Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
It had been almost two weeks since Sky had left but Mason hadn’t changed his bed linens.
He usually washed everything on Mondays and Fridays but Mason wanted to fall asleep and wake up wrapped in Sky.
The smell of his shampoo had already faded from the pillows and it had been days since Mason had caught a whiff of Sky’s scent on the sheets.
But Sky had sweat and cried and he had come on those sheets and the duvet.
They were like mementos that Mason didn’t want to give up.
That was actually gross and just generally unhealthy so Mason finally stripped the linens after getting out of bed that second Monday morning.
In fact, the entire room was thoroughly cleaned, dusted, and vacuumed.
When it was done, Mason sat on the end of the bed and tried to call Sky but it went to voicemail. All of Mason’s calls went to voicemail.
While he was staring at his phone, Mason deleted Grindr. His conscience and his gut told him to move on and let Sky go.
But Mason’s soul screamed at the thought of doing that with anyone else.
As much as he enjoyed sex and craved it now, it would feel like he was betraying his own heart if he gave his body to someone else.
Sex wouldn’t feel right with anyone else, now that Mason had shared his heart and his bed with Sky. No one else would do, and there was only one place where Mason wanted Sky: under his roof and in his bed. Forever and always.
Desperate for any kind of contact, Mason opened his messages and sent Sky a text.
Mason Cartwright: I know you said not to call or text but I miss you and I miss your voice.
He wasn’t expecting a reply but Mason’s pulse raced when he saw three blinking dots.
Skylar Sutton: I have to move on. You have your perfect life and I deserve to be happy too.
“You do,” Mason agreed, his voice breaking as his eyes blurred. “It’s just… I love you too much.”
No matter how badly Mason wanted to do the right thing and let Sky go, his heart wouldn’t. It kept on beating for Sky, the way it always had. It couldn’t love anyone but him. Mason had tried with other men but—
He stopped himself before he could finish the lie.
Mason had never tried with any of the other men he’d met in other towns.
Sex with them had always been about Sky—what Mason would do if he was there and the things he’d show Sky if he had the chance.
All he had ever wanted was to explore with Sky, and now that he had, Mason was done.
He had seen and touched and tasted all he had dreamed of.
There was no going back. No other man would do.
Anything less would feel empty and cheap. Mason had loved Sky with his entire being, not just his body and his heart. He had opened his soul to the first and only person he had ever truly desired, and it had felt so right and good. He couldn’t even comprehend the thought of anyone other than Sky.
But Mason had made promises, and he knew he was hurting Sky again.
Mason Cartwright: You do and I’m sorry. I know you need space so you can heal and move on but I think about you constantly. I worry about you and if you’re taking care of yourself.
This time, Mason didn’t have to wait long for a reply.
Skylar Sutton: I’m fine. I ALMOST went an entire day without thinking about you.
“Damn it!”
His phone went into the nightstand’s drawer and he grabbed a pair of pajama pants from the dresser. He was going to take the hottest shower his body could handle.
No more bothering Sky.
He was steaming as he stripped off his T-shirt and joggers.
Why was he torturing himself and Sky when there was nothing either of them could do?
Mason knew better and should have taken Sky’s cue and stripped the bed the day he left.
This was what was best and exactly what Mason deserved, why couldn’t he accept his punishment gracefully?
Probably because Sky was talking to his mother and if anyone didn’t deserve Sky’s forgiveness, it was Adele.
Sarina was there when Adele received a call from Sky, demanding to know why all of his comics and video games had been delivered to his place in Brooklyn and why she couldn’t have warned him so he’d have someplace to store them.
“She had the nerve to call him irrational and overdramatic,” Sarina recounted while Sam was in his bathroom, taking the world’s loudest shower.
They were in the hallway, keeping an ear on him and Mason would flinch every time there was a bang but Sarina barely noticed.
She had nerves of steel and often reminded Mason of how hardheaded and durable he was as a child.
“Mom said that Sky was being distant and dodging her calls, so she decided to teach him a lesson with a hugely inconvenient delivery.”
For a moment, Mason reeled, appalled at Adele’s pettiness and baffled by her logic. “Does she have any self-awareness or is she the Queen of Delusions?”
Sarina answered with a weary groan. “Remember when she was almost killed by an olive? That was the last time an olive ever crossed the threshold of our house.”
“It was your ninth birthday party,” Mason recalled with a pained grunt. “Your dad gave her the Heimlich maneuver but she accused him of trying to kill her because he made the martini.”
Sarina snickered, rolling her eyes. “Dad got so mad and asked why he would have gone to the trouble of saving her, instead of letting her choke and giving us all peace.”
“Your parents had the wildest fights on your birthdays.”
“I don’t know why they ever bothered to hire entertainment or pay for fireworks,” Sarina murmured. “What’s funnier than Mom ranting about an olive conspiracy and ordering Nadine to remove every jar—including the tapenades—from the premises immediately?”
“Funny or sad?” Mason asked, receiving a distracted shrug.
“Does it matter, as long as you’re laughing? You know, it’s easier for Sky to forgive Mom and let her back in. It doesn’t cost him anything because he’s never expected anything from her. She can’t hurt him anymore. He still feels too much with you,” she said apologetically.
