by Ella Frank
“Lena, dear, how are you? I finally have a minute to talk to you without Mason hogging you to himself.”
Lena smiled at her and reached out, taking Catherine’s hand in her own. She squeezed it gently. “I’m great. Work’s busy and things with Mason are going very well. I know that’s what you really want to know.”
Catherine laughed and nodded. “It’s true, that is what I wanted to know. He tells me you go down and visit Carly on your own now. That’s a really big step for you, Lena O’Donnell. I’m proud of you.”
Lena felt tears gather in her eyes and swallowed deeply, trying to hold it together. “It’s all because of him.” She paused and looked at Mason, who was smiling at Wendy and her husband. “If you’re going to be proud of anyone it should be him.”
Catherine patted her hand. “Oh, don’t you worry. I’m very proud of him and I’m grateful to you.”
Lena tilted her head and asked, “Grateful? Why?”
“You came along at the perfect time, Lena. He was ready to settle down. He just hadn’t met anyone worth doing that with, and especially not that silly redheaded twit.”
Lena’s eyebrow rose. “Trisha?”
“Yes, her. I met her once and I have to tell you, if he’d chosen her I would’ve done my best, but Lena, I’ve never been so happy to see him leave a woman.”
Laughing, Lena watched as Mason looked at her and smiled a slow, sexy grin that showed his dimples off and made his eyes twinkle. She felt her heart kick up and do double time. Then he looked back at Wendy and Lena turned back to Catherine.
“I guess it was right place, right time?”
Nodding, Catherine agreed and then said softly, “But I’m grateful you opened to him, Lena. I was worried at first.”
“Worried?” she asked. “About me?”
“No. I was worried about him.”
Lena sat back at that. “Oh.”
“Not because you aren’t a wonderful person, dear.” She paused and scooted closer to Lena. “Because you were so closed-off emotionally. I knew you were scared to open your heart to someone. I watched you grow from a young girl to the amazing woman sitting beside me. A few months ago was the first time I saw you relax and smile.”
Lena felt tears welling in her eyes and she reached up to brush them away.
“I’m glad my Mason did that for you and I’m glad you let him.” Catherine smiled and leaned in, kissing Lena’s cheek. “You two need to look after one another, promise me.”
Nodding, Lena looked at Mason, to where he sat watching her with his mother, and then she turned back and smiled at Catherine. “I promise.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
The following week flew by quickly. Mason had been working non-stop on a new promotion for the restaurant and he’d only seen Lena twice. He missed her. She’d told him she was extremely busy this week with two seminars and she had a new intern following her. They’d met up on Tuesday for dinner and fallen asleep on his couch. Then on Thursday night he’d gone by her house, they’d gone for a run around the park, then they’d come home and crawled into bed. They were both exhausted.
He knew they needed to discuss moving in together soon, because he wanted her with him all the time, not just when they could fit each other in their schedules. First, he needed to sit her down, talk to her, and tell her how he felt. Finally tell her that he was completely in love with her. He was planning to do that tonight. She’d told him she had the weekend off and they were going to meet down at O’Malley’s on Friday for a drink when she got off work. Then they were going back to his place for the weekend. It had just turned 7:23 p.m. when his phone rang. He put his pen down and picked up the phone, cradling it between his shoulder and ear.
“Hello,” Mason answered.
“Hi there,” Lena practically purred back at him.
Mason beamed at the voice on the other end. He felt his heart start to beat just a little faster when Lena’s voice floated over the line. “Hey yourself. You better not be calling to cancel.”
He heard her laugh and could imagine her smiling. “No. I’m looking forward to spending some quality time in your condo this weekend.”
“Oh, are you? So it has nothing to do with me, then?”
“Hmm. Well, maybe a little bit.”
Mason rocked back on his chair and lowered his voice. “Good, because I’m looking forward to spending some quality time in you this weekend.”
He heard her take a deep breath. “I can’t wait. Sure you don’t want to just skip O’Malley’s?”
Mason saw his phone light up with a second call coming through. He noticed it was his mother’s shop and figured he’d call her back after he hung up.
“Now, why would we skip O’Malley’s? You know I love it there. We first danced there.”
Lena chuckled. “You first groped me there.”
“Did not.”
“Did too.”
“Wow, really mature, Doctor,” Mason replied with a laugh.
“Okay, then. If I must, I’ll meet you there at eight.”
Mason watched his phone light up again. Wow—his mother really wanted to talk to him about something. “Okay, sounds like a plan. I can’t wait to see you, Lena.”
“And I can’t wait to be seen, Langley. ’Bye.”
“’Bye.”
Mason hung up and sat forward, dialing his mother’s number. He couldn’t help but grin as he sat back, rocking his chair. This weekend was going to be amazing. He could feel it. He was still thinking about Lena when he heard a man on the other end of the line.
“Hello? Is this Mason?”
Mason sat up and looked at the phone—yep he’d dialed the right number, so who the heck was this? “Yes, who’s this?”
“Mason, my name’s Edward Scott. I’m the shop owner across the street from your mother’s shop.” He paused and what came out of his mouth next would forever change Mason’s life.
