“Of course we can. I was thinking the same thing.” My chest suddenly feels tight. “You’re a good man, you know that?”
Mason shrugs self-consciously. “I just know what it’s like to be sleep deprived. It’s hard enough when you’re getting paid to work ridiculous hours.”
“You’re still a good man.” I stand on tiptoe, brushing my lips across his cheek, knowing I won’t be able to stop if I go for his lips, but needing to kiss him one last time. “See you tomorrow.”
“I’ll pick you up at noon,” Mason says, brushing my hair over my shoulder, his fingers lingering deliciously at the back of my neck. “I can’t wait to spend another day with you.”
“Me, too.” My breath rushes out. “But now you have to leave, before I forget how much I want to be a good sister.”
He grins. “All right. Good night.”
“Good night.” I lean against the doorframe, unable to resist taking a moment to enjoy watching him walk away. It doesn’t make me sad now. Because I know he’ll be walking right back to me as soon as he can.
Chapter 18
Lark
Mom and Dad’s room is the largest bedroom in the house. When Aria came home, they moved into the guest room, shifting their old furniture around to fit Felicity’s crib and changing table in the corner behind a wicker screen. The screen gives Aria the illusion of privacy and keeps Felicity from being able to see her mama asleep in bed, but Felicity still ends up sleeping with Aria most nights, after she wakes up to have her milk and refuses to go back to her crib without putting up such a fuss Aria worries it will wake the rest of the house.
So when I knock softly on the half-open door before pushing it in, I’m not surprised to find Aria lying on top of her bed fully clothed with an arm thrown over her face and Felicity asleep in a similar pose next to her on the king-size bed.
“Aria,” I whisper. “Are you awake?”
Aria doesn’t move a muscle, but whispers, “Yes.”
“Can I talk to you?” I ask, tip-toeing into the room.
Aria breathes slowly in and back out. “About what?”
“You know what. Put Felicity in her bed and come downstairs. Let me make you a cup of cocoa.”
“How about a shot of whiskey, instead?” Aria asks, still not moving or uncovering her eyes.
I ponder that for a moment. “I don’t think Mom and Dad have any whiskey, but there’s still beer in the fridge.”
Aria sighs. “It’s all right. I don’t really want whiskey. Or cocoa. I’m just going to get ready for bed. It’s been a long night.”
“So you don’t want to kill me anymore?”
“No. I don’t want to kill you.” Aria finally moves her arm from across her face and opens her eyes, but she doesn’t look my way. Her gaze remains fixed on the ceiling. “It’s not your fault. It’s mine. Like usual. Like everything else.”
“No, it isn’t your fault. I shouldn’t have tried to surprise you,” I say, pushing on when Aria doesn’t respond. “How do you know Nash anyway?”
“Oh, you know. From…around.”
“Around where? He said he went to River Valley High School, not Bliss River.”
Aria rubs the tops of her eyes. “It doesn’t matter, Lark, it was a long time ago. Before you were old enough to know about certain things that happened.”
“Things like what?” I ask, my brow furrowing. This sounds more serious than a teenage romance gone awry.
“Just…things,” Aria whispers. “Things I did. People I hurt without meaning to. All those kind of things.” Aria sighs again, and a tear slips quietly down her cheek.
It’s the first time I’ve seen Aria cry since she and Felicity moved back to Bliss River.
The very first, and it shouldn’t be, I suddenly realize.
When your marriage falls apart and you’re suddenly a single mother, living with your parents, trying to support yourself and your baby on a pastry chef’s salary, you should be able to cry about it. At least once or twice. You should feel safe to break down in front of the people who understand how miserable you are to have seen your dreams die and the forever love someone promised you betrayed.
I don’t know what drove Aria and Liam apart, but I’m willing to bet serious money it was Liam’s doing. Aria was so in love with him, in a way she’s never been with anyone else. From the day they met three years ago, Aria hasn’t glanced at another guy. Her serial dating days were behind her the second she and Liam slam-danced into each other at a Violent Femmes tribute band show in Atlanta.
He was her English, rock-n-roll dream come true.
She was so gone on him that my parents, Melody, and I all did our best to put aside our distaste for the douchebag. Yes, the fact that he seemed to believe being a record producer and former member of a British boy band made him better than the hicks in Bliss River, Georgia, was annoying. But we believed he loved Aria, and that was enough to excuse a multitude of sins.