Finding Mr. Right (7 page)

“I have a machine. What kind do you want, Nora?”

“Espresso will be fine, since it’s still a few hours from bedtime.”

Tyra followed him to the kitchen, a modern setting in royal blue and pale yellow and where cooking would be a joy. She was not going to be the first to speak. If he wanted to talk, he’d have to open the conversation. And he did.

“Byron is enchanted with you.”

She didn’t look at the man, but continued to rest her gaze casually over the kitchen. “Serves him right. He’s got me stupefied.”

“
What?
He’s got you…” He put his hands on his hips and looked at her, and she couldn’t help grinning. She’d put him on the spot. Suddenly laughter poured out of him.

“By gosh, he’s got his match. By the way, have you met Andy?”

“Only by phone. We’ll get around to that when Byron and I are both ready for it.”

“You’re protective of Byron, I see.”

“Shouldn’t I be?” Might as well go for broke. “I work at the Legal Aid Center, and I’m the only female among the professional counselors. I’m getting to know how unusual a man Byron is, and I have so much respect for him both for his qualities as a human being and for the way he treats me. He’s very special.

“From the time I was seventeen, I was mother and father to my brother and sister. I didn’t have financial problems, because our parents left us well provided for, but I was never a teenager or even a young adult. From age seventeen on, I was a grown up with adult responsibilities. My siblings have their degrees and their professional jobs and careers now, and I’m happier than I’ve ever been since I lost my parents. Byron is one of the main reasons for that.”

While she spoke, Lewis focused intently upon her, seeming to digest every word she said. He leaned against a counter, folded his arms, crossed his ankles and narrowed his right eye, as if in deep thought.

“You’re the first woman my son has brought home since he introduced me to the woman he married, and she’s been dead a little over four years. That alone told me to expect an exceptional woman. And you are. I hope I have the chance to welcome you to my family as my daughter-in-law.”

“Thank you, sir. And thank you for making me feel at home here.”

“I couldn’t have done otherwise. Let’s get this coffee in there before Byron thinks I chased you off. I think I want some more of that key lime cake. Let’s take it along.” He added cake plates and forks to the tray.

“Say, I thought you two went to Colombia to get the coffee,” Byron said and looked at Tyra. “I figured he wanted either to ask you some questions or to tell you something, and since you’re not angry, I’m assuming it went well.”

“Come now, you have a wonderful dad.”

“I didn’t mention this to Tyra,” Lewis said, “but I’m sure you know I’d like some more grandchildren while I’m still young enough to enjoy them and you’re young enough to raise them properly. That’s not what we talked about, but it’s the conclusion I drew from what we talked about. Have some cake to go with the coffee, Nora.”

Byron looked at his father and grinned. “Well, I’ll be damned.”

A
s he drove away from his father’s house, Byron realized that he didn’t want to take Tyra home, yet he couldn’t take her to his home because no one there knew of his interest in her. Besides, he knew that, in the circumstances, she wouldn’t go there. He needed to make love with her, but if she said he was rushing her, she could be right but not from where he stood. Looking at her all evening in the melon-red dress that caressed every curve of her body had amounted to what seemed like a prison sentence. Her luscious breasts with their protruding aureoles were a sight for any man, and his mouth had watered as he gazed at them. Never in his life had he wanted so badly to get something between his lips.

He glanced over at her, quiet before the storm that he would unleash in her the minute he kissed her. “How’d you get on with my dad?” He knew the answer, but he needed a conversation opener, and that was as good as any.

She’d been slumped in the seat, but she sat up. “Your father
is charming. Serious, too. I think we got on very well. I can’t imagine what I was afraid of. Do you mind if he teaches me the piano? If you do, I can find an easy way to get out of it. Since it involves your father, I readily accept and abide by your feelings about it.”

“Dad usually has his own agenda. If he offered, he’s serious about it, and he wants to do it, so why not?”

“But if you and I broke up, that could be a sticky wicket.”

“You and I are not going to break up, and if you think we are, I’ll park this car and prove it to you right now.”

“You’d get a ticket for making out in a public place.”

“You’d get one, too.”

She rested her hand on his knee, and that was the wrong thing, because he was already about to incinerate. “What’s the matter, Byron? Something’s itching you.”

What the hell! “Something definitely is. I want to…to be with you so badly that I’m about to explode. But you asked me not to rush you, and I’m trying to do as you asked, but baby, it gets more difficult by the second.”

“I’m sorry. How does your father get along with your Aunt Jonie?”

“What? Great. She’s his sister-in-law, and they always got along well. I wish I could take you home with me. Tell you what. Let’s have a picnic at my house Saturday. Andy loves picnics, and I’ll let him invite a couple of his friends. We’ll blow up his tent for the children, and we’ll have a real barbecue picnic.”

“Sounds good to me. What does Andy like?”

“I’ll give that some thought, and let you know.” He wasn’t sure that he wanted her to bring Andy a gift. The boy could be very manipulative and, once he got to know Tyra, he wouldn’t be above calling her and telling her what to bring him. “If you’re not accustomed to mischievous little boys, Andy will take advantage of you.”

