Читать книгу The Look of Love - Crystal B. Bright - Страница 8

The adrenaline coursing through Gunnar Wells’s body needed some release. The muscles in his arms and thighs tightened, ready for activity, for combat. A good workout would ease his tensions. Tonight, his mixed martial arts match would have to do.

He paced the cramped dressing room that smelled like rose petals and bleach, too dainty and too clean for what he had to do. The delicate aroma and the rough sport he would be engaging in soon reminded him of his mother, always a lady in demeanor and look, but a tough taskmaster.

A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth before he could arrest it and pull it back down to a scowl. He needed to keep his mind on his match. Staying away from his childhood home helped keep him on track.

A mural of the famous Welcome to Las Vegas sign painted on the locker-room wall snagged his attention for a brief moment. The blue, red, and white neon sign full of diverse geometric shapes attracted tourists every day. Gunnar saw the city as a place to start another part of his life. He didn’t need a reminder of the location he’d made his home for the past ten years.

The Silver Streak Hotel and Casino spared no expense in keeping both the crowds and the performers entertained. Gunnar had heard that hosting these mixed martial arts matches had afforded the hotel enough funds to add a new wing to the hotel with another two hundred hotel rooms. He guessed beating a man to a bloody pulp meant good business.

Gunnar tilted his head from one side to the other to stretch his neck and help clear his head. Even with the door closed to his dressing room, the sounds from the audience in the main arena area filtered through the walls.

With each chant of “Guns” from the crowd, Gunnar’s heart pounded harder and harder until both the chant and his heartbeat became one.

“Guns! Guns!”

Thump! Thump!

He swiped the back of his hand over his sweaty forehead. The tape on his hand scraped across his skin, leaving a tingling sensation in its wake. Gunnar glanced at the tape to make sure he hadn’t ruined its integrity. After doing this sport for so many years, he found that every little thing mattered. A loose binding on his fist would distract him. Like a hunter, he needed to keep his focus.

For his match against a fairly established mixed martial artist like himself, he didn’t feel unnerved. In his ten-year professional career, he’d battled absolute monsters. Being six-foot-three and two hundred forty pounds, he fit in the behemoth category. Like his mama always taught him, it’s not the dog in the fight; it’s the fight in the dog.

Gunnar attempted to push thoughts of his mother from his mind. He couldn’t help but think about her and his brothers before each match. One brutal fight could leave him broken, destroyed, or dead. After all his family had done to support him, he couldn’t let them down. He fought for them as much as he fought for himself and his career.

Truly the only woman who had ever understood him, thinking of her would only turn him into mush. For what he had to do in a few minutes, he needed to be on his game, an animal. He needed to be Gunnar “Guns” Wells, the heavyweight International Ultimate Fighting champion that the spectators loved to hate. Or maybe they hated to love him since he hadn’t lost a match since starting the sport.

As he marched in his bare feet, he closed his eyes and envisioned the entire match, a calming technique he’d employed for years thanks to his yoga-loving mother. He stomped on the thin carpet that covered the concrete flooring. The hardness reminded him that nothing came easy to him, and it shouldn’t. Only hard work would get him the rewards he wanted. Fighting afforded him the lifestyle he’d only dreamed of as a youth. If only he could have shared the success with someone.

“No negative thoughts. No negative thoughts.” Gunnar talked to himself a lot to get into the headspace needed for his match.

As usual, he’d made sure to clear out his locker room before his match. No one disturbed him or retrieved him until he got called to the ring. After each winning match, he did the same ritual. He called his mother and then his two brothers, Gideon and Thane. All three of them understood the mentality it took for him to psych himself up to perform.

His brothers, as professional athletes themselves, had their own pregame rituals. Their mother proved to be a bit harder to train. She would call to wish Gunnar luck every now and then, probably when she thought his opponent looked too gruesome or menacing. She’d gotten better lately about letting him have his space.

After this match, he really had think about going to visit her. It’d been far too long since he’d been down to Virginia Beach and seen his mama. As soon as the thought entered his mind, his gut wrenched like he’d already been kicked in it by his opponent. The usual cold sweat he would get anytime he ventured close to the East Coast covered the back of his neck and back.

