Sky laughed. “Thatmight be your only viable scenario. But Nadine’s shot me down four times and says she’ll quit if I ask again. We both know that Sina will never get tired of you. You’re theperfect man and husband. She loves you just as much as you love her.”
“I’m not perfect, Sky. I’m a coward, and I’m selfish, but I love you more than I’ve ever loved someone who wasn’t Sam or Sina, and I don’t want to lose you again.”
“I don’t know what to do about that. I love you too, but I can’t be with you. Not in any way I can live with or want to,” Sky added with a hard sniff, shaking his head. “I’m going home tomorrow, and I probably won’t be back for a while. Probably not until the holidays, or next year if I can talk Mom and Nadine into a trip to the cabin for Christmas.”
“Tomorrow? So soon?” Mason asked.
Sky raised a brow at him. “I was supposed to leave on Thursday but you convinced me to stay for one more weekend. I should have left when I was supposed to, staying longer made this even messier.”
“I can text and call you this time, though?” Fuck, Mason sounded desperate and pathetic. Not that it mattered anymore. He already tossed his ego and his pride out the window. Neither were worth much at the moment. “We can still talk over video when we miss each other and maybe we’ll think of something if we give it a little more time.”
“No, youcannotcall me or text me,” Sky answered severely. “And I don’t want toseeyou, it’ll just make it harder to let go and Ihave to, Mason. I don’t need my therapist to tell me that this is damaging me and that getting out now is the smartest thing I can do.”
Mason reeled, and his eyes watered as if he’d taken a brutal punch to the gut.
“Don’t do this again! We just got you back, and my life is so much emptier without you. Please, Sky!” He reached for him and Mason swallowed a watery gasp as Sky gathered him in his arms and kissed him.
“You can message me about important things if it’s about Sina or Sam or Mom or Nadine, and you can obviously call me if it’s an emergency. I’ll talk to you when I’m here, but we can’t be like this anymore. Never again. I have to trick myself into forgetting that this happened and that I don’t love you so I can move on.”
“This is it?” Mason realized and buried his face in the corner of Sky’s neck so he couldn’t watch as he cried. “This is our last night?” He felt Sky nod and gulped back an anguished sob. “Tell me how to stop this.”
“You can’t. I bought a ticket and I’m leaving after Sina and Sam get back in the afternoon. My bags are already packed and Nadine and Mom already know.”
“And there’s nothing I can say or do to change your mind or buy us a little more time?” Mason attempted half-heartedly. There was no way he could talk Sky out of leaving now, not in good conscience. Sky was right and too much harm had already been done.
“No, but you can make the most out of the time we have left,” he suggested. He tugged on Mason’s hair and forced his head up so Sky could kiss him roughly. He was smiling and there was a wicked gleam in his eyes when they met Mason’s. “I had better be limping when I leave tomorrow.”
“Alright, I’ll see what I can do,” Mason replied in a gravelly rasp, then went to work with a broken heart. If this was going to be their last night together, Mason would make sure that Sky’s train ride back to the city was an uncomfortable one.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Honey, I’m home,” Sky announced, dropping his bags and trudging right into Kayla’s arms.
She was wearing a soft pink, silk pajama set, stirring a pot of ramen at their tiny stove. She turned the burner off as soon as he let himself in. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming home today? I would’ve met you at the station.” she asked as they headed for the sofa.
“The last few days have been crazy and I wasn’t even sure if I’d actually get on the train and stay on it all the way to the city.”
“What the heck happened?” She led him to his spot and wrapped his weighted blanket around his shoulders.
Sky fell back onto the sofa and let the blanket and the familiarity of his surroundings calm his nerves. He did his best to think still, soothing thoughts.
“The last time we talked you said you all had made up and that your ‘uncle’ was your nephew’s father.”
“It got so much worse after that,” Sky groaned. “There was no way I was getting into it over the phone. I would’ve had a meltdown andI still might.” He put a pillow on his lap for her feet and gave it a pat. “You would have so many questions, and I would hate myself even more because I don’t want to answer them. It’s all so sordid and…so very Sutton of me.”
“It couldn’t be worse than when your dad died. Remember that? You got drunk and made out with your brother-in-law.” She sat at the other end of the sofa and swung her feet onto his lap. “Or when you made out with him at your Uncle Lance’s funeral.”
Sky laughed weakly as he began to knead. “What if I spent the last two weeks getting forked by him?” he asked, squeezing an eye shut as her jaw stretched wider and wider.
“Noooooo!”
He nodded, cringing at her feet and avoiding her eyes. “It turns out that Sarina and Mason were never a real thing. He’s super gay and fucks like a pornstar.”
“What?” Kayla sat up and grabbed the back of the sofa. “It’s a for real lavender marriage?”
“Text book, and Sarina knew we were doing it. She thinks it’s sweet.” Sky widened his eyes so she knew that it was seriously fucked-up. She had never been to Roseview or met any of the relevant players. But she knew about them from Sky’s stories.
“Holy shit!” she whispered, earning a heavy hum from Sky.
