The Beauty Within (37 page)

anatomy—particularly hers.

“Maybe I should stop—”

“No ma’am,” Quincy said, pushing his head further into her hands. “I’ve had

a rough week and I need to unwind!”

Feeling bold and naughty, Tyler slid her hands from his head to wrap her

arms around his neck and bent her cheek to his. “I don’t provide that kind of

service.”

Quincy turned his head and kissed her cheek slowly. “You used to,” he

murmured, his voice low and rumbling.

Her body quivered, yearning for the affection she’d gone so long without.

Caught up in whatever spell had been woven between them, Tyler turned her

head and touched her mouth to his. Quincy’s answering groan had her opening

her mouth to deepen the kiss, but the stroke of his tongue on hers, as well as

the chiming bells from her opening front door, brought her back to reality.

She jerked away from Quincy. She saw need and passion in his eyes, but

her eyes filled with tears. It wasn’t enough. It wasn’t right. He wasn’t Gunnar.

Tyler bent her head and Quincy’s tender fingers brushed away her tears.

“And now we both know,” he said quietly. “Without a doubt.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry,” Quincy said, though Tyler knew instinctively he didn’t mean

the kiss. “I wish I could fix this for you, Ty.”

“You can’t,” Tyler said, averting her eyes from him as she stood straighter

and took off the cape and towel from around his neck.

“I can’t, either, but maybe I can help,
mija
.”

The towel and cape slipped from Tyler’s nerveless fingers. Her body began

trembling, and the tears that had started fell earnestly now.

“Mama…”

200

Savannah J. Frierson

Tyler heard footfalls on the tile floor, and suddenly she was wrapped in

thin maternal arms. Tyler sobbed and buried her face deep in her mother’s

neck. The fact she was taller than her mother by a good few inches didn’t

matter to Tyler. Her mommy’s embrace was perfection.

To say Tyler was surprised her mother was here in the States would’ve

been an understatement. Wendy had been acting weird for the past week, but

Tyler had chalked it up to pregnancy hormones. No, it seemed her older sister

had wanted to make their mother’s visit a wonderful secret until the last

possible moment, and it worked.

“
Mija
,” Carmen whispered, stroking her daughter’s hair. “
Mi corazón
…”

Another set of arms came around her, and Tyler recognized them as Wen-

dy’s. The three women cried together, only to break briefly when Quincy

touched Tyler’s shoulder.

“I left the money on your station,” he said quietly, nodding to Carmen and

Wendy respectfully, but he smiled at Carmen. “Now I see where they get their

beauty from, ma’am.”

Carmen blushed prettily, looking much younger than her sixty years.

“Thank you, young man.”

“Quincy,” he supplied.

Carmen’s eyes widened slightly, and she arched an eyebrow to her young-

est daughter. “Quincy?”

He coughed, his turn to blush, but he nodded to them again. “I’ll be going

now. See you later, Ty.”

Tyler nodded, avoiding contact with her mother’s eyes. She felt as if she’d

been caught doing something naughty.

“Hmm,” Wendy intoned.

Tyler bumped her bum gently into Wendy, mindful of her growing niece or

nephew. “Don’t go there—”

“You did—!”

“
Hijas
,” Carmen said, her tone brooking no argument. Immediately, the

grown daughters snapped their mouths shut. “Not the time, nor the place.”

Tyler looked behind her to Wendy, and they shared a grin. It really had

been too long since they’d been chastised. They had missed it.

Tyler followed them to her house, where Carmen was staying with them.

Apparently Wendy had picked Carmen up from the airport and had come

immediately to Soul Cuts, for when Carmen got out of Wendy’s car, she’d just

stood in the drive and stared at the structure with trembling hands at her

mouth and watery eyes.

“Oh,
Dios
,” she’d murmured. Her daughters held her and allowed Carmen

her moment to grieve. She hadn’t been on the property in a decade.

“You’ve taken good care of it,
hija
,” Carmen whispered to Tyler and patted

her face. Tyler appreciated her mother’s praise.

