Page 86 of Solomon’s Temple

I hadn’t been looking for her per se, but that was the part that still got me.

I was at that fundraiser because of my parents. I wasn’t walking into it expecting my entire life to change. Then she walked out of that building, and somehow, in a parking lot full of people, my eyes found her. I remember thinking she was beautiful, but it wasn’t just her beauty. There was something about her.

Something familiar.

Something peaceful.

Something that made me want to know her.

I didn’t know it then, but God had already answered the prayer I’d made on the worst night of my life. He just hadn’t told me what the answer would look like.

Temple was it—my wife, my answered prayer, my second chance at love and a renewed life.

I looked down at the wedding ring sitting in its box on the table. Soon, it wouldn’t be in a box no more. It would be on her finger, and she would have mine.

I swallowed hard. I’d spent so much of my life believing love was something you had to earn or fight for. Hell, something that could be taken away the second you showed weakness.

Temple taught me differently.

She loved me when she was unsure of the road ahead of us. She challenged me and stepped out on faith with me.

I told her the parts of me I wasn’t proud of, and she never made me feel like they made me unworthy of love. For the first time in my life, I knew what genuine love felt like, and I was happy.

Truly freaking happy.

Not the kind of happy that came from getting what I wanted. The kind that came from knowing who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

“Lo.”

Karon’s voice pulled me from my thoughts. I looked over at him. He was watching me through the mirror.

“You good?”

I nodded. “Absolutely.”

He smirked. “You over there looking like you’re about to cry.”

I chuckled. “I ain’t crying, fool.”

Gabriel laughed. “Bruh definitely over there looking like Morris Chestnut from The Best Man.”

“Get your damn sleeve fixed,” I told him.

The room erupted in laughter. For a moment, everything felt normal.

My cousin and his friends, whom I considered my brothers, showed up for me on such short notice; it made me happy to see they still did, even though we were on different waves.

Then the door opened, and I turned. My mother stood in the doorway. She looked at me for a long moment. There was something in her expression I couldn’t quite place.

Regret, maybe?

Fear?

“Solomon,” she said softly.

The laughter disappeared.

“Can I have a moment with you?”