She’d spent most of that day feeling frazzled and resentful that David had checked out on her.
“I saw him with Heather out back sharing a drink and talking. I didn’t think much of it. You guys didn’t get back often, so I thought they were just catching up.”
David and Heather had always had a close relationship. Sierra never thought anything of the way they joked with each other. She appreciated that her husband and sister got along so well, especially since Heather, as the youngest, wasn’t often included in her and Amy’s outings growing up. The age gap meant she couldn’t hang out at the bar with them.
“But you saw the closeness between them.”
“I saw a woman flirting with your husband. I expected David to brush it off, take a step back, and go inside to be with you.”
“But that’s not what happened.”
“Heather may have been flirting, but David’s the one who took her hand and tugged, coaxing her to leave with him. They started walking across the yard together. Away from the house and the others milling around on the back porch and garden area. Heads together, talking, laughing, they disappeared around the back of the house out toward the pond.”
“And the shed out there.” Dede had allowed her girls to turn it into a fort of sorts when they were teens. They had a mini fridge, a large rug where they used to sleep in their sleeping bags and tell ghost stories all night, and an old worn leather sofa. It was their hideaway just inside the woods, shaded by trees, and just rustic enough for them to feel like they were in their own world.
And Heather turned it into a lovers’ hideaway with her husband.
“I couldn’t follow them without making it obvious.”
“So you’re not sure what really happened.”
“I suspected, so I waited for them to return. When I saw them, I knew by the looks on their faces, the way they touched hands, trying to make sure no one saw. The way she brushed her hand down her thigh to smooth her skirt and over her hair. David scanned the whole yard, looking to be sure you weren’t out there, seeing him return with Heather. I saw the guilt. But I couldn’t be sure what he was guilty of. A stolen kiss? More?”
“But you suspected you knew exactly what was going on.”
“Yes. And it turned my stomach to watch him go back inside to you and act like nothing happened. He said something to you and you smiled at him. Heather glared at the two of you from across the room.”
“After all that, you still didn’t think to tell me something?”
“David accused me once when we were all out together of being jealous.”
She understood. “He knew you liked me.”
“I don’t know how I managed to hide it from you all the time, but David saw it. Maybe it’s a guy thing. We tend to have radar for other men looking at our girlfriend or wife.”
“Do you remember telling Amy that you wanted to tell me how you felt?”
“Of course. I wanted you to know so bad, but she said you were happy with David. You loved him. Telling you would do me no good and probably end our friendship. I didn’t want that. I wanted you to be happy.”
“I get that, but you should know she also didn’t tell you what I told her about you.”
He took a step closer, his eyes narrowed with confusion and anger. “What do you mean?”
“I told her that I was having second thoughts about marrying David because of my growing feelings for you.”
Mason fell back a step. Eyes wide, he sputtered, “What?”
“My sisters seem hell-bent on meddling in my relationships.” Sierra shook her head and pressed on. “Amy encouraged me to stay with David because she thought you were still married to your job and David offered me what I really wanted. Plus, she’d always had a crush on you and she didn’t want me to have you.”
“Seriously?” Mason rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. “I can’t believe she held out on both of us.” The frustration in his words matched her own.
“Trust me, I wasn’t happy when I found out, either. But here I am, stuck with the aftermath of what my sisters did. Amy’s petty interference seems insignificant compared to what Heather did, but both of them changed my life.” She pinned him with her gaze. “And you should have told me, not Amy, that you had feelings for me.”
He held her gaze. “You have no idea how much I wish I had done just that.” He really meant it.
“On one hand I wish I’d made a different choice. On the other . . .”
He nodded, his eyes going soft with understanding. “You have Danny and Oliver.”
“Exactly. Now what? What’s done is done. I can’t change the past or what David and Heather did.”
“Everything would have been different if we’d just confessed our feelings.”
“Maybe. But we were different people back then. At the time, were we right for each other? Would we have gotten married, had kids, and lived a happy life together?”
“Yes.” No hesitation. Just absolute assurance. Mason knew how he felt and what he wanted. “We can still have all of that if you can just forgive me.”
“I do forgive you. It’s easy to do because you really didn’t do anything wrong. You wanted to protect me. That’s more than my own sisters ever did for me.”
Mason closed the distance and cupped her face in his warm hands. “I love you, Sierra. Let me prove it to you. Let me show you.”
“I see it in everything you do, Mason. I let my anger get the better of me earlier despite the fact you’d made it clear you had news for me about David.”
“Does this mean we’re still together, that you’re not going to leave me?”
She placed her hands on his wrists and leaned into his palm. “I don’t want to lose you. You and the boys are the only good things I have in my life. I love you.” She did. And she trusted Mason. “But I don’t know what comes next with all this.”
“I want to help you through it. I’m here for whatever you need.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead.
“I appreciate that.” Unable to look him in the eye and say the next part, she stared at his chest. “I’m just not sure that I can stay here and see Heather and Hallee and not tear open this wound every time I do.”
He nudged her face up so she’d look at him. “Don’t let her take away your happiness again. If you leave, and we can’t be together, I don’t know . . . somehow it feels like she wins.”
That was the last thing Sierra wanted.
“But if you truly can’t live here, then I’ll go wherever you want to go.”
Stunned by his words, she met his gaze with her wide-eyed one. “Mason. You can’t leave your home and your law practice for me.”
“Why not? I love you. What good is a job and a home if you aren’t with me and I’m alone and unhappy?”
They’d wasted a lot of time trying to build a life without each other, always feeling like something was off or not quite right. They were missing each other and the deep, true love they shared. She didn’t want to let go of the way she felt right here, right now, standing with the man who not only would say he’d give up everything to be with her, but meant it.