Читать книгу The Look of Love - Crystal B. Bright - Страница 9

Gunnar threw his bag on the floor and marched over to his mother. As he suspected, his Queen Elizabeth had her regal face painted. Not a blemish or a wrinkle could be found. As usual, she wore a ring on almost every finger and had silver and gold bracelets dangling from her wrists. She lifted her arms to accept him into a hug and he remembered her telltale jingling that he’d loved listening to as a kid.

Seeing his strong mother in a hospital bed crushed his heart. He could only imagine what she felt inside beneath her tough exterior. The closer he got to her, the softer his steps became until he reached her. He kissed her cheek as she cupped his face.

The feeling of home came flooding back to him in that one touch. All at once, his breathing slowed. His heartbeat decreased in its speed. He’d gotten what he’d wanted since talking to her last night.

“What are you doing here?” He held her hand. Before his mother could answer, he peered across the room and spotted a woman sitting in a chair. “Who are you?”

The woman with an almond-butter skin tone blinked at his inquiry. Her hazel eyes seemed so familiar to him. It had been a long time since he’d been home. She reminded him of Eboni Danielson. No way could she be his old love.

When they’d dated back in high school, Eboni had carried a voluptuous frame that he’d enjoyed touching and holding. In her structured wool coat, this woman looked to be about fifty to seventy-five pounds lighter than his high school girlfriend.

Back in high school, Eboni had light brown hair that she’d kept in loose, natural curls. Once Gunnar had gotten his act together as far as his attitude, Eboni had allowed him to experiment with her hair. He created different concoctions in his mother’s kitchen. Besides his mother and his brothers, no one had trusted him that much.

The woman here had jet-black hair that she kept in waves that cascaded down her shoulders and back. He’d been involved in the hair business with his mother long enough to spot relaxed hair with generous amounts of hair extensions.

Gunnar never understood a woman’s desire to show a false front. If it made this woman feel good, he would respect that. He had to bring his attention back to his mother when the woman licked her lips.

“Darling, you remember Eboni? Good Lord, the two of you were inseparable in school.” Elizabeth pointed to Eboni.

This time, Gunnar had to blink. Now that he stared at her, he saw a glimmer of that woman who had turned him down flat when he’d asked her to join him for his dream.

Eboni stood. He got to assess her from head to toe, especially when she removed her coat. Without the outerwear, he saw how fit she’d become, although her breasts had stayed large, firm, and amazing. Wearing a long-sleeved black turtleneck and charcoal-colored slacks, she resembled a copy of his mother with less jewelry…and fake hair.

Eboni walked closer to Elizabeth’s bed, and Gunnar couldn’t tear his stare from her. He tried to swallow but his throat had become dry. He’d fought absolute beasts in the ring and his nerves never got to him. Yet a woman he hadn’t seen in years managed to make him feel powerless.

“Eboni, I barely recognized you.” Standing on the opposite side of the bed from her, he presented his hand across his mother’s body to shake her hand.

“Boy, you had better walk around that bed and give your friend a hug.” Elizabeth swatted Gunnar on his backside, propelling him to move around the bed.

Keeping his face hard, he stepped up to her. At the last moment, she turned to him and held out her arms, a loud, long, audible sigh punctuating her move.

Great, she wanted this even less than him. A small part of him felt a little disheartened at her attitude. What did he expect? They hadn’t parted on amicable terms. She’d called him a coward.

He embraced her. At once, her honey scent wafted up to his nose. The sweet aroma had him thinking of licking her from her head to her toes.

Her body had still retained some of its softness, although he found her back to be hard as well as her arms. He rested his hand on her waist, dangerously close to her ass that he wanted to touch, to squeeze.

At that moment, he felt a subtle throbbing below his belt. It had been quite a long time since he’d held a woman. At this rate, if he continued holding her, she would know just how long it had been.

Gunnar released his embrace and resumed his spot on the other side of the bed. He hoped he didn’t look like he’d run, but in his mind he’d probably sprinted.

“Good to see you again.” He didn’t smile, still trying to wrap his mind around the surreal events.

“Nice to see you visiting your mother, Gunny.” Eboni did smile, showing all her teeth.

The expression that he’d likened to a hungry shark along with the childhood nickname disarmed him. “Haven’t heard that name in years.” A smile threatened to peek through, but he kept it suppressed.

A tickle ran over his belly as soon as she smiled. A woman scorned shouldn’t be this friendly to the man who’d burned her.

He couldn’t think of that. He would be spending time with his mother, not Eboni, a decision his body detested him for making.

He gazed down at his mother. “Why are you here?”

