Me: I’ll be there.
Don’t pick up: I’ll send a dress and car.
Of course she would. Because she liked to have complete control. Which was why me moving out and not talking to her anymore made her an irate mess.
Good thing I didn’t have to deal with her. I’d leave that to her dear husband. He was as dumb as a piece of string—no offence to the string—and would probably have no idea what was going on in the first place.
I was chewing my lower lip and pacing the office when Mason came inside.
“You ready to go?” he asked, wiping his hands on a rag.
“It’s almost six. Of course I’m ready. And don’t think you can drop me off at your house. I’m coming to Nora’s with you,” I snapped.
“If you’re up for it,” he said and dropped the rag on my desk despite my glower. “But I’m also happy to go on my own.”
“I’m fine.”
He studied me for a few seconds and nodded. “Let’s do it.”
I was still reeling from my conversation with my mother when we pulled up in front of Nora’s apartment complex.
“If you clench your teeth any harder you might crack one,” Mason said and got out of the car. To my surprise he opened my car door and helped me out.
I didn’t want to let go of the hand he offered me once I was standing next to the car. His big hands were calloused from working on cars and motorcycles, which were in direct contrast to my manicured, regularly moisturized hands.
We were polar opposites on almost everything, but the way I felt when I was near him wasn’t something I had ever experienced before. He made me madder than anyone had ever managed, but at the same time he made me feel alive and free.
He dropped my hand and walked inside ahead of me. There was no way to get out of dinner tomorrow, and I just had to stop worrying what might happen and accept that I had to go.
With that resolve I followed Mason inside. He stopped in front of Nora’s apartment and knocked.
“I thought you had a key,” I asked, wondering if Nora asked for her key back.
“I do. But the polite thing to do is knock.”
“You should have applied that philosophy when you rudely woke me up to drag me back to your place.”
He didn’t respond and raised a brow at me.
I bit my lip, and his eyes lingered on me before the door opened and Nora waved us inside with one hand, the other holding a red-faced Lena.
“What are you doing standing out there? You have a key. Use it.”
Luca was barreling down the hall when he heard us.
“Macon, Macon, you came back. I knews it. Didn’t I say he will comes back, Mom?”
Nora smiled at him and nodded. “You did say that. And I bet he is just as excited as you for another playdate.”
Mason’s whole demeanor changed when he looked at Luca, and I couldn’t help myself but stare. Mason started smiling wide and crouched in front of Luca.
“How are you, little dude? Did you get the present I gave your mom for you?”
Luca high-fived the hand Mason held up and nodded, his hair flopping back and forth at his exuberant movement.
“I dids, and Mom said you can help me puts it together.”
I looked at a smirking Nora and tilted my head in question when her eyes met mine.
