Chapter 12
MASON First Cicadas of Spring
I still can’t believe you offered to keep the twins and Tilley,” I said as Daisy and I walked from Dogwood to my house for the “one more drink” I had offered.
Daisy laughed. “Why not? They’re so cute.” She put her arm in the crook of mine, and I sort of loved it. “And I want to spend some time with Aunt Tilley.”
“You do?” I loved Tilley situationally, but I knew I wouldn’t want to be in charge of her well-being. But, then again, I wasn’t a caregiver for a living.
We walked through the tall grass, the first cicadas of spring singing their song. I almost never noticed them anymore. But tonight was one of those nights where everything just felt more alive. I felt more alive. And I had to wonder if it was because of Daisy.
“Yeah. I mean, I’m sure I’m like the millionth person to say this, but I feel like I could maybe help her.”
I nodded. Yeah. Poor Elizabeth had dragged that woman all over the country.
No one could figure out exactly what was wrong with Tilley.
She potentially had something like delusional disorder.
Or maybe PTSD. Now that she was older, there was a suggestion of early-onset dementia every now and then.
But no diagnosis seemed to fit quite right.
And no medication seemed to help much. Which just goes to show that not everyone is a problem to be fixed, or a puzzle to be solved.
“Well, you’re definitely helping Parker and Amelia,” I said.
“Will you help me?”
She looked up at me with big round eyes. I wanted to laugh, but I resisted. “Uh-huh. I see how it is. You offer to babysit and then enlist my services. Tricky.”
“I bet you’d be a big, big help.” Her eyes twinkled.
“Hey!” I said, feigning offense. “I am helpful. And thrifty, brave, courteous, and kind.”
She laughed. “Boy Scout, huh?”
I nodded. “Oh yeah. All the way to Eagle.”
“So, where are we going?” she asked.
“See that crazy-looking spaceship thing down on the point?”
She nodded.
“That’s my house. This company called Deltec came up with these, and it’s shaped like an octagon because it’s a hurricane-proof house,” I said.
“And you can see the water from every single room. Admittedly, if you’re standing in the entryway, you kind of have to lean over.
But, otherwise, water as far as the eye can see. ”
“That’s really cool. I’ve never heard of anything like that.”
Her phone dinged and she looked down at it in her hand. “Jane is awake and eating!” She turned her phone to me. “Look how adorable.”
I scrunched my nose.
“You don’t think she’s adorable?”
“No, she’s adorable. I just hate that she’s Jane Doe. She doesn’t even look like a Jane, and she’s not a body waiting to be identified.”
“Thanks to you,” Daisy said, squeezing my arm.
Pride welled in my chest again.
“Okay,” Daisy said. “So what would you like to call her?”
Without missing a beat, I said, “Mason Junior,” and the cutest little laugh escaped her throat.
“Hey,” she said, “I feel like I was kind of a part of this too, you know. I mean, I took charge.”
“All right. You get a vote. But I have veto privileges.”
“How about Eugenia?”
I stopped walking, dead in my tracks. “You want to name that cute, tiny baby Eugenia?” I said like I was drinking dishwater.
“And what’s wrong with Eugenia?”
“Nothing. Absolutely nothing. If you are eighty years old.”
She crossed her arms. “That is my middle name.”
Oops. “Daisy Eugenia Stevens?”
“It’s Marguerite Eugenia, actually.”
I was confused.
“ ‘Marguerite’ means ‘daisy’ in French. So, Daisy,” she explained.
This distinct image popped up in my mind that I couldn’t quite place. Some atoms were firing and then—bam! Man, memory is amazing. “Maisy,” I said. “We shall call her Maisy after Daisy-head Maisy in the Dr. Seuss books, plus, even better”—I pointed at her and then me—“Mason plus Daisy.”
Daisy smiled and put her hand to her heart. She held up the picture again and we both stared at it for a long moment. “She’s such a Maisy!” Daisy said.
Maisy Thaysden. What was I even thinking?
“It’s settled,” I said, walking again. “Our dumpster baby shall henceforth be known as Maisy.”
“Please do not use the phrase ‘dumpster baby’ ever again.”
“Yup,” I said. “Felt it as soon as I said it.”
We walked up the stairs to my house and, when we stepped over the threshold, she said, “Wow. You weren’t kidding. You really can see the water from every room.”
I nodded. “Yup.” The kitchen was steps away from the entryway and the entire house opened in an octagon with the kitchen, dining room, and two sitting areas all taking a back seat to the water beyond.
I opened the fridge. “I can make you any liquor drink you’d like, or I have rosé, champagne, and something red that Parker pretends he drinks for his heart. ”
She laughed. “So, is this, like, your move?” She leaned on the kitchen counter across from where I was standing at the refrigerator.
I laughed too. “You mean wow women with my insane family and then take them to my house, which is basically my parents’ basement, get them drunk, and try to get them to make out with me?”
Now we were both laughing. “No,” I continued. “This is not my move.” I paused for a second. “In fact, I can’t think that I’ve ever brought a girl home to eat with my family, and I certainly wasn’t planning on doing so tonight.”
I realized I wasn’t supposed to say “girl” anymore.
She nodded and, as if she read my mind, said, “I’m just teasing you. I didn’t imagine a family dinner was a date.”
I felt deflated even though I agreed. “Right. So how about that drink, and I promise I’ll be a perfect gentleman.”
“I’ll have a glass of rosé.” She grinned at me. “And I guess that means I’ll have to be a lady.”
I poured myself a glass as well.
Daisy raised her eyebrow but didn’t say anything as we walked through the living room and out to the porch.
“What?” I asked.
“One, the fact that you are drinking pink wine makes me like you even more. Two, this house is insane.”
