Chapter 58 Mason - Growth
MASON Growth
I should be happy. I was getting everything I had ever thought I wanted.
My team was having a winning season, the boys had all but forgiven me, and I was Chapel Hill–bound.
But, instead of celebrating, I was lying on the end of the dock, two empty beer cans beside me and an open third in my hand, looking up at the sky.
Instead of feeling in awe of the natural world around me, I was pretty busy being miserable.
I wanted Daisy to be lying here with me. None of this mattered without her.
I heard footsteps on the dock, but I was too despondent to look up. “Man, this is classic Mason. I’ve missed this guy.” My brother, the smart-ass.
“Haha,” I said, not bothering to move.
“You got any more beer?” he asked.
“I could sure use one,” another voice that I recognized as Robbie’s called out. I pointed to the cooler but still didn’t move.
“Parker, I can hardly believe my eyes, but, if you ask me, this is looking like the symptoms of a broken heart,” Robbie said.
“Yup,” Parker chimed in. “We’ve never seen such a thing from this male specimen.”
“I realize this seems dramatic considering what you’re dealing with, Rob,” I said. “But I am slightly drunk, and in peak feeling-sorry-for-myself mode. I am experiencing a level of selfishness that allows me to believe breaking up with my girlfriend is worse than your mother wound situation.”
“Mother wound,” Parker said. “Wow. You can tell he’s a high school teacher.”
I wasn’t a teacher. I was a coach. But whatever. It also occurred to me that Daisy and I had never actually broken up.
“I hear ya,” Robbie said. “Trina has really nursed me back to health on the whole mother situation, so I feel that really deeply in my soul.”
“She has?” Parker asked. “So, like, how are you feeling?”
We didn’t talk about our feelings a lot, so this was kind of awkward all around, but I was proud of us too. Growth.
“I’m sort of pissed that they didn’t tell me, but I also just sat around a whole family dinner—that you were noticeably absent from, I might add, Mason—and it doesn’t feel that different. So I guess, at the moment, I feel resigned to a situation I cannot change.”
I lifted my head just enough so that I wouldn’t choke to death on my beer, took a sip, and lay back down.
“That’s good, man,” I said, my voice sounding weird. “I think they did the wrong thing for the right reason, you know?”
“That’s exactly what Trina said,” Robbie agreed.
“Look at me being smart and sensitive in my time of need.”
“So what are we going to do about you?” Robbie asked.
I shook my head, the wood of the dock giving the back of it a strange sort of massage.
It made me think of Daisy, of lying in the grass with her and wanting to kiss her and that damn mouse ruining the moment.
I felt like I wanted to cry, but I was too miserable to cry.
“Usually, this is when I would go out and get laid,” I said. “But I don’t even feel like it.”
Parker made a knowing sound.
“What does that mean, little brother? Say what you have to say.”
Parker sighed and his face appeared over me, in my line of sight. “I know you don’t like hearing this, but sometimes if you want a relationship to work, you have to fight for it.”
That was an interesting thought. “I need more.”
“Mason,” Robbie said, “if I left every time Trina and I had a little fight we would have been divorced the day we got married. If you love her, which I think it’s clear you do, you have to fight for her. Women like to be fought for.”
“Yeah,” Parker agreed, his face still in my line of sight. “You should fight for her.”
“You need a grand gesture,” Robbie said. He was now leaning over me too, both their heads upside down.
“Boys,” Aunt Tilley said, “if you need a grand gesture, you have come to the right place.”
Parker and Robbie moved enough that I could see she was holding a pie plate and three forks. “I made an apology pie for Robbie, but I thought perhaps it could help rehabilitate Mason, too.”
“Gee,” Robbie said sarcastically, “lied to me my entire life about being my mother, but a pie! Wow! I forgive you now.”
Parker punched Robbie’s arm, which made me kind of proud. Parker wasn’t really the alpha-male type. Probably because he had grown up in my shadow.
“What kind of pie?” I asked, deciding whether I could muster the energy to sit up.
“Pecan,” Tilley trilled delightedly.
Yup. Yup. Tilley’s pecan pie was worth the blood that rushed to my head when I sat up.
“He lives!” Parker said.
Robbie gestured for the pie pan, which Tilley handed over. He sat down beside me, Parker followed suit, and Tilley handed us the forks. Robbie put the pie on the dock, and we all proceeded to dive in like the animals we basically were.
“So?” Tilley asked when we took a breath.
“I feel a little better,” I said. I wasn’t lying. Maybe it was the sugar rush.
“I feel a little more forgiving,” Robbie said.
“Really?” Tilley asked.
“He’s not really even that mad,” Parker said. “Don’t let him extort pie from you to pay penance for something he’s basically come to terms with, Tilley.”
Robbie punched Parker over me, and she smiled. “I love you all,” Tilley said. “But especially you, Robbie. I would never hurt you on purpose, and I only want to make it right.”
Robbie looked up at her. “I know.”
I felt kind of dumb because this was obviously more important than my thing, but, even still, I was in Daisy mode, and I needed to know what to do to get her back.
“So, uh, back to me?”
Tilley’s face softened into something resembling pity. “Honey, have you heard about Maisy?”
My heart raced uncomfortably imagining that DSS had taken her or… I just shook my head.
“Drew and Sarah and Drew’s family have decided to raise her.”
I nodded. I had gathered as much from Cheryl, but it was still a shock. Or, at least, it was so final now. I had a lot of questions about Drew’s future and baseball and my impending career change, but, for now, all I could think of was Daisy. “Poor Daisy,” I said. “Is she okay?”
Tilley shrugged. “How could she be? She’s giving up her baby.” She looked pointedly at Robbie.
When I thought of Daisy, of the future we could have, Maisy was a huge part of that.
I imagined raising her too, together. But, then again, she was Drew’s baby.
So I wouldn’t be saying goodbye, really.
But I knew that was the best thing for Maisy.
Even though it hurt, I could acknowledge that her being raised by her parents and grandparents was a solid plan.
I wanted to get up and sprint down the street, toward Daisy. But what we had lost was so palpable I didn’t know if she would even forgive me. I needed to play this just right. “So, can we revisit that grand-gesture situation?”
Tilley smiled. “Will you all be at opening night of Hello, Dolly! on Saturday?”
“Obviously,” Robbie said as Parker nodded, and I shrugged. I had planned on it, but everything felt so off now.
“You are coming, Mason,” Parker said. “Quit being so selfish.”
“Fine,” I said, sighing. “I’m coming.”
Tilley grinned widely at me and said, “Perfect. Just what I like to hear.” And I knew she was quoting a line from the show when she said, “In that case, darling, just leave everything to me.”
That made me a little nervous, but, at this point, it wasn’t like I had a plan B. Tilley was a wild card. But, tonight, on the water, eating pecan pie, I decided there was no one I’d rather entrust my heart to.