Chapter 32: Thirty-one

“Mason?”

I was dreaming about taking Sarah and Reese to a carnival. Reese was joking with the ride operator for the Ferris wheel, and I was picking my sister up from her chair to load her into our pod when my mother’s voice snapped, “~Mason~!”

I woke with a start, jerking upright in bed, only to bump into Reese who’d been passed out next to me.

She and I shared a wide-eyed glance before I glanced up at my mother, who stood hovering over my bed with her hands on her hips and a scowl on her face.

“Mom,” I gasped, thumping my hand to my heart before falling backward onto my bed. “Jesus, you gave me a heart attack.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” she muttered, scowling Reese’s way. “But I wasn’t expecting to check on you and find you in bed ~with Reese~.”

I blinked. “You still check on me at night?” I hadn’t thought she’d cared that much. The woman barely touched me.

“Yes!” she exclaimed in outrage, tossing up her hands incredulously. “I’m your ~mother~, aren’t I? Now, are you going to explain what you’re doing in bed with the babysitter or not?”

I finally glanced over at Reese, who looked pale and wide-eyed. Grabbing her hand to reassure her, I turned back to Mom. “Jeez, Mom, nothing happened. Look. We still have our clothes on.”

Mom lifted her eyebrows as if pissed, which was sort of charming. Maybe she did care about my damned soul after all. But Reese continued trembling with worry next to me, so I set to work smoothing out the tension.

“Sarah…she had a seizure,” I lied. “And Reese flipped out. She tried calling you first, but I don’t know, maybe she dialed the wrong number. Anyway, she couldn’t reach you, so she called me next. After we put the munchkin to sleep, Reese sort of lost it and started crying. I wasn’t sure what to do to help her. So I made her lie down and talk things through. Then we both fell asleep, and you came home, and that’s where we are now.”

Reese squeezed my hand under the blanket. I’m not sure if she was congratulating me for my quick thinking or reprimanding me for lying so thoroughly to my mom, but she didn’t correct me, so I guess she couldn’t be too upset.

Mom glanced between us before her brow wrinkled with concern. “Sarah had a seizure? Is she okay?”

“She’s fine,” I rushed to reassure her. “She seemed lucid and alert after it was over. We read some ~Harry Potter~ together before she went to bed.”

“Good.” With a tired sigh, Mom rubbed her forehead. “Thanks for being here, Reese.” She sent Reese a sympathetic wince. “Poor dear, you still look shaken. Your eyes are red and swollen.”

When Reese glanced down shyly, I slid an arm around her and pulled her close. “I’m going to drive her home. Her friend called and needed to borrow her car, so she needs a ride.”

Reese’s face popped up and she ogled me as if I’d lost my mind, but she still didn’t contradict me, so I kept on with the path I wanted to take, which was to never leave her side again.

I returned my attention to my mom. “Thanks for checking on me, though.”

Mom seemed rattled by that. “Uh…” Not sure how to respond and always uncomfortable when it came to too much mother-son bonding, she nodded and immediately started backing toward the doorway. “Yeah. Sure.” And…she was gone, leaving Reese and me time to crawl out of bed so I could find some damn pants.

“I can’t believe you just totally lied to her,” she hissed, keeping her voice low as she watched me tug on a pair of jeans.

“I didn’t ~lie~,” I hissed back. “Sarah really did have an attack, and I really did calm you down afterward. Just…not tonight.”

With a snort, she rolled her eyes, only to end it with a grin. “It’s scary how smooth you can lie.”

God, I loved that smile. She always managed to help me find joy, no matter what was happening.

I smiled back and grabbed her hand so I could kiss her knuckles. “Only on Fridays.”

Pushing my feet into some shoes, I kept hold of her fingers and laced them through mine before leading her from the room and down the hall toward the kitchen, where Mom was getting some tea to drink.

Mom raised her eyebrows as if she thought we wanted to say something more than a farewell.

Reese surprised me by letting go of my hand and stepping toward her only to throw her arms around my mother in a big hug. “I just want you to know you have some amazing children.”

Mom and I exchanged a wide-eyed glance over Reese’s shoulder before she seemed to hug Reese back and patted her arm. “I do, don’t I?”