Although his mother would welcome him back home, not everyone would. Time and distance hadn’t cleared Gunnar’s mind of his past mistakes. He had a feeling some other people he’d left wouldn’t be as open to his appearance.

Gunnar squeezed his eyes shut and stopped moving, stopped marching. He allowed the moment to be real for him, this fight, his job. He squeezed his taped hands, allowing the tightness of the adhesive to stretch over his achy knuckles.

He gazed down when a sharp pain struck a nerve in his wrist. He shook his hands to relieve the ache. The discomfort would be temporary. Security would last forever.

A two-rap knock sounded on the door before his trainer, Chuck Wilhelm, poked his shaved head into the locker room. Gunnar’s insides twitched as soon as he saw the man. He knew what the next step would be. Showtime.

On instinct, Gunnar raised his hands, readying them to have them outfitted with his trademark black gloves with an eye embroidered on the backs of each. He already had his hair pulled back into a ponytail, something Chuck hated.

“Shave it all off,” his trainer would tell Gunnar.

“What? And look like you? No way.” Gunnar never thought his shoulder-length hair caused him a problem, especially since he never lost a fight because of it.

As Chuck approached him, Gunnar noticed his trainer carrying a cell phone.

“Call.” Chuck held up the phone.

Gunnar shook his head. “You know the rule. No calls. No interviews. Just fighting.” He picked up a plain black T-shirt and slipped it over his head.

“It’s Mama.” Chuck smirked.

“What?” Gunnar stopped moving.

“Queen Elizabeth.” Chuck snorted. “Still don’t understand how a big, blond dude has a black mother who calls herself Queen Elizabeth.”

Gunnar didn’t answer Chuck’s standard question. He’d heard that comment about his relationship with his adoptive mother since she’d taken him and his brothers into her home.

Gunnar snatched the phone from Chuck’s hand and turned his back to him. “Mama, how are you?”

To anyone else, Gunnar would have bitten their heads off and yelled about calling him before his fight. For the woman who had given him more chances than he deserved and a better life, she’d more than earned his respect.

“Darling,” his mother said her standard opening that she gave to everyone. “How are you?”

As much as he didn’t want to, Gunnar couldn’t help but smile. She’d done it. With her smooth delivery and tone, she turned his insides to pudding. “Kind of a strange time to call to ask me how I’m doing, don’t you think? I have my match starting in a few minutes. Chuck is getting me ready.” He turned back to Chuck and held up one hand so that his trainer could slip on at least one glove.

“Oh, you have that thing tonight, don’t you?” Her enunciation of each word further solidified her Queen Elizabeth nickname.

This time Gunnar did laugh out loud. “You can call it work, Ma.”

“Good luck at work tonight.” Elizabeth coughed.

The way she coughed raised the hairs on the back of his head. A standard Queen Elizabeth cough consisted of something that sounded like a slight puff of air through her always richly painted lips. She would usually follow what she considered an impolite expression with an apology. This time, she said nothing.

“Ma, what’s wrong?” Gunnar squeezed his now-gloved hand into a fist.

“Why do you always assume the worst? You, out of all of my boys, are the most pessimistic, and I don’t--”

“Don’t start with me on that. You know--”

“Did you just interrupt me?”

His mother’s stern tone came through clear on the small cell phone.

“I apologize.” Gunnar had violated rule number one from his mother. Always hear a person’s complete thought without interrupting. He certainly wouldn’t want someone to cut him off midsentence.

“That’s better. I think you hanging around those, um, those--”

“Coworkers,” he added.

Elizabeth released an exasperated sigh. “You’ve done this fisticuffs thing long enough. I think it’s time for you to come home.”

Gunnar blinked. In all the years he’d done MMA, his mother had never asked him to quit and come home. Goose bumps sprang over his arms and crept up to his neck to the top of his head. He swallowed hard as he digested every word in her request. Then he heard a high-pitched beeping noise in succession…like in a hospital. A stone dropped in his gut.

“What’s that sound?” Gunnar grounded himself to one spot. “Where are you? Are you in a hospital?”

“Guns, you’ve got to go.” Chuck grabbed Gunnar’s other hand.