To me, it just was. It was the abandoned guesthouse for a while until Mom redid it a few years ago, and then I moved in and started paying rent.
It was full of British Colonial antiques.
Cool bamboo with interesting coats of arms, things like that.
But it was also super comfortable and cozy with big, slipcovered couches. I loved it.
I led Daisy down to the deep, teak chairs on the dock with the black-and-white-striped cushions that Mom insisted I take in every night and have power-washed quarterly. As I sat, I broached something I’d been wondering lately. “So, Daisy, you’re, like, a real, grown-up, responsible woman, right?”
She was mid-sip and looked like she was going to choke on her wine. She swallowed and said, “Why, yes, Mason, I do believe you could say that I am.”
“I need you to tell me the truth.”
She tucked her legs up under herself and turned, all her attention on me.
“Is it pathetic that I live in a house on my parents’ property?”
“If you had asked me this morning, I would have said yes.”
Ten points for honesty.
“But now that I’ve been here, I say no.”
“And why is that?”
“Because it’s like a family compound, not to mention the most beautiful piece of property I’ve ever seen. You couldn’t ever venture out on your own and get something even a tenth as good—even on your exorbitant high school coach salary.”
I laughed. I sipped my rosé and looked down at the glass.
Refreshing. I could see the appeal of this pink wine.
I leaned back in my chair. “Good to know. Thanks for clearing that up for me.” It sort of made me feel better.
But only sort of. Because I still knew, deep down, that I was basically living with my parents.
“Would you leave here?” Daisy asked.
I sighed. And I don’t know why. But I found myself telling her the truth I hadn’t said out loud to anyone. “Maybe.” I looked over at her. “This wasn’t how my life was supposed to turn out. I was supposed to be this huge baseball star, and then…”
I took another sip of my wine, my mind flashing back to the night that changed everything.
“Let’s just say that it has taken me way too long to get back on track. But I’m in a good place now, and I wonder if I can really continue to evolve in a town that will only ever see me as who I once was, you know?”
She nodded. “Yeah. I totally get that.”
I shrugged. “But then I reason, I live in the most beautiful place in the world, with a family I’m obsessed with, and, yeah, I have a business degree, so I could pivot, but I get to work with awesome kids in my favorite sport. Who could complain?”
Daisy shook her head. “Getting back out on the field and facing the loss of your big dream…” She looked me in the eye.
“People can say whatever they want, but that’s the bravest thing I can imagine.
People who’ve never had to face the source of their greatest trauma head-on don’t know how hard it is. ”
It shocked and validated me. She understood. “Thank you,” I said. “It almost killed me. And then it healed me. You know?”
She nodded and looked down at her wine. “You didn’t run away. So maybe you feel like you haven’t been able to evolve as much as you want, but you stuck around for the people who love you, and that says something really great about you.”
That wasn’t one hundred percent true. I had run away, briefly, after the accident. But I was eighteen and stupid. “Well, I did go to college.”
She laughed. “You were supposed to do that. It doesn’t count. You came back. You let the people who love you heal with you.”
I cocked my head. “You’ve had a similar experience?”
She shrugged. “Or maybe the opposite? TBD, I think.” Then, kind of out of the blue, Daisy said, “Do you believe in soulmates? Or, if that’s too cheesy, that there is one right person for everyone?”
I was having this great, laid-back night with this very cool woman I really liked, and now I felt like a boa constrictor was twisting around my neck.
My face must have given me away because she spit a little wine out.
“Oh my gosh. Presumptuous much? I was thinking about Tilley and her broken heart and wondering if she never recovered because Robert really, truly was the only man for her.”
I put my hand to my pounding heart. “Oh, thank God,” I said lightly.
“I don’t believe there’s one right person,” I said definitively. It was off brand, but I had done some thinking about this.
Daisy gestured for me to explain.
“Well, see, I think Parker and Amelia are absolutely perfect for each other,” I said.
“Two peas in a pod. They’re annoyingly happy and watching them together is like seeing some sort of synchronized dance.
They finish each other’s sentences, work together like they have one brain, take care of the kids like they’re one person. ”
Daisy was squinting at me. “I feel like you’re giving supporting evidence for my theory.”
I shook my head. “No, because, see, Parker and Amelia were both married before.”
She looked shocked.
“Right?” I said. “I know. Amelia’s ex came out of the closet, so definitely not the right person for her, but Parker and Greer McCann seemed, at the time, like soulmates.”
Daisy put her wine down and leaned toward me. “Parker was married to Greer McCann? Like McCann Media? Like Goodness Greer and all the self-help books and all those social media followers and stuff?”
I nodded. It was kind of surprising that my totally normal brother had been married to an icon of the 2010s. “Yes. And they were each other’s one. But then he and Amelia are too. So that’s why I don’t believe in just one perfect person for everyone.”
Daisy shook her head. “I’m sorry. I’m still having trouble processing.” Then she gasped. “Oh my gosh! Amelia named her daughter after Greer McCann? Her husband’s dead wife?” I let her ponder this for a minute. “Damn. That’s a real woman right there. I would be so jealous.”
I laughed. “Well, it’s kind of a long story…”
Daisy’s eyes widened. “Whoa. My mind is just blown.”
“Is my thoroughly modern family making you fall in love with me a little? Hope that I’m your one true love?” I’d had too much rosé. How did girls slug this down and stay sober? It was so easy to drink.
“Oh, Mason,” she said. “Be careful what you wish for. I do believe in one true loves and, if you’re mine…” She trailed off, laughing.
There was something about her. A confidence.
A certainty. I was used to taking the lead in relationships, and that was definitely not what was happening here.
I got the feeling that if she wanted to, Daisy could make me fall in love with her.
Maybe it was the rosé, but it shocked me to realize that I might just let her.