After the night we’d just had, the fact that Reese wanted to call me amazing made me love her even more, all the while my guilt soared.

If only she knew everything I’d ever lied about, would she still think I was so awesome? Would she understand why I’d altered the truth all those times, or would she finally hate me as I probably deserved?

“And I know they’re both very fond of you too,” Mom murmured as she pulled away.

Fond was such a mild word for all the things Sarah and I felt for Reese. But for now, it worked.

I recaptured Reese’s hand and told my mom, “I’ll be back in the morning.”

Reese gaped up at me, tripping when I started us out the back door, tugging her along without warning. “Mason!” she gasped as soon as we were outside. “Oh my God. I can’t believe you just told her that.”

“What?” I arched my brows. “I thought you didn’t want me to lie to her.”

“But now she’s going to think we’ll be having sex all night.”

I shrugged, picturing it, even though I knew it wouldn’t happen. “Well… A guy can dream, can’t he?”

She backhanded my shoulder, but then her gaze drifted toward the landlady’s house. I hurried her more quickly toward my Jeep. She was still staring fixedly at Patricia’s place by the time I climbed into the driver’s seat next to her.

When I murmured her name, she finally looked over. “I hate her,” she said. “I really, ~really~ hate her.”

I sniffed out a sad smile and kissed her forehead. “That makes two of us.”

I wondered if it would be more merciful to tell her the truth, or if it even mattered at this point. Not wanting to load a new worry—like her ex-boyfriend—on her tonight, I started the engine and backed us from the driveway.

We didn’t say anything else about Patricia. Then again, neither of us talked at all. Worried that silence meant something bad, I blurted the first thing that came to my mind.

“So, I got a B on my last calculus test. Did I win our bet?”

She hugged herself. “We never actually bet anything.” Then she glanced over and a spark of her usual self illuminated through the pain. “But yeah, I totally kicked your ass with a ninety-eight percent.”

My lips quirked up with a grin. “Show-off,” I murmured.

Her toe slowly swung over across the seats to bump into my leg. “You know it.”

Relief shuddered through me. We were going to make it, I realized then. Somehow, we’d eventually be okay again.

Maybe not tonight. Maybe not even soon. But someday.

“And I’ve been taste testing different flavors of those fancy drinks you like,” I went on.

Reese snorted. “I don’t know why you would bother. You’re never going to find anything better than my white chocolate mocha espresso.”

“My favorite so far is the triple mocha frappe.”

She huffed out a sound of disgust before muttering, “No taste. You have absolutely no taste at all. I don’t know why I put up with you.”

I clucked my tongue and nodded in fake mourning. “That ~is~ a mystery. On the other hand, I think I figured out who put Harry’s name into the goblet.”

“Oh?” She perked to attention, twisting in her seat to face me. She even tucked her foot under her and bounced her knee in excitement. “What’s your theory?”

I pulled into the Mercers’ driveway and parked in front of a closed garage door. “Well, it has to be a death eater, or ~someone~ working for Voldemort, because Dumbledore is completely not happy about him being in the games.”

Reese snickered as she pushed open her door and came around to meet me at the driver’s side so we could walk up the steps in the dark together. “Not even close,” she told me, taking my hand.

I gripped her fingers firmly and glanced around, on the lookout for anything out of place or suspicious. There was no logical way her ex could make it here from Illinois that fast, even if Patricia had called him as soon as I’d walked out the door. But I felt on edge anyway. I hurried us toward the steps and stayed by her side the entire way. “Really?” I answered as we moved, frowning over how wrong my guess was. “And here I was sure it had to be—”

“I’m just kidding,” she butted in cheerfully, popping forward in front of me to unlock the door. “You’re totally right. It ~is~ a death eater.”

She swung the door open and entered the apartment before I could grab her waist and stall her. I’d kind of wanted to enter before she did so I could check the place out. But my fingers only caught air as she disappeared inside.

Darkness engulfed her, and for a split second I panicked, thinking he already had her and it was all my fault. But then she turned on a light, and I huffed out a breath, quickly stepping inside and closing the door at my back so she wouldn’t notice anything wrong with me.

