by T. N. King
Her face cleared near instantly and Mason couldn’t help but shake his head, watching her waddle off further down the aisle and in search of her next item with him following more slowly, with the over-filled cart, behind her. Nicole had always been beautiful but lately, she looked even more so, drawing eyes to her everywhere they went, some that would have only glanced over her even before. Her auburn hair had grown all the longer, tips swinging in waves all the way down to her hips now, those honeyed highlights even brighter for how often she’d been outside in the sun soaking it up. Her lips seemed puffier, her eyes brighter, and her skin literally glowed, the golden brown highlighting her even darker freckles, on display both across her cheekbones and the bridge of her nose, and smattering the backs of her shoulders in the sundress she wore. The fact that her curves were all the more pronounced… well Mason had been delighting in that himself. It hadn’t been just her boobs that had increased in size, but her hips and ass as well, and the swell of her belly in that sundress was beginning to become so pronounced that Paul liked to joke that maybe she was carrying more than just the twins they’d already found on the ultrasound.
The ‘adultier adults’, as Nicole had termed them over the past few months, had all been adamant about postponing their wedding for a year. Giving things a chance to die down and them a chance to attend their pre-marriage counseling in the hopes that it would make for an easier start to their marriage than they had been able to accomplish in their relationship. After deliberating about it for a month, and discussing it into the ground in the way Mason hated that the Carters did, they had agreed. Mostly for the fact that the whole thing was only a piece of paper to them, a signed government statement affirming what they’d already promised one another.
The irony behind all of it lay in the very large swell of her belly, and the two-month-away wedding when she was due to pop their twins out any given day. It wasn’t like their living together hadn’t been difficult, especially when it came to terms with opening up emotionally when there wasn’t some giant looming disaster on the horizon.
Mason hadn’t miraculously changed in his conversation skills, and Nicole hadn’t become any less emotional or any less prone to jump to conclusions and fly off the handle… they had just learned, somewhat, how to better operate around the other’s faults. If they hadn’t have waited they would have done things in what would have been considered a more socially acceptable timeline, but again, they weren’t the two that were the most concerned with that…
Neither, surprisingly enough, were Marie and Paul. While there was still some lingering awkwardness occasionally due to the path that had led the two of them together, and the feelings of her parents in their part in it, no one cringed when Mason or Nicole touched one another. The pair seemed to have moved past it and embraced the relationship more fully than Mason would have ever thought possible for them concerning their relationship. It wasn’t as if everything had cleared up even… there were still the occasional calls from the police department asking to clear details up, there were still the occasional threats from Aaron himself in inventive new ways… and, even like Marie had predicted, there were the tears upon losing some of Nicole’s friends when they heard the news. There were also new ultrasounds that showed their growing children, gender reveal parties, engagement parties, Nicole making new friends through Mason who hadn’t even been aware of having people who viewed him favorably from work in the first place and family dinners that felt more comfortable than they ever had. It was an even mix of the two, as he liked to explain to Dr. Friedrich, and have parroted back to him whenever he became too stuck on the negative effects of their relationship.
He snorted to himself as she picked her pace up, trying to weave in and out of people without knocking them over with her large bump, taking an even slower time for him to catch up and probably enjoying watching all her wiggling in public a little too obviously, but that was what the ring on her finger was right? To excuse such behavior.
“Mason!?”
He didn’t recognize the voice, just like he couldn’t, right away, place the face of the guy who was walking up to him, looking back and forth between Mason and where Mason had been watching Nicole waddling down the aisle. He had to wrack his brain for where he could have known the man from, he was obviously his own age, obviously they knew one another, but he wasn’t anyone that Mason saw on a daily, or even weekly basis. He wasn’t one of the more obscure departments of Mason’s work, someone who he’d worked in collaboration with through another company… which meant that he was probably from high school. The realization forcing him to connect the face with a name. “Leon.”
The name only leaving his lips to get a broad-lipped grin from the man, his black braids swinging back and forth with the nod of his head, again looking after Nicole and his grin faltering. He’d lived down the street from the two of them, for more of his life than Mason had lived with the Carters if he remembered correctly.
But as far as he’d known, Leon had gone away for college and was now working somewhere in Spokane as a nature conservationist or something similar. His hand extended automatically, returning that handshake that was levied at him, ignoring that confused gaze for as long as was possible before Leon started asking questions.
Which wasn’t destined to be very long apparently, Leon looking after Nicole again, turned to the side as she was and stretching up to try and reach something off of a shelf herself and putting her bump all on display. “Woah! She’s pregnant? I didn’t hear anything about that, I thought Aaron had been locked up for something, so that must’ve happened before? Poor damn girl.” His eyebrows looked like they were about to disappear into his braids, obvious, genuine concern for her on his face.
