I set my hand on his and lowered my voice. “Stop apologizing and tell me what’s going on. This isn’t like you. At least not with me. You’re usually a chatty Cathy I can’t turn off.”
That brought a smile to his face. “The day you left for Ireland, Laura called me and Coach into her office to show me a bunch of IG posts that I and the Storm had been tagged in.”
I frowned. “The day I left, and you didn’t call me?”
“You were busy with Hudson, and I knew you were trying to make your flight. I’d distracted you enough with the swim.”
“Mason,” I sighed, “don’t you know you’re important to me?” His expression changed as he gazed at me. I wanted to elaborate, but this wasn’t the time. “A requirement of friendship is being there for the person when they need you. So, stop stalling and talk.”
He stared at me for a moment, looking for something. “The photos weren’t of me, but someone who looks like me. I was being mistaken for Axel Hughes, a British hockey player. The resemblance is too close for us not to be related.”
He leaned to the side and took out his phone, turned it on, and handed it to me. I took it and looked down at the man, then up at Mason. “Damn. I can see why they thought it was you.”
He huffed a sardonic laugh. “I know, right? Fans think I live a double life. Me, the most boring human on Earth. It’s impossible, since our seasons overlap.” He paused as I handed him his phone. “I’ve been through every possible scenario, trying to piece things together. I’ve told you about how I grew up. The only thing that makes sense is that I don’t belong to my family. Just looking at him, we have to be related. One of us had to betaken, kidnapped, stolen, something. Otherwise, we would have grown up together. I’ve got to find out Thomas. It’s been eating at me for five days.”
The emotional toll this had taken on him was evident. His eyes had darker-than-normal circles under them, and I hated that I hadn’t been here sooner. Pushing my uneaten food away, I propped my elbows on the table and leaned toward him. As he looked into my eyes, I could see the agony he was going through. But scolding him wasn’t right. He needed a friend. He needed me. “Why didn’t you call me?”
He shrugged, then tried to lift his mood. “You were working. I didn’t want to ruin Colin’s surprise. That’s a big deal, and he deserved all your attention on finding his dad.”
I lowered my voice. “That’s no excuse. I wasn’t working 24/7.”
He looked up at me with tired eyes. “You know how I am. I needed to think about it for a while. I don’t go in with guns blazing like some FBI guy. There’s a lot at stake here. The wrong move could cause me to lose my family. But my gut tells me something isn’t right, and I can’t fathom how someone who looks that much like me isn’t my brother. So many things don’t add up.”
I rolled his words around in my head. I knew he had a strained relationship with his mother, but his father was his idol. And he was close to his sisters. “Okay, like what?”
Mason looked at the ceiling. “Do you want a list?”
I huffed out at a sardonic laugh. “Of course. It’s like you don’t know me,” I teased.
That brought another smile to his face, lightening the heavy moment. “Okay, Agent Kingsley, here goes.” He ticked them off on his fingers. “Number one, I’m my mother’s least favorite child. I’ve never felt the connection to her that my sisters had.Aren’t mothers and sons supposed to be close? Not to mention I’m the oldest. You know how she was.
He had shared a lot with me. Enough that I’d like to get Melinda Kennerly in an interrogation room and browbeat her until she apologized. “I know. What else?”
“The family resemblance. I look more like Axel than my sisters. They have dark hair and olive skin. Our faces are shaped differently, and none of our features are the same.”
I took the opportunity to really look at him under the guise of doing my job. He made me want to hold him in his time of need. To comfort him and tell him it would be alright. That I was back, and he didn’t have to worry. “You favor your father. Just because you don’t look like the girls doesn’t mean you’re not related. Sometimes recessive genes take over, and expression is vastly different. Twenty-six pairs of chromosomes and DNA…” I trailed off when I saw him grin.
“Thomas Nye, the FBI guy for the counterpoint. I didn’t realize you were a science nerd too, Agent Kingsley.”
I hit him with my glare that now had zero effect. “I’m serious, smartass. But keep going. You’ve evidently been busy going down rabbit holes without me.”
His expression softened. “I’d never intentionally go down a rabbit hole without you, but what else was I going to do? It’s all I can think about.”
Reaching out, I put my hand on his shoulder. “I understand. And I know how much your family means to you.” Mason leaned toward me, accepting my comfort. He never shied away from my touch, and I never stopped myself from doing it. It felt natural to put my hands on him, and the caretaker took point when I was around him.
Pulling my hand away before I got carried away, I leaned back in my chair as my analytical brain started to make lists and check things off. “Have you considered that you were adopted?It’s not unheard of for siblings to be separated. There may not be nefarious circumstances.”
Mason furrowed his brow and bit the inside of his lip. “It’s possible. But why separate us when you’ve always had more money than you can ever spend in two lifetimes? Sounds like a clear choice to me.”
True. “I’m guessing you haven’t spoken to them about any of this.”
His face sank into sadness. “No. I don’t want to disrupt their lives or hurt my dad or my sisters. Maddie is planning her wedding for next year and working her way up in the company, and Makenna is finishing grad school at NYU. They don’t need my problems heaped on them.”
My protective instincts regarding him were kicking in the more he spoke. “Hurt them how? If you’ve been separated from your brother, you’re the one who’s been hurt. Notthem.”
Mason picked up his fork and went back to pushing his food around on his plate. “Maybe. I just need to figure this out on my own. And that’s where you come in. I want to hire you to help me figure this out.”
I gave him myare you fucking insaneglare again. “You’re not paying me. You’re my friend, and I’ll help you any way I can.” Mason’s goofy smile made me smile. Damn him. “Stop smiling at me like that.”Please don’t stop smiling at me like that.