“How’d you figure it out?” she asked, pocketing her keys back into her purse and hanging the whole bundle on a nearby wall hook.

I watched her, glad she didn’t seem worried or nervous. I doubt she’d be this undaunted right now if I’d told her the truth. Comforted by that thought. I followed her to her bedroom.

“Well, Snape just noticed ingredients for polyjuice missing, which makes me think someone bad is pretending to be someone good. You know, like someone close to Harry.”

“Wow, you are good.” Reese sent me an approving nod before opening a dresser drawer and pulling out a wad of clothing. “I’m going to go change into some PJs in the bathroom, okay?”

Nodding, I watched her disappear into the small bathroom, though I didn’t envy her for her choice of changing spots. How many times had I bumped into a wall in there myself?

As if on cue, I heard a thud on the other side of the door preceding Reese’s outburst of, “Ouch! ~Son of a bitch~.”

I grinned and shook my head. “You okay?”

“Fine! Just fine,” her muffled voice returned before scuffling and more muttered curses followed.

Not about to change in that deathtrap of a cubicle myself, I stripped down to my boxer briefs right where I stood, figuring it would be okay to wear just that since she’d already seen me in them at my place.

I was bending over to take off my socks just as I saw a spider scurry across the floor. Knowing Reese would not like knowing it was squatting in her bedroom. I grabbed my shoe that was lying abandoned on its side not far away and I quickly slapped it down over the arachnid, hissing, “Yes!” when I caught it on the first try.

“What was that?” a worried voice asked from the direction of Reese’s bathroom.

I winced up at her, only for my breath to stall in my chest. Standing in the open doorway of her bathroom, she wore a worn oversized T-shirt-looking thing where one sleeve was threatening to slip off her right shoulder. It fell to mid-thigh and made her legs look incredibly long. My brain momentarily stalled out, imagining those legs wrapped around me as I tugged up the hem of that shirt and pushed inside her.

God…damn.

I shook my head and managed to meet her eyes. Then, with an innocent wince, I answered, “Nothing.”

She narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. “It was a spider, wasn’t it?”

“No,” I started, shaking my head.

With a sniff, she glanced at my shoe. “Just tell me it didn’t look like a mama spider that probably had a million other baby spiders that are probably hiding out in here somewhere, too.”

Obliging, I nodded. “It totally looked like a single man spider, one of those playboy bachelors afraid of commitment and children and all that shit.”

She finally cracked a smile. “You are so full of it. But thank you.”

When she started forward as if to hug me for getting rid of the spider, I rose to my full height to receive it, but she jarred to a halt and gaped down the length of my body. “Oh,” she said breathlessly. “You’re…”

“Was this okay?” I asked, spreading my arms and looking down at my jockey shorts. “You said you were changing into your pajamas, so I thought—”

“No, no. This is fine.” She waved a hand and smiled at me, only to glance uncertainly toward the bed and then back to my chest. A huge breath heaved from her. “So…” She licked her lips like it was a nervous gesture. “How are we going to do this?”

I’d never seen her look so uncertain before. It was cute.

Taking over, I said, “Like this.”

I grasped her hand to lead her to the bed, where I lifted the blankets for her to slide under. Then I flipped off the lights and used the streetlamps flooding into the room to guide me back to her. Once I burrowed in beside her, I pulled her close and kissed her hair.

She melted against me and slid her hand across the surface of my chest before kissing my shoulder. “Tonight’s been…weird,” she said in the dark of the room.

I kissed her hair and took her hand, drawing the picture of a spider on her palm with my index finger. Blowing out a breath, I agreed, “It’s definitely been something.”

“We kissed,” she reminded me. “Our first kiss.”

I smiled and pulled her closer. “Yeah.”

“You’re not a bad kisser.”

“Thanks.” Beaming, I nudged my hip against hers and teased, “You could use some work.”

She gasped. “Excuse me?”

My body shook with all the silent laughter I was trying to contain as I added, “But I’m sure with sufficient practice, we’ll get it right.”

“You are such a liar.” She poked me in the side, only to pause. “Wait. Are you drawing a freaking ~spider~ on my hand? ~Mason~!”