The hold forced Gunnar to brace the phone against his ear using his shoulder. “One second.” Gunnar didn’t care about the match or Chuck. He needed to know what Elizabeth had neglected to share at the start of the call. “Ma, what’s going on with you?”

“I know you have to go. We can talk later.” Her voice cracked a little.

Gunnar’s heart snapped. “Ma, don’t hang up.”

“You will be disqualified if you don’t get out to the ring now.” Chuck pulled on Gunnar’s arm.

Gunnar snatched his limb out of his trainer’s grip. “One damn minute!” he snapped at Chuck.

“We will talk later. Go do your fighting thing.”

Her light voice made Gunnar imagine his gorgeous mother smiling. He couldn’t smile. At the moment, his chest felt like every opponent he’d fought in his lifetime sat on it and constricted his air. He couldn’t get out from under the weight. Right now, with his mother across the country, an arena full of people waiting for him, a ravenous opponent in the ring, and his impatient trainer, Gunnar found obstacles everywhere he turned.

Gunnar heard another woman’s voice in the background.

“Queen, you cannot be on the phone.”

“Who is that? Is that a nurse?” Gunnar scratched his head.

His mother cleared her throat. “No, it’s not.”

Gunnar heard some shuffling on the other end of the line.

“You need to get your rest. You can make your calls tomorrow before your tests.”

Gunnar strained to hear this stranger’s voice through the phone. It sounded a little familiar, but he couldn’t place it.

“I love you.” Elizabeth made a kissing sound through the phone before it disconnected.

Not content with ending the conversation that way, Gunnar tried redialing his mother. As he’d suspected, the number went to the reception desk at Virginia Beach General Hospital. After demanding to get transferred to Elizabeth Sommerville’s room, he waited through several rings before disconnecting the call. Then he tried calling her cell phone. The call went straight to her voice mail.

He tried calling the hospital again. Once he got the main desk representative again, he asked about his mother. At the word cardiology, he nearly dropped to his knees. How could a woman who opened her home to three strangers have anything wrong with her heart?

After being transferred to the nurses’ station, Gunnar unleashed a verbal assault. “I need to speak with a patient on your floor.” Before she could ask for a name, he spouted, “Elizabeth Sommerville. Get her.”

“Okay, please hold, sir.”

Listening to the easy-listening jazz that played when the nurse placed him on hold didn’t help to calm his nerves. Gunnar marched back and forth this time.

“Guns, you have to go.” Chuck held the doorknob. He must have thought better of his decision to touch Gunnar again.

“One second.” Gunnar held up his finger.

The music stopped. “Sir, Ms. Sommerville’s daughter has requested no more calls for this evening. You can call again in the morning after eight.”

Gunnar felt like flames engulfed his body. “Daughter? My mother doesn’t have a daughter. She has three sons, and I’m one of them.”

“Sir, I’m sorry. Your mother concurred with the young woman in the room with her, and we did just give her medication to help her sleep. Please give her a call in the morning when she wakes up.” The nurse kept her voice even and authoritative, and before Gunnar could keep up his argument, she disconnected the call.

“Keep trying to call her.” Gunnar shoved the phone at his trainer before cursing.

He hadn’t even found out why his mother had to go to the hospital. Had she had a heart attack or a stroke? Every scenario he thought about had him grinding his teeth in anger.

“You have got to go.” Chuck opened the door to usher him through.

A wave of chants flooded the room. The support should have been like a warm blanket around his body. Instead, Gunnar likened the shouts to spectators in a coliseum waiting to watch a hapless gladiator get mauled by a lion. Little did they know, he had enough fire in his belly to crush a lion, a tiger, and a whole damn safari.

“Something is going on with my mother. I’m fine just walking away right now. Just hop on a plane and go all the way back to Virginia.” Gunnar put his fists to his hips and glared at Chuck to get across his intent.

The idea of going back to Virginia brought a layer of cold sweat that dripped from his head. He chewed the inside of his cheek, a habit he hadn’t done since childhood when he’d prayed in his head that the foster father he’d had before getting with Queen Elizabeth wouldn’t come home drunk with his own need to fight…anyone. Gunnar had left Virginia for a reason. Returning to it would stir up more questions and problems than what he faced in the ring.

