Quinn was about to climax in the club’s bathroom cubicle. All the week’s tension flooded from her body until she felt drained but much more like herself again. Until she collapsed against Maya’s gorgeous body and asked, “Is there anything you’re not down for?”
“Many things,” Maya said. “But not tonight.”
Chapter 35
“I told Tommy I ran into you,” Maya said. Despite coming home to her own bed, she hadn’t slept nearly enough. Not because the bed was too small, but because of the irresistible woman lying next to her.
“What did he say?” Quinn was scrolling through Instagram on her phone and barely looked up.
“I told him we’ve been sleeping together and I’ve been having the time of my life.”
That got Quinn’s full attention. She put her phone away and looked at Maya wide-eyed.
“I was led to believe you’d missed me terribly all week long.” Maya did her best to sound as faux-petulant as possible even though it wasn’t really her style.
“Sorry. Griff’s write-up on my exhibition went online and I got a ton of new Insta followers.” Quinn looked into Maya’s eyes. “But none of that means anything to me if I can’t be with you.” She batted her lashes ostentatiously.
“Obviously, I didn’t tell Tommy about, um, us like that, but I did tell him about the photo shoot. I showed him the portrait you did for Acton. He asked if he could get a high-res version to have printed and framed for his living room wall.”
“My work in Beth Robbins’ house. Griff will be green with envy.”
“I just wanted him to be aware of you, if that makes sense.” Maya sipped her coffee. She needed all the caffeine she could get. Fun as it was, dancing the night away might not be something she could do every single week any longer. Not if she wanted to have energy left for being an involved grandmother and teacher. And lover.
“It makes perfect sense.” Quinn sucked her lips into her mouth and looked away. “My dad came to the city earlier this week. We had dinner.”
“How’s Bill?” Maya asked.
“Dad’s fine, but…” Quinn rubbed her palm with her opposite thumb. “I might have told him about us. About… everything.”
Maya was glad she had two hands wrapped around her mug otherwise she would have dropped it to the floor.
“He kept prodding, and in the end I relented. I just told him.”
Maya swallowed hard. “How did he react?”
“He was quite shocked, as you can imagine.” Quinn chuckled nervously. “He promised not to tell Mom.”
Maya put her coffee down because she feared she might still drop it. “Jesus. I’m not sure how I feel about Bill knowing.” She rested her gaze on Quinn. “How do you feel?”
“I feel like…” Quinn looked as though she was carefully weighing what to say next. “Telling my dad was not the end of the world. It wasn’t easy and it didn’t exactly make him jump for joy, but he’s my father and he said that all he really wants is for me to be happy.”
“He would say that.” It sounded like something a responsible and understanding parent might say. Maya knew how much Bill worshipped his daughter. As a parent, she suspected that the words he had spoken to his child might not have conveyed how he truly felt about Quinn and Maya.
“What’s the difference? Even if he only said it to not upset me at the time, isn’t it his actual reaction that counts?” Quinn sighed. “I don’t exist to fulfill my parents’ dreams and aspirations. My mom might not entirely agree with that, but that’s what my dad has always told me.”
Maya huffed out some air. “God, I don’t know, Quinn.”
“He even said that next time he came to the city, I should invite you to come to dinner with us.”
Maya burst into a chuckle. “That’ll be the day.”
“Why not?” Quinn drummed her fingertips on the countertop. “If we… keep going out, it’s bound to happen at some point.”
Before Maya had moved to the city, but after she’d already made the decision to do so, she’d often envisioned what her coming out would be like. She imagined falling in love with a suave New Yorker who could charm the pants off her son whether he wanted her to or not. Maya had been convinced that a woman her son could easily accept was the only kind of woman she could really fall for. Unfortunately, reality had different plans in store for her. “I can’t believe Bill knows.” She glanced at her phone as if Bill would call demanding to know what the hell Maya was doing with his daughter. “Truth be told, I have no idea how to deal with this part,” she admitted. “With the whole telling-the-family thing while keeping my dignity intact.”
“I gathered.” Quinn slid off the stool she’d been perched on and walked around the kitchen island. “I wish you’d leave your dignity out of it, though.” She curled her arms around Maya’s waist and hugged her from behind. “It has nothing to do with it.”
“It’s different for me.” Maya folded her hands over Quinn’s. “I’m the older woman in this affair. Not only should I be the wiser one, which I’m clearly not. I also look like the biggest perv, what with you being so much younger.”
Maya could feel Quinn shaking her head against her back. “Do you know how many men in their fifties and sixties strike up relationships with women a lot younger than me? They don’t think about it twice. In fact, it’s what they want. It’s what they actively