“Caught the vapors.” Elizabeth waved her hand with its manicured fingernails in front of her face.

“Don’t give me that. What happened?”

When his mother slowed to answer, Eboni quickly piped in.

“She fainted at Press ’N Curl.” Eboni glanced down at Elizabeth. “I brought her here. They’ve been running tests but haven’t said what they’ve found yet.”

Gunnar nodded at her. “When was the last time you went to a doctor’s appointment?”

His mother huffed. “Doctors are for sick people. I’m not sick. I probably didn’t eat enough that morning. I’m trying to lose these stubborn five pounds to fit into a gorgeous gold sequin dress I made.”

Gunnar ran his hand over his face. “Ma, you made the dress for yourself. Why didn’t you make it the right size?”

Her eyes widened as she glared at him. “I did make it the right size. I can’t help it if the materials shrank when I sewed it.”

He bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. “Right. The materials shrank.”

“You know nothing about making clothes, not like your brother, Thane. He had a gift.”

“A gift? Yeah, like dodging me. I’ve been trying to call him since yesterday and he’s not answering.” Gunnar wanted to call his baby brother a brat, but that was rule number two with his mother. No name-calling.

“Leave him alone. He’s busy. He’ll be starting spring training soon.” Elizabeth turned to Eboni. “Baseball. America’s favorite pastime.”

Eboni nodded. “I’ve seen him play. He’s very talented.”

Gunnar glared at Eboni. A pang of jealousy punched him in the gut. It shouldn’t have. Gunnar had no plans of getting back together with Eboni. Two stubborn people together never worked.

“Gideon has time to answer his phone, and he’s about to play in the Super Bowl.” Gunnar smiled at his brother’s accomplishment.

“I’m glad you’re here.” Elizabeth nodded.

“I’m happy to be with you, too, Ma. Now you have one of your sons and your daughter here.” He nodded toward Eboni. “Did I miss a reunion somewhere?”

“You and your brothers weren’t here. Eboni has been like a daughter to me. She could have been a real daughter-in-law had someone done the right thing.”

Gunnar groaned and leaned his head back. “Not now.” Arguing about past mistakes topped his list of things to avoid after he hopped a red-eye flight from Vegas to Virginia.

“I’ve taken great care of Queen Elizabeth since you, um, left.” Eboni kept her stare on Gunnar almost in a challenging way, like she wanted him to defend his actions. “I’ve worked side by side with her at the salon.”

“Thank you. I appreciate it.” Gunnar meant that. With him, Gideon, and Thane being gone, it comforted him to know someone trustworthy watched out for his mother.

“I don’t need anyone watching out for me. I’m fine.” Elizabeth patted Gunnar and Eboni’s hands.

As she said that, her hospital room door opened and a petite Indian woman in a white doctor’s coat walked into the room.

“How are you feeling today, Ms. Sommerville?” she asked as she looked through a file.

“I feel as good as I look, Dr. Patel.” Gunnar’s mother pursed her lips. “Hand me my clothes and shoes and let me go home to my family.” She sat up taller.

“You’ll go home eventually, but not right now.” The doctor’s face became somber. “You have a ninety-percent blockage in your left artery. Because of it, you weren’t getting enough oxygen, which is why you fainted.”

Gunnar felt blood rush from his head. He kept his legs locked to keep standing. “What’s going to happen now? Medication?”

“We’re going to install a stent in the artery to open it up and see if that corrects the problem. She has a second artery that has a fifty-percent blockage, but that’s not as bad as the other, so we’re not going to do anything with that one yet. We’ll watch it and see how it goes. One thing that should make you happy is you have a very strong heart.”

Gunnar glanced at his mother, who now remained quiet. The joy dropped from her face. She chewed her lower lip, ruining her lipstick and staining her teeth. For the first time in his life, Queen Elizabeth Sommerville looked scared. Seeing her fear both worried him and pissed him off.

He held his mother’s hand and kept his grip tight. “When will you do the procedure?”

“Tomorrow morning. After we install the stent, she’ll stay in the hospital for a few days so that we can watch her, and then we’ll let her go home.” The doctor walked closer to Elizabeth. “No working at all. You rest and relax, understand?”

Elizabeth nodded.

Her silence worried Gunnar, who had never known his mother to be at a loss for words.

“For now, I would say get comfortable. Have your family bring you books or magazines, pajamas, and a change of clothing for when you go home. The nurses and care partners will check up on you all day today. I understand your family and friends all call you Queen Elizabeth.”

That brought a smile to Elizabeth’s face.

Dr. Patel continued. “We’ll treat you like royalty. We promise. Any questions?”

“No.” Elizabeth’s voice broke. “No, I understand. Thank you for everything.”

