by Ali Parker
I moved out from behind Deanna, going toward the older brother who’d made eye contact with me that night at the restaurant. He stared at me. I ignored him, pushing past him and focusing my gaze on Mason. He was watching me move, our eyes locked. I reached out and touched his shoulder very gently above where the bandage ended. I swallowed the lump in my throat. His skin was warm. He was alive.
“You’re alive,” I whispered the words that kept running on repeat through my head ever since we’d walked through the hospital door.
“I’m alive. Does that piss you off?” he said with a cheeky grin.
“No, it doesn’t. I’m sorry,” I whispered, ignoring the audience we had.
Mason looked away. “Can you guys give us a minute?” he asked.
I looked at the faces of his family and could see the irritation. They didn’t like me. Why would they? I was in my stained uniform and smelled like coffee. They all smelled and looked like a million bucks. I was an interloper in their lives.
“I’m going to call Dalton and see if he made it through the traffic snarl,” Deanna said, offering me a smile.
I didn’t say a word until the door was closed behind them all. I had seen the way the older brother took one last look over his shoulder before leaving us along. It was a look of contempt. I didn’t like him.
I turned my attention to Mason, pulling the blanket down to his waist to look for any other signs of obvious injury. “Are you okay?” I asked him.
“I’m fine.”
I reached for his hand, intertwining my fingers with his. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have said those things. I was mad and hurt and I let my emotions run wild. I know you were telling the truth about the other night. I knew it and I believed you, but I lashed out. I’m sorry.”
“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” he said, reaching up to touch my cheek.
“You scared me,” I whispered, the lump in my throat making it difficult to talk.
I could feel the tears burning the back of my eyes. I couldn’t cry over a man I barely knew, I kept telling myself.
“I’m okay,” he replied, his fingers stroking over my cheek. “I’m glad you’re talking to me.”
I almost choked on a sob. “It shouldn’t have taken you nearly dying for me to talk to you. I’m sure you know this already, but I can be a little hardheaded.”
He chuckled before wincing. “I know.”
“What’s wrong?” I asked, seeing the look of pain on his face.
“Nothing, I’m fine. My ribs are a little bruised.”
“Are you really okay?”
“I’m a little bruised, but I’m going to be okay,” he assured me.
“Was it because of the fight?” I asked, afraid of the answer.
He smiled, slowly shaking his head. “Not at all. It wasn’t my fault. I had a green light. A drunk driver blew through the intersection and slammed into me. It wasn’t my fault and it definitely wasn’t your fault. This would have happened whether we’d gotten into a fight or not.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. That was a very small consolation considering he was lying in a hospital bed in what I imagined was a lot of pain, even if he was trying to play it off. I had been nearly crippled with guilt the entire way over to the hospital.
“How injured are you—and be honest,” I said, my eyes going to the bandage on his arm and wondering what kind of horror that was hiding.
“It’s not so bad. I have a concussion, bruised ribs, and some other bumps and bruises. My arm got torn up by the pavement, I guess. I haven’t seen it. I was apparently knocked out for a while, which is why I get to stay here tonight.”
I closed my eyes, feeling a fresh wave of fear washing over me. I had to block out the images of what could have happened. My fear of motorcycles had not been unfounded. I didn’t think I would ever get on another one.
“Your bike, it’s destroyed?” I asked.
He smirked. “Yeah, from what I understand it took a few more hits after I skidded across the pavement.”
I gasped, covering my mouth with both hands. “Oh my God,” I whispered, suddenly feeling nauseated.
“It’s okay. I survived,” he said casually.
I closed my eyes, holding on to those words. “You survived, but Mason, how close—”
“You can’t think like that. All of us are always a hair’s breadth from death. We all have close encounters. We all barely survive from one day to the next,” he reasoned.
“Not like that,” I shot back.
“My brush with death was a little more obvious, but here I am,” he said with a smile.
“I’m glad you’re still here,” I said with a laugh.
“Thanks. I’m glad to be here.”
“So, were those your brothers?” I asked.
He gave a slight nod of his head. “Yes, three of them. There’s two others that weren’t here.”
“The two, I recognize them from the other night.”
“Yes, Grayson was the surly one, you know Jack, and James is my youngest brother. He lives with my mom,” he explained.
“Oh, wow. They’re, uh, kind of intimidating,” I murmured.
“They do that on purpose. Don’t let them intimidate you. I’ll talk to them if you want me to,” he offered.
My eyes widened. “No! Don’t. I don’t want them to think they intimidate me.”
“But they do,” he reminded me.
“I don’t want them to know that,” I said.
He grinned. “Noted. I won’t tell them to back off, but I will let them know they need to tone it down.”
“Thank you.”
“I really want to see what this arm looks like. My tats are probably destroyed. Inking scar tissue is not easy,” he said, staring at his arm.
“I’m sure you’ll figure something out. Think of it as a clean slate. You can get new tattoos,” I suggested.
“The scar tissue,” he reminded me.
“I’ve watched those reality shows. They can work the scars into the designs,” I said hopefully.
