“Would you two just listen? For fuck’s sake,” I demand before turning toward my best friend. “Dammit, Harry. I don’t want to hurt her. I don’t want to leave her. I want to be with her.” I turn my head to the side, falling right on Bailey’s glossed-over, surprised eyes.
“You what?” His tone drips with disdain.
Finally, that got their attention.
I turn to face her fully, meeting her eyes as they stare back at me fully dilated. “Bailey, I think I’m falling in love with you.”
Out of nowhere, I see something quickly come at me from my left. Everything goes black for a minute. My hand flies up to my jaw just as a bolt of pain shoots up the side of my face and into my skull.
Harry fucking punched me. Someone who I’ve known for almost ten years. My best friend. My business partner.
I hear Bailey scream, and she throws her hands over her mouth.
The blow causes me to take a few steps back, barely catching my balance. I take in forced air while adrenaline is pumping at full speed through me, requiring every ounce of self-control not to beat the shit out of Harry right now. I grit my teeth then turn to face him.
“You and I both know that I will level you! So, I’m going to let this one slide since she is your sister, but unless you want a repeat of college, you will never let that happen again.” I threaten him.
Refusing to give anyone another chance to speak, I storm out of the house. I’m not dealing with this right now with their family in the other room and the kids hardly out of range.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Bailey
It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours since Luca’s party, but I haven’t heard from Mason since he walked out. I’m not sure what to do at this point. I would love to call or text or even drop by, but I also want to give him some space. And myself with that regard. Our situation was never meant to get this far. I should have known. Lina and Avery tried to warn me. They knew, and I think I knew deep down as well.
In the last four months, I have seen layers of this man that I never knew existed. I’ve let him into my highly protected world. And the scary thing about letting him in is that it doesn’t feel wrong. It doesn’t feel like something that shouldn’t happen. It feels right like he’s meant to be with us.
I lie on my couch, staring up at the smooth white ceiling above me, replaying every single moment of Luca’s party. Tyler showing up unannounced, Mason confronting him, my family finding out about Mason and me, Harry hitting Mason in the face, and Mason admitting that he’s falling in love with me.
Saturday night after we’d gone home and Luca had gone to bed, I called Lina. I couldn’t call Avery, she’d be more practicaland would tell me that I shouldn’t have started this in the first place with him. Piper would have told me to suck it up and keep enjoying the toe-curling sex. But Lina, with her kind and empathic nature, can be just as emotional as me sometimes. We talked for over two hours.
She couldn’t believe that my brother hit Mason, but she was in even more disbelief when I told her that Mason said he’s falling in love with me. Naturally, her next line of questioning began with asking me if I felt the same.
And with that, I was honest with her and myself—yes, I am in love with him.
My eyes swell as they fill with moisture. The cool wind of the fan quickly dries my tears the minute they seep from the bottom of my eyelids, so I don’t even have to move to wipe them. I’m molded in the fabric of the couch, my legs and arms weak with sadness.
I should be happy about Mason’s sudden admission, but it scares me to my core. I also know without a doubt that I am in love with him, too, and have been for some time now. I wasn’t expecting it, and at this point, I have no clue what to do about the revelation.
When it was only my feelings I had to worry about, it was simple. I could hide behind the belief that he didn’t feel the same toward me, and somehow it allowed me to maintain a barrier between us. I could quickly dismiss my emotions, keeping my heart protected and safe. It’s been frozen, trapped beneath a mountain of ice for so long. The moment I heard Mason’s words, my heart shattered into a million tiny fractals.
I close my eyes and roll over to the side, tucking myself into the cushion of the couch.
Mason moves into his new house this week, which means I won’t see him around our condo building anymore. Now, theonly time I’ll see him is during events at the restaurant. Other than that, we probably won’t be running into each other.
I wish I never would have agreed to have a drink with him that night in Burbank. That fucking layover. I hate unplanned layovers, and I hate them more now than I ever have.
I bet he’s home by now. I need to tell him that we can’t do this anymore. I need to be honest about our arrangement and how I should have known that it wasn’t a good idea. It’s just going to continue to cause more heartache.
But until then, I bury my head further into the corner of the couch as my body is wracked with sobs. Saying goodbye to Mason is going to hurt like hell.
A light knock at the door stirs me from my crying daze. I lift myself up, pushing the sticky hair away from my face. When I get to the door, I stand on my tippy toes to peer through the peephole. My stomach sinks, and a wave of nausea takes over when I see his emerald eyes.
I don’t want to say goodbye to him. I really don’t. I wrap my arms around the middle of my body and open the door.
Be strong.
The moment I see Mason, my legs go weak, and my body pains to touch him even more so now that I am aware of how he feels. His arms are hanging on the top of the door frame, and his head dips down in front of him.
