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“My mom told her.”
I knew it. I knew his mom was aware of our relationship—it would explain the looks she and Lesley exchanged the night before. “Oh… my god.”
“That’s not all.” Mason clenched his eyes shut. “Owen knew a week ago. He sort of… saw a text you sent me. I—I wasn’t going to tell you, but you deserve to know that. I kind of confessed everything to him.”
My face and neck felt hot. “What text did he see?”
The inner corners of his eyebrows lifted in an apologetic expression, and though he didn’t say a word, I already knew. Owen must have seen one of the pictures I sent Mason. If I had to guess, it was the one from the night of the bachelorette party. Owen would have been with Mason when he received that message.
“Mason,” I said, a hint of shame in my voice. “This happened a week ago? I feel so—God, I hugged him last night. They watched us dance. I’m so embarrassed right now.” I covered my face with my hands. “I can’t believe Sarah knows I lied to her face about us. She’s going to be so upset.”
“She’s not upset at all,” he rushed out. “The opposite, actually—she seems thrilled about it.”
“But she’s still the principal—it’s her duty to report this. I warned you about this. Oh god, everything I feared is actually happening.”
“It’s not that bad, Kendall. I think you’re wrong about Sarah. I doubt she’ll run to the school board about this. Although…” He took a deep breath.
“What?”
Mason ran a finger along his bottom lip, contemplating his next words. He stared down at his coffee cup, unable to look me in the eye. Whatever he was about to say, I could tell it might be the worst news yet. And I was right. “Xander at the Woodvale Times may know, as well, and he might have also threatened to report us.”
Xander. That smarmy asshole. “Are you serious?”
“He came in the room right after we had sex, and he figured it out.”
“But you denied it, right?”
“Well, I—there wasn’t anything I could say. He wouldn’t have believed me, anyway.”
“So you just went along with it?” Of course he did. He wanted Xander to know—wanted to make him jealous after he hit on me. “What did you say when he threatened to turn us in?”
Mason hung his head in shame. “I sort of just… made fun of his writing. That was pretty much it.”
“You insulted the guy who holds our fate in his hands? Great.”
Mason rolled his eyes. “Come on.”
I scooted away from him. “Why are you minimizing all of this like it’s not a big deal? Nobody was supposed to find out about us, but now your entire family knows? And my boss? And the Woodvale Times? Half the town might know by now.”
I paused long enough to watch his eyes widen in panic.
“And don’t ever roll your eyes at me,” I continued. I almost stood up and walked away right then, but there was a lot left to discuss.
Regret was written all over Mason’s face. “I am so sorry. I won’t. I—I swear it wasn’t because of you. It was merely a reaction to the thought of Xander having any kind of control over us.”
His apology seemed genuine, but I was still fuming. Heath used to roll his eyes at me all the time, and it made me feel like my concerns were silly. Deep down, I knew Mason was nothing like Heath—it wasn’t fair of me to compare them. “Okay. Well, maybe he’s just bluffing. Owen could probably convince him to keep his mouth shut.”
“Probably. And if Sarah can have some grace, we’ll be fine. We can continue dating behind closed doors like we have been until summer. It’ll be okay.”
I rested my elbows on my knees and buried my head in my hands. “It’s not even December yet.”
Mason fell silent as I envisioned how the next few months would play out. Our inner circle of people who knew about our relationship had more than doubled, and it was only a matter of time before the rumor reached the wrong person. We’d already been so careless. Staring down at his coffee cup, Mason said, “If you want to play it safe and keep away from me, I’d understand. If I have to wait until June to touch you again, I will. It won’t be easy, but it would be worth it.”
I stared at him in bewilderment. “What are you saying?”
“I’m giving you an out. I can see that I’ve caused you so much stress already, and I don’t want to keep upsetting you.” He shook his head with a frown. “You could lose your job because of me. I don’t want to wait, but I will.”
“I’m not that worried about losing my job,” I admitted. It was the truth. “I would hate to leave Grissom and Sarah, but it’s not like there aren’t other teaching jobs all over the place.”
