Made to Love, page 20
“Barely.” Mason rubbed her towel through her hair. “I…”
“I’m…” Nikki laughed nervously as they both started speaking at the same time. “You go first.”
Normally, Mason would allow the other person to voice their thoughts before her, but this time, she jumped at the opportunity to get things off her chest. “Listen, I was wrong. I understand why you are concerned. You’ve been cheated on before. I should have respected those feelings.”
“And I was wrong. I should trust you. I shouldn’t automatically assume that just because I see something that may or may not be there, that you will act on it. That’s unfair to you and doesn’t say much about your character.” Nikki bit her nail anxiously. This was the part where she would normally be told how stupid she was for worrying, or how naïve she was for believing that love equates to faithfulness.
Mason draped the towel around Nikki’s shoulders and pulled her in close. “Promise me this. You won’t punish me for something another woman did to you, and I’ll promise that if, and that’s a big IF, another woman is interested in me, I’ll put her in her place. Deal?”
Nikki kissed Mason’s chin and nodded her head like an innocent child. She slid her arms around Mason’s waste and sighed softly. “How did I get so lucky to get you?”
Mason shrugged. “Guess someone must think you deserve it.”
Nikki hugged Mason tightly, resting her head on Mason’s shoulder. She tried to agree, but she wasn’t sure she did deserve it. Nothing more had been said about Katherine’s phone calls. The problem with that was Nikki wasn’t sure she wanted them to end. She smiled smugly at the idea that Katherine wasn’t happier with her latest conquest. She pushed the nagging feeling of guilt to the deep recesses of her mind. If she and Mason had a discussion again and opted for a more permanent dating arrangement, she would address the issue then. For now, casual seemed to be the order of the day, and she was just fine with casual.
Chapter 14
Mason popped the lid down on the trash can and started back inside. She paused ever so briefly as her eyes followed the trail her head was already on. Marly’s house was dark except for a light in the kitchen. Mason pondered making the short trip between yards. She hadn’t seen or spoken to Marly in several weeks since she’d come back home. It wasn’t because she was too busy. No, it seemed as though Marly was trying hard to avoid her. Mason couldn’t figure out why. They’d had a good afternoon the day of the orchid. She was excited to see her friend, ready to turn on the charm and convince her to stay, but the opportunities never came. It nagged Mason more than just a little that she was being blown off and didn’t deserve it. She rolled her eyes and almost said screw it before her feet started moving on their own. “Fuck it.”
Marly dropped the photo album in irritation. She eyed her watch, noting it was well past the hour a decent person would be bothering her. The knock on the back door meant it could only be one person. She threw it open with more force than she intended and cursed when it hit the table with a loud bang. “Jesus, Mason. It’s after ten o’clock. What is so damned important that you have to pound the door down?”
Mason smiled self-consciously. Somehow, the idea of just showing up on Marly’s doorstep sounded much more sensible thirty seconds ago. “I have a very important bible scripture to share with you about your future.”
Marly snorted out loud. “Funny. I’m sure that I’m beyond saving.”
“Nonsense.” Mason leaned on the doorjamb. “God loves all his children.”
“Oh God, shut up and bring your Jehovah’s Witness ass inside.” Marly shut the door behind them. “Seriously, why are you here? Is something wrong?”
“There’s something very wrong.” Mason pulled out a chair and sat down without an invite. “I lost something. I thought you might have it. It’s about five-foot-six, brown hair, brown eyes, usually answers to the name Marly. I have posters all over town with her face, but I haven’t had any luck finding her.”
By the time Mason was done with her spiel, Marly’s arms were crossed and the look she shot Mason would take down even the toughest butch. “Are you done?”
“Depends. Are you done avoiding me?” Mason pinned Marly with a hard stare, daring her to deny the question.
“I haven’t been avoiding you.” Marly grabbed two beers out of the fridge and handed one to Mason. She opened hers and gulped half of the bottle before she set the bottle down. “I got the feeling from our last visit that my presence wasn’t welcome.”
