“Sierra told me a little of what happened with Heather. I’m beside myself. I don’t know what to do. Heather won’t take my calls, either. I’ll give her time to get herself together.”
“Then what?” The bitter question put Dede on the spot, but Mason didn’t care. Heather didn’t deserve any coddling from her mom. She’d wronged Sierra in the most hurtful way possible. And he’d gotten caught up in her web of lies and deceit.
He had no sympathy for Heather.
If David were alive, he’d kick his ass for treating his wife so callously and leaving her to deal with the fallout of his bad behavior.
There was no good way out of this for Sierra.
She had to live with knowing her husband and sister betrayed her. Worse, she had to explain to the kids and try to do it in a way that didn’t make her the bad guy by disparaging their father and aunt. Impossible.
But Sierra had a big heart and she’d try, all the while her heart would be breaking. But she’d suck it up and do right by her children because she loved them enough to take the hit herself.
“Both my girls are hurting.”
“Heather doesn’t deserve sympathy for what she’s done to Sierra.”
“David was a part of this, too.”
“And Heather is your daughter and you’re loyal to her. I get that it’s easier to blame David. He’s not here to answer for what he did. But you should have seen Heather today, she outright came on to me. She didn’t even ask if I was seeing someone. She just thinks she can have whatever she wants.”
“Did Sierra hear that?”
“I’m pretty sure she heard the whole exchange. Heather didn’t seem to know Sierra and I are seeing each other. We’ve kept our relationship quiet. But she does know Sierra and I have always been close and we were spending time together with the boys at the ranch. Amy knows because she watched the boys while we went on a date, but Sierra never had a reason to say anything about it to Heather other than in a casual way because the boys were always around.”
Mason rubbed his hand over his tense neck. He thought about their conversation. “I don’t think Heather really likes me. We barely know each other, but I’m a good catch.” He didn’t say that out of conceit, but because it was true for Heather. “To Heather, I look like great husband and father material. I’ve shown that I want a family of my own, so she decided to insert herself into my life as the perfect potential wife.”
Dede put her hand to her chest. “How did we go from talking about you being a father to those boys this morning to this?”
He held his hands up and let them fall. “It’s been a hell of a day.” And he hated that he’d hurt Sierra. “I better get upstairs to the boys before they get restless and more worried about their mom.”
He left Dede on the porch lost in her thoughts about the day and her daughters and how they were going to fix this. Mason wasn’t so sure it could be fixed, but for Hallee’s sake, he hoped Sierra was willing to try.
Mason stood in the doorway and stared into Danny and Oliver’s room. The night-light between the two twin beds highlighted their faces and solemn eyes. He hated seeing them upset and worried about their mom.
“Hey, why aren’t you guys asleep yet?”
“Where’s Mommy?” Oliver’s bottom lip quivered.
“She’ll be home soon.”
“Something is wrong.” Danny sat up and studied Mason, looking for any sign that he knew why their mom wasn’t here.
So Mason gave it to them straight. “Your mom is very upset right now. She and Heather had an argument. Your mom is deeply hurt and sad. She needed some time to herself to sort out her thoughts.”
“She’s mad at you, too, isn’t she?” Nothing much got past Danny.
Mason wondered if he’d picked up on the tension between his mom and dad when David was still alive.
“I kept something from your mom. I should have told her right away, but I didn’t want to hurt her, either. I ended up hurting her anyway because I waited too long to say something.”
“What?” Oliver asked.
Danny leaned forward, wanting to know, too.
“That’s between me and your mom. I was wrong. I will apologize as soon as I see her.” That was the best he could do to show the boys that even adults screwed up sometimes and had to take responsibility and apologize when they did.
Mason moved into the room and stood by Danny’s bed. He leaned over and pointed at the books on the blanket. “Want me to read these?”
Danny hesitated a moment, still taking Mason’s measure and deciding that he wasn’t going to dismiss him yet. He nodded and scooted over so Mason could sit beside him, propped against the headboard.
Oliver jumped out of his bed and climbed up onto Mason’s lap, lying down his chest, his head on Mason’s shoulder.
Mason opened the first book and started reading about pirates and treasure. He got the words out, but his focus was on Oliver and Danny so trusting and sweet, pressed against him.
He loved these boys.
He already thought of them as his own. He wanted a thousand more nights like this with them. And Sierra.
He read one book and then another. The boys settled in and relaxed, their eyes drooping by the time he started book three. They were asleep before the last page, but he read it through anyway, wanting the boys to know he was there watching over them. He settled into the quiet, one arm wrapped around Oliver on his chest, the other around Danny at his side.
Nothing had ever felt this right and poignant and like a wish come true.
If only—
That thought cut off when Sierra appeared in the doorway, fulfilling his thought.
She was finally here.
She stared at him, trying so hard to hide her feelings, but he saw the longing that she wanted this to be their lives and the disappointment that he’d kept something important from her.
