Read Online Who Is My Shelter? by Neta Jackson - Free Book Online

through the revolving doors of Richmond Towers a few hours later. “I wasn’t sure if you were still working here since Mr. Bentley quit the job. Don’t have my ‘inside informant’ anymore.” I tried to laugh lightly.
    â€œ Sí, sí , Señora Fairbanks! Working overtime now. It is good to see you too. How is my man Harry? He doesn’t come by much anymore now that he’s raising that muchacho .”
    â€œThey’re both good, Mr. Gomez. I’ll tell Mr. B you asked about him. Um, could you ring Mr. Fairbanks in the penthouse and tell him that I’m coming up? He wanted to know when I got here.”
    â€œOh, sí , Mrs. Fairbanks. Very sorry to hear what happened to your husband.” The doorman reached for the desk phone as I headed for the security door leading into the elevator lobby and swiped my card through the keypad.
    As the elevator rose floor after floor, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and blew it out slowly. Oh God, I don’t know what to expect when I see Philip . . . just help me say the right things . I hadn’t told the boys what happened to their father—both because I didn’t really know what had happened, and because I didn’t want to upset them—though I’d been tempted to dump it on them to shut up their complaints about me taking so long to leave church. But I chalked up their crabbiness to a night without much sleep and swung through a McDonald’s drive-through to get hamburgers and shakes for everyone.
    Precious, on the other hand, hadn’t been as easy to brush off. “You gonna tell me what’s goin’ on, Gabby Fairbanks?” she’d hissed at me when I finally pulled up in front of the six-flat and the kids had piled out.
    â€œI will, Precious. Just not now.” The all-too-familiar headache had started again at the back of my head. “I’ve got to get the boys settled, then I have to check on Philip, but we’ll talk later. I promise.”
    â€œ Humph . Okay, you do that. I’m gonna talk to the Baby Baxters and Tanya to see when we can have a house meeting this week. Any nights better for you?”
    â€œUh, Monday, Tuesday . . . any day is okay.” At the moment I couldn’t remember whether I had anything on my calendar that week or not. “Just try for early in the week. Then we might have time to plan a house blessing for next Saturday—”
    â€œI know, I know. I’m on it.” But the look she gave me let me know she was going to hold me to my promise to tell her what went down back at the church.
    With lunch eaten in the car, both boys crashed on their beds before we’d been home even ten minutes, but not before I made it clear they had to do their homework before turning on the TV or playing any video games later on. And, I’d told them, hopefully I’d be home in an hour or so.
    The elevator door slid open. For a moment my feet wouldn’t move. This was the first time I’d been back to the penthouse without someone else with me. Maybe I should’ve had Denny come with me . . . or Jodi . . . or the boys. Of course, the boys! I could’ve waited until they’d had a nap and come later. What had I been thinking?
    But here I was. Trust in the Lord . . . don’t lean on my own understanding .
    I kept that verse running through my head as I crossed the marble foyer and pushed the doorbell, which chimed on the other side. Somewhere inside I heard Philip’s muffled voice call out, “It’s open!”
    Sure enough, the door was unlocked. I stepped inside the cool gallery and walked slowly toward the bright living room. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows at the far end, I could see patches of blue sky between the migrating clouds and sunlight sparkling on the wide expanse of Lake Michigan. Beautiful —as long as I didn’t get too close to the windows and look straight down.
    Caught up by the view,