Chapter 17 Mason - Constellation
MASON Constellation
Winning as a coach was even better than winning as a player.
As a player, if you were down, you could actually, physically do something about it.
The not being able to control it was the hardest part of being a coach.
But when you knew you had guided and pep-talked and inspired a group of boys to victory? Well, that was pretty cool.
And now, at the corner table of Carolina Style, my favorite restaurant—especially when I was trying to impress a woman, as I was now—the fifth man had just walked to the table to share his take on the game.
“Now, Coach,” he was saying, “I know Drew is our star, but sometimes I think we rely on him too much. See, what I was thinking was that if we just…”
He kept talking, and I locked eyes helplessly across the table with Daisy, who seemed amused.
At least she was being patient. When the first two people had come to the table, I was happy.
I wanted to impress Daisy, for her to see that I was kind of a local celeb.
But now it was getting egregious; she had unknowingly bought tickets to the Mason Thaysden show.
When Mr. Rinder left, I said, “Okay. We’re going to have to make a run for it.”
Daisy laughed. “No, no, it’s okay. Really, it’s your job, it’s fine.”
I stood up, threw a twenty on the table—we hadn’t ordered yet, so that seemed sufficient—and took Daisy’s hand. For all of Cape Carolina to see.
She stood and whispered, as all eyes in the restaurant fell on us, “Are you trying to get me on the front page of the newspaper?”
I nodded seriously and walked with purpose toward the door, ignoring the call of “Coach!” that came from behind me. “Yes,” I said as we stepped out into the warm, fragrant night. “I miss my glory days and thought being seen with you could help me land some coverage.”
We were in walking distance of home, and I dropped Daisy’s hand for just a second and pulled out my phone to send a text.
Then I took her hand again because I liked holding it.
I liked the way she smiled when I wrapped my fingers in hers, the way she smelled like jasmine, and the way her blond hair fell in waves around her face.
Who even was I? I had noticed all these things about her.
“Well,” she said. “We tried. I guess dating as a celeb is too much.”
I stopped and put my hand to her heart. “Daisy, when I ask a lady on a date, I very much intend to follow through on said date.”
“So you aren’t taking me home?”
“Not to your house,” I said, sort of testing the waters. Many a woman had come back to my house with no promise of dinner or a future. But I got the feeling Daisy wasn’t that kind of girl. I also got the feeling that I didn’t want her to be.
“Ohhhh!” she said, laughing. “Well, aren’t we cocky.” Still walking, she peered at me. “I got to hear all about your conquests at the game.”
Damn it. I knew when I saw Carmen that that wouldn’t end well. “The principal’s wife is an unreliable narrator.”
“Is she?”
We reached the entrance to Dogwood.
“Look,” I said, trying to be sincere, “I can’t change my past any more than I can rearrange the stars.”
“Rearrange the stars?” she asked.
Okay, so, yes. It was cheesy. But it had just popped out. What can I say? I had a romantic streak.
Daisy dropped my hand and, in a move that shocked me, lay down in the soft, tall grass. She was quiet as I did the only thing that possibly made sense. I lay down beside her. I looked up at the sky, which had recently become dark, all at once, like a shutter flash.
“But see,” Daisy said, looking up at the sky, “I think the stars are doing a pretty good job.”
I knew from travel and experience that the stars didn’t shine other places the way they did here.
“No, no,” I said. “They could really do better.” I held her index finger in my hand and pointed up. “See that cluster right there?”
“Sure,” she said, “I think so.”
I moved her finger. “If they tried harder, they could look just like a daisy. You could have your own constellation.”
She rolled onto her side and looked at me. I followed suit. “I should know better than this,” she said.
“Better than what?”
“Now that I know about your past, I know I’m not special. But see, here’s the problem: I like you anyway.”
I laughed, looking into her eyes, and rubbed my thumb on her cheek. “Well, I should know better too.”
“Better than what?”
“I should know better than to chase after you, to think about you all day long. Because I know that you’re far too good for me, and you can only break my heart.”
She smiled and rolled over on her back. “Yeah. You’re probably right,” she said. “I’m pretty great. Probably better to just call it a day now since we know it won’t work.”
I knew she was teasing, but my heart palpitated uneasily at the thought of this being over before it even started. I rolled over on my forearms, close to her face. “But, well, what if we just gave it a shot anyway, even though we know better? What if this thing between us was real and worked out?”
