His Love Walk
Book 7
Praise Him Anyhow Series
by
Vanessa Miller
Prologue
Carmella Marshall-Thomas woke up in a cold sweat. She shook her husband until he woke up and sat up next to her in the bed. “I just had a nightmare. Ronny was dead.”
“What?” Ramsey turned on the light next to their bed.
“I’m scared, Ramsey. The last time I felt like this Renee was being stalked and she and Jay almost lost their lives.”
Rubbing his chin as he focused on his wife of the last fifteen years, Ramsey tried to sound calm. “I’ve studied a little about dreams. Tell me this, did you see blood?”
“No, there was no blood. Is seeing blood bad?”
Sighing in relief, Ramsey said, “Let’s just say, it wouldn’t be good. At least some dream interpreters don’t think so. Now tell me about the dream.”
“It was kind of weird. I went to Ronny’s house because I was angry that we hadn’t seen him in a while.” Shaking her head, Carmella said, “That boy works entirely too hard. I mean, I know he desires success, but how much of it does he need?”
“Carmella, can you please get back to your dream?”
“I’m sorry, but Ronny and I used to be so close, and now...” she trailed off as she thought about how long it had been since Ronny had bothered to come home for a visit. Even though Ronny was already grown by the time she married his father, Carmella still thought of all five of Ramsey’s children as if they were just like the two she’d conceived with her first husband. They all belonged to her. They were her children and she would worry about the things that concerned them until the good Lord took her home.
Ramsey wiped a tear from her face as he said, “He’s a grown man, honey, we’ve got to move out of the way and let him live his life.”
“But the women in the dream told me he was dead.”
“What women?”
“Women were everywhere. I kept trying to reach his front door, but they kept blocking me, telling me that he was dead. And then when I finally reached the door, this woman with the face of an angel opened his door and invited me in. I pointed to the other women, standing all around the house and said, ‘They told me Ronny was dead’. The woman laughed as she informed me that Ronny was indeed dead to those women, yet very much alive.
“I was confused at first, but I stepped into the house and there was Ronny, standing in a tub with a white rob on, drenched from head to toe as if he’d just been baptized.”
Ramsey’s face relaxed. He turned the light back out and lay back down.
“Are you going back to sleep, Ramsey? Don’t you want to pray with me about this?”
“Yeah, I’m going back to sleep. I think God has already answered your prayers concerning Ronny. And once you digest the meaning of that dream, you’ll go back to sleep, too.”
Carmella wanted to turn the light back on, shake her husband, do something, anything to make him stay up so they could pray together. But then her mind drifted back to her dream and little by little the meaning became clear. “Oh,” she said as she lay back down and drifted off to a peaceful sleep.
Chapter 1
Ronny Thomas made more deals by 8:00 a.m. than most men made in a week. He was machine like when it came to wheeling, dealing and making his money. He’d always been like that, but just seven years ago he didn’t even have enough money to pay his rent. Matter of fact, he didn’t have any rent to pay because his older brothers, Ram and Dontae had allowed him to sleep on their couch while he rebuilt his life after yet another financial disaster had occurred. Back then Ronny dealt with a financial disaster just about every other week. But he’d known that if he ever got his hands on enough money to do business with, he would make something happen. And so he did.
After taking out a fifty thousand dollar loan, he was back in business. Forbes magazine now called him an overnight success, an internet and real estate mogul because of the two businesses he had finally mastered. It seemed everyone was singing his praises these days, but Ronny knew that none of it would have been possible if his brother, Ram wasn’t the vice president of the bank that loaned him the money. Like they say... it’s not what you know, but who you know. Ronny was convinced that there were so many men and women in the world who, if given a break like he had received, would be able to make a success out of their lives as well. So today, he was paying it forward. Ram was now the president of a local bank in Charlotte. Ronny had decided to partner with Ram’s bank for the entrepreneurial program he wanted to get started. That way, it was like a double paying it forward... helping his brother’s new bank and helping future entrepreneurs.
“They’re ready for you, Mr. Thomas,” a woman peeked her head into the room and told him.
Ronny smiled as he rose out of his seat. These days he was respected and called Mister everywhere he went. He liked the sound of respect, because he couldn’t seem to get any of that during the years he struggled to find his way in the business world.
But he wasn’t struggling anymore. Today, he was wearing a Valentino. The suit was Navy blue with a single-breasted jacket that had notched lapels and a two button center front fastening and matching pants with a slim straight leg. To dress the suit down a bit, Ronny chose a black roll neck sweater. But dressed down or not, he still looked like a million bucks. Ronny was living the dream now... time to go make someone else’s dreams come true.
***
Slicing the green apple and tossing it into a sandwich bag, Nia Brooks shouted, “Two minutes, Jarod.” She could not afford to be late today. Everything was riding on her ability to get to the convention center and impress the formidable Mr. Ronald Thomas with her business plan.
“I’m on a pirate adventure, Mommy,” Jarod, her adorable four-year-old son yelled from his room.
