“Carter, I—” I stop because there’s a weight suddenly nestled against my side.
Fiona. Fiona is standing beside me, curled into me, her arms around my waist, fingers sliding into a belt loop.
“I’m coming with you,” she says. “We’ll do it together.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Fiona
Itallhappenssofast.
I see the change in Mase when he gets the order from his sister to go home. And that’s what it is, an order. Not a request.
Mase’s shoulders slump like he’s confessed to a crime, and he sinks into himself. This is how I will lose him.
I’mnotgoing to lose him. I’m not going to stop fighting for him.
“Yeah,” he says to his sister. He angles his phone so I can’t see much—or she can’t see me. Protecting or hiding? “I’ll get there.”
“I’ll send Michael,” Carter tells him. “I’ll text when you’re to meet him.”
“Yeah.”
“I had to tell him, Mase. You know that.”
“I hate that you did,” he says. “See you. Soon, I guess.”
“We’ll be here for you. Mase—” But he ends the call before she finishes.
With a groan, he pushes away from me and runs a hand through his hair, making even more of a mess of his sleep-touseled hair.
“Mase,” I begin in a quiet voice.
“You’re not coming with me,” he says flatly.
“I’m your wife. I need to meet your family. I want to.”
“No, you don’t.” He stalks out of the bedroom, all eyes still on him. “The car will be here at one o’clock to take you to the plane,” Mase says to Grayson. “I’m going to get my stuff ready and take off early, so I’ll say goodbye now.”
“Hey… dude…” Grayson gets up and puts an arm around Mase.
“It has to be done,” Mase says in a voice I’ve never heard before. Crisp and curt and defeated, like the set of his wide shoulders.
“And I’m going to do it with you.” I smile grimly. “Whatever it is.”
“Fee—”
I snap my fingers like a duck beak at him. “No. Arguments.” And I turn to give Bexley a hug. “I’ll see you when I get back to Toronto.”
“I want to be happy for you,” she whispers against my neck.
“Then be happy. This is just a thing.”
Behind me, Mase says goodbye to Emmett and Shae. “Has anyone seen Tad?” he asks. “He might be in my room—”
“Demi and Chrissa never came home last night,” Biba reports.
“What?” Rachel scrambles for her phone. “Oh—wow.”