Damn.
The next one was a shot of me, from the rear, standing in flip-flops, baggy shorts, and an ancient T-shirt with the sleeves cut off, watching the sun set over the water.Hashtag-Never-Gets-Old.
And then before that, the shot of us on the beach and Mason planting one on my cheek.
Smiling to myself, I scrolled back further. A shot of a cute little kid wearing a dance costume and a unicorn horn.Hashtag-niece, hashtag-favorite-uncle.
A reminder that February was National Heart Month and people should gethashtag-screened.
A little kid drawing of Santa Claus on the beach.Hashtag-Christmas-Magic-in-January.
A casual picture taken in front of a Christmas tree. Identical twin women who looked remarkably like Mason squeezed his shoulders, and a guy who looked like a younger, lankier version of me stood behind Mason, photobombing him with devil horns.Hashtag-why-Constantine-why.
A family picture taken behind a Thanksgiving tablepackedwith food. Mason sat to one side of the image, the two twins sat in the center, and an older, less-refined version of Mason sat at the far end, which I knew had to be his brother, Micah. The goofball—Constantine?—had his arms wrapped around Micah from behind. Each of the twins had a smiling guy behind them. And Mason…
I sucked in a breath.
The woman behind him looked like a blonde Jessica Rabbit, with huge doe eyes and a trim figure tucked into a fitted cream dress. She pouted dreamily into the camera, blonde hair perfectly curled and one red-taloned hand propped on Mason’s shoulder sporting…
Record scratch.
I enlarged the picture to get a better look at the diamond ring on her finger.
They’d beenengaged? How had I not known this? He’d had the girl, he’d lost the girl. I definitely did not remember him saying he’d planned to make a lifetime commitment to the girl.
“Hey!” Mason called from the bathroom, toothbrush hanging out of his mouth. “Whatcha doin’?”
“Oh, uh… scrolling your feed.”
“Really?” Mason rolled his eyes and rinsed his brush. “You looked like you wanted to blow something up. Someone making political posts again?”
I shook my head, scrolling back further.
Mason and Victoria at ahashtag-farmers-marketwearing coordinating sweaters.
Mason and Victoria dressed in red, white, and blue for a Fourth of Julyhashtag-fun-run,surrounded by a bunch of similarly dressed prepsters on Long Island.
Mason and Victoria looking like fucking Barbie-and-Ken-go-to-prom, all dressed up in a tuxedo and a long, pink dress for somehashtag-charitygala.
I felt a curl of something dark and noxious rise up in my chest like a kraken, ready to choke me.
Look, I hadn’t had some instantaneous personality transplant that made me give a shit how I dressed or how I looked, and I didn’t suddenly imagine Mason gave a shit what I looked like either—my bed head hadn’t stopped him from orgasming with the force of a rip current earlier, right?
But I couldn’t help noticing that, just like in that song from the kids’ show said, one of these things was not like the others. And it wasn’t just because it looked like I didn’t own a piece of clothing without holes. He had a bunch of friends I’d never met. An entirefamilyI’d never met. A whole life he’d led before he’d ever set foot on this island…
A life he would go back to as soon as he left.
Whispering Key was my world. I’d chosen it, five years ago. But for Mason, the key was a stopover, the tiny airport where he’d catch his connecting flight to the big, bright future he deserved.
And the only thing that would hurt worse than losing him would be having him stay when he shouldn’t.
“Mason must’ve been offered half a dozen jobs by now … He’s turned down a bunch already, probably for the wrong reasons …It’s not fair to tie him someplace unless we can give him what he wants.What hedeserves.Can you give him what he deserves, Fenn?”
Fucking Rafe. He’d recognized this before I had.
My finger hovered over the picture of Mason in his tuxedo, his hair ruthlessly tidy, his green eyes clear and confident, his shoes perfectlyshiny. I huffed out a laugh and blinked moisture out of my eyes, then closed the app and tossed his phone in the center of the bed.
What an idiot I was. I hadknownthis would happen, and I’d let myself fall for him anyway.
