Skylar Sutton: I’m fine. I ALMOST went an entire day without thinking about you.
“Damn it!”
His phone went into the nightstand’s drawer and he grabbed a pair of pajama pants from the dresser. He was going to take the hottest shower his body could handle.
No more bothering Sky.
Hewas steaming as he stripped off his T-shirt and joggers. Why was he torturing himself and Sky when there was nothing either of them could do? Mason knew better and should have taken Sky’s cue and stripped the bed the day he left. This was what was best and exactly what Mason deserved, why couldn’t he accept his punishment gracefully?
Probably because Sky was talking to his mother and if anyonedidn’tdeserve Sky’s forgiveness, it was Adele.
Sarina was there when Adele received a call from Sky, demanding to know whyallof his comics and video games had been delivered to his place in Brooklyn and why she couldn’t have warned him so he’d have someplace to store them.
“Shehad the nerve to call him irrational and overdramatic,” Sarina recounted while Sam was in his bathroom, taking the world’s loudest shower. They were in the hallway, keeping an ear on him and Mason would flinch every time there was a bang but Sarina barely noticed. She had nerves of steel and often reminded Mason of how hardheaded and durablehewas as a child. “Mom said that Sky was being distant and dodging her calls, so she decided to teach him a lesson with a hugely inconvenient delivery.”
For a moment, Mason reeled, appalled at Adele’s pettiness and baffled by her logic. “Does she have any self-awareness or is she the Queen of Delusions?”
Sarina answered with a weary groan. “Remember when she was almost killed by an olive? That was the last time an olive ever crossed the threshold of our house.”
“It was your ninth birthday party,” Mason recalled with a pained grunt. “Your dad gave her the Heimlich maneuver but she accusedhim of trying to kill her because he made the martini.”
Sarina snickered, rolling her eyes. “Dad got so mad and asked why he would have gone to the trouble of saving her, instead of letting her choke and giving us all peace.”
“Your parents had the wildest fights on your birthdays.”
“I don’t know why they ever bothered to hire entertainment or pay for fireworks,” Sarina murmured. “What’s funnier than Mom ranting about an olive conspiracy and ordering Nadine to remove every jar—including the tapenades—from the premises immediately?”
“Funny or sad?” Mason asked, receiving a distracted shrug.
“Does it matter, as long as you’re laughing? You know, it’s easier for Sky to forgive Mom and let her back in. It doesn’t cost him anything because he’s never expected anything from her. Shecan’thurt him anymore. He still feels too much with you,” she said apologetically.
“I know.” Mason had nodded appropriately. But he felt like he’d been wounded as he tucked Sam in and readWhere The Wild Things Are. He felt like he was covered in fresh bruises and had been stabbed in several places as he paced and wished for a way to fixthismess—the problem he had created and that was doing the worst damage.
“I have to let him go but this is killing me,” he whispered to himself as he pulled up a picture of Sky and Sam. They were playing on the beach and laughing after a short chase. Sky was holding Sam over his head, pretending he was going to launch him into the sea.
Kind of the point, isn’t it?
Mason had made his choice when he proposed to Sarina and vowed to protect and love her and Sam for the rest of his days. He had meant it then and he still did. He loved them, and Mason wouldalways be grateful to Sarina for the beautiful life they had built together.
He couldn’t be that man and the man who loved Sky with every particle of his being. One of them had to go, and it was far easier to keep everybody’s favorite Mason. The other Mason was too dangerous, could destroy everything they had built, and hurt more people—including Sam.
But letting go meant that he was letting Sky down again, once and for all. Deep in Mason’s heart, he wanted to be Sky’s knight, too. To give him the life he deserved. That felt like Mason’s destiny just as much as caring for Sarina and Sam and being mayor. Giving up on Sky meant that Mason was giving up on that as well and it didn’t feel right. It felt like failure and forfeiting something precious and vital.
What choice did Mason have? He would fight for them if there was a way, but it would be a disaster if he divorced Sarina, came out, and confessed his love for Sky. Their relationship might not create much of a scandal if they started over somewhere else, but it would kill Mason to leave Roseview and his parents.
Everyone’slives would be negatively affected. Mason’s parents' schedules revolved around Sam because they were retired and obsessed with their only grandson. Nadine and Adele would never forgive Mason if Sky couldn’t show his face in Roseview because of him. And what about Sam? Would Mason and Sarina share custody and make Sam juggle two lives in two separate towns or states?
There was also Roseview to consider. Kyle could cover for Mason if he left town for a few days or even a few weeks, but finding a new mayor would be a nightmare for Roseview. Not that it was a particularly tricky town to manage or that Mason was an exceptionally talented civil servant. But he knew the town, its codes and laws, and its people as well as he knew himself. Hehad learned at his father’s and his grandfather’s side about how to care for Roseview and its residents and how to get things done on a shoestring budget.
Mason rarely had to convene the town council when there was a problem because he usually knew exactly who to call and how to get things done with just a handshake. People trusted him and caredwithhim because they knew he was sincere and doing what was best for Roseview. They trusted him because he wasn’t a politician. That was exactly what the town would get if Mason left.
Unless his dad came out of retirement, but that was not an option in Mason’s mind. His dad helped build and served the town selflessly for most of his life. The man deserved to have time for his hobbies and long, lazy weekends with his wife and his grandson. Mason’s mother also deserved a relaxed, happy life with her guys, not the embarrassment of a family scandal and a community upheaval.
Mason’s most selfish reason for not wanting to leave was Sarina. He couldn’t imagine living without her. He didn’t have to livewithher, necessarily, but to be separated by miles or even states? That was like losing a limb or the voice inside his head. She would suffer too because no one understood her like Mason and there was no one else she could trust implicitly.
For Sky, the answer would be no. As complicated as his relationships were with his family, his mother, and Roseview, Sky would never choose to cut himself off from them or the Sutton House. He wouldnevercome between Sarina and Mason. That relationship was just as fundamental to Sky’s identity and made Roseview safe and worth returning to for him. Mason and Sarina were the few fragments of his awful family that he had left.
Which was really shitty and unfortunate for Sky. He had lost so much already, and what was lost wasn’t that great. What remained was…damaged. His mother had always been broken and empty and had given her children nothing but callouses and scars. Things were better between Sarina and Sky, but he was in love with her husband. That had to be hell for his conscience and deeply confusing, even if she was alright with it.
