeting I had with my director went better than I expected.
But I know I let her down. And let so many others down.
I unintentionally made her look bad in front of potential clients.
That’s why I really need to make this connection work with Blue Horizon.
” She sighed. “All of this happened in my effort to make things better, but there seem to be some seasons that, no matter how hard I try, I trip myself up. Literally.”
He paused and positioned her chair so that she could overlook the pond with Hope Springs’ famous blue bridge standing not too far off.
“I think—and only because I could use some of this advice myself in certain areas of my life—I think that you need to focus on taking one step at a time.” He crouched to her level, placing a light hand on her ankle boot.
“I guess I’ll say pun intended, but it’s like the illustration that sometimes pastors give, when they bring out a glass container, put the big rocks in first, then the small rocks, and last they pour the sand in. ”
“Okay.” Kenya let the picture form in her mind.
Solomon turned his gaze toward the pond, then back at her. “It seems to me that you need to focus on the first step, which is a big thing for you. Which is how you step because you’re in physical therapy.”
Kenya nodded slowly, the picture continuing to form, the glass, with the various sizes of rocks around it and a sandstorm coming. “Continue.”
“The big rock for you is getting your foot better. Believe me. If you don’t give yourself time to rest and let injuries heal, they will haunt you all of your life.” He patted his left knee.
“I sure do know about that,” she whispered.
“So that is what our job is right now. The benefits of our little deal.” He touched her ankle lightly before standing. “As we move toward our second date.”
She giggled at the way he said those words, wondering if he knew how his eyebrows moved at the same time.
“We will work on getting the big rock of your foot better. I will focus on the big rock of passing my test, and all the other little rocks and sand will fall into place.”
As he spoke, his words shaped the image in her mind until she saw herself standing not outside the glass but inside it, feet anchored to a rock that filled the bottom.
But it wasn’t the one he named. There were priorities she needed to get in line, even deeper than foot level.
She shook off that tension, the tug to pull deeper.
This pseudo-romantic walk and roll with the doctor just didn’t seem like the time or place.
“Okay, Doctor, back to the beginning. What do I need to know about this vow renewal of yours?”
“My parents’?”
“Yes, silly, what is the first thing I need to know about it for them?”
Solomon grinned. “That is not a large rock for you, Kenya.”
“But it is a significant one for you, Doctor. Why are you trusting me with it and not someone else? Especially considering that I’m not running at full capacity right now.”
“Because I know what you can do.”
“How?” Kenya turned her face away, even as she said the word. So uncharacteristic of her. Where was her grit, her boldness? Why was she letting this doctor fluster her?
“I keep thinking about the reopening of the Hope Springs Community Center that I was invited to. There were so many components to that night—the tour of the facility, the speech from the mayor, and if I remember correctly, a proposal that everyone was talking about afterwards.”
Kenya grinned. “Oh yes, that was fun to put together.”
Solomon continued walking down the path, leading them back to where they started.
“I remember you appeared to me like a conductor at an orchestra, making all the chaotic activity flow into creative order. The things that would rattle the rest of us, you took in stride and made it more than a party. When others seemed to be stressed, you looked like you were thriving. You turned that relaunch into an unforgettable community experience.”
Kenya swallowed, holding a hand to her neck, her heartbeat a hummingbird under her palm.
A box of chocolates, a dozen roses, her favorite filet mignon from Luciano’s couldn’t compare to these words from his mouth.
Judging by his brief statement, he had seen her more clearly than anyone had seen her in a long time.
She swallowed down the lump that had the audacity to rise in her throat.
Any words she thought to say in return wouldn’t come.
So she just sat back and let him push her toward the path that would help her find her footing again.