The Price of Mason

by Linda Kage

  But thinking of Eva, and Reese’s family, and me moving to Illinois with them, I lifted my face, even as I licked Reese’s delectable taste from my mouth.

  “What are your parents going to think of me?” I asked. “Eva’s mom knows what I am—er, what I was. You think she’s not going to tell her sister about my sordid past? I mean, we don’t want them knowing about that, right? And technically, we’ve barely been dating a week. They’re going to think—”

  Reese stopped my worried flood with a gentle kiss to my lips.

  “It’s going to be okay, baby,” she murmured, her smile soft and tender. “Not only am I an adult who’s going to do what I want concerning you whether they approve or not, but Mom and Aunt Mads aren’t even speaking to each other anymore because of the mess with E. They had a huge, blow-out fight, Mom saying Eva should keep the baby if she wants it, and Aunt Mads not about to accept such a scandal from any daughter of hers.” Reese rolled her eyes and sighed. “I’m not very happy about how E’s parents so scornfully turned their back on her either.”

  “Don’t worry,” I assured, squeezing her fingers. “We’ll make sure Eva makes it through okay.”

  Reese nodded and smiled appreciatively. “Thank you.”

  I winked at her and returned my attention to the screen of my laptop, pulling it on top of both of us. “So, do you think we can fit all our shit into one big moving van?”

  “I hope so,” Reese answered, her mouth falling open when she read the price for van rentals over my shoulder. “Because, holy shit, I wouldn’t want to pay that for more than one of them.”

  I nodded, clicking out of the site. “We’ll make everything fit then or leave shit behind.”

  Hugging my arm as I logged into my checking account to see how much money we had to work with, Reese rested her chin on my shoulder and said, “So how are we going to do this? Are you going to live with Sarah and your mom, and I move back in with my parents, until…until…”

  “Until when?” I asked, lifting my face and blinking.

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. Until we get to know each other better and date a while first?” She winced. “Though the idea of moving back in with my parents after living here on my own does not appeal at all. Besides…” She bit her lip. “I’m kind of really looking forward to living with you.”

  “So am I,” I admitted, touching her hair reverently. I definitely wasn’t planning to move halfway across the country to live away from her, anyway.

  She beamed, grinning with pleasure and surprise. “Really? You are? That’s so awesome. We’re actually going to live together. Soon. Oh my God, this is so exciting. But…should I move in with you, your mom, and Sarah, or should you and I find our own…?”

  When I sent her an odd look, she laughed, the question trailing off, unasked. “Yeah,” she admitted on a cringe. “I don’t want to live with your mom and Sarah either. That would get kind of embarrassing for those nights when I make you come so hard that you scream and carry on like you do.”

  “Oh, I’m the one who screams and carries on, huh?” I asked with raised eyebrows.

  She nodded astutely. “You do. It’s super loud and obnoxious. But I love you, so…” She drew out an exhausted sigh. “I deal.”

  “The trials you go through to put up with me,” I agreed dryly.

  She grinned. “For real.”

  I chuckled and pulled up my savings account information.

  “So, I think we can afford moving across country, then put down deposits for two rentals, and hopefully most of Sarah’s medical expenses and food and utilities, and everything else for about…oh, six months maybe, without any of us making any extra income. If it comes down to that, anyway.”

  “Wow, that’s…” She finally focused on the total I had pulled up on my savings account, and her words choked off as her mouth dropped open. “Oh my God, Mason. That’s a lot of zeroes.” She turned to meet my gaze with a dazed expression. “Why have you been so worried about money?”

  I shook my head and glanced at the sum as well, a little proud of what I’d been able to squirrel away. “You’ve obviously never been so broke that you got insomnia at fifteen because you were worried your sister might die because you couldn’t afford her medicine that month.”

  “Oh, Mason.” Reese’s eyes filled with sympathy as she covered my hand with her own.

  “I’m sorry, I—”

  But I wasn’t done yet. I wanted her to truly understand, to know it had always been about the money, only the money. “We were so broke I wasn’t sure where we’d be living from one month to the next because we were evicted so often for being constantly behind on rent.”

