Chapter 19
Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee.
—Micah 1:16
Zachary gathered Gabrielle by her shoulders after they stepped out of Jasmine’s room. Gabrielle almost doubled over, but he held her up. “You okay?”
Gabrielle nodded. Zachary wrapped his arm around her shoulders and they made their way to the elevators. Gabrielle placed her hand over her mouth. She wasn’t sure if she didn’t clamp her mouth whether the loud cry she was holding in would escape. Zachary kept her close as they rode down. She stepped out of his arm when the elevator stopped and they got off.
Most of the way back to her house, she and Zachary were silent. Zachary had tried twice to strike up some form of talk, but must have quickly figured out that she wasn’t in a place to talk right now. So he stopped trying.
“I’m okay,” she finally said when Zachary parked his car in her driveway. “You don’t need to come in.”
Zachary turned off the engine, opened his door, and got out. Walking around to her side, he opened her car door and held out his hand. Gabrielle placed her hand in his and got out. Zachary held on to her hand as they walked to the front door of her house.
“Seriously,” Gabrielle said as she took out her keys. “You don’t have to stay. I’m fine. Really I am.”
Zachary quietly took the keys from her trembling hand and opened the front door. Standing back, he allowed her to go in. Inside, she flipped on the light switch. He handed her back her keys, then closed the door.
“Thank you,” she said barely above a whisper. “And thanks for going to the hospital with me.” Gabrielle forced a smile, but couldn’t sustain it as the corners of her mouth began to tremble.
Zachary looked at her with such loving kindness. He then pulled her into his arms and hugged her.
“I’m all right,” she said, trying to break free from his secure embrace. “Really, I am.” And before she knew anything or could stop herself, she was crying. “She’s so sick,” she said between her sobs. “Did you see how sick she is? She’s not going to make it too much longer, not in that condition. But she’s so beautiful in spite of how sick she is. My goodness, she’s beautiful inside and out. And she’s smart.” Gabrielle cried even more. “Zachary, what am I going to do? Tell me: What do I do to help her? What?”
Zachary walked her to the den and eased her down onto the couch as they remained locked together. He simply held her as she cried. And after she calmed down, she touched the spot where her face had rested on him. “Look at your shirt. I got you all wet. There’s a wet spot there now.”
Zachary didn’t even look down. He kept his eyes locked on hers. “It’s okay. I have plenty of shirts.” He touched Gabrielle’s hair. “You are so beautiful. And caring. And smart.”
Gabrielle primped her lips, then pressed them tight. “You were so wonderful with her tonight. I think she likes you.”
“And I like her.” He continued to pick up sections of Gabrielle’s hair and let it fall, just to watch it fall it seemed.
“I’m not sure she likes me all that much,” Gabrielle said. “I suppose I was more in shock than I knew I’d be. I couldn’t believe I was standing there looking at a baby I actually carried for nine months, so grown up. Well, not grown up, but she’s almost nine. And did you notice how tall she is already. If she keeps on at this pace, she’s going to be tall enough to be a model. She’s certainly beautiful enough—”
Zachary placed his finger on Gabrielle’s lips and smiled. “You were fine, Gabrielle. She likes you. She does. I could tell that she does. It’s just: I was the only male in the room, so there was no fear of competition to be had.”
“Competition? What do you mean by that? There’s no reason for competition. Jasmine doesn’t have a clue who I am to her.”
“Well, I happen to know that sometimes when women are around each other, there’s a tiny bit of silent competition going on, whether they realize it or not.”
Gabrielle shook her head and primped her mouth again. “Well, there’s not.”
“It’s nothing bad. Okay, it’s like this. Jasmine knew her mother was there. Then there you were, this beautiful woman she’d never met, walking into the room. Now, she wasn’t consciously thinking about it in these terms, but unconsciously she was aware that if she gave you too much attention in a positive way, it might . . . keep in mind I said ‘might,’ have made her mother feel a little jealous.”
“Oh, that’s malarkey! The child is just eight years old. She’s still innocent.”
“Malarkey? Wow, that’s a strong rebuke right there. I wasn’t meaning anything by my statement except to say on an unconscious level, Jasmine didn’t want her mother to think she was giving you more attention and love than her. That’s all I’m saying here. She wasn’t consciously thinking that.”
Gabrielle turned her body more toward Zachary. “Oh, and the way you called her Miss Jazz . . . she loved it. That was so precious!”
Zachary reached his hands in his pockets, pulled his hands out as fists, and crossed them. “Alabama hit the hammer, high or low. If you pick the right one, you may go.”