Chuck held his hand up as a way to calm Gunnar, but Gunnar couldn’t be reasoned with, calmed, or reassured until he either spoke to his mother or, better yet, saw her.

“Tell you what. I’ll keep trying her. After your fight, you can talk to her again.” Chuck placed Gunnar’s heavyweight championship belt on Gunnar’s shoulder.

Gunnar nodded. “Get her on the phone after the fight.” He adjusted the heavy metal belt on the thick black leather backing.

Without another word, Gunnar stormed out of the door and headed to the octagon. The cheers from the audience roared in the large auditorium. He kept his stare directed on the lit ring. Fans grabbed at Gunnar’s shirt and his arms as he stormed to the middle. He paid no attention to them.

The closer he got to the ring, the more his surroundings got smaller until his competitor became the only thing he saw at the end of his tunnel vision. He stepped into the ring and didn’t bother stomping around like Tony “The Shark” Palombo. With it being a championship match, Gunnar handed his belt to the referee.

He didn’t like the entertaining part of doing MMA. He just wanted to fight. Right now, he had a lot of aggression to get out of his system.

Gunnar broke his attention away from Tony for a moment to check Chuck. From the side of the ring, Chuck held up his phone to Gunnar and shook his head.

Gunnar wanted to race to the side and scream at his trainer to keep trying to get his mother. Why the hell was she in the hospital? Why wasn’t that the first thing she’d said to him? Whatever afflicted her, it scared her enough to want him to come home. That fact consumed his thoughts more than anything else. He attempted to look at Chuck again when Tony got in his view.

“You’re going down!” Tony screamed and stood an inch from Gunnar’s nose.

Gunnar gritted his teeth. Right now, this hefty man sporting a Mohawk and tattoos covering the vast real estate of his enormous, chestnut-colored body stood in between him talking to his mother.

Gunnar removed his T-shirt and tossed it to Chuck. The screams heightened, especially from the women. He didn’t pay attention to them. He had a job to do. He kept women out of his personal life so as not to get diverted from his goals, a decision that haunted him since jumping on a Greyhound bus ten years ago.

The referee spouted the rules and regulations that Gunnar ignored. The sounds in the arena blurred into one muted hum. His laser focus remained on Tony, directly on his eyes. He called this feeling right before he threw his first punch the glaze.

Chuck had once told Gunnar at the beginning of his career that every time he would start to fight, he got this glazed-over look in his eyes like he couldn’t see anything else but the opponent in the ring with him.

A single sweat droplet rolled down between his shoulder blades. He planted his feet on the hard mat as he shoved his black mouth guard over his teeth. He tasted nothing but the bitter plastic. The palms of his hands itched in anticipation of what would happen. He had a job to do.

As soon as the match started, Tony surprised Gunnar by landing a solid punch to his left eye. A whole fireworks display lit up in Gunnar’s head with the contact. He didn’t even notice the pain. The man did carry some power behind his punch. Gunnar had something on him that even Tony didn’t have--a purpose.

As soon as Gunnar filled his head with images of his mother in a hospital bed with tubes coming from her nose and wires attached to her fingers and hand, a volcano erupted inside of him that he couldn’t contain or control.

Gunnar gave Tony a roundhouse kick to his head. The contact of the hit against his foot stung. That first strike sent an adrenaline rush through his body that gave him the needed boost for the next move.

When the big man hit the mat, Gunnar leapt on top of him and pounded his fists in his opponents face and head repeatedly. He heard nothing. Crimson shaded his gaze. He felt Tony’s tree-trunk thighs attempt to hook him under his arms to bring him down. Instead, Gunnar moved down to the mat, cradled Tony’s head in the crook of his elbow and framed the top of his head with his other arm.

Gunnar squeezed and clamped his legs around Tony’s waist to keep the man still. Whenever Tony moved, Gunnar tightened his arms and legs around Tony’s neck and body.

For every match, Gunnar kept his mind focused on winning, on his next move. Now, his mind clouded over with thoughts of his mother. What would he and his brothers do if something happened to her?

Until he felt the referee tapping his shoulder, Gunnar didn’t realize that he had rendered Tony unconscious. He blinked and peered down at the person in his arms. Tony’s blood dripped from his forehead and nose and onto Gunnar’s arm.

