Chapter 26 Mason
Mason
The weird staccato produced by the doorbell ringing incessantly would alarm most people. But most people didn’t have a Lennox in their lives. He would ring that doorbell to the tune of some song he wanted me to guess, like it was Name That Tune.
“I know you’re in there, Mason,” he shouted from the other side of the door.
“Hold your horses,” I shouted back with a grin. When the door swung open, he stood before me in Dane’s sunglasses with his hair in a bun.
“You need a haircut,” I teased. “And does your boyfriend know you’re wearing his sunglasses again?”
He pulled his hair out of the coated rubber band with a flourish and shook it like they do on shampoo commercials. “I do not. I just had one, smartypants. And Dane loves me. He doesn’t care if I wear them.”
I smiled at him. “He’s out on a training mission, isn’t he?”
He sighed as he walked into my house. “Yes, and one of the last ones, thank fuck. My nerves can’t take it.
So don’t rat me out that I wore them. He’s so goddamn touchy about his shit.
He’ll make me do some kind of lascivious sexual act on him to make up for it.
” He stopped inside the door. “Wait. On second thought, take a picture and text it to him.”
I laughed, shoving him into the room. “You are not getting me involved in your weird sex games.”
“They’re not weird,” he scoffed. “You should try it. You might like it.”
He patted me on the chest before crossing the room to flop down on my sofa. Commenting on my sex life was not my style, but if I wasn’t careful, he’d make some sly comment and draw me in just to see me blush. But I might have doomed myself to his scrutiny when I failed to rebuff his suggestion.
“Unless you’ve already been playing hide the hotdog, wank the weiner, jerk the jewel, swallow the sausage, boink the bodyguard…”
“Stop,” I laughed, covering my ears. “Please just stop.”
“Fine.” He looked around. “Where is the boinkable bodyguard?”
My face heated. “Running errands. What are you doing here?” I asked, taking a seat. He stretched his arms across the back of the sofa.
“I just came by to check on you.”
I furrowed my brow. “I just saw you last weekend. Besides, I’ve been busy.”
Lennox grinned like he knew something. “Doing what?”
I mimicked locking my lips, not willing to divulge details, just as the doorbell rang again. Frowning, I looked at him. “You didn’t call a meeting over here, did you?”
He rolled his eyes. “No. I seriously just stopped by to see you. Maybe Thomas forgot his key.”
I shook my head as I got to my feet. “Never. He parks in the garage.” Striding across the room, I reached for the doorknob.
Swinging it open, I found my father standing on the front porch.
My stomach churned, taking my good mood with it.
Tightness in my chest returned, making it difficult to form words.
As he stared at me, wide-eyed with a hint of fear in his gaze, I blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “I don’t want you here.”
Pain filled his eyes as his lip trembled.
Davis Kennerly’s usual confident demeanor was nowhere to be found.
“I understand. But I was in San Francisco, so I decided to come here before flying back to New York. I thought maybe we could, um…we could talk. And I could explain now that you might not be so angry with me.”
Folding my arms over my chest, I blocked the doorway. “Another bad decision. You should have called before showing up like this.”
He ran his hands through his hair as he nodded. Was there more grey now than the last time I had seen him? “I know, but I had to take a chance. And I was afraid you wouldn’t answer my call.”
I narrowed my eyes as my heart thumped. “So ambushing me at my home was a better option?” The hurt and anger that threatened to swallow me whole began to resurface, and I wasn’t sure what unfiltered, bitter remark might come out of my mouth. Weeks later, my feelings hadn’t eased.
He held up his hands to calm me. “I’m sorry.
Please just give me a chance to explain.
If not for me, maybe for your sister. So things aren’t so strained at the wedding.
I can’t stand what has happened between us.
We’ve always been so close. And I miss you, Son.
” His voice cracked on the last word. My heart ached as memories resurfaced.
How he’d always been so proud of me. I couldn’t remember a time I’d heard him, almost to the point of tears.
Clenching my jaw, I balled my hands into fists as I sucked in a sharp breath.
“I might be wrong, because I wasn’t raised with the best examples of love and kindness, but I don’t think people who claim to love you do what you did, Dad.
” I glanced over my shoulder at Lennox. “And I have company right now. This isn’t a good time. ”
Stepping back, I grabbed the doorknob with every intention of closing it in his face. But before I could do it, Lennox put his hand on my shoulder. “Hey, Mase. I’ll go. Just give me a call later, okay?”
Turning to my friend, I tried to get him to stay. “You don’t have to leave, Lennox. I have nothing to say to him.” I turned my gaze to my dad. “There’s nothing he can say to make what he did okay.”
My father hung his head as he ran his hands through it again.
Lennox put his hand through my arm and drew me back from the door.
He stood in front of me like he did in the huddle, looking up at me with serious eyes.
“Hear me out. You know how I feel about my Dad. And I know he has hurt you beyond belief. But I think you should hear him out, and I don’t say that lightly.
I know you, Mason. And if you carry all this inside, it will eat away at you.
If Thomas were here, I think he would agree. ”
I turned to look at the disheveled man with dark circles under his eyes and wrinkled clothes. He looked like he’d been up all night. Turning back to Lennox, I nodded. “Yeah. Okay.”
“I’m a call away if you need me.” Lennox pulled me in for a hug, then walked out the front door.
