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Scarlet
“This seat taken?”
I lean into Mason as he sinks down next to me on the stone steps outside the house, closing my eyes when his arm wraps around me like a blanket.
“You’ve been out here for hours.”
“Hmm. I’m thinking.”
He toes the piece of chalk left behind by the kids. “Did you catch a call with Fran?”
I nod. “It was brutal.”
Mason chuckles. “You always say that.” Silence settles, the comfort of his warmth at my side and just being here with him making everything feel a little less shit. “I spoke to him earlier. He’s home.”
No, he isn’t.
“He shouldn’t be driving. He’ll lose his licence if he gets caught.”
“I told him that, too.”
I squeeze the sleeve of my cardigan when my eyes burn. “I don’t know what I’m doing, Mase.”
“Then we’re all fucked,” he says, and I know he’s smiling. “I probably should’ve sent my wife out here.”
I shake my head, slipping my arm around his waist. “No, I’m glad it’s you.”
My brother tenses before holding me tighter.
“How do you do it? How do you love Nina like you do—the kids—without fear of something happening. You almost lost Nina once.”
“I physically couldn’t not,” he says simply. “It doesn’t feel like an option. I met her and knew she’d be it for me.”
“I think that’s why this feels so wrong. No matter how much I don’t want to, I can’t not.”
“What holds you back?”
“The idea of him leaving again.” I roll my lips. “Everyone leaves, Mase.”
“Lance didn’t leave.”
I frown.
“Not by choice,” he adds. “He did something I didn’t. He was here for you when I wasn’t.” He shrugs as if it’s simple. “You let me back in.”
“You’re my brother.”
“And I treated you like shit. Has Lance ever treated you so poorly?”
I shake my head.
He reaches for the piece of chalk, writing Lance’s name and then mine beside it, dividing it with a line down the middle and adding a tally under Lance’s name.
I chuckle and push into him. “You’re such a softy these days, it’s gross.”
“Give me the worst thing Lance has ever done to you.”
“I don’t know… he ghosted me for a year once.”