“He tapped out, son. Release him.” The referee grabbed Gunnar’s arm and attempted to uncoil his hold on the limp body. “Stop fighting.”

Gunnar blinked and unraveled himself from Tony. He sprang to his feet and gazed down at his handiwork. Tony’s body lay motionless, curled in an unnatural position like a discarded marionette, as his trainers and handlers attempted to revive him.

Gunnar wanted to run from the ring, leave his belt, and get on a plane. He had to wait until Tony’s trainers revived him. In that time, he paced in the ring, waiting for his moment.

Once Tony rose to his feet, the referee raised Gunnar’s hand as the winner. A bit of relief washed over him. He’d finished work, and in record time. Now he had to go.

“Did you get her?” Gunnar asked as he climbed out of the ring and headed back to the dressing room.

He ignored the interviewers who shoved microphones into his face right after the match. From their grunts and groans, he knew they hated his silence.

“Are you kidding? You just did that match in about seven minutes. I barely had time to breathe let alone make calls for you.” Chuck ran alongside of Gunnar.

“Guns! Guns! Just a quick question.” An interviewer tried stopping Gunnar’s trek by stepping into his path. “That match seemed too easy for you. Are you ready for Seamus Flannery, the second-ranked contender?”

Gunnar didn’t answer. He stepped around the suited man and continued to his dressing room. If he didn’t have another man’s blood on him, he would have just thrown on some shoes and caught the next red-eye flight.

“You can’t just blow off journalists.” Chuck slammed the dressing-room door behind the two of them. “They can make or break your career.”

“They haven’t so far.” Gunnar stripped. “You talk for me. I’m going to Virginia.”

“Virginia? You can’t go right now. You need to start training for your match with Seamus.” Chuck started pacing.

Gunnar couldn’t think about how Chuck felt. As much as he loved his career, Gunnar loved his family even more. With the threat of losing his mother, he would brave going back home to be with her.

Until he saw his mother and could see that he’d overreacted to whatever he’d heard on the phone, he wouldn’t be able to rest. Then he would find out what woman had posed as his sister.

“What am I supposed to say as far as booking your next match?” Chuck asked.

Naked, Gunnar stood in the doorway leading to the bathroom to take a quick shower. “Tell them I’m going home.”

* * * *

Eboni Danielson stirred awake with a throbbing pain in her neck thanks to sleeping in a steel and barely padded hospital chair. She should have slept on the couch, but she’d wanted to be as close to her friend as possible. She blinked to get a sleeping Queen Elizabeth into focus.

Yesterday morning, when Elizabeth had fainted in Press ’N Curl, the hair salon Elizabeth owned where Eboni worked, Eboni had wasted no time getting her friend and mentor to the hospital. Ever the diva, Elizabeth had refused to go until her hair had been styled and her nails had received a fresh coat of deep red polish.

Elizabeth looked like she’d redone her makeup sometime during the night. Her light brown skin glowed, especially with the morning sunlight streaming through the hospital-room window. Bright red lipstick covered her lips. Even her fake eyelashes looked like they had been curled.

As a child, Eboni and her girlfriends had all wanted to grow up to be just like Miss Queen Elizabeth. Not only did the woman always look amazing and have the best clothes and cool shoes, she owned not one, not even two, but three businesses.

The hair salon, more than her flower shop and the clothing boutique, had the most customers in Eboni’s eyes, and the most buzz. Although she didn’t plan to work in a hair salon for the rest of her life, Eboni definitely wanted to be close to the woman who could guide her into being a success in business.

The morning Queen fainted, Eboni had planned on talking to her about doing a fund-raiser to help renovate the community center. Kids with nothing to do had a tendency of finding dangerous activities to pick up from other wayward souls. Eboni didn’t know how, but she knew she had to break the cycle.

A nurse walked into the room. “Ms. Sommerville, time to get your vitals.” She opened the blinds and allowed the February sun to stream through them. The morning rays reflected off the gleaming-white snow that covered the ground.

Eboni wrapped her camel-colored dress coat around her body. The businesslike apparel didn’t give her a cozy feeling like the poncho her grandmother had made for her. Appearances meant everything for Eboni.