The doctor walked out of the room and closed the door.

Eboni broke the tension. “I’ll tell everyone at the salon what’s going on and that you’ll be out for a while.”

Elizabeth nodded and held Eboni’s hand.

“I’m here, Ma. Whatever you need, I’ll do it for you.” Gunnar curved his mother’s hand up to his mouth and kissed the back of it.

“Good, because there is something I need you to do.” She cleared her throat.

“Anything. Name it.” His mother had given him the kind of life that other disadvantaged kids could only wish for on a million stars in the sky.

“I need you to watch over the businesses. Right now, it’s only the salon and the flower shop since I have the boutique closed for the winter. If I’m still incapacitated by March or April, you’ll have to reopen the boutique in time for the spring school dances.”

Gunnar glanced at Eboni, who now had a hard time looking at either one of them. “You got it.”

“Eboni will continue to manage the salon. She can show you how things run. The keys to the shop and my car are in my purse. Take my purse home with you. These people are nice, but I don’t know them.” Elizabeth’s smile broadened. “I’ll be fine, son.”

Gunnar chuckled. “I’m supposed to be reassuring you.”

“By being here, you’ve shown me that I did a great job raising you.” She pulled at his hand to bring his face down to her. She kissed his cheek.

“I’ll call Gid and Thane, unless you want to do that?” He gazed at his mother. For the first time, he saw her looking weak, almost defeated.

“No, you call them. You’ll keep a level head when relaying the news.”

Gunnar nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Now, take my things, except for my makeup bag.” Elizabeth smiled and it made Gunnar and Eboni laugh. “Bring back my black-and-white Chanel suit, the black Yves Saint Laurent pumps, and the pearls.”

“All I understood in that request was the pearls.” Gunnar constantly had to remind his mother he had no fashion sense.

“I’ll get them.” Eboni kissed Elizabeth’s forehead.

In this situation, Gunnar appreciated Eboni’s help. Otherwise, he would keep his distance from her.

“I’ll stay with you, Ma.” Gunnar looked at the chair Eboni had previously occupied and the small couch under the window that overlooked the hospital’s helipad.

“I love you, but you need a shower and a shave and probably some good sleep.”

Gunnar ran his hand over his chin and felt the scruff his mother must have noticed. “Ma, I--”

“Don’t argue.” Elizabeth brought her blanket up to her chin.

“Did you just interrupt me?” Gunnar put his hands to his hips and cocked his head.

His mother laughed. “You’re cute. Go. Call your brothers. Get a shower. Get some sleep. I’ll be fine.”

Gunnar squeezed his mother’s hand. “I’ll go and make myself presentable for you. But I will be back earlier than tomorrow morning. I didn’t come all this way not to see you.”

She released his hand. “Love you both.”

Gunnar glanced at Eboni. At one time, she’d had his heart. Then she’d refused to take a leap with him. His mother seemed to rely on her a lot. For that, he appreciated her loyalty.

After giving his mother a kiss on her forehead, Gunnar grabbed his bag. He held the door open for Eboni and then headed to the elevator. He pressed the down button and waited in silence until the elevator doors opened. He’d hoped there would be a crowd of other people in the elevator. No such luck.

Silence enveloped them on the ride down. He kept his gaze on the lit numbers over the sliding doors.

“Your mom is strong,” Eboni began.

Gunnar brought his attention to her.

“She’ll be fine.” She brought her hand up as though she wanted to pat his shoulder but stopped herself.

“I know.” No one had to tell him about the strength in Queen Elizabeth Sommerville.

The woman stared down monsters and didn’t blink. He’d seen that firsthand. Surviving a marriage with that dick after she’d adopted him and his brothers had confirmed his mother’s might.

The longer the elevator ride continued, the more Gunnar realized he missed a lifetime with her in the last ten years. Did she get married? Did she have children? Was she even involved in a relationship now?

When the elevator opened at the lobby, Gunnar held the door open as Eboni strolled by him. He headed to the front of the building but stopped when he realized she continued to the parking garage.

“Do you have a car here?” Eboni waited by the entryway to the parking garage.

Gunnar winced. “Took a cab.” He took a step toward her. “I suppose you’re not going by my mother’s house, are you?”

He watched her shoulders bunch around her ears as though the sound of his voice irritated her. At that moment, his stomach lurched and he hated to even see her adverse reaction.

“Do you need a ride?” Eboni asked.

“I don’t have a vehicle until I get my mom’s car.” Gunnar hoisted the strap of his bag onto his shoulder.

“I suppose if I don’t take you, you’ll tell your mother on me.” She fished through her cavernous purse.