Mason pushed the unopened bottle aside. “Not from me.”
Marly sighed loudly. “I don’t think Nikki likes me very much. I figured I would respect the relationship you two have and not butt in where I wasn’t welcome.”
“Nikki isn’t the boss of me.”
Marly smiled despite herself. Mason sounded like a petulant child. “I’m not saying she is, but I know what the score is. Look, I like you and I value the friendship we have, but ultimately, friendship comes second to a relationship. Even I know that.”
“You honestly believe that bullshit?” Mason picked at the label distractedly. “Nikki knows your friendship is important to me and not one that I will give up, unless you don’t want it. Then there’s nothing I can do but accept it.”
“I don’t want that.” Marly lowered her eyes. She couldn’t face the accusation in Mason’s glare. She already hated the distance she’d put between them. Fortunately, until tonight, Mason hadn’t called her out on it. It wouldn’t matter soon. She hadn’t said so, but the house was going on the market, and as soon as it sold, Marly would disappear again.
Mason realized she would get no further with Marly on the subject. She nodded toward the album on the table. “What are you doing?”
“Clearing out the attic. I found a box of old picture albums Mom had stashed up there.” She flipped it around and motioned for Mason to open it up. “It’s just me as a baby. I didn’t realize Mom had so many pictures of me.”
Mason finally opened her beer and flipped to the first page. She took a quick sip as she looked through pictures of Marly from the hospital. She scanned half the album before she looked up. “You look like your dad.”
“I know. I forgot that fact until I found the pics.”
“You do have your mom’s eyes, though. I could always tell what she was thinking. But with you, you’re way more guarded. I don’t know where your head is.”
Marly eyes danced vaguely. “It’s a protection. It keeps me from getting hurt.”
“Nikki thinks she can read you.”
The phrase slipped out so nonchalantly that a bystander wouldn’t see the hidden subtext, but Marly knew that there was more to Mason’s statement than she let on. “Lucky girl, since she doesn’t like me.”
“Don’t you want to know what she thinks she saw?”
“Not particularly.” Marly held her breath for several beats. She could not care less what Nikki thought. The only person she cared about was Mason. And if she was daft enough to miss what Marly was struggling to hide, then Marly wasn’t going to tell her.
“She thinks you have a thing for me.” Mason studied Marly’s face so closely she missed the slight shake in her hand. “I told her she was crazy.”
Marly forced a laugh. “Totally crazy. We’re just friends. Everyone knows that.”
“Yeah, sure. Everyone knows that.” Mason hid her disappointment. She wasn’t sure what she expected when she called Marly out. “I set her straight anyway.”
“Good.” Marly hid behind her bottle. She mentally chided herself for lying, all the while knowing that the truth would only hurt them both. She set out on this tweaking Mason mission with one goal in mind. Admitting to being in love with her would ruin everything. “So things are going good?”
Mason folded her arms over her chest. “I think so. We had a bit of an issue, but we worked through it.”
“You seal the deal yet?”
Mason spit her beer all over the table. She felt her face redden. “I forgot locker room talk came with the territory. I…we haven’t…”
“I’m messing with you, Coyote.” Marly felt relief flush through her body. She just assumed that Mason and Nikki would have slept together weeks ago, knowing Nikki’s type. “Obviously, I’m not doing my job well enough.”
“Your job?”
“Re-vamping you. The Mason Project. Getting you laid.”
Mason opened her mouth then clamped it shut when she saw Marly wink conspiratorially. “The Mason Project, huh? Interesting.”
“Catchy, isn’t it?” The smile on Marly’s face suggested she was quite pleased with herself. “I need to work a bit harder on my project.” Marly knew it was a cover for the way she really felt. The only thing she could hope for is that they would sleep together, and that would put the last nail in the coffin where she kept her feelings buried. Nothing like the thought of sloppy seconds to put a damper on her desires.
