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With some quick and sneaky footwork, I escaped the reporters and the arena. I headed home with a plan to take a shower, throw a bunch of crap into a bag, and hitch a ride with Mason to the charter plane. Thankfully, when I pulled up to my house, Mason’s car was already parked outside. He was undoubtedly playing on my Xbox and eating all the food in my fridge again.
But when I went inside, I didn’t see him in the living room, although his luggage was packed by the front door.
“Mason?” I called out. No answer. Huh. Might be in thebathroom.
I dropped my stuff on the floor to sort out later and headed up to my room. I kicked open my door, already taking off my hoodie, needing to get in high gear if I didn’t want to be late. The fabric blinded me for a second, and when I pulled it over my eyes, I saw a man staring at me from the edgeof my bed.
“Jesus!” I chucked my hoodie at Mason for scaring the crap out of me and headed for my bathroom, walking off the startlement. “What the hell, man?”
Mason got up and followed me. “Sorry.”
I turned on the shower and faced him, concerned. He sounded somber; he looked it too, leaning against the sink, his arms folded and hishead down.
“Oh my God.” I grabbed him by the arms, and he looked up. “Is your mom okay?” I had just seen her yesterday with Kingston and she lookedfine then.
“She’s fine,” he reassured me, but bit his lip, looking away from me
I breathed a sigh. “Then what’s up? I’m pretty sure your dog didn’t die. You don’t have one,” I said, trying to lightenthe mood.
“I don’t want you to be mad.”
Mad? I studied him. He was starting to worry me. I could count on one hand how many times I’d gotten truly pissed at Mason and still have three fingers left. I nodded for him to get on with it.
“I’m going to go on a date with Drew.”
I took a second to process.
Then I screamed and launched myself at him. I squeezed him to me and squealed into his ear. I might have shaken him, or I could have just been vibrating with joy—I couldn’t tell. When I finally pulled back and saw his wincing face, I loosed my grip a little but didn’t let go. “Fucking finally!” I shouted to the heavens.
“You’re not mad?” Mason asked, looking as timid as I had everseen him.
“Of course, I’m not mad, you fucking idiot!” I definitely shook him this time. “I’ve been waiting for this day for years, Mase!”
Oh my God! This was finally happening. I wanted to dance around the room with him in celebration, but we needed toget going.
“Crap. I have to shower. Don’t move,” I said, got undressed, and hopped under the shower spray as Mason sat on the closed toilet lid. His silhouette was blurry through the frosted glass door.
“Tell me everything,” I shouted over the running water as I lathered up my hair.
“Well, I was going to go home a little bit after you left with Kingston yesterday, but Drew came home early from his meeting. He had a bunch of groceries and started makingblini. So of course,I stayed.”
Ah.Bliniwere essentially Russian crepes and one of the only things I could make consistently well. I’d bribed Mason with them a million times; they were his weakness. Add in the fact that Drew was cooking, and Mason wouldn’t have left this house if his life depended on it.
“We got to talking, and somehow, we ended up on the couch. Then we were kissing.” His voice turned shy at the end until I could just barely hear him overthe water.
I rinsed my hair then applied conditioner, rubbing harshly with my excitement. “Who kissed who first?” I asked like a teenage girl. I couldn’t help it; it was finallyhappening!
“I don’t really know. We kinda just fell into each other.”
I was mid “awe” when a horrible thought occurred to me. “Please tell me you guys didn’t have sex on that couch!”
I could practically feel Mason rolling his eyes. “No. We decided to go slowly and make a real relationship out of this. We don’t want to mess things up.”
They could never mess things up. If there were ever any two people that were made for each other, it was Drew and Mason. They weren’t the best of friends when Mason and I were kids; Drew was too old and cool for us, but Mason had been in love with him forever. I’ve had to watch him moon over Drew since Mason met him.
When our parents died, and Drew transferred to New York to raise me, he got to know Mason more as an almost-adult. It took longer for Drew than it did for Mason, but eventually, Drew had fallen just as hard. Of course, he didn’t act on it. Mason was seventeen and had a promising career in a homophobic field. Drew, my sweet, overprotective, mother-hen brother, didn’t want Mason to jeopardize his life for Drew. He left the city without a word about his feelings when Mason and I were drafted.
I never knew if the guys had ever realized that their feelings were mutual. I had to physically silence myself on more than one occasion, having promised both of them not to reveal their secrets to the other. It was painful to watch sometimes, but I had faith that it would work itself out in the end. And it looked like my patience was paying off. This was the start of the rest of their lives.
