Chapter 15
S itting back in his chair at the outdoor dining table, Tomas smiled to himself.
Fiona looked relaxed, sitting beside him, but twisted to talk to Sylvie and Cara.
Something about dry shampoo. He barely paid attention, mesmerized by her smile and the way her eyes sparkled when she laughed.
He rose from the table and started collecting plates.
“Oh! Let me help you.” Fiona pushed her chair back, beginning to rise.
He motioned her back down. “Stay. I’ve got this.”
Cara waved at her brother dismissively. “Let him. He needs the practice.”
“Brat,” he said, taking the plates into the house.
From the kitchen, he heard his mother talking to Carlos excitedly in Spanish. Standing quietly, he listened for a moment. When it was obvious they had only nice things to say about Fiona, he walked in and put the pile of plates next to the sink.
Louisa turned from making the coffee, clasping her hands in front of her and smiling broadly. “She’s lovely. So polite and sweet.”
“I know, Mom.” Tomas scraped the plates off, rinsed them under the faucet, and handed them to Carlos, who put them in the dishwasher. They worked silently while Louisa chattered away.
“She’s a good influence for Sylvie.”
Beside him, Carlos stiffened and grunted.
Tomas twisted to see Louisa. “What’s wrong with Sylvie?”
Her smile lost its brightness. But it was Carlos who answered, surprising the hell out of Tomas. His stepfather rarely spoke to him.
“She’s quit another job.”
“Another?”
“She’s had six different jobs since graduating.”
Tomas let out a silent whistle. Sylvie changed her major twice before graduating with an art degree from WSU. Unlike Cara, who’d known she was going into medical research since the age of twelve, Sylvie’s interests shifted frequently.
“Is she like me?” His learning disorder had gone undiagnosed until he was in prison. It wasn’t their fault, but he knew that Louisa and Carlos felt responsible, and beat themselves up for being bad parents.
His mother shook her head. “She doesn’t have a learning disorder, but she lacks focus. She’s just?—”
“Drifting.” Carlos turned to take Louisa’s hand, his face mirroring her unhappiness.
“Has she been to a counselor?”
“You mean a mental health counselor?” Louisa shook her head. “Not that I know of.”
Cara had her own place in Kirkland, but Sylvie still lived at home. She wasn’t a pampered princess. She paid rent and did her share around the house, often hostessing at Hola! to earn a bit more money.
“Maybe a career counselor? Find out what excites her or that she’s qualified for?” Tomas was just throwing shit out there. He loved Sylvie and didn’t want to see her make the same kind of mistakes he had, letting pride and stubbornness take away years she’d never get back.
“Is that what Fiona does?”
Glaring at Carlos, Tomas replied, “Is that why you asked me to invite her? A free counseling session?”
Louisa inserted herself between the two men.
“Of course not! Iris told Marcia, who told me you were seeing each other, and I wanted to get to know her better. I know she runs Keeney Works, but not exactly what she does.” She patted Tomas’s arm soothingly.
“When she and Cara were discussing internships, Sylvie was paying attention, and I thought….”
The worry on his mother’s face convinced Tomas that she hadn’t an ulterior motive for the invitation. Carlos kissed Louisa on the temple and murmured something in her ear. Her face relaxed.
Carlos said, “That’s a good idea. We will suggest Sylvie see a career counselor.”
And that would go over like a lead balloon. Sylvie was stubborn, a trait she shared with her half-brother. She would have to be approached carefully.
The dishwasher loaded, Tomas dried his hands on a towel and tossed it onto the counter. “I’ll ask Fiona about bringing it up. If she doesn’t want to, she might have some suggestions for Sylvie.”
“Thank you, sweetheart,” Louisa said.
Carlos met Tomas’s gaze, tipping his lips up in a smile. Tomas dipped his head in acknowledgement and went back outside.
Sylvie and Cara were scrolling through their phones, but Fiona was nowhere to be found. Cara looked up. “She got a call from her mother. She went out to the driveway to take it.”
Tomas looked that way, wondering if he should check on her just as Fiona turned the corner.
She caught his eye and grimaced, still speaking into the phone.
As if they had minds of their own, his feet took over, and he walked her way.
In rapid Vietnamese, she finished the conversation, eyes firmly locked on his.
“Did you understand any of that?” Her face was pale, but bright dots of color appeared high on her cheekbones.
“No, is it bad?”