Her eyes searched my face, and I was close enough to feel her breath on my lips as she said, “You mean, what if it was written in the stars?”
“No,” I whispered. “I mean, what if we rearrange them?”
She smiled at me almost sleepily, and I knew that this was my storybook first-kiss moment. But then, something glinted no more than two inches from where Daisy’s hair was spread out on the grass. I jumped up and grabbed her up with me.
She wriggled and wiped herself off. “What?” she shrieked.
“Just a mouse,” I said. “But it took off.”
“Gross!” she said, rubbing her hands on her bare arms again.
Damn mouse. Ruined my moment.
“There are so many cats around here, you don’t see mice all that much.”
“Well, aren’t I lucky?” she said sarcastically.
“You really are. Not only because of the mouse, but also because I have a very special treat for you.” As we made our way to Dogwood, I could see that Aunt Tilley had gotten my text.
Two places were set at the outdoor table.
I didn’t want to wake the kids by going inside, so I walked around the porch, leading Daisy.
“So, you just kind of take over houses that aren’t yours?”
I laughed. “You know, Dogwood has always been my house too. I can’t even think of a time when I wouldn’t wander in to grab a snack or hang out with Amelia’s parents or something.
Plus, our moms are basically always together, so if you want one of them, you get both.
Sometimes they are at my house, sometimes they are at Dogwood, but we’ve just always had this big communal property.
” I stopped and looked at her, not quite reading the expression on her face, but sensing it wasn’t great.
“Wow. That’s weird, isn’t it? I should have stopped treating this like my own when I was like fourteen.
And here I am thirty-eight, and still basically a squatter in what’s now my brother’s house. ”
“No, no.” She squeezed my forearm. “I was thinking how that is the most special, most magical thing. You are so lucky, and I’m not sure you even know it.”
There was more to that, a reason she felt that way. But Aunt Tilley swept out the door—in a regular pink dress that wasn’t even verging on a costume—carrying two plates with bowls nestled precariously on them.
“Aunt Tilley, you are the domestic goddess of my dreams,” I said, kissing her cheek as she sat the plates down. “Do you remember Daisy?”
“Remember her?” Aunt Tilley asked. “Why, of course I remember her. She and I were fast friends.”
I looked down at the plates, and Tilley said, “Darlings, I hate to tell you that the best thing I could whip up with five minutes’ notice was grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup.
But I am happy to report that there was cold wine in the fridge, and I will have a pie ready in thirty minutes or less. ”
My heart swelled.
“Tilley, that might be my very favorite meal,” Daisy said. I didn’t know if she meant it or if she was being gracious, but, either way, it was the best thing she could have said.
Tilley said, “I’m so glad, darlin’,” and swept through the door as I poured glasses of wine. I walked around the table and pulled out Daisy’s chair, as she looked out over the water.
“She’s something, isn’t she?” I asked as I sat down.
Daisy laughed, taking a bite of her sandwich. “Oh my word,” she said. “This is the best grilled cheese I’ve ever had.” She chewed as I took a bite and nodded in agreement.
“I’m not sure I totally understand the Tilley situation,” Daisy said.
If she was looking to me for guidance, she had come to the wrong place.
“I can’t explain the puzzle of Tilley.” I slurped the hot soup, feeling it warm my insides.
Could there be a better meal? If there was, I didn’t know of it.
I wiped my mouth and said, “But, see, the thing about Tilley is that she taught me the most important lesson of my life.”
Daisy raised her eyebrows questioningly.
“We have to accept people for who they are, even if it isn’t who we want them to be.”
She nodded. “It has taken me my entire life to learn that, so good for you for grasping it early on.”
“That’s the beauty of Cape Carolina, too. Everyone just…” I trailed off, not knowing exactly how to explain. “They don’t try to change her. They just go along with whoever she feels like showing up as that day. It’s pretty cool.”
I couldn’t imagine leaving a place that would be so good to its citizens—that had been so good to me.
“Very cool,” Daisy said. She looked out over the water and then back at me. “Hey, Mason?”
“Yeah.”
“I don’t know if the stars aligned or you rearranged them, but this is the best first date I’ve ever been on.”
I wanted to make a joke. But she looked so sincere that I couldn’t bear to break the moment.
I had spent a lot of years in this town being scrutinized, the center of attention, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.
But now, on this back porch, I had to wonder if maybe I had finally found someone in Cape Carolina who would do for me what everyone had always done for Aunt Tilley: accept me for exactly who I was.