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He’d texted her a few more times. Her delayed responses had been short and clipped, as if she were trying to use as few words as possible. She was pulling away. He should be happy about that, right? He was the one who’d said no distractions. Then why was he so disappointed?
An hour later, Mason entered his therapist’s office. The dark-haired woman motioned him to the seat across from her. He scanned the room as he always did. There were the same light walls with neutral cool-colored paintings adorning them. The only thing new was a bouquet of wildflowers in the vase on the coffee table between them. Just like the ones I got for Pippa.
“Mason, how are you?” Rebecca Cole, his therapist, asked.
He sat back on the couch, adjusting the pillow behind his spine before he crossed one leg over the other in a figure four. “Pretty good.”
Rebecca smiled and pulled a notepad and paper onto her lap. “Did you want to continue with our EMDR therapy today?”
Mason swallowed. The only way to get through this was to rip the Band-Aid off. This woman had helped him when he was at his lowest. She knew the darkest parts of him. She was the perfect one to ask for advice. “Actually, I’d rather talk about the fact that I kinda met someone.”
Her eyebrows rose. “Oh?”
He nodded. “She, uh, well, she’s pretty great.”
Rebecca smiled. “How did you two meet?”
Mason explained the whole debacle with Aspen getting her first period and the pharmacy robbery.
“Wow, that’s quite the story.”
He grinned. “We’ve been hanging out some. She and Aspen really clicked. And then Pippa and I . . .” He cleared his throat.
“Were intimate?”
“Sort of. And I was clear from the beginning that I couldn’t give her more than that. That friendship was all I could offer. She’s the one who suggested a friends-with-benefits situation.”
Dr. Cole nodded. “And you’re still happy with this arrangement?”
He sighed. “Honestly? I don’t know. I mean, we’ve been hanging out with Aspen, and we haven’t really had any more . . . benefits. But after she had a seizure at the dinner party a couple weeks ago, she’s been . . . distant.”
“Is she okay?” Rebecca’s brows drew together in concern.
He waved his hand. “Oh, yes. With her epilepsy, it happens pretty often, from what I gathered.”
Rebecca leaned forward. “So, let me get this straight. You met Pippa, had a connection, started spending time with her and Aspen, and then decided to entertain the idea of a physical relationship with her without romantic entanglements. Now she’s pulling away, and you don’t like it?”
“Pretty much.”
“Why are you so hesitant to enter into a romantic relationship with her? Is it because of her medical condition?” Rebecca asked.
“What? No.” He shook his head.
“Then what is it?”
He shifted in his seat. “Aspen is my priority.”
“I think a lot of women would be able to understand that, as a single father, your child comes first. What is it that you’re really afraid of?” His therapist knew which buttons to push.
Mason leaned forward, his elbows on his thighs. “I let Amanda down when she needed me most because the SEALs were my priority. I let my men down because I was so distracted with getting back to my little girl after Amanda died. And Charli got attacked at the bar because I had to rush home to my sick daughter. Every time I have more than one priority to juggle, I fail. And it always has devastating consequences.”
Rebecca set her pad of paper and pen on the coffee table between them before they locked eyes. “That’s a lot of responsibility to carry on your shoulders.”
He shrugged.
“You must think pretty highly of yourself if you believe you could have saved so many people’s lives.”
Mason’s jaw tensed as he sat up straighter. It was the opposite. He was a failure, not a hero. “That isn’t what I meant.”