Eboni remembered being a child and watching her grandmother knit the whole thing. She couldn’t wait until she got to a size to wear it. Of course, her grandmother made the garment large anticipating that Eboni would never lose that baby weight that plagued her for most of her youth.

She’d changed. Times had changed. Eboni had to give up childhood fantasies, including finding that one true love. Seeing Elizabeth in a hospital bed made everything real.

“Do you have to wake her now?” Eboni rubbed her eyes. “She just got to sleep.”

The nurse glanced down at Elizabeth’s face and chuckled. “Is she going to an opera later? When did she put on all this makeup?”

“She can hear everything you’re saying.” Elizabeth opened her eyes and glared at the nurse before cutting her gaze over to Eboni.

“Darling, you didn’t have to sleep in that awful chair.” She shook her head.

“I didn’t want to leave you alone.” Eboni stretched her arms over her head attempting to relieve some of the ache in her neck. “Besides, I would have slept on the floor if I had to.”

Elizabeth smiled, showing off an impressive set of straight, white teeth. “You’re silly. The staff here would have taken care of me just fine.” She finally turned her smile to the nurse who had already placed a black cuff around her arm and pumped away to get her blood pressure.

As the nurse allowed the blood pressure cuff to hiss out the air she’d pumped into it, she said, “A very loud and angry man called the desk for you last night.” She removed the stethoscope from her ears. “He claimed that this woman is not your daughter.” She glanced at Eboni.

Eboni swallowed but continued returning the nurse’s stare, hoping to convince her of the lie Queen had told. Eboni hadn’t corrected her. In a lot of ways, she did feel like she belonged in Queen’s family.

“That’s ridiculous,” Queen said when she no longer had a thermometer in her mouth. “This beautiful young woman is as much as my child as my sons are.”

Eboni smiled. She stood from her chair and held her friend’s hand. The warmth of it as well as Elizabeth’s words hugged her heart.

“Did you already pick your breakfast items today?” The nurse held up a menu.

“Yes. The lovely woman from food services got my order about an hour ago.”

The nurse nodded and exited the room, partially closing the door behind herself.

Eboni felt her eyebrows draw together. “I don’t remember hearing anyone coming into the room.”

“Because you were out cold.” Elizabeth placed her soft palm against Eboni’s cheek and then brought it down to cover Eboni’s hand. “You will need to go home at some point today to shower and get some real sleep.”

Eboni shook her head. “Until the doctors tell me what’s going on, I’m not leaving.”

“Oh, honey, I know what it is. Back in my day, we called it having the vapors. I just got a little overwhelmed with work and had a little fainting spell. That’s it.” Queen removed her hand from Eboni’s and turned her face away like she wanted to watch something on TV.

Eboni knew better. “I know Virginia is the South, but we’re not that far south. I don’t believe in this vapors nonsense. Something’s going on with you, and I’m not leaving until I know what it is.”

Elizabeth shook her head. “Stubborn. You’re just like Gunnar.”

At the mention of his name, Eboni became quiet. Like when he’d walked away from her ten years ago to pursue his fighting dream, Eboni’s heart stilled again.

She’d thought she and Gunnar would have a future together. Her being African American hadn’t stopped him from pursuing her, not that Eboni thought it would. If he didn’t have a problem with his adoptive mother being black, she knew he would date outside of his race.

Eboni had been surprised the day he’d given her the critical ultimatum--go with him while he trained as an ultimate fighter, or break up with him and stay home. It had broken her heart to turn down his offer, but she couldn’t leave. Not just yet.

“You talked to Gunnar?” Eboni backed up to her chair.

“I called him last night before his thing.” Queen huffed. “I told him he should stop that stuff and come on home.”

Eboni collapsed in the chair. “You told him to come home? Why?” Would the man who’d had no problems running from her ten years ago come home because his mother asked him to?

“Darling, while I’m a touch incapacitated, I’m going to need someone to run the businesses.”

At that bit of news, Eboni’s spine crumpled enough for her to melt her back into the chair. “I thought you would let me run Press ’N Curl.”

“You are running Press ’N Curl. Gunnar will do what I do there.” Elizabeth waved her hand as though this aspect meant very little to her.

