Quinn held her breath, sucking the cold night air into her lungs.
Maude held her breath, too. Quinn saw her slight chest rise as she nodded.
Her mother gulped, the hard sound of her swallow riddled with insecurity—something new and foreign to Quinn. “David was my first male sexual experience, Maude. Wouldn’t you know I’d get pregnant, trying to please everyone but me? He was a good guy. Funny and smart, and it just sort of happened. And even though it was an accident, I’ll never regret Quinn. But back then, well, you just didn’t do what I’m about to do, and all these years, I’ve been angry about marrying someone I didn’t want to marry. Would never have married in this day and age of awareness and rallies and Twitter.”
Maude continued to sit quietly, her hand still in her mother’s, the other on the stem of her wineglass.
Helen took a deep breath. “I married David because society said to marry him. Because my parents expected me to marry him. I thought by marrying him, I could hide who I was, stamp it out, but it only made me hate myself—hate everyone around me, and when he left, which was the right thing to do, he told me to be true to myself, no matter the cost. Instead, I lashed out until I didn’t know I was lashing out anymore. Until it became second nature to bash anyone I could touch. Mostly anyone male.”
A tear slid down Maude’s and Quinn’s cheeks simultaneously, but still, they both remained silent.
“My frustration at hiding who I am all these years boiled over this week as I tried to prepare myself for this conversation. I hurt Quinn and her friends and insulted them enough that she booted me right out of her house. And she was right to. I deserved it. I went too far over to the other side. But I want to come back. I so desperately want to come back. With you. To you, if you’ll let me. I love you, Maude. I’ve loved you from the moment we talked about seeing the Black-cheeked lovebird in Zambia. When we dreamed someday we’d take a trip somewhere exotic to observe rare birds.”
Quinn and Maude gasped in unison.
That moment, that silent, palpable moment, would stay with Quinn forever as she mentally prayed Maude felt the same way about Helen. Prayed her mother had finally found peace, contentment—joy.
Maude slid from her chair, tears streaming down her face, and knelt in front of her mother. Letting her head rest on Helen’s lap, she whispered, “I’ve waited for you for so long…”
Quinn’s heart stopped beating then and she only heard the sound of their hearts. Of their love—a love her mother had been too ashamed to admit. A love she’d fought and tortured herself over. A love Maude had waited twenty years to experience.
Everything made sense in that moment. Everything.
She turned and looked up at Khristos with wonder. “Them,” she whispered.
“Yes, Quinn. Them.”
Closing her eyes, tears still falling from her face, Quinn mentally summoned Cupid, her pulse racing at this gift she’d been given—this ability to put one of the people she loved most in the world into the arms of someone who’d finally make her happy.
“Now!” Quinn murmured, shaking and hushed.
The arrow appeared out of nowhere, glowing more magnificently than it had in any of her matches so far, melting through the big picture window of the café, and landing perfectly on her mother. The shower of color sprayed over them, shooting upward and disappearing, leaving a residual glow.
Quinn shuddered a happy sigh and leaned back into Khristos wordlessly, enraptured, at peace,
A light snow began to fall, swirling around them in soft, wet flakes, and the wind howled, rushing against her wet cheeks as she stood and watched her mother and her new lover laugh, cry, sip wine and discover each other.
Chapter 12
Khristos pushed the door open to her apartment to find everyone sitting quietly around the table. They all jumped up, obviously prepared to offer their comfort to her, but Khristos, as intuitive as always, held up a hand to thwart them.
Quinn didn’t hesitate when she sorted her way through the chairs and threw her arms around Nina’s neck. “Thank you,” was all she was capable of saying. “Thank you.”
Nina didn’t speak, but she grabbed Quinn’s hand and pressed it to her cheek and nodded.
In turn, Quinn gave everyone a hug, inhaling their scents of vanilla and musk, pinching Archibald’s cheek, sharing a smile with Ingrid, thanking them silently before she made her way to the bedroom and closed the door.
She needed to absorb the information behind the doors her mother had unlocked tonight. To reflect on all the angry words her mother had once imparted and let this new light, this newest revelation, shine on them.
Pulling off her clothes, she didn’t ever bother to put her pajamas on. Instead, she pulled Khristos’s borrowed sweater into her arms and tucked it beneath her chin, inhaling the scent of him as she climbed under her covers and closed her eyes.
She smiled into the darkness just before she fell fast asleep.