Page 77 of The Best Man: Unfinished Business

Chapter Fifty

Harper

Back at Robyn’s home, Harper followed Robyn to her backyard.

The giant hammock looked like an inviting place to lay right about now, but Robyn led them both to her small vegetable and herb garden.

Harper had noticed it from afar. It was perfectly squared off.

About twelve feet in length and an explosion of vegetation.

Tall stalks of sunflowers; bushy shoots of leafy green collards and kale; eggplant, plump red tomatoes on vines, various sizes of multicolored peppers; and fresh and fragrant herbs—mint, basil, sage, thyme, lemongrass, and dill.

It all sat underneath the guard of a mango tree.

Robyn walked ahead of him, thumbing a green leaf in front of them. She seemed so relaxed, so, at home. She turned to him. Squinting a bit with the sun on her face, she looked beautiful, like a goddess in the middle of a fairy tale. The gentle breeze jostled her tendrils of twists around her cheeks.

“I’ve been tending this garden since we moved in here,” Robyn said.

Harper looked around with sincere admiration. “It’s certainly better than ours was back on the Upper West Side,” Harper joked.

“Uh-huh. I had to learn the qualities of the soil here, in Ghana. It’s different from what we had in our last place, true. It’s richer, with more minerals and nutrients. And the sun and water have to be balanced so that everything grows at its best.”

“This is incredible, Robyn.” Harper was awestruck, and a little confused. For sure, Robyn had a good reason for bringing him here other than to show off her horticultural skills.

“Thanks,” she said. “See these leaves?” She pointed to a small cluster of common looking greenery.

Harper nodded. “That’s sweet basil. It needs a lot of sun and a lot of water to grow well.

” She picked a leaf and snapped the stem.

She brought it to her nose and inhaled deeply.

“Here, smell.” She brought it to Harper.

He inhaled the freshness, the sweet herbal smell of it, unmistakably like Italian food, but here they were in the lushness of Africa, in Ghana.

“But this one, see this plant? For as spicy as it is on the palate, it’s actually very delicate as it grows.

” She showed Harper a deep red chili pepper, slim and fiery, hanging on a green peduncle.

“Spicy, eh? You like to cook with that one.” Harper made his best attempt at another joke, despite the air of seriousness between them.

Robyn smiled. “Right, a little goes a long way. But it makes a dish better, wakes it up,” she said.

“But only if you can get it to grow.” She let her fingertips graze the vegetation again and then turned back to him.

He felt the energy of having her full attention.

“You know, gardening…it’s a lot of work.

Getting all these temperamental plants to grow.

A lot of sacrifice. You must be consistent, anticipate their needs, read between the lines.

You have to pay attention, Harper, and not just in an emergency, because then it’s already too late.

You tend to this day in and day out, from one month…

one season to the next, year after year. That’s the only way it works.”

Harper felt his sarcasm bone start to twitch. “Something tells me you’re talking about more than just gardening, Robyn.”

“You are as smart as you look, sir,” Robyn quipped.

“You have to make your own garden and love it, tend to it, water it, talk to it, shade it, prune it,” she said.

“It doesn’t need all your attention, all the time, but it does require your consistent presence and care.

Sometimes things will happen because of circumstances, climate, environment, critters that want to eat away at it and some who want to help it flourish.

It’s your job to monitor it, nourish it, and love it.

You’ve been the delicate flower that needed watering and attention and sun. Now it’s your turn to be a gardener.”

Harper crinkled his forehead and coupled it with a smirk. “A gardener, Robyn?”

“A dedicated gardener, yes. To learn how to grow and nurture something beyond your books.” Robyn smiled. “To nurture someone …someone else. ”

Harper’s brow furrowed, but he was listening.

And then with a sigh, she seemed to soften, but her shoulders rounded again.

“I…am going to be all right,” she pronounced.

“I’ve thought about it: I don’t need this much.

The big restaurant, all the staff, two sittings…

it’s not me. I came here for a simpler life, for more time, for healing, for peace.

And then I got here and just started re-creating everything from back in the States.

What we think we need for happiness. What success is supposed to look like. I don’t need that, Harper.”

Harper took her words in and they made sense. Like the home she had built and the garden she tended to, they were reflections of her. He nodded.

“And what if I could be here more often to support you? Financially and otherwise,” Harper asked. “Does that change anything for you?”

Robyn sighed, “If you really want to stay here, in Accra, in Ghana, if you imagine this place as where your happiness is, I can’t stop you. But don’t do it because you think there’s some kind of do-over.”

“But, what about Mia?”

“Mia…will be fine. She’s going through what adolescents go through. She’ll get past it and we’ll help. We’ll always be her parents. We’ll always be family. But Harper, you and I…we have separate futures.”

“So, you’re saying…” Harper had a hard time finding the words, but he understood the truth. “You’re saying that…you don’t need me.”

Robyn took a deep breath. Her eyes held the answer. He had to figure the rest out on his own.

“You’re free, Harper. You’re free,” she said, taking his hands.

“And as long as you understand the sacrifice this kind of love takes, you’re going to find your way.

But get your hands deep in that soil, Harper.

It’s the only way to cultivate a life. You have to nurture it, sacrifice for it.

You don’t owe me anything more. But the same might not be true for everyone else in your life. ”

It was clear at that moment that Robyn was giving him permission.

She was releasing him from any self-inflicted obligations to her.

But she was also tasking him with fulfilling an assignment.

If he completed it he might truly get what he wanted.

He pulled Robyn into an embrace in the middle of her garden, closed his eyes, and uttered the words.

“Thank you, Robyn. I love you. I will always love you.”