Lily still hadn’t said anything, but the look on her face spoke volumes.
“Lil, you know I only want you to be happy, right?” Samuel tried to reassure her.
“If you wanted me to be happy, then maybe you shouldn’t have interfered all those years ago,” Lily shot back, her voice vehement. Lily pushed back in her chair. The chair legs scraped loudly, angrily, against the wood floor. No doubt, they left a scratch mark in the floor. But Lily didn’t care. She stood up, refusing to look at him.
“Maybe you should have trusted that I would make the right choice,” she spat out as she turned and left him standing by the refrigerator.
Maybe he should have trusted her, Samuel thought after Lily stormed out of the room. But they couldn’t go back in time and change things. Even if they could, Samuel would have done the same thing. He’d only been looking out for his daughter’s best interests.
* * *
Upstairs in her bedroom, Lily stripped off her clothes, still damp from the long walk home. She carelessly tossed the damp clothes into a heap on the floor, then went to the bathroom and drew a hot bath. As the steaming hot water poured out of the faucet, Lily leaned back in the tub and closed her eyes, grateful there was no play rehearsal that night. After the day she’d had, the last thing she wanted was to be stuck in a room full of people.
When the water was inches from the rim, she reached up and turned off the water. Steam rose up from the still surface of the water, gathering into a cloud of fog at the ceiling.
The house was silent now, save for the occasional drip from the faucet. Her father, she figured, had probably gone to bed.
Lily wanted to forget this day had ever happened. She wanted to just close her eyes and let her mind go blank. But no matter how much she tried to clear her thoughts, she couldn’t quiet her mind. She kept seeing her father’s face, the regret in his eyes as he told her the truth. And her reaction echoed in her ears.
A wave of guilt washed over her. She shouldn’t have been so hard on him. Lily couldn’t remember the last time she’d argued with her father. They rarely disagreed about anything and he was always so supportive.
She’d been wrong to get upset. But then again, he’d been wrong to keep the truth from her for all these years.
The water had grown cold. With her toes, Lily flicked the lever to drain the tub. Then she stood up and wrapped a towel around herself.
At the sink, she swiped her hand across the mirror to clear the fog off the glass. The woman staring back at her looked tired, confused.
Lily remembered Mason’s words, the ones that had cut her so deeply.
You’re just a dumb kid. When are you going to get it through your thick skull that none of this is real? It never was.
Except, it had been real. She hadn’t been imagining it. They had loved each other. Deeply. And he’d been planning to propose.
The mere thought of that overwhelmed Lily. What would she have done if he’d asked her to marry him? Maybe her dad was right, they were too young at the time to make a decision like that. But she still felt like she should have at least been given the chance to make that choice. Whether she would have chosen the right path or the wrong path was irrelevant. It should have been her choice to make and no one else’s.
At least now she knew why Mason had broken up with her. It actually made sense. It hadn’t been his decision. He only did it because his parents made him.
That didn’t lessen the pain, though. If he’d really loved her, as deeply as she loved him, he never would have done it. He would have stood up to his parents.
One thing Lily knew for certain, she needed to hear it from Mason. It was the only way they’d ever be able to move forward.
Chapter 14
“Hey.” Mason looked up from his charts and grinned when he saw Lily step into the air-taxi office. The sight of her nearly took his breath away. She looked amazing, in a perfectly fitted sweater and blue jeans. The combination showed off her slim figure, accentuating every soft curve of her body. “I’m glad you’re here.”
Mason stood up and walked around the desk, closing the gap between them in three strides. It was a small office, after all.
When he took her hand and pulled her in close, Lily came to him readily. All she could think about was the fact that Mason had been planning to propose all those years ago. With that in mind, she let herself get caught up in the moment, pretending for a moment that he had asked her to marry him, that they’d gone off and eloped, that they’d spent the past ten years happily married. It was a nice little dream. One that made her wonder – even though Mason hadn’t said he loved her – whether he might actually have feelings for her. How could he not?
Still, she needed to hear it from him. That’s why she’d come. To hear his version of the story. To find out, once and for all, why he broke up with her, why he broke her heart. And maybe, just maybe, he’d admit his true feelings for her. Finally, he’d say it out loud. He loved her. Lily was almost certain of it. But she still needed to hear it from him.
His lips lightly brushed hers. Mason intended for it to be a quick hello, but the instant he tasted her, he wanted more. So did Lily. A spark of electricity ignited something between them. They both felt it. A surge of excitement coursing through their veins. The anticipation of where a single kiss could lead.
The intensity of the kiss made Lily forget everything. Her mouth forgot the words she’d come there to say. Her hand forgot she was holding her tote bag, releasing the handles and letting the bag fall carelessly to the floor. Her legs forgot how to hold herself up. Thank goodness Mason held her tightly in his arms, or she might have collapsed to the floor.
It was a kiss that reminded Lily why she loved him, why she had never loved anyone else, and why she would wait a lifetime for him again, if necessary. It was a kiss that made her wonder if she really needed to ask him about the past, if it was necessary to dredge up a painful memory simply for the sake of hearing it directly from him.