Lena sat at O’Malley’s with a beer in front of her, checking her watch. It’d just turned eight p.m. She’d gotten there a little early and went in to get a drink. Taking a sip of beer, she thought about what she wanted out of this weekend. Oh, it was a given that there would be a lot of good food, good company, and hot, hot sex. She wanted it all, but this weekend she planned to lay it on the line for him. Lena was ready to open her heart; let down every defense she had and invite Mason in. She was going to tell him she loved him.
Looking up at the clock, she noticed it was now eight fifteen p.m. and he still wasn’t there. She grabbed her cell phone and called him. It went straight to voicemail. Reaching for her beer, she told herself not to worry—he was probably just held up—but there was something nagging in the back of her mind and she couldn’t seem to shake it. At eight thirty p.m. and still nothing, she picked her phone up and dialed again. This time it was answered.
“Hello, Mason’s phone.”
Lena frowned. It sounded like Wendy, but she was speaking funny so Lena asked, “Wendy?”
“Oh, god. Lena! Is that you?” Wendy asked in a frantic cry.
Lena’s breathing froze and she felt herself go rigid. She made herself answer, “Yes. What’s going on, Wendy? Mason was supposed to meet me here half an hour ago. Why are you answering his phone?”
There was another sob at the other end and Lena could feel her heart clenching and getting ready to crack open at whatever tragedy was about to be hurled her way. Please God, don’t let him be sick or hurt. Or worse, dead.
“He’s just left the hospital, Lena, it’s terrible.” She paused and Lena gripped the bar with her free hand.
“What happened to him?”
“Oh,” Wendy sobbed hard now. “No, not him Lena.” Lena heard her swallow. “It’s Catherine. She had a heart attack in her shop this evening.”
Lena’s hand flew to her mouth and she gasped loudly. She knew people were staring at her and she could feel the tears gathering in her eyes. “Is she?” She couldn’t even say it. “Is she going to be okay? Whe
re did they take her?”
Lena heard Wendy let go of her tears now. “She died, Lena. She died at the scene. Mason just left the hospital after going to down to identify her.”
Tears rolled in twin streams down her cheeks as she sat in the crowded pub looking at the happy people smiling and dancing without a care in the world. She hit the End button, not even comprehending she had hung up on Wendy, and numbly got off the stool and made her way through the crowd and out the door. Her first instinct was to run, to leave it behind her, and not go to him. He would have Rachel and Wendy to comfort him. She just couldn’t deal with this. But she didn’t run. She did what her battered heart told her to and made her way to Mason’s.
Mason couldn’t comprehend what had just happened over the last hour and a half. He’d just gotten back to his place and moved through his condo to sit on his couch. His mind kept running over the details one by one, refusing to make sense of it. Choosing instead to believe this was some kind of horrible nightmare.
He’d hung up from speaking with Lena and called his mother back, but she hadn’t answered; a man named Edward Scott had. He couldn’t get the words—Son, I’m sorry to tell you but your mother suffered a massive heart attack around twenty minutes ago. There was nothing they could do—to stop playing on repeat in his head. After that, it was all a blur.
He knew he’d gone down to the hospital, but he couldn’t remember getting there. He remembered a young lady in a lab coat, much like Lena’s, taking him into a small room with stainless steel tables and he remembered a sheet being pulled back and seeing his mother lying there, as though she were asleep, but he just didn’t believe any of it. His mother wasn’t dead, it was impossible, they’d just talked this morning on the phone and he’d told her he was going to ask Lena to move in with him, and she’d been thrilled. She had been fine. He slouched back on the couch and laid his arms on the top of his thighs. Staring through the dark and out to the city lights, he couldn’t fathom a world without her there. Without his mother, the Monday night dinners, and her smile as he would walk through her store. Sitting forward, he hung his head low and felt the tears start to roll down his cheeks.
The minute Lena stepped in the room she could feel the sorrow suffusing it. This was a feeling she knew intimately. Looking around the dark condo, she spotted Mason on the couch hunched over with his arms resting on his knees and his head hanging down. She placed her bag on the floor and walked to him, coming to a stop at the end of the couch. He looked up at her and she felt her heart break in two. His face was streaked with tears and his eyes were swollen from what looked like hours of crying, although she knew it’d been less than that.
Not knowing what to say, and feeling her own eyes start to fill with tears, she said nothing and just sat down beside him holding out her hand. Reaching over, he took it in his, squeezed, and then proceeded to cry into the night. The pure anguish coming from within him was so strong, Lena felt it pulsing off him in waves, crashing into and almost knocking her over. She too had lost a loved one tonight. True, Catherine wasn’t her mother. However, she’d become such an important part of her life, she was almost as vital as a parent. But this moment was his. She needed to be there to support him in this loss. So she sat beside him quietly, with as much courage as she could find, when everything inside her was screaming to run.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he turned on the couch and faced her. He reached up, wiped his eyes, and sniffed as he let go of her hand. Swallowing deeply, he took a breath and spoke. “She was at the shop.”
Reaching out, Lena stroked her fingers down his cheek and then placed her hand back to her lap.
“Oh, Mason. I’m so sorry. I don’t even know what to say or where to begin.”