“Not this morning you’re not. I have to get to an important meeting.” Nia put his lunch box into her oversized purse and stomped off to her son’s room. She opened the door and spotted him inside of the box that his Christmas present had come in.
“Will your boss be mad if you’re late for your meeting?” Jarod asked with his pirate hat firmly secured to his head as he rowed his cardboard box of a ship with two thick sticks he’d found in the front yard of their apartment building.
Nia lamented over the sixty dollars she had splurged to spend on Christmas presents that were being ignored. If she’d gotten him a box and a few sticks, maybe she’d have the rest of the rent money needed to keep a roof over their heads this month. “The meeting I have isn’t for work. It’s with some very important people who could help Mommy get her new business up and running.”
“If you’re not going to work, then help me find the hidden treasure.”
“I’m serious, Jarod. No more fooling around. This meeting is really important to Mommy.”
“All right, all right.” Jarod reluctantly climbed out of the box and put his coat on. As they were walking out the door, Jarod asked, “Can you go on a pirate adventure with me tonight?”
Nia handed her son his lunch box. As she was locking their apartment up, she nodded. “Sure thing, Captain. I’ll be the first mate on the ship.” After locking the door, she saluted him and then turned to leave the building. But a big imposing figure was blocking her way.
“Good morning, Mrs. Brooks, I was hoping to catch you before you left for work this morning.”
“She’s not going to work,” Jarod provided unsolicited information.
“I have a meeting,” Nia responded.
“I won’t keep you. I just stopped by to fix the faucet in your bathroom and to collect the rent.”
“About that…” Nia began.
Drake lifted a hand. “Before you say
that you don’t have it, I have to tell you that I’m in a bind. The owner of the building will be coming here to tour the complex tonight. He will be looking at the books. And there’s no way that I can explain the fact that you’ve only been paying half the amount of your rent for the past two months.”
“Can’t you give me a little more time, Drake? Things have just been really hard lately, but you know I’ll catch up on the rent.”
He shook his head.
“A couple more days?” Nia hoped that the sad look in her eyes would cause Drake to help her out one more time. Since Johnny died she’d needed a lot of just-one-more-time kind of help. Nia never realized that making a living would be so hard. But after losing Johnny’s income and then being laid off from two jobs and then working temp jobs whenever she could get an assignment, reality hit her upside the head real quick.
She and Johnny had been so young when they married that life insurance had been the furthest thing from their minds. In Nia’s wildest imagination, she never would have thought that Johnny would die of a heart attack the same day their son was born. Everything had been a struggle after that, and Nia had put her dreams of owning her own business on the back burner. Because the thing she most concerned herself with these days was keeping a roof over her and Jarod’s heads.
“I can give you until two o’clock today, but that’s it.”
“Thanks, Drake.” Nia walked away from him with a smile on her face, but what Drake couldn’t see was that she was silently praying, asking God to fix this situation. She had twenty-five dollars to her name. But she’d used twelve dollars of that money in order to put a few professional touches to her business plan. She needed to put ten dollars in the gas tank, and Jarod needed two dollars for the field trip at his daycare.
“God, You know my needs... make a way out of no way,” she kept saying within her spirit as she and Jarod drove down the street. It seemed as if her life had been about losing, because Nia didn’t have much of anything. She’d lost her mother and father by the time she was twenty, her husband was gone before her twenty-fifth birthday. Several jobs had come and gone.
So, it was true that Nia had lost a lot, but she hadn’t lost her faith. As far as Nia was concerned, her problems might be big, but her God was bigger.
Jarod’s daycare was only two blocks away. They got out of the car. Nia held on to her son’s hand as she escorted him into the center. She was so grateful that she had found this place, the weekly fee was reasonable, Jarod loved his teacher and was learning to read because of their phonics reading program.
“Are you excited to see Ms. Johnson?” Nia asked Jarod. He’d been in daycare the last three years and had always seemed so shy and withdrawn at the other daycare centers Nia had taken him to. But all that changed when he joined Ms. Johnson’s class.
“Yea, I’m going to class. We’re going on a field trip today.”
She wished it had been a free field trip, but Nia wasn’t going to be the one to ruin his fun. Especially since precious little of that was coming their way these days.
“Mrs. Brooks, can I speak with you for a moment?”
Nia was beginning to think that the only way she would get a break today would be if she fell down and broke her leg. Smiling like she’d done with Drake, Nia said, “Of course, Amanda. Just let me drop Jarod off to his class and I’ll meet you in your office.”
“I need to see you before you drop Jarod off.”
Like she was marching to the guillotine, Nia turned and headed into Amanda’s office with Jarod close by her side.
Amanda closed the door behind them, and without even offering them a seat she said, “We need to clear up your bill before Jarod can go to class today.”
“What do you mean? I paid you last week.”
With an empathy filled expression, Amanda said, “I’m sorry, Nia but the check bounced. That’s the second time since Jarod has been here, so my boss has instructed me to only take a money order from you from now on.”
