Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Mason Cartwright: WHY???
Sarina Cartwright: I don’t know but stand by. This is bound to be fucked up.
Mason Cartwright: Bracing for impact.
Sarina Cartwright: FUUUUUUCK! She’s insisting that Sky stay at our place.
Mason Cartwright: Our place?
Sarina Cartwright: In our GUEST ROOM.
Mason Cartwright: But that’s where I sleep. That’s MY room.
Sarina Cartwright: I am SO SORRY but I have to evict you. Can you have everything out and moved into my room in half an hour? We’re leaving soon but I can stall.
Mason Cartwright: Do I have a choice?
Sarina Cartwright: No, I’m afraid not. But I LOVE YOU and I am SO SORRY. I will owe you BIG TIME.
Mason Cartwright: You bet your ass you owe me. I hate when we have to share a bed. You snore and thrash around like you’re in a fight.
Sarina Cartwright: I’m going to let that snoring comment slide this time because you have every right to be mad at me. Love you XOXO.
“Dad? Why are you so sweaty?” Sam asked and gave Mason’s sleeve a yank. They were sitting on the floor playing Yeti In My Spaghetti and watching “The Princess Bride” before Sarina ruined their perfect evening.
“Sorry, buddy. We’re gonna have to pause this. I have to hurry up and get the guest room ready. Your Uncle Sky is coming to stay with us.”
“Can I help?” Sam scrambled to his feet, excited. “I didn’t know we have a guest room,” he said, stopping Mason in his tracks.
Blame it on Adele!
“Okay, pal.” Mason lowered and braced his hands on his knees.
“You know how your Grandma Adele just…decides things and we go along with it?” He waited for Sam to nod and giggle because even he already appreciated that Adele Sutton was The Worst. “She decided that your Uncle Sky should stay with us so my room is now the guest room. That’s what we’re going to call it while he’s here.
I’m gonna bunk with your mom and my room’s going to be the guest room while Uncle Sky’s here, okay? ”
“Cool! We’re gonna have a guest!”
“Yup. It’s so cool.”
It was so not cool.
Mason waited until Sam jetted from the room to bite a knuckle, muffling a panicked shriek.
His mother-in-law was a cruel and vindictive woman and Mason suspected that she was waiting for the perfect opportunity to blow up their “guest room” scam.
He’d warned Sarina that Adele was on to them but did she listen?
No one got along with Adele because she was a soulless demon who took pleasure in the misfortunes of others but Mason had an especially tense relationship with his mother-in-law.
She started asking some strange and intrusive questions after Sam was born and never missed a chance to make a backhanded comment or mock Mason’s sexuality.
Adele was a master at all forms of bullying, from the subtle to the audaciously overt.
In Mason’s case, she preferred to suggest that he was asexual, impotent, or gay when no one else was looking or close enough to hear.
Her suspicions about his sexuality and his ability to perform in the bedroom were deliciously wicked secrets that Adele loved to dangle between them and used to get her way whenever there was a conflict.
Offering Sky their guest room was probably Adele’s way of saying “Gotcha!” because she knew that neither he nor Sarina would make a fuss or could say no.
How could they without confirming her suspicions?
That was why Mason had no choice but to race upstairs and empty out his closet. Sam was already carrying as many of Mason’s shoes as he could get his arms around.
“Great job, Sammy!” Mason gave his hair a tussle as they passed each other in the hallway. “Just dump it all in your mom’s closet. She can straighten it up when she gets home.”
His heart was slamming against his ribs as he took the hangers off the rod and hurried out of his closet with an armful of shirts and coats.
The next few weeks were going to be tense enough with Sky back in town for the funeral and the dedication ceremony but lying about the guest room wasn’t going to make things better.
That was probably part of Adele’s plan too.
She loved to stir up drama and Sky’s return to Roseview was already the talk of the town.
Expect fireworks.
Both Sarina and Mason were expecting Adele to be in top form. She couldn’t let her mother-in-law’s death steal her thunder. Not even at Nana’s funeral.
But this was particularly devious and Mason wondered if Adele had somehow found out about them.
Which didn’t seem likely because the only people who knew about it were Mason, Sky and Sarina—because Mason ran to her straight after their encounter in the Reflection Room to beg for forgiveness. She had actually laughed and teased him for being a shameless hussy, which hadn’t helped.
That last time, though...
It still haunted him. He’d spent years imagining what it would be like to kiss Sky again but had forbid himself from letting it happen.
But it only took two cups of Jell-O and a few of Sky’s wry grins for Mason to crumble.
Sarina forgave Mason and swore she understood but he could never forgive himself or forget the look on Sky’s face when he came to his senses.
All the heavy emotions and confusion of Lance’s funeral and the Reflection Room rushed back to Mason while he emptied drawers and hastily changed the bedding, then cleared out the bathroom.
He didn’t know how Adele had out-maneuvered Sky and got him to agree to stay but he was both impressed and terrified.
Sky would not be happy about it and Mason was expecting more drama.
Of all the times to meddle and manipulate an already tense situation, Adele had chosen Nana’s passing to force a reunion and had picked their house for the venue.
He doubted that she’d done it out of some misguided attempt to heal their rift and was expecting more stunts and shenanigans.
Having Sky under their roof would be a brilliant opportunity for Sam to spend a ton of quality time with his uncle, but Mason and Sarina would have to be vigilant.
There were so many ways Sam could inadvertently disclose that his parents weren’t intimately involved and didn’t even share a bedroom.
A few innocent comments could easily go unnoticed by Sky, but he’d start to put together the clues as they spent more time together.
Neither Mason nor Sarina wanted to fool Sam about the nature of their relationship.
Thanks to Mason’s therapist’s advice, they were slowly letting Sam in on their secret in subtle, natural ways.
Mason often referred to Sarina as his “best friend” and they didn’t use confusing language when speaking to each other in front of him.
Alone, they might tease each other about being horny or sexy.
But when Sam was around, they were extremely platonic in their support and affection.
Eventually, they assumed Sam would notice that his parents weren’t like his friends’ parents.
They planned to explain that they loved each other just like his friends’ parents did, but they didn’t want to kiss each other or do other things adults did with their bodies when they were in love.
As Sam matured and his understanding of sexuality improved, they agreed to tell him that both of his parents had wanted a family and a child to love and that a small lapse of judgment had created a miracle.
He was the magical spark that had created a beautiful family and a happy home.
Slowly planting those seeds and allowing them to grow with time also gave Sarina and Mason the space to gradually introduce Sam to the idea of queerness and that all marriages weren’t necessarily the same.
They could also carefully and gently explain the realities of homophobia and the true natures of their neighbors so that he appreciated why his parents didn’t discuss the personal details of their lives outside of their home.
This is normal, too, and parents aren’t always intimate with each other.
That was the reality they were gradually exposing Sam to but one that Sky might reject and openly rail against. He already knew that Mason and Sarina were lying and a big reason he had stayed away was so that he wouldn’t have to play along. He couldn’t play along.
What if the pressure got to be too much for Sky and he accidentally revealed the truth to Sam?
The last thing Mason and Sarina wanted was to force Sky into reconciling when he wasn’t ready, but Adele had backed the three of them into a very tight corner.
It was suddenly imperative that they made peace with Sky and explained how delicate the situation was with Sam.
Mason had faith that Sky would ultimately do what was best for his nephew, once he was made aware of where the boundaries were. How to get him to listen long enough to understand was a challenge they were going to have to tackle immediately.