Although, with her hair, including her eyebrows, gone, she didn’t look like the Ma he once knew, the woman so full of life and zest.
This was just the remnant of a woman he once remembered—a woman he loved so much.
He whirled around and sped out the door.
“Mason!” Chase called.
Mason fled the house, racing through the yard and back to the stables.
As memories of his life with Ma flashed through his mind, the tears poured freely from his eyes. He saw the days when they visited town and sat in the local pizzeria—he, Chase, Pa, and Emery—laughing, joking, and playing. He felt the kiss on his face as she tucked him into bed when he was a kid. He heard the hum in her voice as she sang while baking a pecan pie in the kitchen.
Though it already felt that those things had been long gone far before that moment, a new awareness rose within Mason, one he couldn’t deny anymore.
There was no pretending that he could get back to those days.
They were gone, and nothing he could do could bring them back.
When he reached the stable, he pushed through the door, bursting into a fit of tears as he collapsed onto his knees.
He wrapped his arms around himself. He just needed to be alone.
He needed to cry forever.
As he bawled, he felt arms wrap around him, and he knew who it was. Those arms clung to him, and he felt tears on the back of his neck. They whimpered together, sharing the pain and heartbreak. Despite how much he ached, despite how much he was falling apart on the inside, he was glad Chase was with him.
“I love you, Mason,” Chase said.
Mason didn’t doubt Chase’s love.
It was the only thing that seemed to make sense in the world since it all began with Ma. It was the only thing that made sense as he felt torn apart by the loss of one of the people he loved most in the world. Mason leaned back and hugged Chase, and they stayed there on their knees, gripping one another.
“Don’t ever leave me, Chase,” Mason pleaded.
He pulled away from Chase and looked him in the eyes. Chase’s face was streaked with tears.
“Promise me you’ll never leave me,” Mason pressed again. He knew Chase couldn’t make that promise any more than Ma could, but he needed him to. He needed it because he had to believe that at least one beautiful thing in his life wouldn’t leave him.
“Mason, I won’t leave you.”
They kissed, and Mason fell back, allowing Chase on top of him as he lay on his back.
Mason grabbed the back of his head as he kissed him. His kiss was the only thing that could save him right then, that could help him forget.
Chase didn’t resist. He seemed to be receiving the same benefit from kissing him.
But as good as it felt to be with Chase, it couldn’t stop the echoes—memories of his mother that raced through his thoughts, each one colliding with the image he’d just seen in his parents’ bedroom.
He couldn’t stop the tears or that Chase’s were still covering his face.
He just had to remind himself that he would have Chase forever.
But after what he’d seen happen with his ma, the fear of losing him lingered—one that might never leave. So he just kept repeating to himself:Please don’t leave me, Chase. Don’t ever leave me.
CHASE LOADED SOME BOXES INTO THE BACK OF THE TRUCK TOtake them over to the garage where they would store them until after the wedding.
He whistled as he worked in the shed shirtless, since he’d abandoned the button-up Mason had ripped right off of him.
God, that was hot.
