The Summer of Me: A Novel

by Angela Benson

  “Why didn’t you come back for your baby?”

  “Oh, I did, when I realized my little game was not going to turn out the way I wanted. But your mother is a formidable woman. She let me know, in no uncertain terms, that I was not taking her baby.”

  “But she was your baby, not hers.”

  Mrs. Robinson shook head. “No, in all the ways that mattered, she was your mother. I was the outsider.”

  “I still don’t understand how you left your baby. My kids are in California with their dad for the summer and I was just out there to visit. No way could I go two to three months without seeing them.”

  Mrs. Robinson gave a sad smile. “You’re trying to make sense of a situation that was senseless. I wasn’t a very good person back then, Destiny. For more than a few years, my life consisted of an ongoing series of bad choices. Every time I had two options, I seemed to pick the wrong one. If I could tell the truth or tell a lie, I told the lie. If I was good at anything, it was making bad decisions. I had that down to an art form.”

  “I don’t know what all that looks like,” Destiny said. “What exactly did you do?”

  She took a deep breath. “So you want specifics? Well, the biggest lie I told was telling your mother and father that your father was your father.”

  “What? My father wasn’t my father?”

  “I’m sorry, but he wasn’t. I wanted him to be. I prayed that he was. But I knew he wasn’t. He ended things with me because I wouldn’t stop seeing other men. I didn’t realize how much I cared about him until he dumped me.”

  “Does my mother know my father was not my father?”

  Mrs. Robinson nodded. “Both of us had to give up our parental rights in order for you to be adopted. But who your birth father was didn’t matter to your mother. She still loved you.”

  “So who was my father?”

  Mrs. Robinson gave her a name that she had never heard before.

  “Tell me something else about you and your life.”

  “I guess the major markers in my life are having a baby, going to jail, getting the job at the school, and opening the salon. The first two markers represent the height of my bad decision making, while the last two mark the beginnings of good decision making.”

  “So why did you go to jail?”

  The older woman met her eyes. “Fraud.”

  Destiny gave a dry laugh. “Must be in the genes.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Destiny explained what she’d been through with HR Solutions.

  “Unfortunately, that sounds exactly like something I would have done,” Annie said. Then she explained the series of cons she’d run, most of them involving men. “I’m not proud of my past, but I don’t run from it either since remembering it helps me to not repeat it.”

  “It’s hard for me to believe that was you. It’s not the person I’ve come to know and like very much.”

  Annie smiled. “That’s because you’ve only known Good Annie. I’m glad you never knew Bad Annie. Your life is better for it, believe me.”

  Destiny sighed. “I do.”

  “How do you feel about all of this, Destiny?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “It’s almost like I’m learning about somebody else’s life, not my own. I think I need more time to process it.”

  “Take all the time you need. Nobody’s rushing you. I do hope you’ll continue to work at the shop though. I’ve meant every word I’ve said to you, Destiny. You do believe that, don’t you?”

  “I believe you,” Destiny told the older woman. “I’d like to continue coming to the salon.”

  “That’s good,” Annie said. “Things between us don’t have to change unless you want them to. I’m more than content being your mentor and friend.”

  Destiny thought Annie was right. She couldn’t think of Annie as her mother, as that role was filled quite well. But she definitely had room in her life for a mentor and friend.

  Chapter 47

  DESTINY WAS APPREHENSIVE AS SHE WALKED TOWARD Daniel’s office at Faith Community Church. She hadn’t seen or talked to him since he’d come to rescue her in Los Angeles, but she had thought a lot about him. When she reached his office, she stopped outside the door and said a quick prayer before walking in.

  Daniel sat at his desk, head down. “Working hard or hardly working?” she called out to get his attention.

  He looked up. When he saw it was her, he smiled broadly before wiping the smile off his face, as if he’d caught himself doing something wrong. She knew his uncertainty with how to greet her was her fault.

  “Working hard,” he said. “I hope that will change now that you’re back. It certainly is good to see you.”

  “It’s good to see you, too,” she said, sitting in one of the chairs near the desk they had shared in the past. “I’m glad to be back.”

  “Your trip ended well?” he asked.

  She nodded. “Malcolm and I filed all the necessary paperwork related to the case, so that’s out of the way. I guess I’m all set on that front. And three extra days in Los Angeles with my kids was icing on the cake. All in all, I really can’t complain.”

  “It’s great you got to spend some extra time with your kids. I’m glad some good came out of everything you went through.”

  “So am I.” She leaned forward, toward him. “Daniel, I have to thank you again for everything you did to help me and Bertice. I couldn’t see it all clearly as it was happening, but it’s very clear now. You’ve been like a guardian angel to both of us, watching out for us when we didn’t even know we were in trouble.”

  “I’m glad I was able to help,” he said simply. “But I don’t think you should put me up there with guardian angels. In case you’ve forgotten, you did end up in police custody.”