Mason had to remind himself that Leon and Nicole had been friends even with him being closer in age to Mason than her, having grown up together and with their parents as friends. He tried not to grit his teeth too hard, tried not to glare too obviously at Leon for making assumptions that were only natural for him to be making. “Yeah, we’re expecting any day now,” he answered instead, watching Leon swing his gaze to him with what seemed like an even more incredulous expression, obviously about to make things even more awkward by trying to explain it away. “We’re having twins,” something Mason cut off immediately by cementing, more effectively, in Leon’s mind that those twins were the both of theirs and not just Nicole’s, and certainly not Aaron’s at all. He could see the gears turning in Leon’s head, seeing the confusion and upset that was to be expected from the news.
“Isn’t- shit dude, isn’t she your sister?” His confusion obviously overriding his sense of decorum, looking again between Mason and Nicole as if the answer would lie in the space between them. “Isn’t that fucking weird?” His voice had risen a whole octave, throat working over itself and turning back to Mason-.
This reaction forcing him to stop and realize just how much the past year had changed for him, and how much it had changed him period. This time last year, the way that Leon was speaking, intentionally or not, would have forced Mason to lose his temper, would have inspired bloodshed and very likely another untimely trip to the police station in handcuffs. Whereas this time it only made him laugh, shoulders rolling into a shrug and his eyes following Nicole on her journey down the spice aisle. “Adopted sister,” he corrected, moving the cart out of the way of a couple trying to pass them in the aisle. “But more importantly, she’s the mother of my children… and my fiancé.” Two things that still sounded foreign even to his ears, so he excused Leon’s near choking and waited out the awkward silence.
Nicole bouncing back to them with her extreme waddle and throwing some variation of spices that Mason didn’t even bother to try and mentally cataloguing into the cart and lifting onto the tips of her toes, lips pressing into his for a chaste kiss with too large of a grin. “They thought they could hide the spices! But I found them!”
Overly excited before she finally noticed Leon standing there, mouth agape and try
ing to control his facial expressions.
“Oh Leon! I didn’t know you were home visiting! You need to come to dinner! Mom and Dad are coming tonight- we’re having a celebratory, maybe the last time we can have a meal without crying babies dinner at our house!” Her words were almost bubbling out of her, seemingly oblivious to Leon’s still trying to process all of the new information being thrown at him, but that was how she handled telling most people, especially those who’d been important to her at one time or another in her life.
Nevermind that Mason had only just become used to the idea of six people being at his table tonight, the woman was inviting at least one other body now, his blank expression giving little away and watching Leon carefully should his reaction shift into any more negative of one. “We can explain all of the how this isn’t incest and you can tell me about how you’re not dating boys, and I can promise not to tell your parents just like I promised to never tell Mason you used to stare at him when he was shirtless! Oops.” She cut off, her face heating obviously and her hand clapping over her mouth. “Oh crap! I’m sorry, I just can’t get my mouth to stop moving sometimes and—” Both Mason’s and Leon’s laughter interrupting her. Her hand falling from her face and balling up on one hip that she cocked out, narrowed eyes turned towards the both of them.
Only Mason knew that it was time to shut up then- mouth closing and his elbow nudging the boy that Nicole had once called friend.
“Damn Nicole, you’re still a trip! I’d love to come to this not incest dinner and get the scoop, but I’m totally dating boys, and I’d really like to bring my main boy, who is at my parent’s house right now.” Leon’s laughter still evident.
His answer once more transforming Nicole’s face until her grin was stretched over near the entirety of it.
Mason’s attention zoned out of their conversation and onto her face. He loved this woman… even if she made his life infinitely more social than he was comfortable having it….
“Right Mason?”
He finally was forced to pay more attention again, blinking at the two of them and looking to Nicole in question.
“You don’t mind if he and his future husband have dinner with us tonight right?” Her smile free and open, but he knew she was daring him to say no…
Something he wasn’t even willing to risk, his head shaking from one side to the other and back again. “Of course not… the more the merrier….” Although he didn’t think, his sarcasm was lost on either of them.
They seemed to be fine with it, the both of them chuckling and moving past it as if he hadn’t said anything at all, their words going over and around him as he zoned out and focused instead on his very pregnant, glowing, soon-to-be-wife. He couldn’t get over that, even after all of these months, even with her filling her clothes out as she did now. Waking up every morning was still a surprise to see her belly poking out of the covers over and above the rest of her. He wouldn’t have ever thought they would reach this point, his relationship with Nicole would have extended to this level, certainly not with the two of them sitting in the middle of the grocery store, openly speaking to someone they had both grown up with and inviting them to dinner at their home…
He didn’t think that there was anything about it at all that he would change though, lips lifting from both sides and catching her gaze moving back to him.
Not a damn thing.
BONUS BOOKS
BY T.N KING
FOR YOUR READING PLEASURE
Educating Ellie
Catching Fire Series
Book One
T.N King
Published by Butterfly Publishings, 2017.
PROLOGUE
The building stood with thick smoke pouring out of the melted windows. A glow emanated from inside. It was a scene that would frighten most. It did frighten Ellie, but she knew she had to do this.
Shaking her head, she took a deep breath. This had to be the worst idea, Ellie White thought as she made her way back into the burning diner, but she had to save the photo of her dad. She wouldn’t let the only memory she had left of her dead father go up in flames.
