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After Mason hung up, he said to Georgia, “Okay, now I need your cell phone.”
“What?” The teen looked at him like he’d sprouted another head.
“If Bethany calls again, I want to be the one to answer.”
With a huff of disgust, she dug her phone out of her backpack and handed it over. “She’s going to be really mad at me about this.”
“As long as she’s alive to be mad, I’ll take it,” Lacey muttered.
They exited Georgia’s house and climbed back into the car.
By this time, the sun was disappearing on the horizon and Lacey’s stomach growled its hunger.
Mason glanced at her as he stuck the key into the ignition. “Hungry?”
She placed a hand over her middle and flushed. “You heard?”
“I’d have to be deaf not to.”
A giggle escaped her before she could stop it. Then sadness immediately engulfed her. He could always make her laugh. Even in the worst of times. Times like now. A time when she had no right to feel the slightest bit of levity.
She blinked when he leaned over and pulled her into a light hug. Stunned, she froze. What was he doing? Why was he trying to offer her comfort when she’d kept his daughter from him?
He must have felt her tension, the confusion emanating from her, because he let her go and started the car without another comment.
But she still felt his arms around her. Still smelled his spicy cologne. The same cologne he used sixteen years ago.
“I’m sorry,” she blurted.
He glanced at her as he pulled away from the curb.
“For?”
“Keeping Bethany away from you. Regardless of how we parted, I should have found a way to tell you. To make you listen.” It was hard to swallow her pride and admit that. Yes, he’d been wrong, too, but once she’d worked through the hurt and come to know Christ, she should have contacted him.
But she hadn’t.
“I’m sorry about that, too.”
“No matter what you believe, I didn’t cheat on you with Daniel.” She sucked in a deep breath and waited for his response.
Disappointment sliced through her when he didn’t give her one. Instead, he pulled into the parking lot of the local fifties-style restaurant where customers ordered and ate in the car.
It was late and there was only one other car in the parking lot. A cute waitress, probably working her way through college, approached the vehicle. Lacey gave her order and then Mason did the same.
Then silence settled over them. An uncomfortable one that made her want to squirm. She refused.
Finally, he broke the quiet. “I want to believe you, Lacey. I just…” He stopped and drew in a deep breath. “I can’t believe this is happening sixteen years later. Seeing you again has brought back all kinds of feelings I thought I’d…” Once again he paused. “Bethany sounds like a great kid. You’ve done a good job with her.”
“She likes to paint,” Lacey blurted.
He jerked. “What?”
“You remember how you’d always bring your sketch book to the lake and draw anything that caught your attention?”
A soft smile curved his lips. “Yeah.”
“Bethany loves to paint. Oil, watercolor, whatever.”
