CHAPTER THIRTY
Later that night, when Edmund came into Maude’s assigned bedroom and gently closed the door behind him, she sat up in bed still reeling from the day. “That was brutal,” she said.
Edmund sat on the edge of her bed. She had showered and put on her nightgown. She looked flustered, but refreshed. “I take it you mean my father.”
“Yes! He wouldn’t let up.”
“You held your own.”
“But I don’t wanna hold my own. I don’t wanna have to spar with your father in his own house.”
Then she looked at Edmund. “Does your father hate me only, or all black people?”
Edmund didn’t have to think about that one. “You,” he said with a grin.
“That’s not funny, Edmund. And how could you be so definitive about it?”
“Most of my father’s mistresses are black women. And he loves them.”
Maude looked mortified. Edmund laughed and pulled her into his arms. “Stop worrying about that ornery old man. He is who he is. You’ll get used to him.”
“But will he get used to me?” she asked.
He could hear the sadness in her voice. When he looked at her, he realized how much it bothered her. “Don’t worry about it, Maude.”
“I have to. I want to be . . . Maybe one day in the future you might figure I’m enough for you, but what if your father says no way?”
“He won’t say that.”
“He called me a gold digger, Edmund. I don’t like that. I make my own way.”
“I know that. But you’ll find my father is harmless. His bark is far worse than his bite.”
“For real?”
Edmund could see how important it was to her to get along with his family. And he loved her for that. He moved closer to her. He lifted of her chin and stared into her gorgeous brown eyes. “For real,” he said. “But you said something I need to correct.”
Maude’s heart dropped. “What did I say?”
“You said one day in the future, maybe you’ll be enough for me.”
Maude stared at him. What was he saying? That it was wishful thinking on her part? That he could never ever be monogamous so get over herself? “I said that, yes.”
“But it’s not true. You’re already enough for me, Maude.”
She searched his eyes. “But you said---”
“I know what I said. But I was coming from a place of fear. I was afraid that. . .”
“You were afraid that what?”
“I wasn’t afraid that I would break your heart,” he said. “I know I won’t. But I was afraid that you would break my heart. And that fear kept me guarded.”
Maude could hardly believe she was hearing that. “How could you think that of me?”
Her look was so serious and so sincere that it brought a smile on Edmund’s face. ‘It’s okay, Maude.”
“No it’s not okay. I’ve never broken anybody’s heart in my life. I don’t play with people’s emotions.”
“I know you don’t,” Edmund said as he pulled her back into his arms. “But I was afraid, Maude. That’s just the truth of it.”
Maude had never heard Edmund so vulnerable. She pulled back and looked at him. “You can trust me,” she said. “I’ll always hold you up. I’ll never let you down.”
His heart soared. And he pulled her even tighter into his arms lest she saw the tears staining his eyelids. He’d never felt so loved before.
But as they held each other, they felt each other. And Edmund had to feel her in every way again. Deep inside of her again.
He pulled back and began kissing her. But as his kiss became too passionate, and groans began to escape from both of their mouths, she quickly pushed him away from her. “Stop,” she said.
“What?”
“You heard your father.”
“Oh please.”
“Didn’t I just tell you I don’t wanna get into any more conflict with that man?”
Outside of her bedroom, Samuel and Eloise were walking down the hall toward their own bedroom. They had been in the parlor for their before-bed confab. Now it was time for them to go to bed.
But they heard Edmund and Maude’s argument as they neared her bedroom.
“We’re not children, Maude,” Edmund was saying. “He won’t even know.”
“Get out, Edmund.”
“Maude, come on!”
“I’m not doing that in this man’s house. No way. You gotta get up out of here! I’m not playing with you now. Get!”
Eloise and Samuel were shocked to hear someone speak to their son that way. And to be respectful of their home that way. But they were even more thrown when their son heeded her umbrage and got out of her bedroom.
When he walked out, he looked so flustered that when he saw his parents, they smiled at him. He angrily closed the door and went back to his own bedroom, slamming the door behind him.
His parents looked at each other and smiled. “Maybe he’s met his match,” Eloise said.
Even his father couldn’t argue with that. “Maybe he has,” he said, as they moved on.
Samuel was impressed with her. He even glanced back at her bedroom door to make certain she didn’t come running out and begging his son to come back to her. That was what women did to Keating men: They fell at their feet and did anything they wanted them to do. But to his delight, not Maude.