“If it’s a big deal, just forget it. Just thought--”

Eboni expelled a deep sigh. “I’ll take you to your mother’s house. I have to go there anyway.” She held up her car keys and jingled them in front of her face.

Gunnar thought about the ramifications of being in a confined space with Eboni, truly the one that had gotten away. Since starting his sport, a lot of fans, female celebrities, and starlets had thrown themselves at him. Every time, he’d refused their advances, telling them that he had to keep his focus. That didn’t stop the women from still offering him favors. He turned those down as well. One thing for sure, Eboni wouldn’t be offering him anything other than this car ride.

“Are you going to come with me?” She crossed her arms over her chest.

After he’d hugged her earlier, Gunnar couldn’t stop imagining her body.

He took a deep breath before answering. “Sure. Let’s go.”

He’d been strong for ten years. A twenty-minute drive shouldn’t kill him…he hoped.

* * * *

Eboni still couldn’t believe she’d allowed Gunnar Wells to get in her car. Of course, in her compact Smart Car, he looked like she’d stuffed a silverback gorilla into a tin can.

“You can push the seat back, well, a little.” Eboni glanced over at him, careful not to stare at him too long.

“It is pushed back as far as it can go.” His knees looked shoved under his chin.

“I would tell you to lean the seat back, but, well, you can’t.” She shrugged.

“We’re not too far from the house.”

Eboni nodded and kept her stare on the road until she heard Gunnar laughing. She turned to him.

“You have a thing about small cars, don’t you?”

She blinked, not knowing what he meant.

“Remember in high school, you drove that little Plymouth Horizon?”

Wow. She hadn’t thought about that car in years. It shocked her that Gunnar had even remembered it, which made her smile. “You remember ol’ Bee Bee?” She’d called her car Bee Bee for its distinctive yellow paint job with black accents.

As she recalled the memories of the car, she immediately remembered what she and Gunnar used to do in it. Although back in high school his size hadn’t matched his appearance now, Gunnar had still carried a tall and slightly muscular frame.

After Gunnar had worked all day at Press ’N Curl, Eboni would pick him up from the salon, go park on a dead-end road, and they’d kiss until her lips went numb.

Eboni distinctly remembered how well he’d used his hands, those large, skilled hands that had massaged her into fits of ecstasy more than she cared to admit. Thinking about it now tightened her nipples. She turned the heat down in the car when her flesh became overheated.

“Can we talk about the elephant in the car?” Gunnar shifted his body to direct his full attention to her.

His sudden inquiry almost had her driving through a red light. Eboni slammed on her brake and took a deep breath before turning to Gunnar. Could he read her thoughts and know that she’d been thinking about them, about their hot, sordid past?

“The business,” he said before she could ask him how he could walk away from their solid relationship. “I got the impression at the hospital that you weren’t completely happy to have me run the salon.”

The light changed to green. Eboni slammed her foot down on the accelerator, snapping both of their heads back in the sudden motion.

“You’re not running the salon. I am. You’re doing what Queen Elizabeth normally does.” She gritted her teeth and tried to maintain her composure.

“Which is?”

“She oversees the supplies. She hires. She fires. She promotes the place so that we can get more clients. She’s an owner.” She glared at him. “I’m the manager. I’m there. I know everything about the salon. You would just be a distraction.”

Gunnar paused before answering. “Are we still talking about the salon?”

Eboni pulled into the driveway of Elizabeth’s home. “What’s past is past, right? Can’t change it. You’ve moved on just like I have.” She put her car in park and turned it off. “You have moved on, haven’t you?”

When Gunnar didn’t answer, she turned to him. She found an expression she hadn’t expected to see in the big man. Remorse. Had he found someone else?

No. Elizabeth would have said something if that had happened.

Gunnar cast his gaze downward. “I work. That’s all I do.” He exited the car and grabbed his bag.

A strange wave of relief consumed her as she got out of her car. As Eboni headed up the steps of Elizabeth’s two-story brown-and-white gingerbread-like house, she didn’t expect Gunnar to follow her. She thought he would have taken Queen’s car in the garage and gone off to whatever hotel room he chose to occupy.

“What are you doing?” she asked at the front door before unlocking it.

“Going into my mother’s home. Why? What are you doing?”

“Packing a bag for her and getting some sleep.” She held the front doorknob behind her back as she faced him. “You aren’t staying here, right?”

He furrowed his eyebrows and that expression intensified his hypnotic blue eyes. “Of course I am. Why would you want to stay here? Don’t you have a place of your own?”

Eboni cocked her head. “Your mother asked me to stay here.”

“Before she knew I would be coming home. Now that I’m here, you don’t have to stay.”