“It will happen when it’s supposed to happen. Don’t push it.” Mason’s tone held a hint of a warning. She didn’t want to be pushed into something she wasn’t ready for, or sure she even wanted. She didn’t mean for her tone to sound so severe, so she quickly steered the conversation away from herself. “What else did you find in the attic?”
Marly sensed Mason’s reluctance to talk about her relationship with Nikki and a part of her respected that. “What didn’t I find up there?” She got up and motioned for Mason to follow her. She led them upstairs to a narrow ladder suspended from a small hole in the ceiling. “Now be a lady and don’t stare at my ass.”
Mason smiled sweetly, but made no such promises to the request. She stole several glances before she gave up trying to act innocent and just stared. It never failed. Seeing Marly’s body made her heart hammer in her chest. There was no doubt in her mind, she was attracted to Marly. That much, Mason was sure of. She didn’t realize she had completely stopped ascending the ladder until the sound of Marly clearing her throat woke her from her reverie. Mason scrambled to cover her transgression. “The ladder was a bit wobbly with us both on there. I figured I’d wait till you were all the way up.”
“Well, I’m up.”
Mason bit back a smile. Marly, arms akimbo, peered down the small attic ladder with the sternest of expressions. The twinkle in her eyes belied any real anger. When Mason finally crested the ladder, she let her eyes adjust to the dim light before she gave the room and its contents a quick once over. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been up in an attic. Shelley and I used to play up there all the time as kids.” Mason bent her head and laughed ruefully. “This one time I came down before Shelley and shut the door on her. She stepped on the door trying to get it open from inside. It couldn’t support her weight, and she came sprawling out head over heels. I felt so bad.”
“I might believe that if you weren’t grinning like an idiot.”
“What?” Mason held up her palms innocently. “I felt horrible. That was a crappy trick to play on my sister…who got all the attention and love and still does.”
“Bitter much?” While Marly was an only child and couldn’t understand what it must feel like to be the outcast, she could sympathize with Mason. Her own childhood, at least in her jaded view, seemed sprinkled with extremes of censure where there should have been love.
“No.” Mason muttered the next part under her breath, choosing not to elaborate. “It’s like a freaking treasure hunt in here. I had no idea Anne held on to this much junk.”
“Me neither.” Marly weaved her way through the narrow space between stacks of unmarked boxes. “Apparently, she saved every piece of homework and test that I ever had. This whole box is just drawings I did for her and my dad. I had no idea she hung on to all of this. I’m only a third of the way through.”
“She loved you. Of course, she would hold on to everything.” Mason nudged a box with her toe. “Want some help?”
Marly smiled gratefully. “You’re sure you don’t mind. It’s late.”
“Nah.” Mason cleared a small space on the floor and sat down. She pulled the top of the box open and chuckled evilly. “Well, what do we have here?”
Marly reached up and caught an old doll. She recognized it immediately. “I completely forgot about her.” She rubbed her finger over the short tufts of faded red hair and smiled reminiscently. “Poor thing didn’t stand a chance. It’s not the most attractive cut on a female.”
“Nonsense.” Mason took the small doll back and gave her a quick once over. “Ragged buzz cuts were all the rage in the late 70’s in the doll community. I’m really surprised it didn’t catch on everywhere. Such a shame.”
“Ooh.” Marly grabbed the doll and swatted Mason on the arm. “You are enjoying this way too much.” She pinned Mason with a mock glare, but couldn’t keep the twinkle out of her eyes. “If you happen to run across a Cabbage Patch kid, let me know. I didn’t touch her hair.”
Mason nodded and dove back into the box. She made appropriate oohs and aahs as she dutifully pulled out and discarded items with all the care of a whirling dervish. “Found it!” Mason shot Marly a shit-eating grin and waved the doll in the air. She gave the doll a once over before she threw it across the room. “God, they really were ugly, weren’t they?”
