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“You should have called,” A
“I know I should have. Now,” he said. “I was a selfish, self-centered idiot. I was so furious with Dad, I couldn’t even speak. And he was half in the bag. He fell asleep as soon as he got in the passenger seat. I swear to God, more than once, as I was driving, I had the urge to reach over and throttle him. For what he’d put me through. And what he was doing to Mom. I didn’t give a thought to you.”
A
“I don’t know,” Mason admitted. “I remember how tired I was, and then you were so pissed at me; I just wasn’t in the mood for a fight right then. I’d made up my mind, the next day, to have it out with Dad. I was seriously thinking, on that long drive home, maybe it was time to leave Quixie. Get out from under all the family drama, and see if I could make it on my own someplace else. I hated his guts that night.”
“I wish I’d known,” A
“I shook him awake when we got to Cherry Hill that night,” Mason said. “I didn’t even cut the engine. I just said, ‘We’re home.’ He got out of the car. He couldn’t even look me in the eye. He could tell how angry I was. I think he said something like, ‘Talk to you tomorrow,’ and he staggered toward the front door. And I just drove off. Of course, the next time I saw him, he was barely alive. All I could think about was how I’d left it with him. ‘We’re home’—that’s the last thing I ever said to my father.”
“Oh, Mason,” A
Just then, Mason’s cell phone began to ring. He looked a
His expression softened as he saw who the caller was. “Hey, Soph,” he said. “Everything okay?”
Mason listened for a moment, then laughed. “No, afraid not, punkin. Letha is the boss, and if the boss says you have to go to bed, then you’d better skedaddle. Okay? Hmm? Yeah, actually she’s right here.”
He handed the phone to A
“Hi, Sophie,” she said.
“A
“That’s right,” she said cautiously.
“No fair!” the girl cried. “Petey and De
“Not tonight,” A
“Come tonight,” Sophie said.
“I can’t tonight, sweetie,” A
“But Letha says I’m not going to school tomorrow, because I had an operation.”
A
“Oh-kay,” the child said reluctantly.
She handed the phone back to Mason, barely suppressing a yawn. “Speaking of skedaddling. Guess I better call it a night, too. I didn’t get much sleep last night, and tomorrow, I think, is go
“We need to talk about something else,” Mason said, keeping his voice low. “It’s … about Celia.”
A
“First, we need to talk about us,” Mason said. “The other night, you told me—there was no us. There never could be. But then you broke your engagement to Shane. I’m kinda getting mixed signals here, A
She gave a wry smile. “I could say the same thing about you.”
“Let me ask you something,” Mason said, leaning forward so that his knees were touching hers under the table. “In a perfect world—where we hadn’t split up, where there was no Shane and there was no Celia—do you think we’d still be together?”
“No,” A
His face fell.
“Not the answer you wanted, I know. But I just think our lives were veering so off track, we probably wouldn’t have made it—even without the things that broke us up. Your family—mine—our jobs, our own selfishness, pride and insecurity, we had to work through all those things. I don’t know about you, but I think I’m only just now really starting to figure out how to be a grown-up. So maybe now I’m almost ready to have a mature, committed relationship.” She laughed. “Of course there’s just one thing standing in the way of that.”
“Celia.”
A
“I can’t,” he started to speak, and then reconsidered.
“No matter what else happens, I want you to know that I love you. I always have. That’s never changed. Do you believe me?”
“I guess.” Her pulse was racing. She glanced up at him, then looked away.
“No, that’s not good enough,” Mason said, taking her hand and looking directly into her eyes. “I need you to understand that there are things that are out of my control. Situations…”
She lifted her chin. “Why don’t you just come right out and tell me what’s going on?”
“She’s pregnant,” Mason said.
A
“What will you do now?” she asked, putting the wineglass down because her hand was starting to shake. She rested her left hand on top of her right, to keep it from trembling.
“I don’t know yet,” Mason said. “She just told me a couple days ago.”
A
“So she claims,” Mason said bitterly. “At first I couldn’t believe it. I mean, we’ve been living apart for weeks now. She was obsessed with all this wedding stuff, and Sallie decided it didn’t look right to Sophie for us to be living together, so Celia has pretty much been staying at Cherry Hill. Plus, I guess maybe I subconsciously knew I didn’t want to go through with the wedding, because I just didn’t have the desire…” His face colored briefly and he looked genuinely ill. “I couldn’t even remember the last time…”
“I’ll bet Celia could,” A
“March,” he said glumly. “She was on birth control, the patch. She claims it sometimes happens. But…”
A
“My God,” he said, his voice breaking. “I never saw this coming.”
A
“So now what?”
“Celia knows I’m in love with you. But she doesn’t seem to care. She says she can’t raise a child by herself. Not that I would let her. Celia’s not really … maternal.” He straightened his shoulders. “This is my responsibility. I’ll just … have to figure out how to make it work.”
A