She shook her head. “No. I’m a woman of my word.” Eboni turned her back on Gunnar to unlock the door. “You might be more comfortable in a hotel.” She put her back to the door again like a guard protecting Queen’s palace.

“I would be more comfortable in my childhood home.” Gunnar reached behind her and grabbed the knob. The position put him right against Eboni’s body.

She felt the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed heavily. His stare bored down on her until she felt like she would crumble.

“I’ll open the door for you.”

The rumble that emanated from his chest vibrated her body. The tremor hardened her nipples even more. She took in a deep breath and caught his masculine scent, a woodsy aroma with an undertone of sandalwood.

Eboni put her hand to his chest in an effort to push him back. Instead, she closed her eyes and flashed back to an image of the last time they’d made love. So vivid the recollection, she could feel his muscled thighs pressing against her legs. She remembered how good he’d felt inside her, moving in and out of her like they existed as one person, one entity. Her fingers itched to move over to his nipple to circle it, tease it, get him to moan again.

Without warning, the support of the door behind her vanished. She opened her eyes and stumbled backward, nearly hitting the floor until Gunnar wrapped his arm around her waist to save her.

“Sorry.” He stared into her eyes. “Should have told you I was opening the door.” Gunnar helped right her before backing away.

Eboni ran her hand over her hair. “You have a tendency of doing that, don’t you? I get a little comfortable and then you pull the rug from under me.”

She should be angry for letting Gunnar get physically close to her. She’d forgotten that Queen Elizabeth raised gentlemen. Now that she thought about it, since Gunnar had gotten back, he’d opened all doors for her, even her car door. It shouldn’t have surprised her that he would have gotten this door too. She had to appreciate a man with manners.

“Now you’re definitely talking about the past. Let’s talk about this.” Gunnar tried approaching her.

Eboni moved away from him. He’d already gotten too close to her.

She’d been inside Elizabeth’s house more than her own home. Being in it now with Gunnar, the mood felt different. The delicate touches of the lace doilies on the arms of the sofa and chairs seemed in conflict with the over six-foot man wearing a black sweatshirt, jeans, and motorcycle boots. The powder-pink walls contrasted with the muscular being that took up most of the landscape in the dwelling.

“We talked about our plans. I wanted you to come with me to Vegas when I trained. You didn’t want to go.”

Gunnar summing up their relationship in three sentences angered her. So much more had happened than her being offered to go with him and then turning him down.

“Wow. So that’s all that happened between us?” She waved her hand in between their bodies. “What were my dreams? You talked about your career. What was my goal?”

Gunnar remained quiet.

“Was I taking care of anyone here at the time you wanted to go?” She crossed her arms over her chest.

“You never told me you were caring for anyone. Were you?” He furrowed his eyebrows.

“When I was going to tell you, you were too consumed talking about your career. When I was going to tell you, you dropped the bomb on me.”

“Who was it?”

Eboni shook her head. “Oh no. We are not in that place anymore.” She huffed. “You never asked me to marry you. You expected me to uproot my whole life to be with you without a promise of marriage.”

She watched Gunnar’s jaw flex like he gritted his teeth.

“I’m going up to my room.” Gunnar put his hand on the banister and started to go up to one of the four bedrooms.

The fact that he didn’t address the most important aspect of her argument, the marriage that had never happened, drained her. At least she’d let her feelings be known.

“Your bedroom is not there anymore.” Eboni stood behind him. “Your mother changed your room to a sewing room.” She knew that firsthand since she’d helped cart up the heavy sewing machine. “Your brothers’ rooms are now her gym and shoe room.”

“You’re kidding.”

Instead of waiting for her to confirm, he took the stairs by twos. From the bottom step, she heard Gunnar cursing. She shouldn’t laugh, but she couldn’t help it. She covered her mouth with her hand when she heard his heavy-booted footfalls stomping back down the stairs.

“It has been a long time since you’ve been home.” Eboni shook her head.

“The only room she didn’t touch was her bedroom.” He ran his hand over his head.

“And that’s where I’m sleeping.” From the way he stared at her, she almost wanted to offer him a spot in Queen’s queen-size bed next to her. “Are you sure you don’t want to just go to a hotel?”

He cocked his head. “She didn’t touch the apartment over the garage, did she?”

When Eboni didn’t respond, he must have gotten his answer.

“I’ll take that as a no.” He headed toward the kitchen. “If you need me, you know where to find me.”

“Actually, I do need you.” Eboni cleared her throat.

He raised his eyebrows at her proclamation.

Now that she had his attention, she had to ask to make a deal with the man who’d haunted her dreams for years.