Biting her lip, she ducked her head and stuffed her phone in the pocket of her dress. “My mother knows I’m here and is wondering why you invited me to meet your family.”
He stepped closer, fingering a lock of hair, loving the silky feel of it. “I think you know why. Do I need to put this into words?” At her head bob, he sighed and muttered, “I wasn’t expecting to do this in my parents’ backyard.”
Her head came up, a small smile on her face. She looked past him and said, “The coast is clear. No one’s on the deck.”
“Yeah, but they’re probably standing in the doorway watching us.”
“So speak softly.”
Her teasing smile made him growl softly. “I want to be able to kiss you whenever I want. I want to have sex with you. And I want to see where this goes beyond sex.” He ran his hand down her arm, taking hold of her hand. “Remember Mom saying I’ve never brought a girl home to dinner?”
“Yeah.”
“There’s never been one I liked enough.” He brought her hand up to kiss her knuckles. “I’m not good with words. I want you in my life, and I want to be part of your life.”
She was back to biting her lip again, but her eyes were wide, and she nodded slowly. “I want that, too.”
“Is that what you told your mother?”
She shook her head vehemently. “God, no. I told her you and I had started dating, and I was meeting your family. Then I hung up.”
“You hung up on your mother? How’s that gonna work out?”
Scrunching up her face, she replied, “Not well. But I keep telling myself I’m a grown-ass woman and it’s my life.”
“Do you want me to meet your parents?” He had little experience with meeting parents, but for Fiona, he would do his best to be charming.
“Yes. But not yet.”
Tomas didn’t want to put it off. He liked to meet obstacles head-on and take care of them before moving on to the next. His brows came together, and he started to speak, but she went on.
“My family is not like yours. My mother is cold. My father is silent. Dinner with them will feel like an inquisition. Not like this warm embrace.” She threw her arms out, looking around the yard, and he tried to see it through her eyes.
His mother loved color. Her yard was a mix of annuals and perennials in every color of the rainbow.
There wasn’t a scheme to her gardening. She saw something she liked, and she planted it; if it thrived, she planted more.
It was a lot to take in, but it was restful in its own way.
In the far corner was the swing set Carlos had built when the girls were small.
In anticipation of grandchildren, Louisa had left it up.
“My mother doesn’t garden,” Fiona continued.
“She instructs my father what she wants, and the flowerbeds are ordered, almost regimented. We didn’t play in the backyard because we might make a mess.
” She moved closer to Tomas, lifting her head to meet his gaze.
“I’d been with Eddie for two years before I realized the marriage was arranged. ”
Seeing the unhappiness in her eyes, Tomas took her hand.
She had more to say, and standing by the back deck was not the place for it, so he led her to the swing set and motioned for her to sit.
She did so, pushing herself back and forth with one foot on the ground.
He leaned against the support and studied her.
His own mother was fiercely loyal to him, pushing and prodding him to be productive.
He’d ignored her and screwed up royally, but she still loved him, and showed that love every time she saw him.
“My divorce is an embarrassment, I’m a personal failure to my mother.” She raised a hand as Tomas was about to interrupt. “I know she’s wrong and that it’s her problem. But a couple weeks ago, we had a surprise guest for Sunday dinner. Mother tried to set me up with Pastor Tran.”
“Seriously?” Tomas fisted his hands on his hips, but Fiona giggled before he could explode.
“But Pastor Tran is gay and was far more interested in Joseph than in me.”
He barked out a laugh. “How did that go?”
“Mother needed to regroup, so Dad stepped in, and he and Andy—Pastor Tran’s first name— talked about baseball. It went fairly smoothly after that.”
Tomas didn’t say anything, imagining what it would be like to have such a manipulative mother. Louisa meddled for sure, but Fiona’s mother took it to a different level.
“I learned that night that Joseph was gay. I’ve been so caught up in my own drama, I wasn’t paying attention to anyone else.”
“Does it bother you that he’s gay?” Tomas shifted, crossing his arms, and watched the play of emotion across Fiona’s face. For traditional families, especially those with close ties to the church, being gay was still difficult. To Tomas, love was love.
Shaking her head, she said, “Oh no! I get Joseph being protective of his private life, not wanting Mother to interfere. I’m just mad at myself for being so self-centered.”
Moving closer, Tomas squatted to bring his gaze level with Fiona’s. He curled his hands around hers. “You had a lot of shit going on. If Joseph loves you, he’s probably kicking himself for the same thing.”