by Harper Bliss
“I understand why you would fall for her. Quinn is an amazing person, but what she sees in you.” Brooke shrugged. “Worst of all, the fact that she’s with you is keeping her from being open to other, more appropriate prospects.”
Why don’t you say what you really feel, Maya thought. “Newsflash, Brooke.” Maya wasn’t going to stand here and be insulted by Quinn’s mother much longer. “Your daughter’s been into older women for a very long time, so if that doesn’t suit you, don’t you dare lay the blame for that on me.” Brooke would probably have a heart attack on the spot if she ever found out what had happened between Quinn and Maya ten years ago.
“Everything okay here?” Maya had never been more relieved to hear her son’s voice.
“Tommy,” Brooke said on a sigh, as though she’d been the one under Maya’s verbal siege and not the other way around.
“Brooke and I have a lot to discuss,” Maya said. “So much has happened since I moved to the city.”
“Too much,” Brooke said. Maya hoped she wasn’t trying to gain Tommy’s sympathies—or worse, trying to turn him against his own mother.
“It’s okay to be a little bit upset, Mrs. Hathaway.” Tommy had the uncanny ability to remain polite in any given situation—another something he got from his father. “But I was just talking to Quinn and, um, well first of all, as far as I can tell, she hasn’t changed a bit since I last saw her, except that this time around she will actually have a real conversation with me.”
Maya felt her eyes well up. This was her son’s perfectly imperfect way of standing up for her. She wished she could have been there when he spoke to Quinn.
“Most importantly, she reminded me that, um, well, life is for living.” He put a hand to his chest. “I could judge my mom for this, but, honestly, after all she has done for me, who am I to deny her even an ounce of happiness?” His voice grew stronger as his impromptu speech progressed. “I can only hope that, in time, you can feel the same way about it.” Tommy put his hand on Maya’s back. “By the way, Mom, Beth and I bought this picture of you.” He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and walked off, leaving Brooke, but especially Maya, in stunned silence.
Chapter 42
Quinn leaned her elbow on the bar and looked around the gallery. Most people had left. Response to her work had been heartwarming and supportive. Imogen seemed ecstatic. Over the course of the evening, she’d found Quinn’s ear at regular intervals and whispered that they’d just sold another of her works—a sensation that most certainly didn’t get old.
Maya had seemed tethered to the area around her portrait. Quinn knew Tommy had bought it. She also knew her parents had bought a large and expensive one that featured people doing all kinds of acrobatics on the Brooklyn Bridge.
Still hovering in the vicinity of her portrait, Maya was talking to Angus and Griff. Tommy and Beth had struck up a conversation with someone Quinn didn’t know. Her parents were chatting with Imogen, but Quinn could tell from her mother’s body language that she was about ready to get out of there—that she’d had enough of all that she’d been put through this evening. Quinn guessed it was probably a bad idea to invite them to the after-party she was having at her and Griff’s, but she had to ask. They were her parents. She walked up to them.
“Here she is,” Imogen said, her enthusiasm powered by a battery that never needed charging. “It’s always lovely to meet the artist’s parents.” She stood there beaming, oblivious to the tension between Quinn and her mom and dad.
“We’re going back to our place for another drink,” Quinn said. “You’re all very welcome to join us.”
“I have to close up here,” Imogen said. “Make sure the place looks spic-and-span again by tomorrow.” She smiled and moved away.
“It’s late,” Quinn’s mother said. “And surely you don’t want us there, darling.”
“We should get back to the hotel, but let’s have brunch tomorrow,” her father said.
“And by ‘we’, you mean…?” Quinn was still on a high—and she needed to know.
“The three of us,” her dad said. “We need to talk, Quinn. Find some sort of peace, because this strain between us is driving me crazy.”
“That’s not what you said last time you came to the city.” Quinn’s mother had been right when she’d said that Quinn always had to push and push—but she knew who she got that particular trait from.
