His face fell in disappointment, but he rallied. “Are you sure?” He stepped behind her, took her hips in his hands, and kissed the side of her neck, nuzzling his nose in her hair.
She leaned back into him. “Come on. You’ll see.” She grabbed his hand again and pulled him along.
They made it to the garden gate before Mason slowed his pace. “Sierra, why are we going out there?” He meant the place where David and Heather snuck away to so long ago.
Funny how it felt like a lifetime ago now.
It was hard to be mad when she felt so excited and happy and hopeful.
“It’s not what you think. There really is something I want to show you. I didn’t remember it until this morning when I was talking to my mom. And then you proposed and now it seems even more important to show it to you.”
Mason reluctantly went along, holding her hand all the way to the pond. She stopped near it and stared out at the two ducks floating in the water.
“How many summer days did we spend out here?”
“A lot. Amy strutted around in her bikini.”
“How many times did she pretend to have a leg cramp so you’d help her out of the water?”
Mason chuckled and shook his head. “She tried, I’ll give her that. But I always preferred hanging out with you.”
“Funny how we never took it further back then.”
“Maybe we always knew there was time and we’d be together eventually.”
Sierra’s heart sped up. “I think you’re right. And I can prove it.” She grabbed his hand and led him to the shed they used as a little cabin. She didn’t hesitate to push the door open and step inside. Memories assailed her as she stared at the board games stacked on a bookshelf, the old afghan and mismatched pillows on the worn leather sofa, the blue-and-cream braided rug on the floor they had sat on during countless card games, bowls of snacks spread around them.
But it was the dozens of pictures they’d tacked up on the walls over the years that caught and held her attention.
Sierra spotted the one she remembered this morning and walked over to it, Mason right behind her. She plucked the old Polaroid from the wall, the tack still stuck in the top. She turned to him and showed him the picture of the two of them sitting on the small dock that stretched into the pond that they used to jump off all the time.
They were sitting so close together their shoulders and arms touched. She was looking up at him and he was looking down at her, both of them smiling.
She traced her finger over the picture. “I don’t even remember someone taking this shot of us.”
They’d often been lost in conversation together, avoiding everyone else, happy to just keep things between the two of them.
“It could have been taken any number of days.”
He bumped his arm to her shoulder. “We spent a lot of time together. I’d bring my friends out here. You and your sisters would have yours. It was always a party. Nothing wild. Just fun.”
“I really loved our friendship. I had my sisters, but somehow you were always easier to talk to and be around.”
“Probably because I was an only child, I liked hanging out with you guys. It was better than being alone at the ranch. And you liked doing everything I liked to do.”
“But there’s something else that’s special about this picture that I remembered this morning. Even back then, I think I knew we’d always be together.” She turned the picture over and showed him what she’d written on the back. Inside a big red heart she had written Sierra + Mason.
“I don’t know why I wrote it like this. We were just friends, but I knew I loved you. Not the way I do now. It’s so much bigger now, but still . . .”
He linked his fingers with hers. “We laid the foundation. Now we’re both ready to build on the love that started all those years ago.”
“You get it. I know it’s sappy.” But she didn’t care.
“No, it’s not.” He tapped the picture. “Sometimes we wish for something and feel like it will never come true. Maybe that’s how you felt when we didn’t take things to the next level back then. But here we are back together and getting married.”
Her smile came fast and filled with joy. “We’re getting married!”
He tapped the photo. “Because Sierra plus Mason equals a whole lot of love.” He kissed her then, drawing it out, letting her feel how much he loved her.
He broke the kiss and stared down at her. “I’m glad you showed me this. After Amy told me you weren’t interested before you married David, I thought I was the only one who harbored feelings from back then. I know now that wasn’t true, but this just really seals it for me.”
“I always knew what I wanted, but I guess we both had to experience what didn’t work so we could really appreciate what we have now.”
“That’s a great way to put it.”
She hadn’t exactly wasted that time. She had the boys to show for it, and she’d never regret her relationship with David for that reason alone.
And maybe it was a little petty, but she found it fitting to know that David and Heather came here to this little hideaway and carried out their betrayal and all the while this picture hung on the wall with her wish clearly stated on the back.
Standing next to Mason, his ring on her finger, a future of happiness on the horizon, Sierra found it easy to let go of the past. Life had led her to this home when she was a teen and she’d found her first friend in this new place with the boy next door. When circumstances turned her life upside down and took everything but the boys from her, she’d landed here again and found that friendship with the boy who’d turned into a very good man was even more necessary. And the love she’d harbored for him all these years was free to grow and fill her up like nothing else she’d ever had in her life.
Sierra tacked the picture back up on the wall.
“You don’t want to take that with you?”
“It’ll be here waiting for me if I need it.” Just like Mason had been here waiting for her all these years. “Let’s go home.” She took his hand and walked out of the shed, leaving her hurt behind, knowing she had everything she needed to be happy.
She had her boys.
She had Mason.
Chapter Forty
Sierra woke up with Mason’s big body plastered to the back of her, his arm draped over her hip, and his face buried in her long hair. A sense of all-encompassing contentment filled her up. She’d have liked to spend the rest of her life just like that, nestled in Mason’s arms, feeling that much love and joy at just being with him.
It had been that way for the past two weeks.
The boys had settled in without any apprehension. They loved their rooms and pretty much took over the rest of the house like they’d always lived here. Mason didn’t mind at all, but he’d made it clear his office was off-limits.
They’d found a routine that worked for all of them.
Mason left early for work each morning, using the extra hour in his office before any of the other staff arrived to catch up on paperwork or go over his cases for the day. Sierra dropped the kids at school, then went to work. When their schedules permitted, she met Mason for lunch since they worked so close to each other. Mason picked the kids up right after school on Fridays, saving them from going to after-school care. He took the boys horseback riding before Sierra got home.