by Sam Destiny
His daughter poked her own chest right where her heart was. “Becca, Mason’s daughter,” she introduced herself, making Taylor smirk. Clearly, Stella introduced her granddaughter more often than her father did.
“Hey there. So will you protect me?” The girl nodded, and Taylor pointed up the stairs just as another loud crash from outside shook the house. Rain started pelting against the windows, giving the house an eerie feeling.
Becca trembled like a leaf in the wind by now, and Taylor cupped her cheek. “Wanna go back to bed?”
Rebecca swallowed; clearly not keen on the idea of going back to her room. “Well,” she started, chewing her lower lip.
“Since your daddy’s at work, how about you and I share his bed so you can protect me?” Becca started beaming before her face fell.
“Daddy says no strangers,” she mumbled, and Taylor laughed.
“I’m in your house and in your dad’s clothes. I’m not a stranger,” she promised, finishing exactly as another lightning bolt lit up the room, making the tiny human squeak.
“I’ll protect you,” Becca stated hastily, jumping into her arms. Tay pressed her little body against her own, carrying her upstairs after turning off the kitchen light.
“Don’t tell Dad I’m scared,” Becca pleaded against her shoulder, and Taylor inched her feet toward the bed, not yet familiar with the layout of his bedroom, then she placed the child underneath the sheets and crawled in next to her.
“Thank you,” Mason’s daughter muttered sleepily as Taylor pulled her close.
“Always,” she assured her, kissing the dark hair while cuddling the girl to sleep.
***
Mason finally returned home at the first light of dawn. The storm had taken its toll on him and the team, grounding them longer than he had hoped. He was exhausted, but he was too wound up to think about sleep while his body was ready to drop. His mind was playing the pictures of last night on repeat. Blood, so much blood, he was sure he’d be washing it off his hands for the next decade to come. He needed a smile to replace those memories and quick.
As always, his first way led him into his daughter’s room, only to find her bed empty. His heart rate accelerated in worry. Becca hated storms and had a tendency to hide in the weirdest places. Searching, he went to all the possible and impossible hideouts, drawing a blank. Panic had him in its tight grip. Where the hell was his daughter?
Realizing that he had left Taylor here as well, he decided to ask her. Gently pushing open the door to his room, he stalked into the room with every intention of waking her when he spotted his little girl curled up next to Taylor, Becca’s little hands wrapped around Taylor’s arm.
He took out his phone and couldn’t resist snapping a picture. Then he moved back to the door, his clothes brushing the doorframe with a light rustle.
“Dad?” a small voice asked, and he looked back at her.
“Hey, sweetie. Wanna go back to your bed?” he wanted to know, waiting.
“I stay with Tay now,” she decided almost instantly, wiggling closer to the woman in question. Mason nodded, returning to the sofa downstairs. He grabbed a book, figuring it would keep him awake until Becca didn’t want to sleep anymore. It couldn’t be more than an hour or two since she never slept in and the sun was already coming up on the horizon.
Only when giggling woke him did he noticed that he had fallen asleep after all.
“Look, Daddy. I made Tay’s hair!” Without a care in the world, Becca jumped into his lap, making him drop the book to catch her instead.
Following his daughter, Taylor came in, wearing his hoodie and sweatpants, showcasing a weird mix of ponytail and bird’s nest on her head, presenting his daughter’s non-existing design talent.
“Your daughter will be a great hairstylist one day,” Taylor promised, and as quick as Becca had been in his lap, she was gone again, jumping into Taylor’s waiting arms. Only then did Mason registered the carefully crafted French braid on his daughter’s head. He got up, wondering why he had never thought it possible to fall even harder for Taylor, when in truth, watching her dance around the living room with his baby girl in her arms made it clear that so far what he had felt wasn’t anything compared to what he could feel.
“Ash, I know we haven’t been on the best of terms, but this is about Tay, so please don’t hang up!” Calling his ex hadn’t been easy, but he had a plan, and he couldn’t do it alone. A few guys were already there for the hard work, but he needed a few women who knew Taylor.
