Chapter 8 Mason
Mason
I rode the high of the successful signing all the way to Lee’s parents’ house. I’d instantly liked his brothers. I thought Sonny and Hicks were as nervous and excited as I was! Lee had said they were twenty-one, but man, they looked about sixteen.
After I’d gotten through my first few fans, I realized that each one of these people was just like Jeri, someone who my stories had affected, had touched in some way.
When I started thinking of them like that, as individuals who each had their own story to tell instead of a nameless, faceless crowd, it got so much easier to interact.
Plus, I'd seen Lee subtly managing the crowd in the store, doing his best to keep the numbers small so I wouldn’t panic.
My thoughts turned to Jeri’s boyfriend, Tobi. He’d been helping me move a couple of cases of my graphic novels out to Lee’s car. Lee came over to us and awkwardly thrust a chilled bottle of water at me.
“Drink this,” he ordered. My surprise must have been apparent because he added a follow up, “Um, please.”
“Uh, okay…?” I said, a little confused.
He blushed, stammering something at me about getting dehydrated and almost ran back inside.
Tobi and I looked at each other for a moment and the boy burst out laughing.
“OMG, did you see his face? Mr. Devereaux likes you!” Tobi teased.
“He does not!” I exclaimed, staring dumbly at the bottle of water in my hand, which was starting to drip with condensation.
“Mason and Lee sittin’ in a tree…” Tobi sang.
“No way. He’s just, um… health conscious,” I added lamely.
“Uh huh, riiiight…” Tobi drawled. “I’ve never seen him act like that before. I know! I bet he wants to be your Higher Power!” the boy snarked.
I narrowed my eyes at the teen and proceeded to dump half the contents of the water bottle over his head.
The ensuing water fight soon included the whole team, but we managed to keep it out of the bookstore, much to the twins’ relief.
By the time Sonny turned the Open sign to Closed, it was dark outside. I glanced at my phone, not quite believing how late it was. I saw I'd missed a number of texts from Lizzie.
LIZZIE: Hey bug! How’s it going?
LIZZIE: …Bug?
LIZZIE:…MASON!
ME: Sheesh, Liz! You realize caps don’t actually make your text any louder, right?
LIZZIE: Well, it got your attention, so I guess it worked!
LIZZIE: How did the signing go?
ME: Great! We’re just wrapping up now.
LIZZIE: What? Awful late, isn’t it? Or am I screwing up the time zone?
ME: Nah, I wanted to stay until I saw everyone to make up for not making it here yesterday.
LIZZIE: Wait. You chose to stay. And interacted with people? Who are you, and what have you done with Mason?
ME: Ha. Ha. Very funny.
LIZZIE: Seriously though…Now that we’ve popped your signing cherry, does that mean you’re ready to do more of these on your own?
ME: Maybe. Possibly? I don’t know yet. We’ll see.
LIZZIE: Go Bug! So…Any cute, corn-fed Ohio cowboys?
ME: I don’t think they have cowboys in Ohio, Liz.
LIZZIE: Sure, they do! Amish ones. Their uniforms are black and white. And they lose soccer games all the time.
ME: …I think you are seriously mixing your metaphors, Pixie Chick.
LIZZIE: DON’T CALL ME PIXIE! You know I hate that nickname!
ME: Well, you should have grown a few more inches. Then you wouldn’t be the size of one.
We continued text squabbling for a while as I packed up the rest of my gear. Lizzie really was the closest thing I’d ever had to a sister. Hicks and Sonny came over to the table as I packed. My steamer trunk was much lighter now, compared to when I’d arrived.
“Mason…” Hicks started. Or was it Sonny? I didn’t know how to tell them apart Even after hours at the store. It was the twin who had his hair pulled back into the perfect ponytail.
“We just wanted to say thank you,” said the other twin. “You really turned this event into something special.”
I saw Lee standing behind his brothers, leaning against the wall.
He was watching me intently, and his gaze made my cheeks grow hot.
Not embarrassment, exactly, but… it made my heart race and my mouth dry.