“So he’ll have his nails and hair done?” She winked at Elizabeth. The little bit of levity helped her not think of Gunnar.

Elizabeth gasped. “I do more than just have my hair and nails done.”

“I know.”

“Don’t forget eyebrow waxing.” Elizabeth winked.

Eboni laughed. Queen Elizabeth wouldn’t be a success if she’d been an absentee owner. The woman defined hands-on. When a stylist didn’t show, she had no problem taking their clients.

“What in the world am I going to do without you at the shop?”

“You’ll be fine, and Gunnar will be fine in my spot.” Elizabeth nodded. “I’ll eventually have to bring my sons in to the businesses. I was just hoping it would happen later than sooner.” She sighed. “Besides, all three have signed power-of-attorney forms for the businesses in case something happens to me.”

It made sense to have Elizabeth’s sons to acquire the three businesses when something happened to her. Eboni just hoped Gunnar would stay away from her while she worked.

“Speaking of bad timing.” Eboni made sure to make eye contact with Elizabeth. “Before you, um, caught the vapors, I was going to propose that we do a fund-raiser for the Oceanfront Community Center. You know that in my free time I volunteer there.”

“I know. That’s why you haven’t dated in forever and a day.” Queen wagged her finger at Eboni.

Eboni sighed and ignored Elizabeth’s comment about her sad personal life. “Anyway, besides volunteering, I’ve donated all of my tips to the center too. But it’s not enough. You know business at the salon has dropped lately.”

Elizabeth’s expression changed to a forlorn one. “I know. I’ve tried drumming up more customers.”

Eboni held up her hand. “We all appreciate your efforts. That’s probably what landed you here.” She patted Elizabeth’s shoulder. “If the center doesn’t get more money just for operating costs, they’re going to have to close, and at-risk kids will take a wrong turn.”

Queen Elizabeth regarded her for a moment before a broad smile lit up her face. “That’s what I love about you.” She sat up higher in her hospital bed. “Other people would have asked me for money. Hell, my own family has asked me for money just to go to Vegas. Not you. Not my girl. You want to raise the money.”

Eboni’s heart beat stronger. “I learned from the best. Working with you, I know that only hard work will get me what I want.”

“You’re right. You know I’m in for anything to help out that center. I know that after your mother passed, that place--”

“And your shop,” Eboni interjected.

“Helped you growing up.” She patted the mattress beside her. “Right now, I’m a little stuck. This is something that needs to happen soon, right?”

Eboni nodded. When a distressed expression crossed Elizabeth’s face, Eboni had a change of heart. “Look, don’t worry about it. I’ll figure something out. I shouldn’t have said anything.” She waved her hands and backed up.

“If I wasn’t out of action, I would love to help you.” Elizabeth’s eyes lit up. “I’m hoping Gunnar comes to town. If he does, he can help. Wouldn’t it be great for you to see him again?”

Eboni swallowed hard. Did she want to see the man who’d been her first love? She wanted to hate him. He’d had a goal like she had when they’d severed their relationship. She and Gunnar had stubborn streaks as long as the universe.

Before she could answer, the hospital room door burst open. Encompassing the entire frame stood Gunnar. He had his dirty-blond hair pulled back into a ponytail. His crystal-blue eyes drew her attention to his strong face. His jaw looked like it had been chiseled from stone. He looked beautiful and scary all at once, especially with the addition of a black eye.

Eboni couldn’t look in his face. She refused to watch any of his matches, but she imagined that his current hard expression matched what he would look like before each of his fights.

Her gaze volleyed between his full, very kissable lips and his barrel-sized chest. The more she stared at him, the more her heart accelerated. This man had given her the deepest heartache she’d ever had. Within a millisecond, she found herself still wanting him. She could kick herself for being so stupid now.

Eboni didn’t remember Gunnar being that immense. Seeing him again made her want to stand up to him like one of his opponents. He’d caused her to cry more than she cared to admit. The hell she would allow him to make her feel less than her best. If confronted, she would let him know that.

“Ma, what’s going on with you, and who’s this daughter you said you have now?” Gunnar’s voice boomed throughout the room, and probably all down the hall as well.

Guess the man came for a fight. She wouldn’t back down.