“Mason …”
“She’s sleepin’ on the sofa, not touching her parents’ bedroom. She’s out all day today. I wanna make that room hers. How is she ever going to feel like it’s home if she’s a visitor in her own house?”
After a long pause, Ashley finally answered. “I cannot imagine how she must feel. Everythin’s the same, yet nothing is as she knew it. If she sees us together, Mase, your chances will be slimmer and slimmer. She wants to make it right for us and …”
“That’s not what this is about,” he interrupted, knowing that he needed to sit down with Taylor, even if it was merely to stop the wild matchmaking idea.
“What do you need me to do?” she asked in an exasperated breath.
“Blankets, sheets, decorations. Take it out of my account,” he explained and then listened with relief as she promised that she knew exactly what he needed. They hung up, and he turned back to Taylor’s front door, patting around the frame until he found the spare key. Entering the house, he took Brad and his two brothers upstairs. The furniture needed to go before they got some color on the walls. Ashley arrived promptly as they had stored away the last box of memorabilia in the barn. Brad had covered the wooden floor before they started to color the wall around the door in a light shade of yellow, which worked well with the light violet they’d put on the wall left of the door. The paint would complement the white walk-in closet there. Next wall, yellow again, and then, the last one violet. The lady at the store had assured him that the choice of color was exactly right for a young woman’s bedroom. Now, he wondered if maybe they weren’t the right ones for this woman.
“She won’t be able to sleep in here today,” Brad reported, and Mason nodded He had guessed that much, but at least they’d be able to make her imagine how it would look done and dry.
“Let’s go and get the dresser, night tables, and bed.” With two trucks, they’d easily be able to bring it all back without much trouble. Downstairs, they found Ashley draping a lavender quilt over the back of the sofa. It fit the color upstairs perfectly.
“You know, that’s always been Taylor’s favorite shade of purple. I remember back when we were in high school, she used to tell me how she imagined her bedroom if only she had the money. I don’t think she knows who she is any longer, so let’s remind her of who she was,” Ashley whispered as if she guessed his thoughts.
“We’re going to get the furniture,” he explained after clearing his throat.
“I’m coming. You and I need to talk, honey,” she decided, and Mason groaned, throwing a glance back it his best friend.
“Meet you at Woody’s,” he hinted, waiting for Brad to move.
The name of the shop was misleading, since it had everything from guns to food, and just his luck, exactly the pieces he imagined for Tay’s bedroom.
“If you ain’t there in thirty, I’ll call the cops,” Brad stated under his breath, clearly worried that Ash planned to hurt him.
“You’re a true friend.” Mason laughed, locking up the house as everyone was out, and then he held the truck door open for Ash.
“Still a gentleman,” she commented, and though the drive was less than thirty minutes, it sure would take forever.
“When Taylor said that you still have my pictures in the truck, I thought she was lyin’.” Ashley touched their smiling faces, and Mason couldn’t deny that he wanted them to go back to not talking to each other. There was just so much he didn’t want to face, that he couldn’t exp
lain or apologize for, and no man liked facing that.
“I don’t think she could’ve made somethin’ like that up,” he persisted, starting the truck, wondering if turning on the music would make her shut up.
“Why, Mason? You never looked at me the way you think you did, so why?”
“I wanted to remind myself not to make the same mistake again.” He heard her swallow, but figured since they were being honest, he might as well continue. “Being with you was amazin’ and fun, but you’re right, I was in it for the wrong reasons. I hurt you so much, and I never want to do that to anyone ever again. I thought I had to move on after Taylor left, but come on, move on from what? The day you told me you were pregnant, I swore to myself that I was going to do everythin’ to make you happy. No matter what, you deserved more.” They both had been lying to themselves, but that wasn’t going to happen again. “We should’ve never dated, but while you weren’t Taylor, you reminded me of her so much.”