The Beauty Within

They made
pabellón criollo
, except they had to use black-eyed peas instead of

black beans and salmon instead of shredded beef for the dish. And since a

Southern house was nothing without a canister full of white rice, and Tyler

had gotten over her no-white-food kick, they weren’t lacking in that particular

part of the traditional Venezuelan meal. Both Carmen and Tyler told Wendy to

sit and they would prepare the meal, much to Wendy’s consternation.

“I’m just pregnant!” she’d said even as she set the table.

“
Sabemos
,
hija
,” Carmen had said absently as she prepared the fish. “¡
Pero no

puedes cocinar
!”

Tyler snickered at her sister’s scowl. “Mama! I can too cook!” Carmen

arched an eyebrow at her eldest child. “Maybe not
well
…”

“You never wanted to learn,” Carmen muttered and put the prepared sal-

mon in the oven. “Always too busy flitting here and there, too nosy, busy-

body—”

“I make a living off that nosiness now, Mama,” Wendy mumbled.

“
Yo sé
,
mi vida
,” Carmen said and smiled warmly. “I am proud of you.”

All three women sat at the table. Carmen held Wendy’s hand atop the ta-

ble and smoothed down Tyler’s hair with her other hand. Tyler rested her head

on her mother’s shoulder, feeling more at peace and centered than she had in

weeks. The only thing that would’ve made this even more perfect was if their

father’s deep baritone voice hummed a tune he’d composed on the spot as he

poked around the stove for sneak peeks to their meal.

“Your grandmother passed away last week,” Carmen said quietly. Both

daughters hugged their mother tight. The loss wasn’t as keen as it should’ve

been, and Tyler mourned that fact almost as much as her grandmother’s

passing.

“Why didn’t you tell me, Mama?” Wendy asked, placing her forehead

against her mother’s temple.

“What could you do about it?” Carmen asked, squeezing Wendy’s hand

tighter. “We buried her behind the hut, next to
abuelita
. They are happy and

without pain now.”

“Does that mean you are staying here?” Tyler asked, hoping the answer was

yes. Carmen was a citizen, having gained that status before either Wendy or

Tyler were even born. Her father had married their mother mere months after

they’d first met, days after she’d turned eighteen. The fact they’d both been

young, her father barely in his twenties, and she speaking little Spanish hadn’t

deterred them at all. Their loved trumped all the trials they had to endure.

And to think Tyler had thought she’d found a love like that with Gunnar.

“Tyler?” Carmen whispered, her gentle finger brushing away a tear. “
No

lloras, mija
.”

“
Lo siento
, Mama,” Tyler responded automatically, smiling at Carmen’s

smile at her daughter’s use of her native language.

202

Savannah J. Frierson

“It’ll get better,
mi corazón
,” Carmen promised.

“And you’ve got us,” Wendy said, reaching around their mother to rub Ty-

ler’s back.

“It just wasn’t meant to be,” Tyler said with a faux nonchalant shrug.

Wendy pinched her, making Tyler jump and clamp her mouth shut before

she used an expletive. Carmen glared first at Wendy, then at Tyler.

“
Ten fe
,
mi corazón
,” Carmen said, her glare softening to a gaze of compas-

sion.

Tyler didn’t say anything, glad the smells from the oven were becoming

strong enough for her to check on dinner. She heard her mother and sister

speaking quietly behind her while she opened up the oven and monitored the

salmon. It still had a few minutes to go. She closed the oven door and checked

on the rice and black-eyed peas, which also needed more time. Instead of going

back to the table, however, she just stood there. First Quincy, now her mother

telling her to have faith, and neither really knew Gunnar. Had she been so bad

off that she’d scared him away? But what did he really owe her? They were in a

relationship, yes, but they weren’t married. No vows had been exchanged, at

least not verbally, and apparently not reciprocally, either.

A light hand on her shoulder startled Tyler, and she gave her sister a shaky

smile. “Hey.”

“Give him some time,” Wendy murmured.

“He left just like Quincy did,” Tyler said, the fear of her heart finally com-

ing through her voice.