He didn’t look all that convinced. “I hope so. My mother will be thrilled if my tats are scraped off.”
“I should probably get going. I don’t think your family was all that happy to be kicked out of the room. I just wanted to come by and make sure you were okay and to apologize profusely for being such a complete and total jerk,” I told him.
“Don’t go,” he said, reaching up to grab my hand.
“Mason, I am sorry for what I said, but I do stand by part of it,” I said in a gentle tone, not wanting to kick a man while he was down, but also not wanting to get into the murky waters of a relationship with him.
“I want you to stay and I want to take advantage of your sympathy. I’m going to use it and ask you to please sit down and let me talk without you getting mad or interrupting me. Can you do that?” he asked, those damn eyes holding mine.
I was helpless to deny him. He looked pitiful in the hospital bed. I thought about all the promises I made to God on the way over. The promises I made to myself to never be quick to shut someone down without giving them a fair chance were also echoing through my head.
I inhaled deeply. “Fine, but Mason, I think it would be better if we had this conversation when you’re feeling better. Right now, I think we’re both kind of feeling vulnerable and I don’t want you to say anything you don’t mean.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Adelaide, I’m not vulnerable. What I want to say is what I tried to say at the coffee shop. This has nothing to do with the drugs I’m hopped up on or the fact I survived a bad accident.”
“Okay,” I mumbled, moving to grab the chair and scooting it closer to the bed.
I was afraid to hear what he had to say. I was afraid I would believe every word and find myself falling right back into that thing we’d been wading in before the infamous dinner. I was worried he would end up hurting me. I didn’t want to get hurt. I didn’t want to feel like I did that night but amplified by a long relations
hip and possibly loving him.
He scared me. He terrified me because he made me feel. I didn’t want to feel. I didn’t want to feel things with him. He had a way of magnifying everything and making it feel so much more intense. I was sure it was because we had such strong similarities in our characters. There was a cosmic connection I couldn’t ignore. That’s what scared me. If I let myself fall for him, fall in love with him, I didn’t think I could survive him dumping me or cheating on me or worse—getting in another accident and not coming out quite so victorious.
I looked at the man lying in bed and realized it was a little late to not feel for him. I was so screwed.
Chapter 35
Mason
I was thrilled to see Adelaide and happy as hell she’d come to see me. I knew she’d said those things out of anger and frustration. I could understand that. I’d said some shit I wasn’t proud of as well. I was going to use her sympathy, though. I was going to use it to make her sit quietly and listen to what I had to say. I needed to make her understand that I was serious about pursuing something with her.
“Adelaide, I’m guessing Deanna filled you in on what happened, but I wanted you to hear it from me. I was on my way to see you when Jack called. Let me go back a minute,” I said, realizing I had skipped over some important details. “I should have called you before Friday. I should have stopped by the coffee shop before then. I’m sorry I didn’t. That wasn’t cool.”
“Why didn’t you?” she asked in a quiet voice.
I sucked in a breath. “I don’t know. I wasn’t sure what I was doing. I wasn’t sure if I should. This is new territory for me. I need you to understand I don’t date a lot of women. I don’t know how to do this, at least not without making some pretty serious mistakes along the way. I’m trying.”
“Mason, you shouldn’t have to try,” she said.
“Of course, I should. If I don’t try, what’s the point?”
“I mean, shouldn’t it come naturally?” she asked.
“It does, but I don’t know how to navigate a relationship,” I explained. “Anyway, I’m saying I’m sorry I didn’t reach out before Friday. When Jack called and asked me to go to dinner, I agreed to it, with the intention of finding you after dinner. I told you how things went at the family dinner. Jack seemed like he was serious about trying to make things right in our family. I agreed to do it for my mother and because I think I do want to have a relationship with my brothers and their families. I’m an uncle,” I said, still marveling at the idea.
“I understand. I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions. I saw her and I just kind of let all my old insecurities come to the surface,” she said, looking down at her hands.
“Adelaide, I want to take you out to a real dinner. I want us to start over the right way,” I told her.
She giggled. “Start over? We have all this history. Why would I want to start over?”
I chuckled, doing my best not to breathe while chuckling. “Will you?”
“Yes, I will. We’ll start over.”
“Good, but I have to warn you, what happened with my brothers, it’s just kind of the tip of the iceberg. There is always something with them. I know this time they had good intentions, but they do tend to butt their big noses into my business a lot. They just can’t understand why I live the way I do. They’re convinced they’re going to convert me.”
“Convert you to what?” she asked.
“Into one of them. Go to work at the company and wear a suit and tie every day,” I said, the very thought making my lip curl with disgust.
Adelaide grimaced. “I don’t think I could picture that. I don’t know if I would want to picture that.”
“Are you saying you like me scruffy and in my jeans and leather?” I asked with a grin.
She smiled prettily. “I do. I mean, the suit thing works for some people, but not all. I don’t think it works for you.”
“Does it work for you? Do you picture yourself with a white-collar man?” I asked her, honestly interested in what it was that she was attracted to.
She shrugged a shoulder. “I don’t know that I have a type. I don’t set boundaries for what I like and don’t like.”