  She looked pained to hear this. “Please, you don’t have to convince me—”

  “We were so broke,” I went on forcefully, “I remember feeling guilty for buying rice, and cereal and milk for a week’s worth of groceries.”

  “Dear God.” Reese hugged me hard. “I had no idea.”

  I stroked her hair. “After that, I could never make enough or save back enough to feel completely secure. I think I’ll always carry around an innate fear of being that poor again.” I met her gaze. “That’s also why we never moved after I started…you know, after what I became. Even though she owned our place, it’s the most permanent home Sarah and I have ever known.”

  Reese’s shoulders sank. “And here I am, forcing you guys to move again.”

  I covered her hand with mine. “Trust me. This move will be okay. It’s entirely different now. When you don’t have to move out of necessity and you’re moving because you just want to, it’s actually kind of exciting. I am honestly so ready to get away from that witch, I swear I’m vibrating with impatience.”

  Reese made a big show of touching my arm before she nodded. “Yep. I think I do feel a subtle tremor in there.”

  I winked. “Well, that’s just because you touched me.”

  Reese smiled and kissed my cheek, sliding her hand up and down my arm hypnotically. “Have you thought about how we’re going to convince your mom to move halfway across the country with Sarah?”

  I shrugged. “If we do all the muscle work of finding her a job and a place to stay before we even present the idea to her, I think she’ll be fine. I honestly believe she’s as miserable here as I was before you arrived. Nothing’s tying her to Waterford. If we offer her a new life with a neat little bow tied on top, I think she’ll jump at the opportunity.”

  Reese nodded. “And, hey, last time I talked to my mom, she was actually complaining about needing some reliable people to work for her. I didn’t even bring it up, so I bet we’ll get lucky there. We just have to find her an apartment, and—oh! Wait…” She looked up, her eyes extra blue in this light. “Does you mom prefer renting a full house, or would an apartment be okay too?”

  My lips twitched in amusement. “After the shitholes we’ve lived in, she’d be happy with four standing walls, electricity, and water.”

  Reese pointed her pen at me. “Heat and air too,” she said. “Remember, you’ve moving to Illinois.”

  “Holy shit,” I murmured, faking shock. “I’m going to have to buy, like, a coat or something, aren’t I?”

  Reese snorted. “God, you’re so cute. You’re going to have to get an entire winter wardrobe, Florida boy. Not just a coat. Probably some gloves, scarves, boots, and stocking caps. Ooh, I bet you’ll look really hot in lumberjack-type boots.”

  “Jesus,” I sighed, thinking about the headache buying a new wardrobe for not just me but Sarah and Mom too was going to be. “Clothes,” I said as I typed that onto my list I was creating in a word document.

  “And maybe some chains for your Jeep’s tires,” Reese added helpfully. “For when it snows fifteen inches at a time.”

  I glanced up. “Snow?” Knitting my brow, I asked, “That’s the cold, white, wet stuff, right?”

  Reese rolled her eyes. “Go ahead. Be funny. You think I’m joking about the culture shock you’re going to experience
, but don’t say I didn’t warn you when you’re freezing your balls off come December.”

  Wrapping my arms around her waist, I burrowed my face into her neck. “I was kind of hoping I’d have you around to keep those warm.”

  “Always,” she murmured, cupping my cheeks in her hands. Then she blew out a breath and shook her head. “I still can’t believe we’re actually doing this. I’m going home, and you’re coming with me! It’s just… It’s so crazy awesome.”

  I nuzzled my nose into the hair at her temple. “Having second thoughts yet?”

  She shook her head. “No way. It just feels too good to be true.”

  “Every moment with you feels that way for me, so this isn’t much different.”

  Sighing out her pleasure, she kissed my cheek and hummed when she must’ve felt some hardness growing under her ass. Then she ground against my erection and gently bit my earlobe. “Just promise me something,” she murmured in my ear as I began to unbutton her shirt.

