“Shh.” She turns into me. “Take me to bed.”
* * *
“What was your mum called?”she asks, her body sprawled out over me.
We came to bed hours ago but are yet to go to sleep—hours of getting lost in each other’s bodies and easy conversation.
“Ellis. Ellis Marie Lowell,” I tell her, watching as goosebumps coat her skin under my fingertips.
“She was beautiful. I saw her picture in your office when I was snooping.”
I smile at her honesty. “She was, and she would have loved you.”
“I would have loved to have met her.”
“She’s buried at Lowerwick. I could take you some time.” I have no idea why I would suggest that.
I’ve not been to my mother’s grave in years. Don’t need to visit a piece of stone to be reminded that she is dead.
She lifts her head, resting her chin on her fist. “She’s buried at the house?”
“Yeah, we all have plots there. Kind of morbid, huh?” I laugh, awkwardly.
“No, Mason, it’s perfect. I wish I had a place so special that I could call home. A beginning and an end. You have no idea how lucky you are to have that.”
I skim a lock of hair out of her eyes. “Let me be your beginning and end.”
She gives me a half smile, dipping her head and biting her lip. “I think I might reach out to my dad,” she says, surprising the shit out of me.
“Yeah?”
She shrugs. “Not yet, maybe after the showcase when things aren’t so crazy. Will you help me?”
Hope blooms in my chest. The thought of making her happy bringing an obsessive need to make it happen. “With anything,” I promise her.
“Hmm, there is one other thing.”
“If it doesn’t involve my cock in your cunt I don’t want to know.”
She laughs, rolling off me. I follow, positioning myself above her. “You said anything,” she proclaims.
“I take it back.”
“It’s your dad,” she says just as I line myself up with her entrance.
“You’re fucking with me right now?”
She pushes on my chest, rolling me off her. “He has an appointment tomorrow—I think Scarlet said it was at two—I need you to take him.”
“No.”
“It’s your sister’s birthday, and I am taking her out. Please,” she begs, mounting my waist.
“Vinny can take him. I will take you girls to lunch.”
“Mase.” She drops her head, hesitating. “It’s not my place, but I will be here next week, next month, next year. Scarlet, too. We’re not going anywhere, so push me away for crossing the line, but your father doesn’t have the luxury of time left in his life. He is a sick man, and it hurts to see you deny yourself something you need, something most never get. You can spend the next few years enjoying your father for what he is. A heartbroken man who very clearly adores his children.” I huff, looking away from her, but she takes my head in her hands, bringing my eyes back to hers. “Or you can deny yourself the love that you are so blessed to receive and live to regret your choices for the rest of your life. Because you will, I promise you. You’ll never forgive yourself for denying yourself this time.”
“Nina, it’s not that simple. He did this to himself.”