When she jerked her fingers away in righteous indignation, I cracked up laughing out loud.

“Oh my God, I love you,” I hooted. “I can’t believe you were more offended by ~that~ than me calling you a bad kisser.”

She sniffed mutinously. “Yeah, well… There’s no way I’m actually a bad kisser. I’m awesome at everything.”

“Truth,” I murmured, still grinning.

She still sounded petulant when she muttered, “And I love you, too,” before she settled back against me and softened into my arms. “Now give me ~your~ hand so I can draw a creepy, scary picture on ~you~.”

I willingly handed my fingers over, and she set to work on me.

“A flower?” I guessed two seconds later.

“Nope.”

“Duck?”

“Not even close. And how are ducks and flowers even remotely creepy or scary?”

I shrugged. “A duck chased me at the park once when I was five. I cried.”

“Aww, you poor thing. That does sound traumatic.”

“My mom laughed.”

After a pause, she answered, “Yeah, I probably would have too. Keep guessing.”

“A whale on drugs?”

With a snort, she intoned, “Wow. You are genuinely bad at this.”

I shrugged. “At least I’m still a good kisser.” Giving into temptation, I slid my bare leg against hers under the covers, delighting in her warm, smooth skin.

“Yeah,” she murmured, agreeing as she moved with me as if she wanted to feel more of me against her too. “I guess we can’t all be good at everything, though, like I am.”

“Truth,” I repeated, moving my face closer to hers.

Her toes found mine, and she nudged my big toe with hers, making me nudge back, until it was a full-out war and we were laughing and rolling across the bed.

Just when Reese came too close to the edge of the mattress and started to go over the side, I grabbed her hip and yanked her back from falling.

We were still breathing hard from our match as she leaned her face against my neck and touched my cheek, as if trying to mourn over the bad parts of the night with me.

I turned my face in to kiss her palm, right where I’d drawn my spider. “It’s going to be okay,” I murmured.

“I know,” she said, but she still sounded sad.

So I reiterated, “~We’re ~going to be okay. If you can forgive me for all my fuckups, then I can forgive you for being perfect at everything.”

She hummed out a sound of amusement before letting out a long breath. “If I were really perfect, then I would’ve known what the right thing to do tonight was, and I would’ve done it. I would’ve saved you from going over there and—”

“You did save me,” I told her. “In more ways than you’ll ever understand. You’re my hero, Reese. Before you came along, everything inside me felt so dark and miserable. But now…it’s not.”

After a long pause, she said, “Thank you,” and squeezed my wrist.

I caught her hand and linked our fingers together. “You want to know the crazy thing? All your flaws and quirks are probably the parts I love most about you.”

“Really?”

I kissed her cheek. “Really.”

“Want to know what I love most about you?” she asked.

“Of course.” I was dying to know. It mystified me why she even bothered to give me the time of day.

“I mean, aside from your butt,” she started. “It’s that you seem to like me just the way I am, flaws and all. Jeremy always made me feel ashamed for saying or doing certain things. You know, those crazy, weird quirky things I say and do. Even my friends and family have tried to temper some of my more outgoing oddities, but not you. You’ve just accepted me for what I am, and it’s so nice and refreshing, and I think it made me open up to you probably more than I ever have to anyone else, so…thank you. Thank you for making me feel secure and comfortable enough to just be me.”

I really didn’t feel as if I should be thanked for anything tonight, not while I had another woman’s hickey on my chest or while I was purposely not telling her that her life might now be in danger. But I was happy to hear her say what she did and learn I actually ~did~ do something positive and good for her. My eyes went damp as I kissed her hair and then pressed my cheek against it.

“You did it now,” I warned on a sympathetic sigh. “You just went and got yourself stuck with one Mason Lowe for the rest of your life. Way to go, lady.”

It did my heart good when she said, “Good,” as if she were genuinely pleased to have me.

I think we both knew nothing could top this moment, so we didn’t even try. We just lay there in the quiet darkness and held each other. I listened as her breathing slowed and she fell asleep in my arms. Then I finally gave into sleep myself, and the rest of the night passed without incident.