He was so gorgeous standing there, his arms crossed over his chest, his muscles rippling as he moved.
He had worked all day without complaint, fielding questions and problems like a pro.
I’d been listening for his voice over the din of the crowd and had watched in appreciation as he’d managed the number of people in the store at any one time.
He’d settled down a few rowdy fans in line by just glaring them into submission.
It had been the funniest thing I’d seen in a long time.
“…Mason?” one of the twins said, hesitantly.
I realized I’d been staring at their brother, so I returned my smile back to the twins.
“Sorry, long day. It was my pleasure, seriously,” I said, reaching out to shake their hands. “This is the first one of these that I’ve done, and you guys have made it really special for me, too.”
“You were the one who took the time to talk to each of the fans,” Hicks said.
“We heard about the mess-up with your transportation and hotel.” The one twin, Sonny I thought, glanced at the other, and I could have sworn the other glared back.
“And we know you didn’t have to stay all day.
It really meant a lot to all of the fans that you did. Not many big names would have.”
I smiled and blushed even harder, never having heard myself called a “big name” before, but fortunately Lee saved me from further embarrassment by coming over and shouldering my backpack, then grabbing one of the boxes at my feet.
“Time to transform and roll out, guys,” he said to his brothers.
“We’ll see you at Moms’ later!” They said in unison. Okay, that was creepy. They must have thought so, too, because then they turned and looked at each other and burst out laughing.
The twins said their goodbyes, individually this time, and Lee and I loaded up the rest of my gear.
The temperature outside was falling sharply.
Seasons in Ohio were so different from Seattle.
I mean, we had gray, bright gray, and dark gray, and that was about it.
The vibrant green of the yards we’d driven past, not to mention the greenery in the park, had been slightly overwhelming. Beautiful, but overwhelming.
I knew I had at least a couple more events this week.
An art lecture at one of the local colleges, a meet and greet at a community center, and a couple more store visits after the convention, but nothing for a couple of days.
I'd planned on just hanging out in the hotel and playing on my laptop, maybe getting some work done, but obviously the hotel was no longer an option.
I looked over at Lee where he sat behind the wheel. The streetlights moved across his face in flashes as we drove down Market Street and headed back downtown.
“That… that was really great,” I said, watching him. A smile teased at the corner of his lips, then flashed at me as he glanced over and caught my eye.
“It was, wasn’t it? It’s been a long time since I've had that much fun,” he said.
“I couldn’t have done it without you,” I said, my voice low.
He glanced over at me, his eyes taking on a warm heat as they caught mine. “You’d have figured it out, Mason. I just helped you… jump-start it,” he said.
“Are you saying you jumped me?” I asked, wagging my eyebrows at him salaciously.
Lee laughed and turned his head. I thought he muttered something under his breath, but wasn’t sure exactly what. It sounded suspiciously like, “I wish…”
We drove for a while in companionable silence until his phone pinged, indicating a timer had gone off. A reminder showed up on the sound system display. “Ass Kicking by Mom”. I laughed when I read it.
“Figurative, or literal?” I asked
“A little of both,” he said. “It’s D&D Family Night at the Devereaux Dungeon,” he said.
I swallowed hard against the lump in my throat as I struggled to voice my excuse.
I'd originally planned on claiming fatigue and asking if we could just go home after the signing. I wasn’t exactly the most social of people on my best days and after the panic attack the night before, I was afraid to push my limits.
I thought I’d spoken to more people in this one day than I had the entire last year.
But something about Lee’s posture made me pause before turning down the invitation. He spoke with an air of forced casualness – like a kid asking his crush to the prom.
“You still game?”
He kept his eyes glued tightly to the road now and his voice was almost shy as he spoke. It was such a delightfully different side to this usually-confident man.
“Of course, I’m game!” I exclaimed. “I wouldn’t miss meeting the rest of your family for the world.” As we continued the drive, I found, oddly enough, it was true. I really was looking forward to meeting the rest of his quirky family.
A few hours later, as the last of the blood drained from my lifeless body, I came to regret that snap decision.