He opened the door, then helped carry our things inside. I made sure to go ahead of Solana so I could hold the door and keep her moving without drawing attention from anyone elseon the property. I wanted her to have one quiet and worry-free night. She had earned at least that much.
I pulled a few bills from my pocket for the driver and let him know we would need him for the full weekend. We made arrangements for him to pick us up the following day, since Solana still had things to handle with her property and her bank.
Once everything was inside and the driver had pulled off, I turned to find Solana already sitting at the dining table with a mouthful of burger. I stopped in the doorway and tilted my head with a smirk.
“Damn, you couldn’t wait for me, Sweets?”
She covered her mouth and laughed. I waited for her to finish chewing before she responded.
“I haven’t had this in so long. And it was already getting cold, so I put it in the microwave. You should warm yours up too,” she suggested.
“I’m glad you got your appetite back.”
She gave me a closed-mouth smile and reached for one of her fries. I followed her lead and warmed up my food, then pulled the chair beside her and sat down. Solana watched me with expectancy as I took my first bite.
I wanted to give her a big reaction, but the burger was just all right. If she wanted something that would actually change her life, I needed to take her to this little spot back in the Parks.
I nodded slowly. “It’s cool, Sweets. But I’m going to introduce you to some real good food back home. I don’t think I’ve brought you through the hood enough.”
She batted her eyelashes. “You haven’t. You trying to show me off, sir?”
I grabbed a napkin to clean the corners of my mouth, then reached out and took her hand. Once it was in mine, I turned it over and kissed the top of it, then looked up at her with a wink.
“Hell yeah.”
She smiled wide with a mouthful of burger, then quickly covered her mouth with a giggle.
“You really got me out here acting unladylike,” she said once she swallowed.
I ate a few fries and then leaned back in my seat to just watch her for a moment. She was a completely different woman in here than the one who had walked through that house earlier. I loved seeing this side of her come back to the surface. And if I was being honest with myself, I hadn’t been sure how much of her personality would shift the moment we touched down. Old stomping grounds had a way of pulling out versions of yourself you thought you had put away.
“Why are you staring at me instead of eating your own food?” she asked.
I shrugged. “I’m just watching you, love.”
She rolled her eyes and looked away, then slowly brought her attention back to the food in front of her with a small smile she was trying not to show.
We finished eating, then decided to shower and wind down in the living room with some music playing low in the background. Solana wanted to go through the trunk she had left behind to see what was worth bringing all the way back to Rose Haven. Before she touched it, I found some cleaning products under the kitchen sink and wiped the whole thing down myself.
She chose to sit on the floor beside it, so I sat next to her after I got the lock open. She went up on her knees and leaned in to look inside. There were a few letters, notebooks packed with recipes, and old photographs of her mother.
Her mother was a carbon copy of her. There were pictures of Solana as a little girl grinning wide at the camera, completely unbothered by the world. As I shuffled through the Polaroids, I kept thinking about what our kids would look like. I glanced over at her and felt something settle in my chest, a quiet certainty thatthis woman was already my wife whether the paperwork said so or not.
“You were a pretty little girl, Sweets. You ever seen these pictures before?” I asked.
She turned and took the photo from my outstretched hand to look at it. A smile came over her face slowly, like she was trying to reach for a memory that was just out of range.
“No, I don’t think so. At least I don’t remember seeing them. These things were given to me along with a check from the government after my mother passed. I didn’t have much time to sit and go through anything back then. That’s actually how I got into acting. I was auditioning for commercials and small movie roles just to bring in money. Whatever I could get.”
I leaned back against the couch and listened without interrupting.
“So how did you land your first big role?” I asked.
Solana never talked about her career, so I was open to hearing whatever she was willing to share.
“Honestly, Henderson found me. He saw me on the set of a commercial and walked straight over. Told me all I needed was a hair color change and to dress differently.” She shivered slightly and let out a playful gag. “That’s how I became whatever kind of sex symbol I was apparently supposed to be.”
I chuckled.