Determined to fix it, he gently slipped his arm from Danny’s back, letting him settle into the pillow. He adjusted Oliver into his arms and rose from the mattress, laying Oliver in his own bed and settling him under the covers. Filled with love for the boys, he leaned over and kissed Oliver’s brow, then turned and did the same to Danny.
With one last glance to be sure the boys were settled and sleeping peacefully, he headed to the door and caught up to Sierra at the stairs. He couldn’t help reaching out and brushing his hand down her hair.
She flinched and glanced over her shoulder, giving him a warning glare.
Undeterred, he looked her in the eye and hoped she saw the remorse overflowing from him. “We need to talk.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Sierra walked down the stairs, barely spared her mother a glance, and went right out the front door onto the porch.
“It’s not fair that you come over here and cuddle with my kids and think that will soften me up.” Okay, it had, because, damn, the scene she walked in on was sweet and filled with sincerity because she’d seen the way he held the boys and kissed them good night and it was . . . perfect.
“I came here to talk to you. Spending time with Danny and Oliver was a bonus I didn’t expect, but they knew I was here waiting for you and wanted me to read them bedtime stories. And you know what, I loved it. I love them. And I love you.” He paused.
She stared out at the yard with him at her back, fighting the urge to turn and face him, but knowing she had to because they couldn’t leave things like this.
She tried to mentally prepare herself to look at him and not feel anything, but the second she turned and saw the agonizing pain in his eyes she caved and her heart swelled with the love she couldn’t deny and didn’t want to let go of without giving him a chance. “You lied to me. I asked you to look into the loan, but you already knew what David did with the money.”
“No, that’s not true. I suspected, but I had no facts to back it up. It would be wrong to make an accusation like that to you, not knowing if it was really true or not. What if I’d told you I thought Da
vid and Heather had an affair and Hallee belonged to him and it wasn’t true? Do you think I wanted to put you through that without being absolutely certain?”
Sierra sighed. Everything he said made sense. She’d been so obsessed with thinking about David and Heather, what they did behind her back, she hadn’t really thought it through.
Mason had been trying to do the right thing, the right way.
“I’m guilty of withholding my suspicions, and yes, not telling you the second the investigator had all the proof to back them up. I didn’t know how to tell you. I didn’t want what they did to hurt you the way it has. I wanted to figure out a good way to tell you, but there wasn’t one. The few times I tried to tell you, we were interrupted. I couldn’t just blurt it out with other people around. And I hate the way you found out.”
“You mean while watching my sister hit on you.”
“You also saw me turn her down flat.”
He did. No hesitation. Not even a hint that the prospect of seeing Heather intrigued him.
After everything she’d already lost, Sierra couldn’t bear to lose him, too, despite the fact this wasn’t completely resolved. “I’m still mad.”
“You have every right to be about all of this. But you know in your heart I did plan to tell you everything. I tried to tell you this morning but the timing wasn’t right. I told you we’d talk after the boys’ ride.”
She held up her hand to stop him defending himself further. She remembered all that, it had just gotten buried under everything else for a while.
“Of course Heather picks today to stab me in the back after I spent all that time trying to give the boys a chance to remember their father in a meaningful way.”
He pleaded with her again. “I should have told you what I knew sooner, but . . . God, Sierra, the last thing I wanted was to see you like this and know I had any part of it.”
“You didn’t want to investigate David.”
“No, I didn’t, because I didn’t want what I suspected to be true. But I went ahead with it because you deserved to know the truth.”
Mason might be the only person who’d give her the unvarnished truth. “Why did you suspect them?” She stood waiting, afraid to hear the details but feeling like knowing was better than letting her mind torture her with a million scenarios.
“Remember Charles’s funeral?”
“You barely spoke to me. You were here with your fiancée.”
One side of his mouth drew back in a half frown. “Feeling like a total ass because the woman I really wanted to be with married my friend. I stayed away from you because I didn’t want my fiancée to see how much I wanted you. I guess I didn’t hide it well enough because we ended things shortly after that day. I couldn’t go through with a marriage to a woman I loved but wasn’t wholly in love with.”
“Mason, you can’t tell me that you broke it off with her and stayed single all this time because you were waiting for me.”
“Why not? It’s true.” He shrugged. “I didn’t do it consciously. I told myself, one day I’d love someone the way I loved you. I dated. I had short-lived relationships. But that day never came. Until you moved back home. The second I saw you, I knew I wasn’t going to let you get away again without my doing everything possible to show you how much I love you.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “I blew it today.”
She couldn’t let him blame himself for something David and Heather did. “No. You didn’t.”
His gaze came up and met hers. The desperate hope in his eyes softened her heart and erased all the anger she’d directed at him.
“You loved me enough to turn Heather’s offer down flat.”
“I only want you.”
“You confronted her for me about David and Hallee. You made her tell the truth for once.”
