The Beauty Within (39 page)

Savannah J. Frierson

“
De nada
. ¿
Es él su hijo
?”

“
Sí
,
mi niño mayor
,” Tekla said with pride.

Mrs. Carver nodded again. “May I speak with him privately?” She spoke

this in English this time.

“Only if I may speak with your lovely daughter,” Tekla replied.

“Of course.”

Gunnar and Tyler gave each other wary looks before their mothers pushed

them in the opposite direction. Gunnar wanted to touch Tyler when she

passed him, but he didn’t. Tyler didn’t make eye contact with him, but he

knew she felt his eyes on her.

“
Hijo
,
por favor
,” Mrs. Carver said quietly. Gunnar breathed slowly but

smiled, and held out his arm for her to take. “
Muchas gracias
.”

“
De nada
,” Gunnar replied, his Spanish no where near as fluid as his moth-

er’s, but Mrs. Carver seemed to appreciate his effort considering the smile she

gave him. They went into the dining room. Since the majority of the food was

outside and they were away from the main area of traffic, they were afforded

privacy. Gunnar held out her seat at the head of the rectangular table and she

thanked him again, and Gunnar sat perpendicular to her. When he was settled,

Mrs. Carver held out her hand on the table and he put his inside it. Mrs. Carver

closed her fingers around his hand and squeezed.

Painfully.

“
Usted duele a mi hija
,” Mrs. Carver said, her voice still quiet, but there was

an undercurrent of fury as well.

“¡
Lo siento
!” Gunnar gasped, amazed such a tiny woman could exert such

pressure. Mrs. Carver looked at him carefully, and Gunnar prayed the sincerity

in his eyes outweigh the pain he knew was there as well.

“
Yo le creo
,” Mrs. Carver said and relaxed her grip. Her other hand

smoothed the back of his. “¿
Por qué
?”

“I didn’t want to go through it again,” Gunnar said quietly.

“¿
Qué
?”

“I didn’t want to watch her die.”

Carmen’s eyes widened. “¿
Se muere
?”

Though Gunnar suspected Mrs. Carver knew the story, she didn’t know

his interpretation of it. So, once again, he spilled out his heart to a mother,

Tyler’s mother this time, and took her maternal compassion like a sponge took

water. Sometimes his voice broke, other times it got stronger—especially when

he spoke of his love for Tyler. When he grew quiet, very quiet, was when he

recalled how utterly lifeless Tyler looked sprawled on the ground, and he

stopped talking altogether when he heard Mrs. Carver sniffle and press her

nose to the back of his hand.

“
Hijo
,” she murmured. “
Hijo
.”

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211

Gunnar scooted his chair around and embraced Mrs. Carver fully. She

mourned what could’ve been; what almost was. Gunnar understood that, and

it had taken him three weeks before he could rejoice in what actually was—

Tyler, alive, and hopefully much better.

“
Usted adora a mi hija
,” Mrs. Carver said, and Gunnar knew it wasn’t a ques-

tion.

“
Tyler es mi corazón y mi vida, mi amor
,” Gunnar whispered into Mrs. Carver’s

ear.

“
Yo le creo
,” Mrs. Carver said again after some seconds had passed, and she

squeezed Gunnar tightly. “
Pero
,
mi hija
…”

“I’ve messed up—”

“Yes,” Mrs. Carver said, her tone firm but forgiving. “So did I, with her fa-

ther, their father.”

Gunnar knew the story. “I’m sorry.”

“No matter how much two people love each other, they can still hurt each

other,” Mrs. Carver said sadly. “I didn’t get a chance to fix it with my husband,

even if we both knew until his dying breath how much we loved each other.”

Gunnar held her hands in his and squeezed gently. “Do you think she’d let

me.”

“She still has to fix herself first,” Mrs. Carver warned. “Are you willing to

take her broken?”

“I’m willing to do anything I have to do,” Gunnar said assuredly. “At the

very least, I can love her.”

“At the most,” Mrs. Carver corrected, and cupped his strong jaw in her

hand. “Through everything.”