  She chuckled. “I remember,” she said. “That was my first thought, too, but you know what I finally realized? Guardian angels don’t keep you out of trouble that’s the result of your own actions. They merely protect you as you’re going through that trouble. And that’s exactly what you did.”

  He got up, walked around the desk, sat in the chair next to hers, and turned to her. “Does this mean you’re no longer angry with me?”

  “I was never angry with you.”

  He met her eyes, challenging her words.

  She gestured with her thumb and forefinger. “Maybe just a little,” she said.

  “You sent me away.”

  “It wasn’t anger that made me send you away. It was fear.”

  He sat back in his chair. “Fear? I don’t understand. What were you afraid of?”

  She looked down at her hands. “That you’d realize I wasn’t good enough for you. That you’d see I couldn’t live up to your moral standards. You had proof. I had given it to you by my actions.”

  He tipped her chin up with his hand so that she looked at him. “I thought you knew me better than that. Do you really think I would sit in judgment of you that way? Do you think I think less of people who get caught up in these types of scams?”

  “Some people would.”

  “Then shame on them.” He stroked his finger down her cheek. “I never told you how Gloria and I met, did I?”

  She shook her head.

  “She was a client of GDW Investigations,” he began. “She came to us because some fast talker had conned her out of money that belonged to the nonprofit that she ran. The guy had convinced her that he could get the group, which was always short on funds, some outrageous return on their money. Of course, he had no intention of doing so. He took the money and she never saw him again. I still remember how embarrassed she was as she told me the story. She could barely look at me.”

  “I had no idea,” she said.

  “Wait, it gets worse. She made the decision to let this guy invest the money without the approval of her board of directors, so technically what she did was embezzlement.”

  “Were you able to help her?”

  He nodded. “We got back some of th
e money, but not all of it. And she had to confess to her board what she had done, which was hard for her because she loved that nonprofit and she was afraid she would have to step down from her position. To their credit and her relief, they didn’t make her resign.”

  “I never would have guessed.”

  “I know,” he said. “But she was no different from you. She did the wrong thing for a good reason and she had to suffer the consequences. It didn’t make her a bad person or a person of low character. It just made her a fallible human being, which is what we all are, including me.”

  Destiny knew he was sharing all this with her because she knew how much he had loved Gloria. “Thank you for telling me, Daniel.”

  “Thank Gloria,” he said. “It was a story she told often herself. It had a lot of lessons she learned, and she wanted to share those lessons with others.”

  “I already thought she was a special lady, and now even more so,” she said, wondering how any woman could take Gloria’s place in Daniel’s heart.

  “So where do we go from here?” he asked. “Is gratitude all you feel for me? Do you see me only as some guardian angel watching over you?”

  She kept her eyes focused on his. “I don’t know what I feel,” she said honestly. “Because my emotions are everywhere, but I do know what I want.”

  “And what is that?”

  “I want to continue what we started before I left for Los Angeles. I thought we were on the road to somewhere nice and I want to see where that road takes us.” When he opened his mouth to speak, she pressed her hand against his lips. “Before you say anything, you have to know that my life is complicated and seems to be growing more complicated every day.”

  He removed her hand from his lips and kissed her fingers. “Are you trying to scare me away?”

  She shook her head. “But I do want you to understand what it means to be involved with me. No surprises.”

  “I know what you’re trying to do, Destiny, but life doesn’t work that way. You could list all the complications in your life today and another unforeseen one can come up tomorrow, or next year, or in the next ten years. And my life could end up with more complications than yours. That’s why it’s called life. We have to live it day by day. I can only tell you that I’m willing to work with you through any complications we face, that I want to walk along this relationship road with you.”

  “It sounds good, but—”

  He sat back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. “Okay,” he said. “Tell me your complications and I’ll tell you if I can handle them.”

  “I’m being serious,” she said.

  “So am I. Give me your complications.”

  “You know my kids are my main priority,” she said. “For their sakes, I still need to move this summer, which becomes complicated because I no longer can count on the money from the HR Solutions job to do it.”

  He shrugged. “I mentioned this before and you shot me down, but I really do think you need to take the money from the funds we’re using for the short-term loan program. It’s the best solution.”

  She wouldn’t disagree with him this time. “I came to the same conclusion myself. I’ll put together a funding application and submit it to you for approval. I don’t want special treatment.”

  He smiled at her. “Okay, but you do know I’m approving everybody, right?”

  She frowned. “Well, yes, there is that.”

  “Now that complication wasn’t so complicated after all. What’s next?”

  She slapped him on his forearm to remind him to take her seriously. “It’s not lost on me that you started these programs about the same time that I submitted my application at HR Solutions. If I had waited a little longer, even a couple of weeks, I would have had another option. Instead of waiting on God to send me a solution, I acted out of desperation and made a bad choice. Lesson learned.”

  “Stop beating yourself up about it,” he said. “Now what’s your next complication or have you run out of them already?”

  She took a deep breath. She knew what she had to tell him next would bring back sad memories. “My mom is about to undergo treatment for another bout of breast cancer.”