“I should have spoken to you first, as I planned to, but in that moment I was so angry for you. I couldn’t stand there and let her try to do with me what she did with David behind your back.”
“How did you come to suspect them?”
“Everyone gathered here after the graveside ceremony. People were packed into the house. You were chasing after the boys, keeping them in line.”
“And David was nowhere to be found.” After the long car ride the day before, the boys not sleeping in the strange house, having to stand still and be quiet through the long ceremony, and stuffing themselves with goodies when they got back, well, they were acting out. David lost his patience and made himself scarce. Truthfully, their days were filled with those types of outbursts from two energetic boys.
She’d spent most of that day feeling frazzled and resentful that David had checked out on her.
“I saw him with Heather out back sharing a drink and talking. I didn’t think much of it. You guys didn’t get back often, so I thought they were just catching up.”
David and Heather had always had a close relationship. Sierra never thought anything of the way they joked with each other. She appreciated that her husband and sister got along so well, especially since Heather, as the youngest, wasn’t often included in her and Amy’s outings growing up. The age gap meant she couldn’t hang out at the bar with them.
“But you saw the closeness between them.”
“I saw a woman flirting with your husband. I expected David to brush it off, take a step back, and go inside to be with you.”
“But that’s not what happened.”
“Heather may have been flirting, but David’s the one who took her hand and tugged, coaxing her to leave with him. They started walking across the yard together. Away from the house and the others milling around on the back porch and garden area. Heads together, talking, laughing, they disappeared around the back of the house out toward the pond.”
“And the shed out there.” Dede had allowed her girls to turn it into a fort of sorts when they were teens. They had a mini fridge, a large rug where they used to sleep in their sleeping bags and tell ghost stories all night, and an old worn leather sofa. It was their hideaway just inside the woods, shaded by trees, and just rustic enough for them to feel like they were in their own world.
And Heather turned it into a lovers’ hideaway with her husband.
“I couldn’t follow them without making it obvious.”
“So you’re not sure what really happened.”
“I suspected, so I waited for them to return. When I saw them, I knew by the looks on their faces, the way they touched hands, trying to make sure no one saw. The way she brushed her hand down her thigh to smooth her skirt and over her hair. David scanned the whole yard, looking to be sure you weren’t out there, seeing him return with Heather. I saw the guilt. But I couldn’t be sure what he was guilty of. A stolen kiss? More?”
“But you suspected you knew exactly what was going on.”
“Yes. And it turned my stomach to watch him go back inside to you and act like nothing happened. He said something to you and you smiled at him. Heather glared at the two of you from across the room.”
“After all that, you still didn’t think to tell me something?”
“David accused me once when we were all out together of being jealous.”
She understood. “He knew you liked me.”
“I don’t know how I managed to hide it from you all the time, but David saw it. Maybe it’s a guy thing. We tend to have radar for other men looking at our girlfriend or wife.”
“Do you remember telling Amy that you wanted to tell me how you felt?”
“Of course. I wanted you to know so bad, but she said you were happy with David. You loved him. Telling you would do me no good and probably end our friendship. I didn’t want that. I wanted you to be happy.”
“I get that, but you should know she also didn’t tell you what I told her about you.”
He took a step closer, his eyes narrowed with confusion and anger. “What do you mean?”
“I told her that I was having second thoughts about marrying David because of my growing feelin
gs for you.”
Mason fell back a step. Eyes wide, he sputtered, “What?”
“My sisters seem hell-bent on meddling in my relationships.” Sierra shook her head and pressed on. “Amy encouraged me to stay with David because she thought you were still married to your job and David offered me what I really wanted. Plus, she’d always had a crush on you and she didn’t want me to have you.”
“Seriously?” Mason rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. “I can’t believe she held out on both of us.” The frustration in his words matched her own.
“Trust me, I wasn’t happy when I found out, either. But here I am, stuck with the aftermath of what my sisters did. Amy’s petty interference seems insignificant compared to what Heather did, but both of them changed my life.” She pinned him with her gaze. “And you should have told me, not Amy, that you had feelings for me.”
He held her gaze. “You have no idea how much I wish I had done just that.” He really meant it.
“On one hand I wish I’d made a different choice. On the other . . .”
He nodded, his eyes going soft with understanding. “You have Danny and Oliver.”
“Exactly. Now what? What’s done is done. I can’t change the past or what David and Heather did.”
“Everything would have been different if we’d just confessed our feelings.”
“Maybe. But we were different people back then. At the time, were we right for each other? Would we have gotten married, had kids, and lived a happy life together?”
“Yes.” No hesitation. Just absolute assurance. Mason knew how he felt and what he wanted. “We can still have all of that if you can just forgive me.”
“I do forgive you. It’s easy to do because you really didn’t do anything wrong. You wanted to protect me. That’s more than my own sisters ever did for me.”
Mason closed the distance and cupped her face in his warm hands. “I love you, Sierra. Let me prove it to you. Let me show you.”
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