Chapter 14 #2
“Ah, through Elliot and Charlie.” My lips pull up in a smile, and I feel my cheeks redden with my next question. “Hey, do you know why Elliot would call me Pixie?”
She snorts, choking on her wine as she seemingly inhales instead of exhaling at the wrong time, and wine starts to drip from her nose.
“Oh god, are you okay?” I grab a napkin and pass it to her.
“Sorry, did you say Pixie?”
“Yeah, since the first night I met Elliot, he’s called me Pixie.”
She hesitates, but I can see her smile beneath the napkin, the glimmer in her brown eyes giving her away. “No, I’m afraid I don’t know, Nina.” She wipes the remnants from her chin.
“Wow, Scar. Are we really starting this friendship off on a lie?” I tease, reaching over to top up her glass.
“Not my story.” She shrugs with a smile before changing the subject. “You know, it’s nice to have a female around here. Some days I feel like saying screw it and finding myself a job. I just can’t leave Dad right now.”
“Have you ever worked?” I ask, hoping I don’t sound rude.
“Nope, I feel like it’s too late now. I’m twenty-nine tomorrow, and I feel like my time to study has run out.”
“Your birthday is tomorrow? And it’s not too late to study! This is the prime of your life.”
“I wanted to be a doctor. Started studying medicine after college but dropped out when Dad got sick. I never really thought about going back,” she says, and I know it’s a lie with the sad look in her eyes.
It’s not the revelation of a lost dream. It’s the confession of one that’s never left her.
“You should absolutely go back. Surely Mason could help you with your dad?” I raise my brows at her over the rim of my glass. I should probably slow down. I’m starting to poke my nose in places where it’s not wanted. “What’re your birthday plans?”
“Nothing really. Dad has an appointment at two, and I will need to drive him to that.”
“What about tomorrow evening? Will you be out with your girlfriends?”
“You mean the snooty girls who haven’t reached out since I left college?”
“Did you reach out?” I question.
She tuts, shaking her head sarcastically. “Just when I was starting to like you.”
“We are sooo going out,” I decide, despite knowing my friends and my own bank account won’t hack it, especially with Erin arriving Sunday and the prospect of another night out in the city.
But I can’t have her stuck here all day.
I’m already imagining her as a hermit for the past ten years, just with a better sense of style.
“Out? Out where?” Her eyes bug out, but she bounces on her chair, excitedly.
“Wherever you want. I have a morning class, but I could be here by twelve thirty? We could go anywhere.”
“What do you do?”
“I have a dance studio in London.”
“That’s amazing,” she says excitedly, but then her shoulders drop and I can see her mind racing.
I shake my head at her, not understanding. “Scarlet, I don’t want to impose.”
“But you’re about to anyway.” She nudges me with her elbow, giggling.
I take a sip of my wine, smiling around the rim of my glass. “But if there was a way to go back to med school, would you go?”
“I couldn’t. My father doesn’t have his health anymore. Mase doesn’t get it.”
“And neither do I, so ignore me. But you shouldn’t put your life on hold for anybody else. Even if that person is your family.”
She eyes me behind my wine glass, a slight smirk pulling at her lips. “Okay, it’s official. I like you.”
Mase
I should be happy that my father isn’t drinking tonight.
Our guests wouldn’t know; they never noticed when he drank.
At least they never seemed to. Maybe it was the elephant in the room for all the years the alcohol wasn’t visibly killing him.
It’s too late now. Nothing can mask the damage it’s done.
He’s sick. I can see it in the pale of his skin. The way his body is slower, his bones protruding. It infuriates me that he has done it to himself. All the years wasted, locked away in his office with a bottle of scotch that he won’t get back.
“Mason.” He approaches me. “How are you, son?”
I wish I could hate him. It would make this so much easier. “I’m good, Dad.”
He nods. “I was hoping we could sit down for a chat this week. I have a few things I need to go through with you. Maybe you could ask Charles—”
“Just, stop. I have enough on my plate right now without worrying about this. I need to go and find Nina.” I feel like an asshole as I leave him on the patio, but I’m not ready for what he wants to say.
I won’t ever be ready, and he knows that.
I don’t catch what he says as I walk away. I only hear the word time.
I hear their laughter from the other side of the house, and it wraps itself around me like a warm veil. A sound I never knew I needed and now won’t ever forget.
“No!” Nina shrieks.