Gunnar closed his eyes and kissed the palm of Mrs. Carver’s hand. When

he broke the kiss and opened his eyes, he saw Tyler standing behind her

mother, her eyes bloodshot and her bottom lip between her teeth. Gunnar

stood, his eyes fixed on her form, his hands pulsing with the need to touch her.

“Are you hungry, Carmen?” Tekla asked, coming into the dining room as

well.

“
Sí,
” Mrs. Carver said and Tyler helped her mother stand. Mrs. Carver

grasped her daughter’s cheeks and pulled her head down so she could kiss her

forehead. Tyler let out a small sob.

“
Te amo
,
mi corazón
,” Mrs. Carver whispered.

“I love you too,” Tyler said just as softly. Gunnar saw his mother squeeze

Tyler’s shoulder, and Tyler gave her a small smile. Tekla grasped Mrs. Carver’s

elbow gently and they walked slowly back to the party. Tyler watched their

progress while Gunnar watched her.

“
Du ser flott ut
.”

She turned to him, frowning. “What?”

He swallowed and gripped the chair in front of him. “You look beautiful.”

Savannah J. Frierson

Tyler glanced down at herself and smoothed out her clothes. She took a

deep breath. “Thank you.”

Gunnar nodded. “
Du er min engel
.”

Her head snapped up to look at him, and her cheeks turned red. “Gunnar…”

“You are,” he said, speaking now in English. “My angel.
Jeg synes du er fantas-

tisk
.”

“Gunnar, I can barely grasp Spanish and my mother speaks it!”

“You’ll learn Norwegian quickly,” he said, smiling a little bit.

“I will?”

“Yes,” Gunnar said, moving from behind the chair and approaching her

slowly. “I’ll teach you. I know my mother must’ve started, Inge—”

“Gunnar—”

“
Jeg er her for deg
,” he said, stopping when he was directly in front of her. His

hands tingled, knowing they were so close to the chocolate satin of her skin. “I

am here for you. We all are.”

“You left me,” Tyler said, the resignation in her voice piercing him more

than her anger could. “You didn’t call, didn’t check up on me…you just
left
!”

He couldn’t contain himself. He cupped her cheeks in his hands and

touched their foreheads together. She didn’t pull away, but she didn’t lean into

him, either.

“
Jeg elsker deg
,” he whispered. “I love you.”

“You left me.”

“I couldn’t, I—” He kissed her forehead hard. Tyler braced herself against

his chest, but Gunnar moved his hands from her face to wrap his arms around

her. He held her close and kissed the top of her head. “Aurora.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about her?” Tyler asked. “I shouldn’t have had to

hear that from your mother.”

“It hurt too much.”

“But you told Wendy? And apparently Damon. But not me?”

“I wasn’t going to snap at them,” Gunnar admitted.

“But you would’ve snapped at me?”

“Yes.” Gunnar felt fear and rage rise inside of him and he held her tighter to

tamp it down. “I would’ve…I would’ve said the most awful things to you.”

“And that’s why you left and didn’t talk to me.”

“Yes.”

Gunnar didn’t know how long they stood there quietly, him holding her,

but some of the tension in his body eased upon that confession. While it was

true he didn’t want to relive the pain of watching someone he loved die, in his

heart, Gunnar had known Tyler would be okay, and with that knowledge, he

would’ve let her have the full brunt of his anger. He would’ve also given her the

anger that belonged to Aurora, but it wasn’t Tyler’s to have, so he decided to

leave until he had full control of himself. Even still, he wanted to give Tyler a

rather large piece of his mind.

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213

Her arms moved from his chest to wrap around his waist. His body relaxed

even more when she squeezed him.

“I would’ve deserved it,” she mumbled into his chest.

“Not all of it.” He closed his eyes and inhaled her smell. “Peppermint?”

“I sucked on one before we got here,” she said, pulling back to look into his

eyes. “I missed you, Gunnar.”

“
Jeg ha savnet du
,” he replied, unsure if she would allow him to kiss her, but

wanting to so very much.

“I’m sorry I scared you,” she said, and he could hear the tears in her voice.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you,” Gunnar said, clenching his jaw so his

own tears wouldn’t fall. Gentle thumbs grazed her cheekbones.