“I thought I wanted it all with you, but when I held your daughter in my arms, I realized that I’ve never wanted kids. I didn’t want the responsibility. It was always Collins’ dream, and you know, people in town expected me to have that child with you, but I adopted her dreams because I had no idea who I was and what I wanted.” Mason had to swallow, slowing down the car. He knew Ash wasn’t done talking yet. “Mase, the moment we got together, we started livin’ a lie. A ghost pushed us forward, and as much as I hate to admit it, I love you. I always have, only not the way I thought. I told you before that I could see it in your eyes when you looked at her, but it pales compared to the way she smiles when she sees you. I’ll give you a month max, and then I sit her down and make your confession for you.”
Mason parked the truck, staring at Woody’s. “Well, we can’t get around that anyway because unless you tell her why we aren’t a couple any longer, she won’t …” She wouldn’t do what? Move forward? Give in? “Last night, she basically told me she has a crush on me.” He smirked, and Ash turned toward him in her seat.
“She always had a loose tongue when tipsy.” His ex laughed.
He had smiled before his good mood vanished again. “If, just if Taylor and I get where I hope we’ll get, it’ll be hell for you. She wants to be your friend, and we’ll be spending time together. How can she make it right for both of us?”
“We used to be friends before, and I miss it,” she admitted.
“Before I hurt you.”
“I wasn’t an angel, Mason. I left you with a child … an infant, really,” she appeased him, and it gave Mason the opening he had longed for months ago.
“Do you want to see her? Do you sometimes miss her?”
Instead of answering, Ash got out of the truck, and Mason followed her example. “She’s not my daughter, Mase. When I see her, I don’t get all tingly and warm. She’s a little girl, adorable, but that’s all. I think I’m broken because no baby makes me want to reach out and touch it. They are annoying, and she’s no exception. She was always calmest when you held her. And in case you didn’t notice, she looks nothin’ like me. She deserves a mother who adores her, and we both know we wish for the same girl to be just that.”
Mason decided to stay quiet. How could he ever expect Taylor to raise a child that wasn’t her own, and even worse, her best friend’s baby?
“Let’s get movin’. You and your sweetheart –”
“I’m not, Brad, and you can stop bein’ an ass. Mase and I are friends again,” she snapped at his best friend.
“The ex-dragon and you are friends again? You don’t want Taylor anymore?” Brad asked in a hushed voice.
“We aren’t back together, you idiot! But we now should get movin’, or Taylor will be home before anyone manages anything!” With that, Ashley marched ahead, making the guys smile.
***
Taylor was exhausted. In addition to the late night with Mason’s daughter, followed by an early morning, she had spent the day talking to a million people, debating and comparing prices, yet she felt as if she hadn’t gotten anywhere. Fact: She had no idea what good prices were. Second fact: Her heart wasn’t in it. Last fact: She had still gotten discounts and promises of further reductions if only she could get regular food orders in. The cows needed fodder and so did the horses. Taylor was thinking about adding a few chickens; just enough so she wouldn’t have to buy eggs. She didn’t know if that could work, but she would think about it. Maybe. In the future.
Fact: Taylor hated farming and everything to do with it, but maybe she could do animals and all that shebang.
She stayed in her parents’ truck a little while longer, not too keen on spending a night on the sofa after spending two in Mason’s bed. She hoped she’d be too exhausted to ponder that long and simply fall asleep.
Her front door opened, and Mason and Ash came out, startling her. Only then did she notice the two cars parked by the side of her house.
Pushing open the door, she scrambled out of the truck.
“Hey Collins,” Ashley greeted her, kissing her cheek before wishing her well and leaving.
“Mason, what the hell have you two been doing in my house?” She shook with anger as her very imaginative brain provided a vivid picture of those two naked on her sofa. She didn’t mind the sofa part. Instead, awareness slammed into her at the thought of those two back together. She absolutely wouldn’t be okay with it, no matter how hard she tried to convince herself otherwise.