She hadn’t realized that any of her checks had bounced. She’d paid the electric bill, paid on that stupid credit card that she no longer had access to, but still owed five thousand dollars on, bought groceries... oh that’s right, she thought as her mind kept rewinding, she had a flat tire last week. She’d forgotten about the check that went to the auto club. “What can I say, Amanda. I didn’t mean to write a bad check. The money was in my account when I wrote the check. But I had a flat tire, and I guess I just forgot about the checks I had already sent out.”
“Believe me, Nia, I understand. I barely make enough here to keep the lights on in my apartment. But my boss is really upset about this second bad check.”
Nia hated the situation she was in. As a Christian, she believed in paying her bills and having a good name. But lately her name was being run through the mud with everybody. Something was going to have to give. “I really need your help, Amanda. I don’t have anywhere else I can take Jarod today. I have a meeting this morning that I can’t miss. I promise that if you let him stay, I’ll get the money that I owe in here within the next few days.”
Amanda hesitated for a moment, but then said, “Well, I’m just going to get to the paperwork that’s stacking up on my desk, I guess you must have slipped by me this morning.”
Getting the meaning in her words, Nia hugged the woman. “Thank you so much, Amanda.” She then rushed Jarod to his class. When she got back to her car and looked at the time, she realized that she had just twenty minutes to get uptown. With the way the morning traffic was in Charlotte, it was going to take her at least twenty five. She glanced over at her business plan and then looked toward heaven and said, “Lord, I need a miracle. Can you please rush me through traffic without allowing me to get a ticket that I cannot pay? Thank you, Jesus, send your angels and let’s be on our way.”
Chapter 2
Ronny and Ram stood side by side talking with the attendees of the workshop. Over a thousand people crowded into the room they had booked for this entrepreneurial session. Ronny saw hunger on many of the faces... and that’s what he was looking for. Hunger would make a man or woman do whatever it took to become successful. Ronny also believed that Timeliness was a great indicator of how much a person wanted what they were going after. For that reason they had closed the doors after eight a.m. and had given strict instructions that no one be allowed to enter after the presentation had already begun.
Ram leaned over to his brother and said, “They are eating this information up. Look at their faces... like sponges, soaking in all the knowledge they can.”
“Knowledge is power, my brother.”
“Yeah, but money is king.” Ram smiled and then added, “Thanks for starting this program with my bank. This may just be the thing that helps with my expansion plans.”
Now Ronny was smiling. Anything he could do to help his big brother made him happy. “Hey, if it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I’m just happy to be able to give back.”
“Don’t get it twisted, Ronny. You were always meant for success. All I did was help it come a little sooner.”
Ronny turned back to the crowd. They all had their heads down as they filled out the paperwork that would determine candidacy for the program. Ronny hadn’t thought that such a formality was needed, but Ram assured him that anyone worthy of the money about to be bestowed on them, should have at least taken the time to manage their credit properly and have a firm understanding of the business he or she intended to operate.
But Ronny’s credit had been borderline at the time Ram had pushed his loan through, so Ronny wanted to make sure that credit worthiness was not the single qualifier.
“As you can see, we will need a business plan from each of you. Hopefully, you thought to bring that information, but if you didn’t, you can bring it back within the week. We are making this allowance, because in my early years I wouldn’t have thought about a business plan either.” Ronny laughed. “Matter of fact, most of my business plans were
written on napkins, that I lost and would have to then think up my concept all over again.”
Someone in the audience held up an iPad. “Now we can put our notes in these little gems.”
Nodding, Ronny said, “Yes, electronic tablets have revolutionized the way we do business. It has become a business that earns billions of dollars each year. What if you had thought of that concept?” He was silent for several beats, allowing the men and women around him to take a moment to think about big, revolutionary ideas.
“I hope that we have a Bill Gates or a Steve Jobs in this room today. But I also hope that we have individuals who are thinking about redesigning our school systems or tackling the food industry to help us all live healthier lives.”
“But whatever your plan is, as long as it is solid, we are here to help make it happen,” Ram added.
A man in the back of the room raised a hand, Ram acknowledged him and then the man said, “About this credit requirement... how good does our credit have to be to qualify for one of these loans?”
“Good question,” Ram said as he put a hand on Ronny’s shoulder. “Because my brother is Big Daddy Warbucks, he is guaranteeing the loans for this program up to about ten million dollars. So, depending on the type of business, we are willing to work with credit profiles that are not stellar, but you must have shown a willingness to pay your bills within the last few years.”
While Ram was speaking, Ronny noticed that the back door kept opening and closing, he heard some raised voices. He left the stage and walked to the back of the room while Ram continued to instruct the group. As he opened the door and stepped into the hallway, he saw Joyce McKnight, his very capable assistant telling someone that they absolutely could not enter the conference room. “Mr. Thomas has a strict policy concerning timeliness.”
“But I can explain,” the woman was saying.
Ronny stepped in front of his assistant, preparing to give this woman a stern talking to about disrupting his meeting. But as he looked at the woman’s face, he saw two things that shut him up for a moment... hunger and beauty. Her big brown eyes drew him in, he became mesmerized. But then Joyce broke the spell.
His Love Walk Page 1