“Except when it comes to me. You have to admit you really didn’t like me until I rocked your world,” I teased her.
She giggled again, a little blush spreading over her cheeks. “I think you mean when I rocked your world.”
“Possibly. Does this mean you’ll have dinner with me?” I asked her.
She sighed, as if the very thought was a huge request. “Yes, I will, but how about we wait until you recover.”
“I’m fine. I’ll be good as new tomorrow.”
“Have you ever been in an accident before?” she asked.
“Not quite like this one, no.”
“Trust me, you are not going to feel like dinner tomorrow. I have a feeling you won’t feel like doing anything but sleeping and letting your body heal,” she advised.
“You sound like you have experience in this?”
She nodded. “I do. I had a nasty accident back in high school. I felt fine. Walked all around the scene, refused to go to the hospital and everything. Then, the next morning, I was convinced I had been run over by a tank. I had bruises on my bruises. My muscles ached and I was so stiff. My accident was nothing compared to what you went through.”
I groaned. “Good to know. I think I’ll be okay. It feels like it’s just my hip and ribs.”
She laughed. “That’s what you say now.”
I liked hearing her laugh. I hated that I had been in an accident and nearly died, but I was glad it brought her to me. “I’m glad you’re here,” I said in a soft tone.
“I’m glad you’re okay. I was really worried,” she whispered.
“I think with us everything has to be dramatic. We can’t just do anything the easy way,” I said with resignation.
“Great. Maybe we shouldn’t have dinner. The sky might fall on us or something equally awful.” She moaned.
The door opened and my family all poured in. Adelaide made a move to get out of their way. I grabbed her hand, squeezing it, and held on to it. I didn’t want her to walk out. I wanted her there by my side. In that moment, I was having a bit of a reality check. I could have died. I could have died with our last words to each other being something I would never want her to live with. I felt a flash of panic, everything slamming into me at once.
Adelaide looked at me and covered our joined hands with hers, infusing me with comfort in the subtle move. She looked at me and gave me a small smile. “I’m here,” she whispered.
I gave a slight nod. “Stay.”
I looked up and saw my mother watching us. The look on her face was not one of approval. It was just the opposite. She clearly did not like what she saw. Jack and Grayson were talking in hushed voices toward the back of the room. I saw Grayson look up once, his eyes on Adelaide. They were talking about her.
“You guys don’t have to stay. I know you two are probably supposed to be buying a company or something and making a million dollars,” I said to Jack and Grayson.
“I’ll go by your place and get the clothes. I’ll bring them back tonight. I do have a meeting this afternoon,” he mumbled, checking his watch.
There was another soft knock on the door before it opened. Dalton came in, Deanna right behind him. He walked to the side of the bed where Adelaide had stood, still holding my hand in hers.
“Man, you can’t do that to me,” he said, relief on his face.
“I didn’t exactly do it on purpose,” I told him.
He looked to my brothers and then my mother. The tension in the room amped up a bit more. Dalton was a strong personality and would not back down from my family. I was glad he was there to act as a buffer between them and Adelaide. I wanted to support her and defend her, but I was starting to feel pretty miserable. I wasn’t sure if it was the drugs wearing off or the bruising setting in, but I felt like hell.
> “Did Jack call you?” my mother asked in a tight voice, looking directly at Dalton.
Dalton shook his head. “No, the first cop on the scene called me.”
“What? How?” she asked, looking at me.
Dalton shrugged. “I’m his emergency contact on his phone. The cop called and let me know, and I gave him Jack’s number. I didn’t have your number,” he said easily.
I watched my mother’s mouth work before she pressed her lips together. It wasn’t an intentional insult to her, but Dalton was the guy I wanted if I was injured or hauled to jail. My mother was often busy or out of the country. Dalton would know who to call if he couldn’t come bail me out or identify my body. He’d done exactly as I had expected him to do.
“Thanks for that,” I told him.
“No problem. The cop, man, he gave me quite a scare. He would only tell me you were unresponsive. I had no idea what that meant, but it wasn’t something I ever want to experience again,” he said, his voice thick with emotion.
“We should go,” James said, stepping up to stand by our mother.
She nodded. “Do you need a ride home tomorrow?” she asked.
I looked at Dalton, he gave the slightest shake of his head. I knew what he was saying. “Yes, please, if you’re not busy, I would appreciate that,” I told her.
Her face lit up. I knew she wanted to be needed. I could give her this one thing. Plus, it would give me a chance to tell her to be nice to Adelaide. I didn’t particularly care for the way she was giving her the side-eye. If I decided to have Adelaide in my life, I wanted her support. If she couldn’t give me that support, she wouldn’t be a part of my life. She had accepted Natasha Levy and she could damn well accept Adelaide.
My mom leaned down to give me a quick kiss on the forehead before my brothers each gave me a fist bump. Once they were gone, the tension in the room evaporated. I looked at Adelaide and saw she had relaxed a bit as well.
“So, the cop called you?” I asked.
Dalton nodded. “Yes, he did. I almost didn’t answer the call. Brother, you cannot do that to me.”