“I’m looking forward to meeting him. You sure you want to do this?”

“We need to see what we’ve got going for us, Tyra. What we feel for each other goes deep, and I think we’re ready for the next step, because our expressions of what we feel aren’t enough, never have been.” He parked in front of her house and cut the motor.

“Leaving you right now is costing me more than I can tell you.” The words “Come here to me” trembled out of him, and her soft, warm body moved into his hungry arms. She took his tongue into her mouth and sucked it feverishly. When his head began to spin or seemed like it, he set her away from him.

“We need some privacy, Tyra. Will you go away with me for a few days?”

“Let’s see how it goes Saturday with the picnic.”

“Are you saying you don’t know whether you want to be with me?”

“That is definitely not what I’m saying, because I…it wouldn’t be honest. But if I’m going to give myself a chance with you, I need to know what my chances are with Andy. He’s the question mark in this relationship, and I don’t want him to be that, because he’s as important an ingredient in what happens ultimately between you and me as either of us is.”

“I hadn’t thought of it in precisely that way, but I agree with you.” He eased her back into his arms. When she was close to him, she was all his, and he didn’t want her to do too much thinking right then.

“When do you want us to go away, and where did you have in mind?” she asked, snuggling closer to him and giving his libido a fit.

“Think in terms of a short cruise in the early part of September.”

She kissed his jaw. “You’re so sweet. I…”

“What is it, sweetheart?”

“Nothing. Just be glad I can’t have my way with you right now.”

When he could get his breath back, he said, “My day will come, and when it does, I’ll let you do anything to me that gives you pleasure.”

“Sitting like this in a car at night is dangerous,” she said, as if they hadn’t just agreed that at a coming time, they would be intimate.

He gazed at her for a long minute. “I can’t shift gears as fast as you can.” He got out and went around to open the door for her.

As they entered her foyer, Clark came out of the dining room, evidently headed for the stairs. He stopped. “Say, man, how’s it going. I didn’t realize that you two are seeing each other on a regular basis.”

Byron stepped forward and shook Clark’s hand. “Good to see you, Clark. How are you?”

Tyra fastened her hands to her hips and stared at her brother. “You should be in your room by now with the door closed. Considering your age, I’d expect you to know that.”

“Why? What do you mean?” Clark asked her, his face the picture of innocence.

Seemingly exasperated, she replied, “I wasn’t planning to invite Byron to my room, but if that’s the only way I’ll have privacy to tell him good night, I’ll do it.”

Clark’s eyes widened. “Well, ’scuse me. See you later, Byron.” He ambled up the stairs, whistling as he went.

“That did the trick, but wasn’t it a little heavy-handed?”

“Clark forgets that I practically raised him. From time to time I have to remind him.”

But the encounter had dampened his fire, and when she moved into his arms, the tenderness that welled up in him nearly overwhelmed him. He needed to take care of her, to
protect and shelter her, and the feeling hit him with such force that he knew he’d never felt it before.

He kissed her eyes, her cheeks, her nose and the corners of her lips. “You’re so precious to me. I don’t remember what I was like before you came into my life.” He squeezed her to him. “I’ll call you. Good night, love.”

Tyra turned out the downstairs lights, climbed the stairs and knocked on Clark’s room door. “Hi,” she said. “I didn’t know you were coming home tonight. Did you get some dinner?”

“Maggie didn’t tell you? I called her this morning. She left me crepes filled with crab meat in a fantastic sauce, and a salad. I ate until I thought I’d pop. She and Darlene went to a movie. Say, what’s with you and Byron? Is this thing serious?”

She sat on the edge of his bed and rested her forearms on her knees. “More serious than I’ve ever been.”

“That’s pretty fast, don’t you think?”

“No, I don’t. It began the minute I opened the door the night you brought him here.”

“Get outta here! I didn’t notice a thing. You’d better be careful. He’s a good looking guy, and I imagine he’s popular with women.”

“That doesn’t bother me, Clark. I’m popular with men. He and I had dinner tonight at his father’s home. Wait ’til you see his dad.” She doubted that her brother heard the last part of the sentence. With his lower lip hanging, he was probably still focused on her dinner with his father.

“You ate at his father’s house? I’ve heard that the old man is a big shot surgeon.”

“He certainly lives like it. He’s only seventy-two. I know for a fact that he’s every bit as good looking as Byron. They look like brothers. Byron’s parents divorced when he was seven, and his father raised Byron and his younger sister as a single parent. Byron is doing the same thing.”

“Wait a minute, Sis. You lost me. You talking about Byron or his father?”

“Both. Byron is a widower, and he has a four-year-old son who I’m meeting Saturday.”

“I hope you know what you’re doing, Sis. Maybe he’s looking for a woman who’ll take care of his child.”

“If that were the case, I doubt he’d have waited four and a half years to start looking. He’s never introduced a girlfriend to his son, and he wasn’t anxious to take me home with him. So don’t rush to any faulty conclusions. Byron Whitley is an honorable, straightforward man.”

“So they all say. He’s got a helluva reputation.”

“That doesn’t surprise me. At first I thought you and Darlene were trying to set me up with him, and I nearly did something stupid.”

