“Hey, Ma,” I greeted my mother as she opened the door partially upon hearing my knocking. I’d called her and let her know I was coming, and even though I had a key, I still wanted to respect her privacy by knocking. Especially, since the huge man standing behind me was present.
“Hey b-baby.” My mother smiled at me as she widened the door. Her eyes sparkled as she took me in, but then widened when she glanced up overhead, behind me. A wrinkle in her forehead indicated she was trying to place exactly who Tyler was.
“Ma, this is Tyler. Tyler Townsend,” I introduced, stepping to the side so she could see him.
She took a step back and widened the door. I was surprised to see her dressed in a three-quarter length sleeve dress that was cinched at her waist and reached past her knees. The dress was patterned with purple, green, and electric blue. Her hair, was styled in her usual twist out that nicely framed her face, just barely grazing her shoulders.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. McDonald,” Tyler stated, taking her shaky hand in his and kissing it.
I blinked away moisture from my eyes at hearing the tenderness in his voice.
“P-pleasure,” she got out. “Come in.” She stepped back, allowing us to enter her apartment.
Tyler stood aside, allowing me to enter first and then shutting the door behind us.
“I hope you don’t mind, Mrs. McDonald, but Destiny told me you have an affinity for Chinese food. And well, I do, too. So …” He held up the two bags of food he’d insisted on purchasing for this dinner.
My mother smiled brightly and nodded. “Table’s here.” She gestured to the table in her tiny dining room space.
Suddenly, a wave of guilt fell over me. I had just spent the previous week on a yacht more than twice the size of my mother’s apartment. Tyler was constructing a house that could fit my mother’s apartment in just one of the bedrooms, for us to live on, and my mother …
“Destiny.”
My head snapped in my mother’s direction. “Yes.”
“G-get your head out of the clouds, girl,” she stated, causing me to smile.
“Sorry, Ma.”
“We need to eat.”
I nodded at my mother and went to help her with her chair but Tyler beat me to it. He pulled out one of the ebony, wicker, slide chairs that matched the rectangular dining table, and assisted my mother in sitting down as he slid it closer to the table.
My heart squeezed in my chest. ‘Thank you,’ I mouthed to Tyler as he moved to the side of the table to pull out my chair.
He didn’t respond verbally, instead he pressed a kiss just behind my ear. Once seated, I looked over to see my mother smiling at the both of us.
“Your hair looks nice, Ma.”
She grinned a little, slowly reaching up to pat some of the curls. “Resha was over earlier before her flight. I told her you were bringing someone. S-she dressed me and did my hair.”
Smiling, I nodded. Resha had told me she was visiting Mom before her flight back to New York. She knew I was introducing Tyler to Mom tonight also. She just didn’t know I’d have additional news to share.
“You are a sight for sore eyes, Mrs. McDonald,” Tyler interjected.
My mother dipped her head, grinning. It was the first time I’d seen her act bashful in years. Not since her diagnosis had she been very receiving on compliments.
Tyler made my mother and I remain seated while he found his way around her kitchen, placing plates, forks, and glasses in front of us. When he was done with that, he served us our food before fixing his own plate. Again, my heart melted. I already knew I loved this man beyond reason. Heck, I’d married him in the middle of the ocean after only a few months of dating. But to see him so gentle, loving, and kind with the woman that’d given me life, made my heart skip a beat, quite literally.
“Ma, I have something to tell you,” I began after we finished our main course. I looked over at Tyler.
He took my hand in his, holding it on the table. I noticed my mother’s eyes drop to our clasped hands.
“Mrs. McDonald,” Tyler began, cutting me off before I got a chance to speak.
I turned to him and he simply squeezed my hand, glancing at me, silently informing me that he would be taking the lead on this one.
“I love your daughter with my entire being.” His eyes slid from me to my mother. “She is my world and I will spend the rest of my life making sure she knows it. That is why I asked her to marry me.” He looked back to me, I knew because I hadn’t taken my eyes off of him since he’d started talking. “And she said yes.”