  “Anything,” I said, kissing the swells of flesh above her bra as soon as I exposed them.

  “Never stop loving me.”

  “Done.” I lifted her up, so I could work on opening her jeans.

  “I’m serious, Mason.” Stroking my hair so I’d look up at her, she met my gaze with solemn blue eyes. “This thing between us is bigger than anything I’ve ever experienced before. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

  “Teresa,” I murmured, saying her real name so she’d know I meant every word I said. “You’re in my blood. I’d have to bleed out completely and die before I could give you up. I’m not going to stop loving you.”

  Her chest heaved as she drew in the impact of my words. And even though her eyes smiled with love, she managed a cringe. “That’s a little morbid, Hotness, but I’ll take it.”

  “You better,” I growled, shedding her jeans down her thighs, “because I’m giving you all that I am.”

  She opened my jeans in return and started to sink down on top of me. I loved taking her bare. And since she’d gone on birth control and I’d gotten thoroughly checked out, that’s all we did now. My mouth literally watered in anticipation of that first thrust.

  “I guess that makes us even then,” she answered before impaling herself, making me groan through the overwhelming pleasure.

  Six Months Later

  Ellamore, Illinois

  “Is it just me, or is it really fucking weird that those two are hooking up?”

  Pausing my search under the counter of the bar where I now worked, I glanced up at one of my new coworkers who’d come over to lean on the bar directly beside me so he could ask me that very question.

  I wrinkled my brow, utterly confused. “What two?”

  Bartending was the first job I’d found since moving to Ellamore with Reese. And it was just in the nick of time too. I’d been right about my mother; she’d been more than ready to leave Waterford and start over in Illinois. And Reese had been right about her mom finding mine a position at the hotel she managed. But I’d also been right about the money situation.

  After moving across the country, getting Mom and Sarah set up in a cozy bungalow-style house, finding an apartment for me and Reese, and then taking in her pregnant cousin, who had shown up on our doorstep a few months back with no place else to go, most of my reserve had run dry.

  I tried not to panic about that, but Reese had to calm me down more often than she probably should’ve because we were still making it through okay. And she’d even done some research to find us some government-aided assistance for Sarah’s expenses, so that was helpful. The tips here weren’t bad, either—not quite as lush as hush money from senators and their kinky wives—but we were getting by. That was, we’d get by as long as I wasn’t fired for being unable to mix a good, stiff drink because I seriously sucked at bartending.

  My new coworkers ragged on me constantly because of my sorry skills, but for some reason, that only made me feel more included than excluded from their group.

  They were an interesting mix of guys—most of them football jocks of all things—but they meshed more like family than colleagues. I had a good feeling about them, especially after last week when they’d had my back when the dreaded event had happened.

  Ten—whose real name was Oren, but his last name was Tenning, so he’d been dubbed Ten—snagged a toothpick and plucked a cherry from the garnish tray before popping it into his mouth. Nodding his head toward a table in the back, he answered with, “Those two.”

  I lifted up just enough to peer over the counter, where I spotted another coworker of ours: Noel. From what I’d gathered, he and Ten were roommates. Since Noel wasn’t scheduled to work tonight, he was here as a customer, enjoying his evening with a lovely lady companion. The weird part in all of that was that Noel was a student at the university where Reese and I had enrolled this semester, and the lady with him was his, mine, Reese’s, and even Ten’s English professor.

  Their whole taboo relationship would’ve made me shudder in horror and remember my own experiences with Reese’s professor back at Waterford, except this professor seemed like she was the very opposite of Monica Janison. Something about Dr. Kavanagh reminded me of Reese. She had a certain youth, and purity—or maybe it was innocence—I couldn’t quite describe. She just wasn’t as jaded and evil as Dr. Janison. Whatever it was about her, it was a quality I liked, so I was actually rooting for Noel and Kavanagh to last…somehow.

  “You think he calls her Dr. Kavanagh while he’s doing her?” Ten wondered, appearing perplexed by the scene before him. Squinting, he tilted his head to the side as if he were trying to picture them in different positions.