Her dad took a breath. “Before it can be… the four of us, it needs to be the three of us. We need to discuss this as a family. I—” He shook his head. “I can see now that it’s serious and that I need to work on adjusting my feelings about it, but I also need to say some things to you, father to daughter. Can you give me that?”
“Of course, Daddy.” Even though most days they only spoke for a few minutes, Quinn had missed her daily interactions with her father. It was his approval she’d been seeking all of her life and that wasn’t any different now. “I’ll text you the address of a great place where we can meet.”
“Hey.” Her dad opened his arms to her the way he had done when he’d arrived. “I’m so proud of you, kiddo.”
Quinn happily stepped into his embrace.
“I hope you’re proud of yourself,” he whispered as he held her close. “You should be.”
Quinn wondered if he only meant about her show.
“See you tomorrow, darling.” Her mother suddenly sounded much more mellow as well. Maybe she was beginning to realize that she only had one daughter—and Quinn only had one mother. Her mom took over from her dad’s hug seamlessly, the way they’d done when Quinn was a toddler. They wrapped her in a fort of their arms so she could stay in their embrace as she went from one parent to the other.
Quinn had seen her mother in what looked like a rather heated discussion with Maya earlier, but she wasn’t going to ask what they’d talked about now. Maya would tell her later. And it didn’t matter in this moment, this all-too-brief instant in which all three of them remembered the love that existed in their family of three-for-now.
“Sleep tight.” Quinn watched them leave. They only gave the rest of who was left—Maya included—a quick wave of the hand.
Quinn joined Tommy and Beth and asked if they wanted to follow on to hers.
“While I’d love to get smoke blown up my ass by your roommate all night long,” Beth said, “I have to work tomorrow.”
Quinn chuckled. If she’d known Beth was coming, she’d have given Griff a heads-up to prepare herself emotionally for coming face-to-face with her news idol. “Thanks for coming.”
“I’m sure we’ll see you again soon,” Tommy said.
Quinn nodded. She was mainly happy for Maya, who had spent so much energy dreading her son’s reaction. She could stop doing that now.
Quinn had made sure the place she was meeting her parents was more classy than hipster—the sort of restaurant she would take Maya to, instead of where she would go with Griff.
They were already seated when she arrived.
“I had expected you to look a lot worse for wear,” her dad joked as he hugged her hello. He was still in full-on hug modus then.
Quinn was still too happy about how her opening had gone to let any signs of a hangover intrude on her buzz. And she’d woken up next to Maya, who had made it clear that she wasn’t that fond of staying over at Quinn’s but had made an effort because of the occasion last night.
“Morning, darling,” her mother said. “Let’s get you some coffee.” Her mother had always shown her affection in more practical than emotional ways. She was already signaling a server. “This is a nice place.”
They chitchatted about the hotel her parents were staying at and what their plans were for the rest of the day until the food arrived, all the while avoiding the elephant—or cougar, Quinn thought gleefully—in the room.
“Tommy looks very happy,” Quinn’s mom said during a lull in conversation. “A bit tired perhaps, but having a baby will do that to you.”
“Have
you met the little one?” her dad asked. “What’s his name again?”
“Ethan,” Quinn said, remembering the day Beth had arrived at Maya’s unannounced with the baby. “He’s so cute.”
“But don’t you want children, darling?” her mother blurted out. “Of your own, I mean. Not… I don’t know what to call him. Tommy’s son is hardly your grandchild now, is he?”
Maya had told Quinn about her mother’s fixation on Maya being a grandmother—and what that might make Quinn.
“Of course, he’s not.”
“But Drew’s new wife, what’s her name…” Her mother waved her hand about. “She’s Tommy’s stepmom.”
“Is she?” Quinn guessed her mother was getting so worked up about semantics because it was the easiest way to vent her frustration. She took a sip of coffee. “Look, I’m never going to be Tommy’s stepmother, okay? That’s not what this is.”
“Your mother, like me, is concerned that you might not get out of this relationship… what you put into it,” her father added.
“Because I’m younger?”