“Michigan, it’s not what ya think,” he promised, and she stalked past him into the house. The smell of fresh paint assaulted her nose, and she spun around as her head caught up with her jolting heart.
“Oh, God. You didn’t clear out the bedroom. Promise me you didn’t!” Fury made her tremble as tears of frustration jumped to her eyes. “Tell me you fucked her on the kitchen counter instead,” she demanded, and shock warred on his features as he was trying on and dismissing words.
“Why are you so angry, Taylor? We wanted to do you a favor! I –”
“You had no right. Those were my demons to fight. Now, I’ll never win! Plus you spent money I don’t have! I’m indebted to you when I tried by damnedest to never be indebted to anyone again.” She was screaming and didn’t care.
“Look at you, Taylor Collins! You slept on a sofa, you talk about demons, and you know, I actually know that you have no control whatsoever over your life or your farm. You have a cattle farm and not once have you been in the barn, or you’d realize they are still out in the paddocks. You have three farm hands, and you don’t even know it. How do I know? Because Tamara called me and asked me to check on them.” He grabbed her upper arms. “You don’t take the lead in your life, so someone else had to do it. Hate me all you want, but I’m not going to let you waste away!”
They were both breathing hard, and Taylor felt Mason’s angry breath on her lips. They had moved so close to one another, they literally shared the same air. She knew that no one else could cause feelings as deep in her as he did, even if the current one was total fury.
“Get out, Mason Stiles! Right now!”
“And then what, Taylor? You bury yourself in here, pretending you’re all right? I’m your friend, Tay, and even if you left us all, ready to forget us, we didn’t forget you.”
“Forget you?” she spat, venom in her voice. She hadn’t once been able to forget him or her friends while she was up there. “Forget you? I didn’t leave to forget you! I just wanted to be me and couldn’t do that here. I …”
“You never once looked back. Did you call us? Contact us? Come to visit? No! And still, we’re here, aren’t we? Even though you don’t deserve it, we …” His own words seem to register, but Taylor had heard enough, feeling all the color drain from her cheeks.
“I’m glad you all showed up on my doorstep and called me ten times a day. A phone works both ways, you know?” She pushed at his chest, wanting him out of the house so she could cry in peace.
He looked devastated even though he
didn’t move one inch. “Tay, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean that. I’m sorry!” Mason looked as pale as she felt, but she didn’t care. She could barely see straight through the curtain of tears.
“Don’t even try. I don’t want to see you again. Ever. But then, it shouldn’t be a problem since I don’t deserve it anyway, right?” With all the strength she could muster, she forced him out onto the porch and slammed the door in his face.
That had escalated quickly, and while Taylor rationally knew that they both had been angry, saying things they didn’t mean, she was terribly hurt.
She rested her head back against the door, feeling it vibrate with Mason’s frustrated punch.
“I’m sorry, Michigan! Please, just let me back in! Just listen,” he begged, and she could almost feel his heat through the door, only the wood separating them.
“I think I listened enough. Just go, Mason,” she ordered, pleaded, and whispered, all wrapped in a few words when all she wanted to say was ‘Hold me, Mason, make the pain go away.’ “You were right. I never looked back. I never wanted to come back, either. This town… held nothing I ever wanted, so why return?” She made her voice sounds strong, but her whole body shuddered as she bit her index finger not to sob out loud.
There was a long pause on the other side of the door, and then she heard two short raps of his knuckles against the wood before his truck started and he was gone.
Taylor sank to the floor, crying so hard she couldn’t catch her breath, and only after pain invaded every inch of her body did the river of tears cease to flow.
Hours later, Taylor had dragged her tired body to the sofa, finding sleep despite the restlessness of her mind. Only the buzzing of her phone interrupted her nightmare-riddled rest.
“Collins?” Loud country music burst through the speaker until the noise was muffled.
“Taylor?” Instantly, Tay was wide-awake, clutching her cell to her ear.