When the kiss ended, they stood there together for a while longer, neither of them willing to pull away. Mason closed his eyes and rested his forehead against hers, enjoying the closeness.
“I wasn’t sure when I’d see you again,” he whispered. His voice was husky, his breath ragged. “You left so quickly yesterday, I thought maybe you were upset with me.”
He opened his eyes, then, and leaned back just far enough to look at her. His eyes searched hers, seeking any indication of how she felt. He wasn’t sure what emotion he saw there.
Lily quickly pecked him on the lips once more and then pulled away from him. She turned toward the window and looked out at the dock, watching the Beaver float on the gentle waves. “I wasn’t upset,” she said reassuringly, glad he couldn’t see her face. Surely, he would have seen the lie written all over it. “I had things to do.”
Mason felt the sudden chill between them, but brushed it off, assuming he was misreading her.
He came up behind Lily and wrapped his arms around her waist. His chin rested on her shoulder, nestled closely to her neck where he could breathe in her sweet scent. Reluctantly, Lily leaned back against him. She’d wanted to distance herself from him for a moment so she could ask him a serious question, but it felt so good to be in his arms. She closed her eyes and let him hold her. She didn’t know how long they stood there. Seconds? Minutes? It didn’t matter. It just felt good to be with him, to forget about everything that had happened between them, to simply enjoy the sensation of his arms wrapped around her, his breath on her shoulder, and his body against hers.
“I was just filling out my flight plan for the mail run.” Mason broke the silence. “I can show you how to do it, if you want.”
Lily shook her head. She wasn’t there for another piloting lesson. Flying was the last thing on her mind. She turned, then, to face him.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. He saw the furrow of her brow, the indecision in her eyes.
Lily took a deep breath, reluctant to distu
rb the moment by asking a stupid question, knowing the answer might change everything between them. But she had to hear it from him. She needed to know the full story of why he left a 16-year-old girl crying in their secret cove, how he could have been so cold to her.
“There’s something I need to ask you,” she said, gathering her courage and brushing past him. She went to the armchair and sat down. She chose that seat deliberately so he wouldn’t be able to sit close to her.
Mason moved toward her, but Lily held a hand up, stopping him.
“My dad told me something last night. I want to know how much of it is true.”
Mason’s brows knit together in concern as he leaned against the desk, as close as Lily would let him get.
“What did he tell you?”
She still had time to drop the subject, to forget everything her father told her and move on, to not let it get in the way of her budding relationship with Mason. But how could she do that? If Mason had really been planning to propose, she couldn’t ignore it. It meant that he really had loved her, that he probably loved her still.
Lily cleared her throat and resisted the urge to just let it go.
“The reason you broke up with me,” she replied coolly. “The real reason. At least, I assume it’s the real reason. That’s why I’m here. I need to hear it from you.”
“Is that all?” Mason let out a relieved sigh, stood up and walked around the desk. He plopped down in the swivel chair and leaned back comfortably. “It seems kind of trivial now. We were so young.”
Lily couldn’t believe how nonchalant he was acting. She’d expected him to admit it, to be sorry about it. She never thought he’d react so blasé.
“What do you mean, ‘Is that all?’ You broke my heart, Mason.” Lily felt the anger, repressed within herself for years, finally coming to the surface. There was so much she’d wanted to say to him years ago and she’d never gotten the chance. But now, the wound had been reopened and Lily wasn’t going to hold back. “You completely shattered me. And you did it because your parents told you to. Now you have the nerve to call it ‘trivial’?”
“Maybe it was a bad choice of words,” he corrected himself. He ran a hand through his hair and spun around in his chair. He hadn’t expected a confrontation. He wasn’t prepared for it. Absentmindedly, Mason picked up a file folder off the wall shelf and flipped through it, avoiding her.
The sight of his back turned to her infuriated Lily even more.
“You can’t ignore me, Mason.” Lily’s voice had risen a decibel. “I just found out you were going to propose. So what happened? You loved me. Enough to want to marry me. But instead of proposing, you said all those awful things and then disappeared. Do you have any idea what that did to me?”
“It was so long ago.” Mason turned back in his chair and tried to explain. “What I should have said is we’ve moved on. We’ve grown up. The things we did as kids don’t seem as important now as they did back then. That’s all I meant.”
Lily laughed haughtily at the absurdity of his words.
“So you’re not even sorry about it. You don’t regret it?”
Sure, there were times when he regretted it. But the older he got, the more he realized his parents had been right. Maybe they handled it wrong, but they were right to steer him away from marrying so young.
“What’s the point in rehashing all of this?” Mason tossed the file folder aside. “It would have been a mistake, anyway… us getting married. It wouldn’t have worked.”
Lily’s breath caught in her throat. A mistake. That’s what he called it.
Never in a million years did Lily expect to hear those words from him. All night, she’d laid in bed and played out this conversation. She’d imagined it bringing them closer together. She’d pictured Mason admitting that he’d been planning to propose and then confessing that he still loved her. She never expected him to be glad they’d broken up, to call his plans to propose a mistake.
“What would we have done?” Mason went on. “Get married and live with your dad? Or with my parents? I didn’t have any way to support us. I didn’t have any skills or any money. It would have been a disaster.”