He nodded as though he understood and blinked wet eyes at her. He turned and stood, walking to the large window overlooking the park. The lights twinkled below and Lena was taken back for a moment to a night where he’d helped her forget her troubles right here by the window. Tonight, though, there was nothing that could help this. She stood, walked beside him, placing a hand gently on his arm and staring out at the lights. Still looking forward, he spoke softly.
“They said at the hospital that she knew her heart was weak. She knew after her first heart attack that this could happen and she never said a thing.”
“I know,” Lena whispered before she’d even thought it through. She suddenly felt the arm under her hand tense and then watched in the window’s reflection as Mason turned toward her and asked very softly, “What do you mean, you know?”
Turning to face him, she went to reach out and he took a step back, something he’d never done before. Dropping her hand to her side, she started to explain. “I looked in her chart when she was in hospital.”
He didn’t seem to like that explanation by the narrowing of his eyes, and the pure animosity he was directing at her was making her uncomfortable. She’d never seen Mason really lose his temper and although they’d argued back and forth over things before, the anger radiating from him felt different. He looked so removed she was almost frightened, but she continued needing him to know everything.
“She also spoke to me about it one night at her house.”
“What?” he demanded.
Lena rushed on. “I urged her to tell you, Mason. Both you and Rachel. I told her it would be easier to know there may be a chance of—”
“Wait a minute,” he interrupted in an icy cold voice. “You’re telling me that you and my mother talked about her dying and you didn’t think to include her kids?”
Lena swallowed and gripped her hands in front of her, not really knowing how to handle him at this point. So she decided her best bet was just to answer him. “Yes.”
She watched as he clenched his teeth and his jaw flexed. He raised a hand and rubbed it over his eyes. Turning back to look out the window, he dropped the hand back down and whispered in the coldest tone she’d ever heard, “Get out.”
Lena felt like he had reached out and slapped her. She winced at his words and swallowed. She moved to take a step forward. “Mason.”
“Don’t touch me,” he said, enunciating every word. “Go get your bag and get out.”
“Please let me—”
“Let you what?” he demanded, spinning around to face her. She took a step back, looking up at him with tears running down her own cheeks, but he was beyond reason and beyond caring. “Lie to me? Hide things from me?” Shaking his head, he spat out, “I’m so fucking stupid! I thought you trusted me. I thought you felt the same way about me as I do about you!”
She tried again to reach out but he just glared at her.
“I thought you fucking loved me!”
She flinched back and took a step away, feeling everything inside her come crashing down. Tears flowed freely from her now. They were tears for Catherine, for Catherine’s sudden death and the unfairness of it. Tears for Mason who was so hurt he couldn’t even stand in front of her and understand what she was trying to tell him, and tears for them. For what could’ve been before it was torn away and she’d even been able to tell him what he meant to her.
“Why are you still here, Lena? Get out!”
Turning, she ran to the door and grabbed her keys, fumbling around with the handle. She finally got it opened and turned back to see him facing the window. She let out a strangled sob and fled his condo.
Mason was livid. He couldn’t believe what Lena had just told him and although he was still in the middle of even beginning to understand his grief, this anger felt good. It felt easier to take a hold of and to drown in.
Staring out the window, he saw Lena crossing the street below and he clenched his teeth remembering her words—I know. Two little words and his whole world had fallen apart. How could she have not told him? How could she have kept something like that a secret? If only he had known. If he had known, he could’ve . . . Could’ve what? he thought, and then before deciding there would’ve been nothing he could have done
, he went back to his anger.
She was wrong. She’d fucked up and done something so tragically wrong he didn’t think he could ever forgive her, and the way he felt right now, he honestly never wanted to see her again. He pushed aside the image of her face and the pain he’d seen on it when he’d told her to leave, and refused to feel sorry for her. He had other things he needed to do, other people to think about. Bringing a hand up to his face, he turned and walked to the phone knowing the next task—telling his sister—would be the hardest.
He needed to call Rachel in Italy and tell her to get on a plane and come home. She was going to want to know why, and he would tell her, and then she would spend eight hours on an airplane alone and in agony.
The next day, Lena was still curled up in her bedroom. She’d called in sick to work and decided to stay home. She wanted to stay away from questions, away from people, and away from Shelly. Mason hadn’t called. For some reason she’d thought he would, but he hadn’t. She was starting to realize that he’d meant every word he’d said to her last night. At first, she’d thought it was the grief talking—after all, she’d literally wandered the streets after Carly’s death until Catherine had taken her in. That was not the case and she was now beginning to understand that. Mason really had broken up with her. He had cut all ties; and she knew that because she’d tried calling his phone only to discover it had been disconnected. Rolling over in her bed, she squeezed her eyes shut and cried again. She was starting to wonder if the tears would ever stop.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Mason was trying really hard to hold it altogether. He was standing by Rachel, on the other side of him stood Wendy and her husband. Everyone else was just a blur. In front of him was a dark mahogany casket that was covered in bright tulips of every shade. He’d picked them because they were his mother’s favorite and the wood of the casket was what she would’ve wanted. She had always commented on the bar in his restaurant and how lovely and smooth the wood had felt under her hands.