A sheepish expression flashed across Clark’s face. “I’m ashamed that I didn’t think of it. Not once did it cross my mind that the two of you would hit it off. You have to confess that you’re a little more glamorous than you used to be.”

“Not really. My hair’s longer. I wear earrings and, sometimes, high heels.”

“Yeah, and your clothes are more fashionable. Whatever!”

She may as well tell him and get over with it. “Clark, sometime during the first part of next month, I’m going away for a weekend with Byron.”

“What? You can’t do that!”

“Why not? You wouldn’t hesitate to do that if you wanted to.”

He jumped up and towered over her. “But I’m a man.”

“Really! So’s Byron. And I’m a thirty-one-year-old woman. I’m not asking your permission. I want you to know how things are with Byron and me.”

“
Good Lord!
You haven’t gone and…” He ran his fingers through his hair. “You know what I mean.”

“No, I haven’t. Not yet. Are you suggesting that I should
wait and see if it works
after
I get married? Is that what you’d do? If I could, I’d push you back into the eighteenth century where you belong.”

“Tyra, you’re my
sister
.”

“Yes, I know. Congratulate me on remaining uninvolved until you got grown.”

She never knew what to expect when Clark began pacing the floor, running his fingers through his hair and rubbing the back of his neck. “Listen, Clark, if you’re trying to turn me into a puzzle that has to be solved, don’t bother. I am going to spend a weekend with Byron. If you can’t resist behaving as if you’re my father, next time, I won’t tell you.”

He stopped pacing the floor. “You planning to make a habit of this?”

Laughter poured out of her until she began to hiccup. “That’s too personal. I’m going to bed. Good night.”

“Don’t you care that Maggie and our sister aren’t home yet?”

“No, I don’t. Maggie’s sensible even if I’d be reluctant to say that about Darlene. Good night.”

She got ready for bed and crawled in. Somehow, she had expected Byron to call and tell her good night. Why did he have to call all the time? She dialed his cellular phone.

“Hi, sweetheart. I wanted to call you, but I was afraid I might awaken someone.”

“Same here, but I remembered your cell phone number, and I figured that it would probably be closer to you than the house phone is. I needed to know that you got home safely.”

“And I needed to hear you say that you care for me. I…I’m in deep, Tyra…. I’ve never cared this way. Never.”

“Neither have I, Byron, and I’ve never been this happy before.”

“Now you tell me when I’m here and you’re there.”

“Not to worry. We’ll be together again soon. Good night, love.” She hung up before he could question her having
called him her love, and she knew he wouldn’t call her for fear of awakening her family. Good, she thought. Now, he owes me one.

Picnic or not, she wasn’t leaving her house in jeans, because she’d never found any that fit both her hips and her waist. She put on a pair of white slacks, a pale blue collared T-shirt, a double-breasted-linen navy jacket and a pair of navy-blue and white Keds.

“Little boys love the scent of a nice perfume,” Maggie said, “just like men do. And don’t kiss him first. A lot of children don’t like that, and I don’t blame them. Grown folks hugging and kissing children who don’t know them is an invasion of children’s privacy. I never let ’em kiss mine.”

“Maggie, if this doesn’t work out, what will I do?”

“You teach children to love you, and you do it mainly by loving them and showing them what love is. But if your feelings aren’t genuine, a child gets it right away. If that boy’s as intelligent as you say, he’ll get the difference between what you offer him and what his father gives him. Small children love to cuddle up to a warm loving woman in a way that they don’t cuddle up to their fathers. Now quit worrying. He’ll be here in a few minutes.”

Maggie answered the doorbell before Tyra reached the bottom of the stairs. “Come in, Mr. Whitley. Tyra’ll be down in a minute. How y’all doing today?”

“Wonderful. What about you?” Over Maggie’s shoulder, he saw her and a smile shone on his face so brightly that Maggie whirled around and looked in Tyra’s direction.

“I’m just fine, Mr. Whitley. Y’all have a good time.”

But Tyra doubted that he heard Maggie’s words. He picked her up, twirled her around, kissed her and set her on her feet. “You beautiful woman! Kiss me, but just a little bit.”

She grinned, opened her arms and held him close to her body. “I’ll kiss you when we come back.”

“What’s that?” he asked of the package she carried.

“Something for the children. I figured on four including Andy. Was I right?”

“Right. And they are all boys. Andy thinks he should excel among girls. A real show-off, and I’m trying to rid him of that, but I suspect he gets that at his school.”

“What kind of mood was he in when you left him? Does he know you’re bringing me?”

“Yes. He’s been looking forward to seeing you all week. He has sensed that you’re special, although I didn’t make a point of it.”

“Thank you. I’m glad you didn’t, because he could have decided to be obstinate. In any case, he has to make up his own mind. I only hope he thinks I’m special after I leave today.”

“Not to worry, sweetheart. Given a little time, he’ll be besotted with you just as his old man is.”

She laughed at his attempt to lighten the conversation. Better not put too much weight on that. Crossing the city of Frederick on Court Street, he slowed down at First Street and pointed to a building at number 104 N. Court.