Stunned, Lily didn’t know what to say.
“And now?” she whispered, afraid of the answer but needing to ask anyway.
“And now, what?”
The tone of his voice, the detachment she heard in those words, gave Lily her answer. She didn’t mean anything to him, after all. He wasn’t looking for a serious relationship, at least not with her. Lily felt the pain of his rejection all over again, except this time it was even more intense because she’d fallen in love with him for real. It wasn’t just that puppy love she’d felt for him when they were teenagers. She’d given herself to him completely. But it didn’t matter. He didn’t want her.
“I have to go,” Lily said. She wanted to sound cool, unaffected. But the words barely squeaked out, betraying her.
She stood up and walked to the door.
“Lily, wait.” Mason called after her. “You don’t understand.”
She stopped and turned to look at him. He was standing now, ready to go to her.
“I understand perfectly,” she seethed. “We’ve been through this once before, remember?”
Then she hurried out and slammed the door behind her before he could say anything else.
“No, you don’t,” he muttered to himself. She didn’t know everything that happened that day. But Mason recalled it with perfect clarity.
The ring was perfect. Handmade, it was simple but elegant in its own way.
Mason had spent weeks designing the setting and polishing the stone. It was a narrow band of gold, set with a smooth stone he’d found in their cove.
The stone wasn’t valuable, but he’d been carrying it around in his pocket for almost a year, ever since their first kiss. He still wasn’t sure what had given him the courage to kiss her. Maybe it was the feel of her hand in his, the surety of her steps as she led him to the cove. Maybe it was all the time he’d spent dreaming of her. No, he couldn’t explain what had possessed him to kiss her, but the moment their lips touched, Mason knew he’d never be the same. Afterwards, he was embarrassed. Lily was so confident, so outgoing. What could she possibly see in him? His lips were still warm and he could still taste her. But he couldn’t bring himself to look her in the face. His eyes downcast, Mason spotted the rock on the ground. It was barely more than a pebble, but the shimmer of color had caught his eye. Acting like he was tightening a shoelace, he stooped down and picked up the smooth, pink rock and stuck it in his pocket. A keepsake. A memory.
Now that they’d spent nearly a year together, Mason couldn’t imagine ever being apart from Lily. He was ready for the next step. And the little pink rock seemed like the perfect adornment for the ring that would symbolize their love and commitment to each other.
He was nervous, but excited, when he called her and asked her to meet him in their secret place. He had something very important to ask her, something that would change both of their lives forever. Sure, they were both still in school, but it’s not like they were going to get married right away. Mason only had one year left and Lily still had two years of school. They would have a long engagement and get married after Lily graduated. At least, that’s what he figured.
Right after he hung up the phone, though, Mason found his pop staring at him.
“What’s that?” he asked, pointing accusingly at the ring in Mason’s hand. The question was pointless. He already knew. It was plain to see what Mason was planning, and he wasn’t going to let it happen.
His pop planted his hands firmly on Mason’s shoulders and led him into the living room where his mom sat in front of the television. She was crocheting hats to donate to the native children. When she saw the look on her husband’s face, she sat the yarn aside and turned the television off.
Then Mason’s pop took the ring and handed it to his mother. Her face instantly drained of its color when she
realized what he’d given her.
“No,” she said, shaking her head adamantly. Her voice grew shrill. “Absolutely not.”
“It’s not your decision,” Mason said defiantly.
That earned him a slap on the face from his pop.
“Sit down,” he commanded, pushing Mason onto the couch. His hand was balled up into a fist, letting Mason know the next time he spoke out of line, he’d get more than a slap on the face. “We’re going to have a little discussion about respect.”
“But…”
That’s all it took. The fist came at him hard, landing squarely in the center of his abdomen. His pop always went for the gut, knowing the bruises could be easily hidden.
Mason doubled over as the pain shot through him. He fell back onto the couch, clutching his belly.
They spent the next hour lecturing Mason. He was too young. He didn’t know what he was doing. They wouldn’t let him throw his future away.
He sat there silently, careful not to provoke another “lesson” from his pop. But no matter what they said, none of it made a dent. Mason knew what he wanted, and it was Lily.
When they realized they couldn’t talk any sense into the kid, they marched him over to Samuel’s house. Lily was already gone. Immediately after their phone call, she snuck off to their cove. Mason didn’t know how much time had passed, but he knew she’d wait for him as long as it took.
Needless to say, Samuel wasn’t too happy to hear about Mason’s plans to propose. After all, his little girl was still only 16 years old. She was far too young, he said, for marriage.
A second lecture ensued. And with every minute that passed, Mason became more impatient. Lily was waiting for him in the cove. And his plans still hadn’t changed. He was going to ask her to marry him, no matter what his parents thought or what her parents thought. It was their life, not their parents’.
Desperate, Mason’s parents did the only thing they could think of. They threatened to leave Heron.
“If you don’t end things tonight,” his pop warned, “the entire family will be moved to Anchorage by the end of the month.” The tone of his pop’s voice said it all. He wasn’t making an idle threat. He was dead serious.
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