Gabrielle grinned, then tapped his right hand. He opened his hand and another green hard piece of candy was there. Gabrielle snatched it up, then quickly tapped his other fist.
“What?” Zachary said.
“Open that one,” Gabrielle said with a grin.
“Why? You already picked the right one.”
“Open it,” she insisted.
He opened his left fist and began to laugh.
“You are such a cheater! Just like Jasmine said you were,” Gabrielle said.
“No. Not a cheater. But I’m not beneath rigging the system a bit to put a smile on a beautiful face every now and then.”
“That was so right tonight. How do you know that game?”
Zachary grinned. “Aunt Esther.” He was referring to his aunt Esther Crowe.
“Miss Crowe taught you?” Just the thought of the woman who taught her to dance and showed her unconditional love when she felt all by herself, the woman she’d just only recently been reunited with, the woman she’d learned was aunt to the man she was now courting, brought a smile to Gabrielle’s face.
Zachary chuckled a little. “Well, I don’t know if I’d say she actually taught me. But she would have me and my other siblings sit on the steps and play that game with us. The first one to reach the top by picking the correct hand more times than the others was the winner. I guess you can say that even though it was a tame game that girls were likely to enjoy more than boys—”
Gabrielle hit him softly. “Zachary! That’s sexist.”
He laughed. “No, it’s not. It’s true. Boys like contact sports. Sitting on some steps with someone holding out two fists while singing a song, then telling you if you pick the right one you may go, is not exactly a true contact sport. But as I was about to say before I was so rudely interrupted: Even though it was a tame game, I enjoyed the principle behind it. If you choose right, you get to move up. If you choose wrong, you stay where you are until it’s your turn again and you get to choose again. If you continue choosing correctly, you have a chance of winning in the end.”
Gabrielle opened one of the candies she now held and put the green piece of hard candy in her mouth. She put the other one on the coffee table. “I saw you placing your hand on her wrist. You were checking her pulse, weren’t you?”
Zachary nodded. “Yes. I was trying to see how she was doing. Her pulse is weakening, that’s for sure.” He forced a smile. “I’m going to put in some calls tomorrow to see what I can do to help. We’re not going down without a fight. And I’m also going to be tested to see if I might be a match for her. You never know until you try.”
Tears welled up in Gabrielle’s eyes.
“Now don’t you start crying on me again. I’m not telling you this to have you crying on me. I just want you to know you’re not in this alone. Jasmine’s not in this alone. And whatever you need from me, I’m here for you, Gabrielle. Do you understand me? I’m not going anywhere I don’t care how much you insist you’re okay. And I’m not going to let you do this all by yourself. It’s me and you, kid.” Zachary said that last line like a line in a movie she couldn’t recall.
She leaned over and lay inside of his open arm that rested on the top of the couch. He then wrapped both his arms around her and squeezed her even closer.
“You’re really the greatest, do you know that?” Gabrielle said.
“I don’t know about the greatest . . .” he teased. “But far be it from me to stop you when you’re on a roll.”
She popped her head up and looked at him.
“What?” he said. “What did I do?”
“I know what you can do to help me . . . to help Jasmine!”
“What? Name it and, if it’s in my power to do it, it’s done.”
“Okay, but I need you to hear me out completely.” Gabrielle readjusted her body better. “I’ve been trying to get back in contact with Lawrence. I haven’t heard back from him. And even though it hasn’t been long since I told him, we really don’t have time to waste. Well, even now, his little snarky secretary keeps putting me off. I suppose Lawrence hasn’t told her that I could bring him down or at least cause him some major problems if I want to. Anyway, when I call, she won’t give me an appointment to see him, and even though I leave my name and number, I have a feeling she doesn’t pass my messages along.”
“Okay,” Zachary said.
Gabrielle smiled. “So, what I was thinking is you could call and make an appointment. I bet she will schedule you to see him.”
“Especially if I use the name Dr. Morgan and she thinks I’m interested in donating some big cash to his campaign.”
Gabrielle’s smile got even bigger. “You would do that for me and Jasmine?”
“Are you kidding? Woman, I would go sit in his office early in the morning and wait on him, for you.”
Gabrielle leaned over and kissed him lightly on his lips.
Zachary began to nod as he looked into Gabrielle’s eyes. “I would go down there early in the morning and sit there all day long if I have to, for you and Jasmine.”
Gabrielle gave him another kiss on the lips.
“You know I would take a lunch with me and a sleeping bag and stay all night waiting for him, for y—”
“Okay, Zachary, I get it,” Gabrielle said with a humongous grin. She kissed him again, but this time, it was a real kiss.
“I love you,” he said. “I do.”
“I know. And I love you,” she said.