  Daniel reached for her hand and squeezed. “I’m sorry, Destiny,” he said. “But she can fight this. I’ll be right there with you giving you all the prayer and support I can. What are the doctors saying?”

  “Charlotte Wells has agreed to join her care team. We met with her the other day and she presented us with several treatment options. We’re deciding among them now.”

  “I trust Charlotte’s judgment. She was great with Gloria.”

  “We feel the same way.” She met his eyes. “Given what you went through with Gloria, are you sure you’re ready to deal with breast cancer again, if only peripherally? I’d certainly understand if you weren’t.”

  “Life happens, Destiny. All we can commit to is to be there for each other through its challenges. We can’t pick the challenges we want. As people of faith, we just have to believe that God can bring us through those challenges, maybe even send a guardian angel or two to watch over us. Agreed?”

  She smiled. “Agreed.”

  “Now is that your last complication or do you have another one?”

  “One more,” she said. “Turns out my mother, the woman who raised me, the woman you met, is not my biological mother.”

  “What? You’re adopted?”

  She nodded. “I told you my life was complicated.”

  He sank back in his chair. “I’m stunned, but you seem to be handling this well. How long have you known?”

  She smiled. “Since yesterday. I was sharing the concerns I had about breast cancer possibly being in Kenae’s future. Mom told me about my birth mother so I wouldn’t worry so much about Kenae and breast cancer.”

  “I don’t know what to say. How are you doing?”

  “I don’t know if it’s sunk in yet. And, oh yeah, I know who my birth mother is.”

  “You do?”

  She nodded. “In fact I’ve met her. Her name is Annie Robinson. She’s the counselor who helped me get enrolled in school, and who is letting me apprentice under her in order to get my natural hair care license.”

  His mouth dropped open. “Okay, I admit it. This is a complication.”

  She gave a dry laugh. “Yes it is. But if I’m really honest about it, being adopted somewhat explains the connection I felt with Annie when I first met her, and it even explains some of the disconnect that I sometimes feel with my mom. My immediate concern though is how and when to tell the kids, about Annie and about their grandma being ill. It’s going to be a lot for them.”

  He reached for her hand again. “Whatever you need from me, just ask, okay?” After she nodded, he said, “Bring on the next complication.”

  “That’s it,” she said. “Here you have me with my shortcomings and complications laid bare before you. Are you ready and willing to go on this road trip with me, with all the detours that may be required along the way?”

  To answer, he leaned toward her, pulled her close, and pressed his lips against hers. When he pulled back, he said, “Does that answer your question?”

  She smiled at him. “Perfectly.”

  Epilogue

  DESTINY SAT IN THE HILLMAN GYMNASIUM WITH THE other graduates waiting to be awarded their bachelor’s degrees. Her journey to get here had been long, and sometimes rocky, but it had always been worth it. She’d taken charge of her life, made good decisions and bad ones, and lived through the consequences of both. Her future and her outlook on life were on the upswing.

  She looked up in the stands in the general direction of where her family and friends were seated. She spied the wildly flailing arms of KJ and Kenae first. She couldn’t help but grin at their antics.

  She turned her attention from the twins to her mother and Daniel, who sat on either side of them. She thanked God that her mother was present and that her cancer was again in remission. She was gratef
ul that the protocol from Charlotte Wells’s clinical trial had given her and her mother time to build on what they had started two summers ago on that fateful flight from L.A. back to Atlanta. She and her mother were closer today than they had ever been.

  Kenneth, Mary Margaret, and three-month-old baby Kendra were seated a row above the others. As usual, baby Kendra was in the arms of her doting grandmother Charlotte. As she had expected, KJ and Kenae had fallen in love with their baby sister and showed no signs of jealousy.

  Bertice, Phil, Natalie, and Gavin sat on the next row up. She was glad Bertice and Phil had been able to patch things up. They’d been talking about marriage for the last year, but hadn’t announced a formal engagement yet.

  Destiny’s attention returned to Daniel. Their financial seminars had been a big hit with the church, so much so that they were made standing events on the church calendar. She and Daniel had worked magic with them and found magic with each other. If anybody had told her years ago that she would one day be on the verge of becoming a pastor’s wife, she would not have believed them, but that’s exactly where she found herself today.

  Destiny’s focus returned to the graduation when the procession attendant gave her row the signal to stand. As directed, she rose from her seat and followed her group to the left of the stage. As she stood waiting for her name to be called, she looked into the stands again. This time her eyes locked with Annie’s and they shared a private smile. Annie, her friend and mentor, had enriched her life in many unexpected ways. Not only had she helped Destiny get her natural hair care license, she had also made her a partner in the salon. They were looking to expand with a second salon, which Destiny would manage, in the coming year.

  Destiny turned her attention back to the graduation exercise as the time for her name to be called drew near.

  “Destiny Madison.”

  When Destiny heard her name, she began her walk across the stage, leaving the Summer of Me behind.