“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’s 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 brings with it 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’m taking her out. Please,” she begs, mounting my waist.
“Vinny can take him. I’ll 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 who 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.”
“It is that simple! That’s my point. He doesn’t have anyone to blame like you do. It’s all on him. Why add to that? He lost the love of his life, and surely you can see that he needs you now.” She closes her eyes briefly, tears coating her eyelids as she opens them, and it guts me. “I pray that one day I can honour these words because she probably doesn’t even deserve it, but when the time comes, I will be with my mother in her final breaths. After all she put me through, I can see past it. I can see it for what it is. She did what she thought was okay, just to survive. Her choices were selfish and callous at times, but I’m still here because she allowed me to be. I will hold her in her last breath like she did for my first. Because it’s the right thing to do. You have a dad who loves you. Please don’t waste that.”
“Come here, baby.” I pull her to me, dragging us up the bed until she is straddling my hips and hugging my chest.
How can this woman be so pure?
After everything she has been through and continues to endure at the hands of her mother. I can only hope for that level of acceptance towards my own parent.
“I’ll go with him tomorrow,” I tell her.