“Yes,” Quinn’s mom said.
“I’ve told you this before. I don’t want children. I’ve never wanted them. I’m almost thirty-five. I don’t think that’s going to change.”
“But, darling, you say that now.” Her mother scratched her nose. “What if this thing with Maya goes on as long as your previous… affair,” she as good as spat out the word, “with Morgan. You’ll be almost forty. What if you change your mind then?”
“Why would I change my mind? I’ve never been the slightest bit broody. Some women simply don’t want children. I’m one of them.” It wasn’t as if it would be so much easier to have children with someone her own age, she thought, but didn’t think it wise to share. Maybe her mother was jealous of Maya because she was a granny more than she was angry about how it related to Quinn.
“I don’t think wanting kids or not is really the point here,” her father said.
“Look.” A dull headache started throbbing at the base of Quinn’s skull. “I know that me being with Maya is not what you want for me. I get that it’s this parental instinct kicking in and that you need time to get past that. But I’m not with Maya just so that I can disappoint you or annoy you. I’m with her because… she makes me feel alive. She makes me feel like I can do anything. Because she’s the only person I want to be with.”
Her mother inhaled audibly through her nose. “It’s not ill will,” her mom said, her voice breaking a fraction. “It’s not that I don’t want to deal with this, but I don’t know how. I tried to talk to Maya last night. God knows, over the years, we’ve spent many evenings in each other’s company, chatting the hours away, but that shared history was all gone. It was like she had become a different person to me.”
“It won’t stay that way, Mom,” Quinn urged. “You’re still shocked. You’re still processing. It’s probably going to take some time to adjust to the idea of us.”
“What struck me the most last night was how casual Tommy seemed about the whole thing,” her dad said.
You and me both, Quinn thought. “Did you talk to him about us?”
Her dad nodded. “He’s from the generation that finds it easy to accept things that for people our age are much harder to swallow.”
“Maybe, but…” Quinn wasn’t sure how to make the rest of her argument and whether there was an argument to make at all. Maybe they just needed some time. She’d had a chat with Tommy herself and he’d been much more fun than she remembered—it must be the influence of his hot semi-celebrity wife. “I’m not expecting you to invite Maya and me over for dinner next weekend. In fact, I have no expectations of you when it comes to this because I know that you love me and I also know that my unconventional choice of partner is not going to make you stop loving me. If that were the case, we would have become estranged a long time ago.” Quinn allowed herself a quick albeit nervous chuckle. “And look at it this way: at least you know Maya. You know that she’s a good person with her heart in the right place. Doesn’t that count for a lot?”
“It counts for something,” her dad said. “And let’s not forget she’s single.” He flashed her the beginnings of a smile.
“Good grief,” her mother joined in. “When did Maya even become interested in women? In all the years I’ve known her, she’s never said a word about that being the case.”
“I think you’re going to have to accept that it was a later in life epiphany for her,” Quinn lied, because some things could never be said out loud.
Her dad lifted his glass of water. “To time,” he said. “That it may guide us well.”
Quinn snorted at his attempt at adding gravitas to the conversation, although she did appreciate the sentiment.
“And always keep us together as a family, no matter who our daughter falls for,” her mother added.
Quinn grinned at her parents. At their core, this was who they were. Practical. Forward-looking. Easily shaken perhaps when it came to their daughter’s antics, despite loads of practice, but never willing to stew in their pessimism for too long. Above all, she knew they loved her, and they always would.
Chapter 43
“It’s all going to be all right,” Quinn said. “I know that now.”
Maya had to get a move on if she wanted to be in Manhattan on time to teach. But she’d wanted to stay at Quinn’s until she came back from brunch with her parents.
“I can’t believe I actually entertained the thought that they wouldn’t even show up.” Quinn looked tired, but a lot more relaxed than before she’d left. “They were always going to. I also know that now.” She walked over to Maya and, as though this was their custom, sat astride her lap. “It’s like Tommy. He reacted the way he did because you’re his mother. Because you being the person you are, made him into the person he is, which is a son who just wants his mother to be happy.”