“Gunnar isn’t Quincy,” Wendy reminded her.

“No, because Quincy is here now, and Gunnar isn’t,” Tyler muttered, hang-

ing her head more as her eyes began to sting.

“And is that why you’re kissing Quincy? Because he’s here when the man

you love isn’t? Substitute?” Wendy asked, her voice growing hard.

Tyler jerked away from Wendy as if she’d been smacked. “No!”

“That was a heavy kiss we walked in on,” Wendy said, lowering her voice

but not backing down. Tyler glanced over her shoulder to see her mother not

sitting there. She looked back at Wendy with a question in her eyes.

“Bathroom.”

“It wasn’t like that,” Tyler said, referring to Wendy’s initial comment.

“Then what was it like?”

Tyler heaved a deep sigh and shook her head, fiddling with the dishtowel

on the handle of the oven door. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t?”

“It changed nothing,” Tyler said instead. “And confirmed everything.”

“And what’s that?” Wendy asked quietly.

“He has my heart,” Tyler whispered. “And apparently, I don’t have his.”

The Beauty Within

203

Wendy was about to say something, but their mother returned. Tyler took

a deep breath and put a large smile on her face. “I think we’re ready to eat,

Mama. Are you hungry?”

“¡
Sí
! ¡
Tengo mucho hambre
!”

The sisters laughed, letting their mother’s infectious spirit drive away the

melancholy that had entered the kitchen. Now was not the time to be sad or to

think about the people who have left. Their mother had returned, and for

Tyler, that was definitely a reason to celebrate.

Gunnar closed his eyes and took a large breath. His hands gripped the

handles of the bags he held, feeling the muscles in his arms and fingers tense

from the pressure he exerted. Another hand, much smaller and daintier covered

his, and immediately he calmed.

“
Løsne på
,” his mother said softly.

“It’s hard, Mother,” Gunnar murmured looking at the shorter woman who

had given him the majority of her features, “I’m too nervous to relax.” But he

kissed her temple to thank her for her effort to calm him.

“Does your woman know we’re here?” his father asked from behind him,

his arms also laden with items. Gunnar had gotten his height, build, and

demeanor from him.

“No, only Damon,” Gunnar said, and this time he blew out a large breath.

“Press the doorbell,
Sønn
,” Tekla Daniels commanded gently. Gunnar

frowned when he heard his father snicker behind them.

“Euan,” Tekla chastised.

“Yes, mum,” Euan muttered, but Gunnar could still hear the laughter in his

father’s voice.

Gunnar pressed the doorbell. His heart increased at a pace that alarmed

him, and when the door opened to reveal Damon, it only beat faster.

“Boss,” Damon said, a half smile gracing his features. Gunnar tried to re-

turn it, but he was unsuccessful. “They’re not here yet,” Damon offered, and his

heartbeat relaxed its frenetic pace a little.

“Damon, my parents Euan and Tekla Daniels,” Gunnar said, using his head

to point to his parents.

“Welcome!” Damon said, backing up so they could enter. Instead, Tekla

approached and kissed Damon’s cheek, a feat she could only accomplish by

standing on the balls of her feet.

“All right, now!” Damon teased, eyeing Euan with faux concern. “I’m an

engaged man…”

“And about to have a baby,” Tekla added, she patted Damon’s cheek. “Can’t

wait to meet the mother-to-be.”

“Gunnar told y’all all that?”

Savannah J. Frierson

“Eventually,” Euan said, shifting his bags to one hand so he could shake

Damon’s. “Sometimes our boy isn’t very forthcoming.”

Gunnar rolled his eyes but said nothing.

The Daniels followed Damon through the house to the backyard where

there was already a barbecue set up. There were picnic tables, foldout tables

and chairs, and two food stations. Gunnar had no idea how many people were

coming, but he imagined there would be many.

“Just set that over there,” Damon said, pointing to the grill. It wasn’t fired

up yet, but that was mainly because Gunnar had provided the meat.

“What should I do?” Tekla asked, looking around the area. Gunnar thought

she found it pleasing.