“I know.” Mason had nodded appropriately.
But he felt like he’d been wounded as he tucked Sam in and read Where The Wild Things Are.
He felt like he was covered in fresh bruises and had been stabbed in several places as he paced and wished for a way to fix this mess—the problem he had created and that was doing the worst damage.
“I have to let him go but this is killing me,” he whispered to himself as he pulled up a picture of Sky and Sam. They were playing on the beach and laughing after a short chase. Sky was holding Sam over his head, pretending he was going to launch him into the sea.
Kind of the point, isn’t it?
Mason had made his choice when he proposed to Sarina and vowed to protect and love her and Sam for the rest of his days. He had meant it then and he still did. He loved them, and Mason would always be grateful to Sarina for the beautiful life they had built together.
He couldn’t be that man and the man who loved Sky with every particle of his being. One of them had to go, and it was far easier to keep everybody’s favorite Mason. The other Mason was too dangerous, could destroy everything they had built, and hurt more people—including Sam.
But letting go meant that he was letting Sky down again, once and for all.
Deep in Mason’s heart, he wanted to be Sky’s knight, too.
To give him the life he deserved. That felt like Mason’s destiny just as much as caring for Sarina and Sam and being mayor.
Giving up on Sky meant that Mason was giving up on that as well and it didn’t feel right.
It felt like failure and forfeiting something precious and vital.
What choice did Mason have? He would fight for them if there was a way, but it would be a disaster if he divorced Sarina, came out, and confessed his love for Sky.
Their relationship might not create much of a scandal if they started over somewhere else, but it would kill Mason to leave Roseview and his parents.
Everyone’s lives would be negatively affected.
Mason’s parents' schedules revolved around Sam because they were retired and obsessed with their only grandson. Nadine and Adele would never forgive Mason if Sky couldn’t show his face in Roseview because of him.
And what about Sam? Would Mason and Sarina share custody and make Sam juggle two lives in two separate towns or states?
There was also Roseview to consider. Kyle could cover for Mason if he left town for a few days or even a few weeks, but finding a new mayor would be a nightmare for Roseview.
Not that it was a particularly tricky town to manage or that Mason was an exceptionally talented civil servant.
But he knew the town, its codes and laws, and its people as well as he knew himself.
He had learned at his father’s and his grandfather’s side about how to care for Roseview and its residents and how to get things done on a shoestring budget.
Mason rarely had to convene the town council when there was a problem because he usually knew exactly who to call and how to get things done with just a handshake.
People trusted him and cared with him because they knew he was sincere and doing what was best for Roseview.
They trusted him because he wasn’t a politician.
That was exactly what the town would get if Mason left.
Unless his dad came out of retirement, but that was not an option in Mason’s mind.
His dad helped build and served the town selflessly for most of his life.
The man deserved to have time for his hobbies and long, lazy weekends with his wife and his grandson.
Mason’s mother also deserved a relaxed, happy life with her guys, not the embarrassment of a family scandal and a community upheaval.
Mason’s most selfish reason for not wanting to leave was Sarina.
He couldn’t imagine living without her. He didn’t have to live with her, necessarily, but to be separated by miles or even states?
That was like losing a limb or the voice inside his head.
She would suffer too because no one understood her like Mason and there was no one else she could trust implicitly.
For Sky, the answer would be no. As complicated as his relationships were with his family, his mother, and Roseview, Sky would never choose to cut himself off from them or the Sutton House.
He would never come between Sarina and Mason.
That relationship was just as fundamental to Sky’s identity and made Roseview safe and worth returning to for him.
Mason and Sarina were the few fragments of his awful family that he had left.
Which was really shitty and unfortunate for Sky.
He had lost so much already, and what was lost wasn’t that great.
What remained was…damaged. His mother had always been broken and empty and had given her children nothing but callouses and scars.
Things were better between Sarina and Sky, but he was in love with her husband.
That had to be hell for his conscience and deeply confusing, even if she was alright with it.
The two biggest bright spots in all the ugliness were Nadine and Sam.
They were the only ones who hadn’t been touched by any of the drama—yet—but the past was coming for Sam.
Eventually, Sam would learn the truth about his parents, and that would be another family bombshell Sky would have to navigate and come to terms with.
Mason knew that would bring about another reckoning, if Nana had predicted correctly.
So far, she had been right about everything else.
Some days, Mason could feel her tapping on his shoulder and sensed her wagging her finger at him.
He had fixed things between him, Sarina, and Sky.
But one last big, terrible shoe was going to drop, and it was up to Mason to protect them when it did.
If he could.
He still believed that some truths did more harm than good, especially in the wrong hands.
There were times when Mason had come close to telling Sarina because his conscience screamed for release.
But once he had unburdened his soul, Mason would have no control of the consequences.
No way to minimize the harm it could cause.
As Nana had said, this secret was a doozy and would rock the entire Sutton family and probably most of the town, if it got out. They might all have to move.
The thought brought a grim smile to Mason’s face. If that were to happen, he’d get down on one knee and propose to Sky. What else would they have to lose?