“Rude.” Marly stroked her hair and laughed sarcastically. “I guess so. I used to love her, though. Closest thing I had to a sister, and God knows the only baby I would ever have. Elizabeth Anne. Anne with an E. That was her name. Seems like a million years ago now. I think there was an entire year in the 80’s that she was glued to my hip. I was the coolest mom ever.”
“Uh-huh. I’m sure you were.” Mason pulled a folder out of the box and started flipping through it. She stopped at a brown-colored, wide-lined sheet of paper she recognized from grade school. There were five lines of text and several roughly drawn crayon pictures below it. “Five things that make me happy.”
“Huh?” Marly looked up in confusion.
“This paper.” Mason held it up so Marly could see it. “You’re quite the artist.”
“Shut up.” Marly stuck her tongue out. “Let me see that.”
Mason stood up quickly, not realizing the ceilings were as low as they were where she sat. “Shit.” She rubbed the top of her head as she handed Marly the paper.
“Might want to watch your step. The ceilings are a bit low.”
“Ya think?” Mason winced painfully. “Here you go.”
Marly scanned the sheet, a faraway smile on her face. “I’d forgotten all about this. I actually won a contest for this, and it was in the local newspaper. I guess at one point, I did like my dad alright. Funny how time and circumstance change things for the worse.”
“Funny how they can change it for the better, though.”
Marly knew exactly what she meant. Some things had changed for her. Her relationship with her mom was different than it had been, or at least it felt different to Marly, since her mom wasn’t here to know for sure. Her perception had been altered in that sense. The one area where it didn’t seem better was with Mason. Marly still longed to be with her, knowing her desire was not returned. Hence, the reason she was selling the house. The longer she stayed around, the deeper she would fall and Marly knew she wouldn’t allow time and circumstance to change her mind. No, she knew leaving was the only way to save her sanity. She handed the paper back to Mason and sighed wistfully. “You might be right. What do you say we wrap up here? I’m tired. Besides, this isn’t your mess to deal with.”
Mason sensed the change in mood immediately and attributed it to Anne being gone. “I don’t mind. It’s like a treasure hunt. Who knows what we will find.”
“So far, the only thing I have found out is my mom was a sentimental hoarder who didn’t throw anything away.” Marly shook a handful of papers. “Seriously? These are all my report cards. Who holds on to that kind of stuff?”
“Um, your mom, honey. She loved you. Plain and simple. Just accept it and know it was done with love.”
Marly sighed. “It’s just a lot of stuff I’m going to have to drag downstairs in order to throw it out.”
“About that.” Mason narrowed the gap between them and studied Marly’s face for several seconds before she spoke. “I’d like it if you considered sticking around a while. The house is paid for. I already know you can work from anywhere. Besides, I like having you here. I haven’t had someone I felt such a strong connection within a long time.”
“Mason, please.” Marly turned away from Mason quickly. There were too many emotions in her eyes to risk holding her gaze too long. “I need to…”
Marly started for the stairs, but Mason grabbed her hand and forced her to turn around. “You need to what? Go to sleep? Get a drink? Sit down? Or get away from me? Lately, it seems like all you are doing is running away from me.”
“It’s not that.” Marly cast her eyes toward the floor. “This house, it’s too much for me. I sense my mom in every room. It’s hard to breathe in here. It keeps the hurt too close to me. I have a lot to work through, and I can’t do it here. Having an everyday reminder that she is gone is too much to handle.”
“So it has nothing to do with me?”
Marly shook her head no and hoped it was convincing enough. She didn’t think she could utter the words and make them believable. “I like you, Mason. You’re the only thing that would keep me here.”
Mason’s lip curved into a smile. “What can I do to convince you to stay?”
Love me. The words reverberated around Marly’s head like a cannon shot. The one person that would keep her in Burlington was the one person that was driving her away, with no knowledge of her transgression. Marly swallowed her emotions and forced a smile. “At this point, you would have to tie me up and lock me in the attic.”
