He opened the book and read it aloud. “It’s Hermann Hesse: ‘If I know what love is, it is because of you.’”
The words struck a chord.
It wasn’t the first quote or thing he’d noticed like that since they’d been talking about the wedding. Everything about the wedding seemed to be just another reminder of his and Mason’s.
“Oh, I love that. That’s beautiful!” she sang.
“Yeah, it really is.”
He reflected on his childhood with Mason—on how he learned at such an early age to put Mason’s feelings above his own, to care so deeply for another person, to want so much for their happiness. He knew to want so much to please them in every way possible, to want the best for their life so much that he would have to sacrifice his own happiness.
When she finished the card she was working on and handed it to him, he added it to a page in the photo album.
She pulled another card from a plastic sheet stuffed with them. “I don’t want to be nosy or anything, but since we have a moment and I’m actually able to think for two seconds, how was Mason in LA?”
He wondered if she was suspicious of what he and Mason were up to.
“He handled it very well, I think,” he answered, remaining evasive. “I mean, I haven’t seen him so happy as when I took him to Pump.”
She rolled her eyes. “God, him and that show. Please tell me he didn’t start talking to you about Tyra Banks.”
“Of course he did.”
She burst into a fit of giggles. “No, no, no. And here I’m still trying to act like my big brother is so cool. Well, I guess the jig is up. He also stalks some blogs to keep up with them, but you didn’t hear that from me.”
“He showed me a few. He’s pretty shameless about his obsession.”
“He would be,” she said, grinning ear to ear, like she couldn’t have been happier knowing her brother had the strange fixation.
“I’m glad to see y'all are getting along right now. I was hoping when I encouraged you to come out in March that making you spend a little extra time here, not just a weekend, would get you guys to have a conversation, and maybe put the past behind you…” If only Emery knew just how much they had put the past behind them, and how much they were trying to figure out their future. “…so that we could all get along for the wedding. That maybe it wouldn’t be such a heavy blow for either of you. Especially for Mason.”
“It was what we needed, and we’re getting along really well now.”
She just couldn’t know how well they were getting along.
She breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. You know, I’ve never really said much after the breakup, but it did really make me worry and feel like I had to choose sides. It was just a lot to have to deal with, and I know it affected Mason for a long time after, but…” Her eyes lit up. “Now everything is good, and we're going to have an awesome wedding and not think about the past at all.”
Maybe easier for Emery to do than for Chase. He couldn't be on the dairy without thinking about the past, and without it colliding with everything that was going on with Mason, about what he wanted to go on with Mason.
They worked on a few more cards before there was a knock at the door.
“Come in… unless you’re Tessa,” Emery teased.
Chase chuckled, because odds were it was.
The door opened, and Mason entered the room.
“Oh, now I feel like shit,” Emery said. “I totally thought you were Tessa.”
“No, she seems a little distracted right now, but I think in a good way,” Mason told them.
Emery cocked her head to the side. “What do you mean in a good way?”
Mason leaned back, reached into the hall, and pulled out a baseball bat. “I say we get some of the guys together and make this happen.”
“We have to right now,” Emery insisted. “I need a break from all this wedding crap.”
She slid off the bed and hurried out of the room.