When she wandered through the familiar diner, she felt like she’d entered a foreign war zone as thick, black smoke surrounded her, making the very familiar seem—different. She began to feel light headed. Yes, this was a bad idea. This dizzy feeling quickly became a warning that she needed to turn around and run back outside. But she knew she couldn’t—she just had to try. She just needed to get to the back of the diner where her locker was. The back of the diner, however, was engulfed in flames with smoke and fumes pouring out through the ‘Employee Only’ entrance.
Ellie looked around as she fought for a breath of clean air. She would have to move on to Plan B, which was to go through the walk-in cooler. It had a back door that would take her straight to her locker. She wasn’t giving up. It was hard to see now with all the smoke, but she felt her way to the walk-in and opened the heavy door. The smoke hadn’t made in there yet, so she inhaled deeply, but kept moving.
She could see through the small window in the cooler door and saw gray smoke filling the locker room. She took a deep breath in the cooler before making a mad dash towards her locker. It was the first one right outside the door. Luckily, she didn’t keep a lock on it, but when she went to open it, the latch was hot.
“Owww!” she cried as she burned her thumb.
It just got so hard to see anything. She felt around for a towel to wrap her hand in, so she could open the door to her locker. Smoke was everywhere, but she found the dirty dish rag hamper in a nearby corner and grabbed the damp rag on top.
This’ll work. She was coughing non-stop now and her light-headedness had upgraded to dizzy, but she pressed on.
Rushing back to her locker, she opened the metal door. Her father’s picture was taped to the inside of it. She pulled it off and shoved it inside her uniform shirt. Now, to get back to safety. She tried to go back through the cooler, but forgot that it automatically locked from the other side. Because of the nearby flames, it was too hot to try to go through the regular employee entrance.
Ellie stood with the dish rag over her face, now she was good and caught. She coughed some more and desperately looked around. She felt faint. Her vision was getting blurry.
Gotta keep moving.
Just then, she heard a loud crash as part of the wall that separated the back part of the diner from the front came crumbling down. Daylight streamed in through the cloud of debris and smoke. It looked like an opening from a burning hell to the open day of heaven. Swiftly, she made her way towards it, but started gagging. Yes, she could make it—just a minute or two and she would be out. Her mind suddenly fogged, as she couldn’t breathe. She fell to the floor and crawled. She could see the exit now.
Just a little further.
Coughing again, she thought about how odd it was that she felt so sleepy all of a sudden. Her eyes closed, but she forced them open again. Stay awake! She was only a few meters away from the door but she felt so weak. She laid her head down and smelled the burning ash on the floor. Get up! But she just couldn’t move.
Raising her bleary gaze up to the door one last time, Ellie saw a tall dark figure rushing towards her. Daylight streamed around the silhouette moving towards her in the smoke thickened air. A glow emanated around the form producing almost a perfect halo of light as an outline
Is it an angel? It must be.
She’d almost made it but now, she knew she might see her dad sooner than she planned.
If he isn’t and angel—he is now like me, someone else with—a bad i-d-e-aaaa…
CHAPTER ONE
Ellie blinked and slowly opened her eyes. A dark shadow hovered over her causing the bright sunlight that shone from behind to appear like a halo around the dark figure. The angel! She gasped as air rushed into her lungs.
“Are you okay?”
Her mind seemed all fuzzy but slowly, she began to notice the sights and sounds around her.
>
The diner that she worked at was on fire and firefighters battled the blaze. Passersby stood and watched the flames that licked at the sides of the old Liberty Bell Diner. They occasionally pointed at her—everything echoed loud and chaotic from around her.
She felt awake and aware, but was unable to move. Then she remembered she had gone into the burning diner. It was dark and hot in there, but she didn’t remember getting out.
As her eyes focused better, she realized she was in the arms of a stranger who asked again, “Are you all right?”
There was a lingering cough in her chest. As feeling came back into her limbs, she tried to sit up. The stranger let her use him to steady herself as she sat up and managed to choke out, “Yeah—I’m fine.”
“That was a close one,” he said. “I was on my way to a meeting when I saw you run into a burning building.” He chuckled. “I’m not even gonna ask why you ran back into a burning building, but I’m glad I got to you in time.”
She adjusted her eyes on the voice that spoke and took in the dark stranger as the sunlight subsided behind him. Thick, dark, hair framed a slightly tanned, masculine face with a prominent nose and deep set, bright grey eyes. He was gorgeous. Greek God gorgeous. And she was still in his arms. Yes, the angel. Now, it all came back to her. Jumbled thoughts swirled around in her still slightly dazed head. Had he given her CPR? Oh, my god! Were his perfectly chiseled lips on hers while she was passed out? Nervously, she tried to squeeze her hands shut, realizing too late that they were gripping his very muscular arms.
Embarrassed, Ellie exclaimed, “Oh, god, that’s your arm!”
He grinned, causing a dimple to appear in his cheek. “That’s okay. You must still be in shock. You got a pretty hefty dose of methane while you were in there.”