“Yep, the whole thing is on tape. You have to see it.” Scarlet laughs.
I round the corner finding them at the kitchen island, the canapés a mess and sitting in the centre untouched. There are two bottles of wine on the counter, both emptied. I shake my head and smile my first genuine smile of the night.
They both turn at the shutter sounding on my phone.
“Did you just take a picture?” Scarlet points a finger in my direction.
“Mase!” Nina chides, hopping down from her chair, and moving around to stand beside me. Leaning up on her toes, she places a kiss on my cheek. “You okay?” she asks.
I slide my arm around her waist. I am now.
We sit in the main dining room for dinner, the cool August evening too chilly for the girls. They seem to have hit it off, and I probably should’ve expected it with Scarlet being only a year older than Nina. With her lack of social life, I’ve always seen her as much younger than she is.
“So, Nina, what is it you do?” my father asks.
“I’m a dancer.”
“She owns her own studio and gym in London,” I correct her, squeezing her thigh beneath the table.
“She’s incredible,” Scarlet admires, staring like a creep from across the table.
“Scarlet was telling me about her time at med school. I told her she should go back if it’s something she wants to pursue.” Nina says, and I watch Scarlet’s face drop.
“You want to go back to med school?” I frown, looking at my baby sister in surprise. She’s never mentioned going back. Not once.
She gives Nina a wide-eyed look. “Well, thanks, friend.”
“Scarlet, is that true?” my father asks her.
“I don’t know.” She shrugs. “I haven’t really thought about it.”
“That’s a wonderful idea, darling. It’s about time you did something for yourself,” Frey says.
Scarlet chews on her lip, her eyes flicking to my father. “Maybe next year I could look into it, find out what the process is.”
She looks at Nina again, and I follow her gaze, catching Nina mouth ‘Sorry’.
“I can speak to Ben if you want? I’m sure with the pull your name has at the university you could get into this year’s class?” Charlie offers.
Scarlet rolls her eyes, looking back at Dad again as Nina’s hand slips into mine under the table. She gives me a look.
Is it weird that I know exactly what she wants?
“You should go for it, Scar. You know I’d be behind you one hundred percent. Anything you need.”
“I agree,” Dad voices, grasping her hand on the table.
“Thank you, Mason.” She smiles softly, looking at Nina with a warm look in her eyes.
I haven’t seen my sister so relaxed in years.
She usually spends all her time cooking the food or fetching drinks to keep everyone happy at family meals.
To see her with that spark in her eye and to hear that she actually wants to do something with her life—after years of me thinking she was wasted here—it has a warmth spreading through my chest, and I know the woman to my left is entirely responsible.
I lean in to kiss her temple, catching Elliot and Charlie smirking at me knowingly.
I’m completely fucked for this girl.
Nina
“Thank you for coming, Nina. It was wonderful to meet you.” Anthony leans down, kissing the side of my cheek.
He’s a sweet man who very clearly loves his children.
If only that were enough.
“It was a lovely evening. Thank you for having me.”
Mason leans in, giving his dad a quick hug, and pulling back before a second is up.
“Thank you for coming, son. Maybe I’ll see you both again soon?” he asks hopefully.
“I’d love that,” I mutter, even though I know my answer isn’t the one he wanted.
Mase walks me to the passenger side of the car and opens the door. I slide in, taking a deep breath as I process the events of the evening.
Once inside, he picks up my hand, kissing the back of it. “They loved you.”
“Was I too much? I felt like I was a little intrusive with the Scarlet thing. I should have waited to tell you.”
“No, not at all. Nina, I’m serious. Thank you. I didn’t know that Scar wanted to go back to med school.”
“Did you ever ask her?”
He drops his head. “No, and I feel like a dick for it.”
“Don’t. I had to poke it out of her. She feels like she can’t, with your dad being—”
“I know.”
“Mase you could help her, be there when she can’t.”
“Nina, he is sixty-two years old. He shouldn’t need babysitting.”
“No. You’re right. But if it’s peace of mind for your sister whilst she studies, surely that’s enough of a reason to do it anyway?”
He looks at me with a glare but has absolutely nothing to say. “I’m glad we agree.” I smile, rolling my lips. “Thank you for bringing me tonight. I really did have a great time.”
“Yeah?”
I nod, leaning in and giving him a soft kiss.
“Hmmm, just you wait till I get you home, angel.”