“He wanted to talk to Kaine, of course,” Mama D said. “We convinced him to wait, as Kaine was still at school,” Mama D said as she finally gave up on her letters and threw them back into the bag to be reshuffled.
“It also gave us time to round up Bishop, so Kaine wouldn’t be alone when dealing with him,” Mama K said. I loved my parents, they could be sneaky when needed.
“How… How did he look?” I asked.
“Awful skinny, poor kid. He looks like he could easily put on twenty pounds and you wouldn’t be able to tell. He’d been crying… His mom passed away last year. He didn’t mention anything about his dad, so I got the feeling he wasn’t in the picture anymore. Luckily Bishop got here before Kaine, so he was able to help him get straightened out before Kaine saw him.”
I nodded. It made sense. The three boys had been close growing up, until their sophomore year at school. Bishop had started spending more and more time working on his art, which had led to Kaine and Nicki becoming closer.
“Any idea where they went?” I asked, wondering if maybe we should stop in and check on them.
“No, Lee. Leave him alone. He needs to get this figured out on his own,” Mama D said, eying me over her tiles.
“I know, Mom… It’s just…” I sighed. “I hate to see him hurt like this. We know what he was like after Nicki left. I don’t want him to have to go through that again.”
“You can’t stop it,” Mason’s voice whispered. I looked over at him and he coughed, suddenly embarrassed. Apparently, he hadn’t meant to say that out loud. “I mean, he’s the only one who can decide how he’s going to feel about Nicki. He can choose not to let him hurt him again, or he can decide the love is worth the pain,” Mason shrugged. “Everyone has to make that choice at some point.”
The look on his face made me wonder who it was that Mason had needed to decide about letting into his heart. I had a sneaking suspicion, but now wasn’t the time to discuss it. We turned the conversation back to the game. While Mama K and I were no slouches, we were no real match for these two and they were thoroughly trouncing us.
Mason hadn’t been kidding when he claimed to be a word genius. He turned my puny little “REV” into “REVIVIFY”. I laughed, and challenged his word, certain it couldn’t be in the dictionary.
“Challenge accepted,” he said, winking at me with his hair flopping in his face. That look! I felt all the blood in my body head south and I shifted in my seat, suddenly afraid to stand up and embarrass myself.
“Revivify,” he quoted, “…to make someone or something strong, healthy, or active again. To restore to life.”
“Dang it!” I exclaimed half-heartedly, laughing as Mama D and I conceded the game.
Mama K came around the table and hugged her partner. The look on Mason’s face was just… heart-rending. It was so sad, but so happy at the same time. Like he was trying to soak up a lifetime’s worth of hugs in that one moment. I watched the two of them stand there for a moment and just felt my heart swell with some unnamed emotion. I wanted to wrap this incredibly brave, strong man up in bubble wrap and protect him from all the evils of the world.
Mama D looked at me and nodded, as if in approval. I smiled ather – I’d never been able to successfully keep secrets from my parents, so I was pretty sure they knew how I felt about Mason already.
Mama K released Mason, but only after placing a gentle kiss on the top of his head.
“You can be my Scrabble partner anytime, Mason!” she said. “How long are you going to be in town? I have a few people I’d love to trounce, if you’re available.”
Mason smiled and looked over at me shyly.
“Um, supposed to be two weeks,” he said. “But I guess you never know…”
“Well, as long as you are in town, we will expect you here for Friday night D&D,” Mama K said. Dammit, he was a grown ass man. You’d think my parents wouldn’t feel the need to tell him what to do.
“Sorry,” I whispered as we finished putting the game away.
“For what?” he asked, looking at me in genuine confusion.
“My moms can be a little… overwhelming,” I said, after pausing to find the most inoffensive word I could think of.
“Don’t be,” he said, smiling at me as we settled on the couch by the fireplace. “It’s kind of nice to have someone who cares.”
I hesitantly draped an arm around his shoulder. I really wanted to drag him over onto my lap and snuggle him close, but I wasn’t sure we were there yet.
“Is this… okay?” I asked, feeling the need to make sure he wasn’t uncomfortable.
He paused for a second and said, “No, I’m not exactly comfortable.” I started to withdraw my arm, but froze as he leaned into me. We’d taken our boots off when we’d arrived, so he tucked his sock covered feet up under him and then laid his head on my shoulder.
“Now, I’m comfortable,” he said, smiling up at me.
I saw both my parents spot the action and was relieved when they didn’t react to Mason’s head on my shoulder. My hand slipped down and started running through his curls.
