“You call this standing on your own two feet? You’ve never stood on your own two feet. You rely on your cousin and now this woman. She told me her aunt just passed away. How long did you wait before you started fucking your way into her pockets? Did you sleep with her aunt too, huh boy?”
“Wow,” Xeni said with a shocked gasp. Mason felt himself slowly tuck her body behind his as he took a step forward. He didn’t want to break anything in the house, but his father was asking to be shown the exit, through the nearest window.
“I’m not using her for anything. She’s my wife and her aunt was my dear, dear friend. A mentor and a better role model than you’ll ever be. This town is my home and I am not going anywhere,” Mason said very carefully. “You, however, are welcome to leave.”
His father tilted his head so he could get a better look at Xeni. “You married him? Maybe you’re not as smart as you look.”
“Get out,” Mason seethed. “Get out right now. Find your way back to the airport and take yourself back to Scotland. You are not welcome here.”
“You—you think—Christ.” Mason watched as the color suddenly drained from his father’s face. He sat, like a boulder was dragging him down, square in the middle of the couch. Mason rushed over to him.
“Dad?”
“Shit,” he heard Xeni say. “I think he’s having a heart attack.”
* * *
There was a newly constructed Marriot right across the street from the Kinderack County hospital. Xeni didn’t go inside, but the place was practically dead on a Tuesday night and she felt better pacing in the soft ambient light of the outdoor waiting area than trying to hold herself still in the painfully bright lights of the hospital waiting room.
She’d never say it out loud, but she was actually conflicted about whether or not she wanted Mr. McInroy to pull through. For Mason’s sake, she desperately wanted him to be free of the way his father had decided to treat him. And it absolutely was a decision. Every Everly came with a slick mouth, but she couldn’t imagine anyone in her family talking to her the way Mason’s father had spoken to him and to her.
It had taken half a second for Xeni to realize he wasn’t snapping out of whatever made him collapse. She’d run outside and grabbed Silas. Thanks to his quick thinking, he and Mason had carried Mr. McInroy out to the back seat of Mason’s SUV. It would have taken a while for the ambulance to get out to them and back to the emergency room.
Xeni had followed in her car, but by the time she’d arrived, the waiting game had already begun. Tense minutes turned to hours. A doctor had come and gone and come again to get Mason. It was, in fact, a heart attack and the doctors needed to keep him overnight. Since Xeni was now technically family, she was allowed to go back with Mason to see his father, but she didn’t think the three of them being in the same room was a good idea. She’d sat in the waiting room with Silas for a while. His calm stillness should have helped her relax, but instead that need to climb out of her skin seemed to be clawing at the base of her neck.
She’d moved from the sidewalk in front of the hospital down to the corner by the traffic light and back again, then finally over to the hotel. She thought maybe she should just go back to the house. There was nothing she could do and she couldn’t console Mason while he consoled his father, but she knew better than to just bail. Mason wasn’t just her husband, he was her friend. She wasn’t leaving until he told her to go.
Xeni checked her phone for the hundredth time, closing it every time her fingers automatically went back to the conversation Shae and Meegan were having in the group chat. Her brain couldn’t handle their light and casual talk right now, not when she felt like this.
A shadow in the hospital entrance caught her attention. She looked up and saw Mason step through the sliding doors and out into the night. She checked that it was safe to cross and ran across the street, stopping short right in front of him. Instantly she could feel the anguish rolling off him. She’d wait to touch him until she knew he wanted to be touched.
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
“No, not really.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault that he has a bad heart.” Xeni could only imagine how he felt. Mason was full of empathy and compassion, and she knew he couldn’t turn that off, even for a monster like his father.
“I’m gonna have to take him home.”
Xeni cringed at the idea of him trying to help his father up the steep stairs to his apartment. “Seems like Silas’s place might be a little more spacious.”
Mason’s jaw tensed as he looked at the ground between them. “Home to Edinburgh, love.”
“Right, duh. Of course.”
“It’ll be another two weeks, but—”
“Right, right.”
“It’s late. You should go home and get some sleep.”
“Yeah, okay. Are you sure you don’t need anything?”
“I’m going to head back with Silas in a bit to get a change of clothes and then come back here. I’m sorry I can’t go to the vineyard with you.”
“Are you kidding? Don’t even think about it. Be here, okay? You’ve showed up for me. It’s more than okay that you need to be present for yourself.”