  Noel laughed at something Dr. Kavanagh said before he reached out to lovingly tuck a piece of her hair behind her ear as if he needed an excuse to touch her. Ten blinked and shook his head, looking dazed.

  “I seriously doubt it,” I answered, ducking my head back under the counter and shoving aside a bottle of Jack to see if my wallet had fallen behind it.

  “It’s just so weird,” Ten repeated, unable to stop staring. “He seems to really like her.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed dryly. “Weird. A man and a woman like each other. Whoever would’ve guessed such a crazy phenomenon was actually possible?”

  Dammit. Where had I left my wallet? I hadn’t been able to find it anywhere at home. I was so sure I’d left it here somewhere.

  Ten scowled at me and kicked my leg with his foot. “I’m just saying, it’s Gamble. You didn’t know him before he went all relationship committed like this. This is just so unlike him to focus on one, single chick. And she’s our fucking teacher, man. That’s got ‘doomed’ written all over it. If they get caught, he’ll get kicked off the team and lose his scholarship, and his entire future will be fucked, right along with his little brothers’ and sister’s futures too. You know he sends money home to them, right? He’s the only thing helping them get by.”

  “Really?” I looked up in surprise, not aware Noel had younger siblings he took care of. It made me think of Sarah and all the shit I’d gone through to help take care of her. Feeling a sudden kinship with my new coworker, I glanced over the counter toward Noel again. He was holding Dr. Kavanagh’s hand now, saying something that made her smile and duck her head bashfully.

  “Huh,” I murmured softly. “I didn’t know that.”

  “Well, it’s true,” Ten spat. “And on top of all that, he’s going to get his fucking heart broken. Why would he risk so much? Because how the fuck are they really going to work?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know,” I said seriously. “Some women are just worth risking everything for.”

  Ten snorted. “Bull…shit. There are too many chicks in this world, so many of them soft and curvy and amazing, that you can just interchange one for another whenever things get complicated. None of them are worth risking that kind of clusterfuck for.”

  I smiled, amused by his complete naiveté. The guy definitely hadn’t met
his Reese yet. “I’m going to enjoy the day you meet your soulmate, and you have to eat all the crap you just spewed.”

  With a dry glower, Ten muttered, “Never gonna happen.”

  I chuckled and shook my head before I went back to searching.

  “Lowe!” a new voice said in surprise as a third man joined us behind the counter. I looked up to find my coworker that everyone called Pick—no idea why—as he carried a crate full of bottles to the cooler before opening the door and stocking it. “What’re you doing here on your day off?”

  “I’m looking for my wallet,” I grumbled, feeling lame for misplacing it in the first place. “I can’t find it anywhere at home so I was hoping I’d left it here.”

  “Oh. It’s right there,” Ten said, pointing toward the other end of the counter.

  “What?” I whipped my head that way and nearly smacked my palm to my forehead, groaning over my own ineptness. Why hadn’t I seen that before? And, “Why didn’t you tell me where it was when I first got here?” I scowled at Ten, nudging his shoulder as I passed.

  “Huh?” His attention had already moved back to Noel. “I didn’t know what you were looking for.”

  “I told you I’d lost my wallet as soon as I walked in.”

  “Did you?” His voice was distracted. “Oh. Sorry, man. My bad.”

  I rolled my eyes. I’d been bad off lately, but maybe not as bad off and unfocused as he currently was. The dude was seriously worried about his roommate.

  “Will you stop staring at them,” Pick hissed, smacking Ten on the back of the head.

  Ten obediently turned away, even as he whined, “But it’s so fucking weird. How could one woman just completely change him like that?”

  “I guess you’ll understand when you meet the one woman you’re willing to change for,” Pick murmured, finishing up his task and stowing the empty crate on a free shelf under the counter.

  Ten narrowed his eyes. “Why does everyone keep saying that shit to me?”

  Pick glanced my way, and we shared a smile. “Speaking of special ladies,” he said. “How’s that lovely cousin of yours? Still pregnant?”