“I’m eating now,” she told him. “White foods even.”

Gunnar smiled. “Are you?”

“Yes. Just the other day I went to
Jessie’s
and got the two-piece chicken

platter.”

Gunnar laughed, touching his nose to hers. “Trying to clog those arteries

again?”

“Don’t judge me,” Tyler muttered, rubbing their noses together.

“I’ll love you instead,” Gunnar promised, holding her so close he felt her

heart beat against his chest. Their rhythms seemed to synchronize and he

smiled.

“I’d like that.”

“And I’ll love you even when you can’t love yourself,” he whispered. Their

mouths brushed as he spoke.

“I’ll do my best to love myself,” Tyler promised.

“And I’ll make sure to remind you to love yourself as much as I love you,”

Gunnar said, giving in and pressing a chaste kiss to her lips.

“And I promise your love won’t be in vain,” Tyler breathed, returning the

kiss, but harder.

Gunnar moaned and slipped his tongue between her teeth. She tasted deli-

cious, and he felt his body primed to love her as he hadn’t done in far too long.

His hands slid down to her bottom and squeezed the generous globes with

fervor.

“Yeah, I don’t blame you, man.”

Tyler squealed and broke the kiss. “Boy!”

Gunnar chuckled, not so bothered that Quincy had interrupted their kiss.

“It’s so squeezable.”

“And she likes it too,” Quincy said, winking at Tyler. “Don’t let her tell you

different.”

“I’m about
five seconds from
—”

“Kissing me again,” Gunnar said, nibbling her bottom lip. “Or one, give or

take four seconds…”

214

Savannah J. Frierson

Tyler kissed him back enthusiastically, and Gunnar heard Quincy mutter

something about keeping their plates warm before he completely surrendered

to the woman he held in his arms.

Pigs in a blanket—it had been a good minute since Tyler had had some,

and she was close to eating more than her fair share. But it seemed others were

too busy schmoozing and being beautiful to care about the glorious nibbles

that were out for the guests to snack on.

“You like them?”

Surprised, Tyler swallowed the bite she’d been chewing before it was

ready to be. She looked down at the young girl standing next to her wearing a

short-sleeved floral print princess-cut dress. There was a light blue ribbon

holding her blonde hair in a ponytail, and she was looking at Tyler with blue

eyes so large she foresaw the child’s father sitting on a porch and polishing

guns in the future.

“I like them very much,” Tyler said, and she plucked one from her plate.

“Do you want one?”

The little girl smiled, broadcasting the fact she’d lost an upper tooth and a

bottom one. “Thank you,” she said and took Tyler’s offering. “You’re gonna be

my aunt.”

Tyler was glad she wasn’t eating, or else she definitely would’ve choked.

“Excuse me?”

“That’s what Mommy said.” The girl nodded. “She said you were gonna

marry Uncle Gunnar and—”

“
Singe!
”

The little girl blushed, but she hid her giggles behind tiny hands. “I wasn’t

supposed ta tell?”

Inge approached them wearing a sharp and alluring long-sleeved black jer-

sey dress with an overly large red belt, shaking her head and putting a maternal

hand atop her daughter’s head.

“It doesn’t matter if you were or weren’t, since you already did,
kjæreste
.”

“I’m sorry,” Singe said contritely to Tyler. “Are you upset?” She bit into the

pig in the blanket Tyler had given her.

Tyler smiled “No, I’m not.”

Singe sagged with relief. “Okay! I’m gonna tell Uncle Gunnar you’re not

mad he wants to marry you!”

“Singe!” Inge cried, but the little girl was already weaving through the

crowds to find her beloved uncle who was talking to his brother-in-law and

his parents who had also attended their daughter’s celebration. After the

barbecue at Damon and Wendy’s, Gunnar’s parents had flown out to LA where

The Beauty Within

215

they were staying with their daughter and her family until after the agency’s

anniversary party.

“Are you
sure
I can’t send her FedEx to Durham? She eats like a bird, I

promise,” Inge sighed.

“And by bird, you mean—”