Walking back to the doorway, I opened it wider, inviting him in. My father walked across the room and took the seat Lennox had vacated, while I sat in the chair across from him, observing the man I’d admired my entire life.
“I know you’re still upset with me. And I don’t blame you. I would be, too.” He put his head in his hands and looked at the floor. When I didn’t reply, he went on. “I just hope you can forgive me one day.”
My emotions were all over the place, vacillating between disbelief, hurt, and rage.
The hurt was winning, because the truth was I still loved my dad even though I was still raw.
“It’s not that easy, Dad. And it’s not just me you hurt.
Do you understand that? You had two families at one time.
I’m not sure I’ll ever understand why you made the choices you did. ”
When he looked up, I could feel his pain.
“I didn’t know what to do, Mason. I had one more year of school to finish my master’s when your grandfather asked me to find a way to bail out the family business.
When I couldn’t come up with anything here in the States, I asked him to send me to London for the summer to find a European backer.
I was twenty-three when I met your mother,” he smiled at the memory, “and I fell in love with her the night we met. We couldn’t get enough of each other.
She agreed to wait for me to finish school and to come back, but when I returned to New York, your grandfather was working on a deal with Harry Covington.
His one stipulation was that I marry Melinda. He wouldn’t sign the deal otherwise.”
I sat forward and braced my elbows on my knees. The ache in his voice tempered my anger. “So you gave in?”
He shook his head. “No. I fought it for months. At every break, he agreed to give me time to find another company to invest in. So I went to London as many times as I could, but failed. Every time I left without an investor, it pushed us closer to the Covington deal. And the last time I went back after graduation, I told Shannon the truth. That was our last summer together, and when I got back, she called me two months later to tell me she was pregnant.”
I shifted back in my chair and looked at him. “Then what happened?”
He sighed. “I told my father, but it didn’t change anything.
He told me it was my duty to save the company, and my happiness was irrelevant.
It wasn’t just about me and what I wanted.
” He laughed humorlessly. “I thought if I told Melinda that I was having a child with another woman, she’d drop me and want nothing more to do with me.
But that didn’t happen either. She said she’d adopt the baby as her own, that way everyone could win.
We could marry and start a family, and my father’s company would be secure.
But when we found out we were having twins… ”
I released a heavy sigh, wishing Thomas were here for all of this. “Everyone didn’t win, Dad. In fact, we all lost. Melinda was terrible to me, and you let that happen. I’ll never understand if you loved her, how were you okay taking one of us away?”
He swallowed. “I never planned to stay with Melinda. I needed to get through the merger, then I could file for divorce before the adoption went through. We married before the two of you were born.”
“I don’t understand,” I said. “If you were planning to divorce her, why did you have Maddie?”
My father scrubbed his hands over his face before looking at me. “I know this sounds fucked up, but she wanted a baby of her own. And I was her legal husband. In my mind, if I gave her a child, she’d be more inclined to let me leave with you.”
I looked at my father. “So you made a deal with the devil.”
“It was the devil I knew at the time, but I didn’t know I was creating my own version of hell.”
“Why didn’t you ever leave?”
My father looked down. “Because I was young and ignorant of the world. I tried to have it all, but ended up losing my sons anyway.”
“I’m still here, Dad. I just don’t know how to reconcile all of this. I’m going to need some time.”
“I’m willing to do whatever you need. I’ll go to therapy or whatever you both want me to do to start the healing process. Just say the word, and I’ll pay for it all.”
Before I could respond, the quiet hum of the garage door opening caught my attention. My father looked at me, knowing our conversation was over. He nodded to himself, then stood. “You have company. I should go.”
I released the caged breath, then stood as Thomas entered through the kitchen.
He placed his keys on the counter, just like he did every time he came in, making me smile.
When he looked up and saw my father, he stopped, then turned his attention to me.
His immediate assessment of my mood made his shoulders drop. “Everything okay?”
With a half smile, I nodded. “Yes. It’s fine.”
My father’s brow furrowed as he took in me and Thomas. He looked back at me as the realization set in. “I’d better go.”
I followed him to the door. He turned the doorknob, then stopped. Staring at the floor, he turned and met my eyes. “Can I hug you before I leave?”
My eyes filled with tears as I dipped my head. Opening my arms, my father pulled me in and squeezed me tightly. “I love you, Son.”
Unable to speak, I nodded. With a single kiss to my cheek, he let me go and walked out the door. Turning back, he looked as wrecked as I felt. “I’ll see you in a couple of weeks at the wedding, right?”
“Yes. We’ll be there.”
He smiled weakly. “Good. We’ll talk then if I don’t hear from you.”
With a single nod, I watched my father turn and walk away. When he got into the car, I closed the door, then stepped into Tommy’s waiting arms. “How did you know I needed you?”
He kissed me softly and smiled as he cupped my face. “Lennox called. He stayed outside in his car until I got here, just in case you needed him.”
A strangled sob caught in my chest. “Can’t believe he stayed.”
Tommy wiped away the tears and spoke softly. “He loves you, Mason, as do the other guys. When are you going to realize they care?”
Clutching him to me, my heart gave a squeeze. “I’m working on it.”
He rubbed my back and held me in his arms. “Are you okay?”
“No, but in time, I will be.”