“Quinn, sweetheart.” There was no way Maya could wiggle herself out from underneath Quinn when she straddled her like this. “I have to go. I’m teaching in less than two hours.”
Quinn huffed out some air. “I think you should play hooky.”
“I’m the teacher. I can’t play hooky.”
“When’s the very latest you have to leave?” Quinn’s big blue eyes looked down at Maya.
“Fifteen minutes ago.”
“Oh, no way.” Even though Maya had to leave, she loved it when Quinn spoke to her in a won’t-take-no-for-an-answer tone of voice—as though, for her, it was simply not an option that she and Maya couldn’t spend more time together. “Traffic isn’t that bad.” She curled her body closer toward Maya’s. “And we haven’t properly celebrated yet.” She kissed Maya’s neck.
“We can celebrate all weekend.” Maya tried to push Quinn away but it was only a feeble attempt because she wanted Quinn as close to her as possible.
“If you stay ten more minutes”—Quinn kissed her way down Maya’s neck to her collar bone—“I’ll take you dancing tomorrow.”
“Ten minutes? Will that be enough?” Maya was already prepared to stay much longer than that. Seeing Quinn in her element last night had aroused her. Watching her surrounded by her friends and family— and people who loved what she did—had been electrifying. And that string of kisses down her neck was helping as well.
“Do you have any idea how lucky you are?” Angus had asked her last night, with his gaze firmly planted on Quinn. “And how foolish you would have been if you hadn’t listened to me when I talked some much-needed sense into you?”
Maya had hated doing it at the time, but she’d had to agree with him.
“Ten minutes will be plenty of time if we go into the bedroom now,” Quinn said. “Griff doesn’t appreciate it when I squirt lube all over the couch, especially during her ‘year of no’.”
Maya chuckled as Quinn hopped off her. She followed Quinn into her bedroom, not caring any longer that her bed was too narrow or her mattress too lumpy. She could see now th
at her frustration about those things had mostly been fear in disguise.
Quinn slammed the door shut behind them in case Griff came home, then wasted no time pushing Maya onto the bed. She came to lie on top of her, pushing her body into Maya’s, kissing her deeply.
Maya held her tight and let the physical sensations, as well as all the feelings she had for Quinn, wash over her like an avalanche that swallowed her whole. She didn’t resist anything—she’d done enough of that. Quinn was right. Everything would be all right. But Maya also knew that, from the vantage point they’d had before, it had been impossible for either of them to see.
Usually prone to whispering sweet nothings in Maya’s ear during foreplay, Quinn was silent today. After they broke from their kiss she just gazed into Maya’s eyes, leaving Maya to wonder what was going through her head.
Maybe it was the same thought that occupied most of Maya’s brain—that she was so in love, she could withstand the wrath of Quinn’s mother if she had to, the disappointment of her father, the looks they would get in the streets, the gaze of strangers upon them who were no doubt debating whether they were mother and daughter or something much more interesting. None of it mattered because they were together.
Now there was a thought Maya had never been willing to entertain because how could she? How could all those things no longer matter simply because she’d fallen in love with another person? At the time, she couldn’t know what she now knew. That love did that to you. It took away the doubts and the fear and replaced them with something magical, something so delightful that it obliterated any remaining uncertainty.
Quinn kissed her again and Maya kissed her back even more ferociously. She slid her hands through Quinn’s hair, grabbing at her, needing more of her. No wonder Maya felt like she’d been catapulted back in time to her teenage years, because despite her age, this all felt so new to her. The intensity of her desire. Her sheer need for Quinn. The quickness of her arousal. For years, she had wrongly believed she was beyond all that. She had secretly hoped her move to New York might change that—that she might find someone in this vast city who could make her feel like that again. But never in a million years had she expected that person to be Quinn Hathaway. And never had she expected it to be so all-consuming. So thrilling. Nor so devastatingly frightening at first.