Seasons of Fate (13 page)

  
‘Mason, I love you. Thank you for being mine. You made me feel again, something I never thought I would ever have, when you walked into my life. I will never regret that day, when I opened my eyes to the most beautiful man I have ever seen.’

  
‘Baby don’t say things like that. It sounds like your saying goodbye, I just can’t,’ he choked on his words but carried on ‘I mean I am not saying goodbye to you, please…please tell me this is not it?’

  
‘Oh God no, I just need you to always know that I came to life the moment I laid eyes on you. This is not a goodbye, please don’t ever think that’ with tears trickling from my eyes, I kissed him, just to imprint this feeling into my heart, which was breaking at this moment because I knew this was going to hurt us all. He brushed my tears away and kissed my eyes, my nose, my cheeks and finally my lips. I pulled his head down and lay him on my chest feeling his tears, before we finally succumbed to sleep.

   I woke with a jump, alone in bed. I instantly felt cold. Mase was nowhere to be seen. I checked the bathroom but all was quiet, checking the time it was nearly 6.30pm so I decided to take a quick shower and get dressed. When I walked out of his room, Gaby was walking toward me with a small smile on her face, I blushed. It’s obvious what we had been doing all afternoon but I didn’t exactly want to advertise it to his parents of all people.

  
‘Sweetheart, Mason asked me to make sure you were alright, he said you were sleeping and didn’t want to wake you earlier. He’s just popped out so wont be too long. Are you feeling rested?’

With the blush still firmly in place I nodded, so she continued

   ‘Hun, I’m not stupid, I understand my sons feelings, how he chooses to show you his feelings is private and between you but I’m also a woman so you don’t need to be embarrassed in front of me. I know how hard this is for the both of you.’

  
‘Thank you Gaby, I’m sorry I’m just not used to this, my emotions are all over the place. I can’t stand the thought of hurting him and I know that being away from him is going to be so difficult. Can you promise me that if he’s hurting, you’ll tell me? Even when he’s trying to cover it up. I know he won’t want me to hear the hurt when I talk to him but I also know that you will be honest with me.’

  
‘Of course sweetheart, I will keep you informed. You understand him so well, I’m so glad you found each other.’ Gaby gave me a hug and I felt happy about our new relationship, we walked down to the kitchen to find, Henry, Mel and Lily deep in conversation about nothing in particular.

   Gaby decided to start dinner while we waited for Mason to return home, it was nothing too complicated, a lovely Italian dish, salad and homemade garlic bread but it smelled amazing. While I was musing over the food, Mase walked into the kitchen. He looked flustered but gorgeous. I met his eyes, and posed a question with my own

  
‘Are you alright?’ He smiled back at me. I knew he wasn’t ok but his smile was warm, he walked over to Lily and lifted her into his arms.

  
‘Baby Girl, give me a hug, ohhhh I love your hugs princess they’re sweet. I have something I wanted to give you.’

He handed her a little pink box, which she quickly opened to reveal a small charm bracelet. When I looked closer the charms were all Disney Princesses. Lily squealed, and just hugged him tighter.

   ‘I love it Mase, Oh thanks. It’s so pretty.’

  
‘Your welcome baby, I wanted you to have something you really liked but hopefully would remind you of me when I can’t be with you.’

I had tears forming in my eyes from the beautiful moment he shared with my daughter. It
’s really true what they say, a sperm donor does not make a father. In Lily fashion she jumped down to show off her new bracelet to Mason’s parents. They seemed confused by his gesture, Mel gave me a knowing look before walking over to join them. Mason then walked over to me and held me in the circle of his arms.

  
‘I have something for you too, its not supposed to make you feel uncomfortable, but I just wanted you to know that my intentions are for us to be together as a family as soon as we can.’

He handed me a blue box, from Tiffany
’s, it was unmistakable. I opened the lid and nestled inside was a beautiful solitaire, surrounded by white gold. It sparkled up at me, and I was struck dumb. What was this? Was this a proposal? I had no response so he said    

  
’You already know how I feel about you, when we come back together then, I’ll make sure you get the proposal you deserve. This here is a promise, I want you to wear it so while were apart, we can still be together.’

I couldn
’t breathe, this beautiful man was making me a promise of marriage. All I could do was kiss him, I slipped the ring onto my left ring finger and watched it sparkle. As we turned toward his family, confusion was evident on all their faces. Lily was oblivious so I said nothing and left Mason to have a very serious conversation with his family. I could only assume my earlier conversation with his mom didn’t cover a possible proposal, perhaps I had gotten it wrong about Henry and Gaby’s feelings toward us. 

   I held Lily’s hand and walked out to the garden, I sat down and lifted her onto my lap.

  
‘Baby, I understand that going back home is sad for you, but I just want you to know that Mason will join us soon, its ok to be unhappy but we have to go home so that Mase can get back to his life.‘

  
‘But Mum, I really wanted to be here for my birthday, I wanted to spend it with Mase, and I love Mel, it’s not fair.’

  
‘Sweetie your birthday isn’t for a few weeks yet so lets not worry about it for now. I told you Mase may even join us before then so lets just spend some time together now before we fly home ok.’ Lily just nodded her head and we sat together until Mel came out to see where we were.

  
‘Hey, I wondered where you guys were, are you ok?’

  
‘Yea, Lily was just a little upset about tomorrow. Everything ok with your parents?’

  
‘Uhhh, oh yea. Don’t worry about it. They just feel really protective of him.’

  
‘I didn’t ask for anything Mel, I love him but I didn’t say anything about marriage. We talked about it but just in general conversation, it was never anything heavy, or so I thought, but I’m not about to leave him hurt. If that means taking his ring so he feels happy about the distance then I will.’

My mind was turning with everything she was saying before something suddenly occurred to me

   ‘I’m sorry but what exactly does he need protecting from? I’m not after his money if that’s what you think!!!’

  
‘Oh God no, we don’t think that. He’s just so…. different with you. My parents can see it and we don’t want him to get hurt.’

  
‘I assure you I’m not going back to hurt him, I have to, or I would never leave him. I’m sorry but I need to take Lily inside.’ I could feel my anger getting the best of me so leaving was better than starting an argument with Mel.

  
‘Summer, I’m sorry I didn’t mean anything by it, please don’t walk away upset.’

  
‘I’m fine really Mel. Don’t worry. Can you please let Mason know we went upstairs until dinner? Thanks.’

I knew his family were just protecting him but I was deeply hurt by the implication that I was using him for something. I guess I was doing the same thing when it came to protecting Lily but it
’s hard to see that when your in the middle. I took Lily upstairs and we sat down on the bed. It wasn’t long before I heard his foot steps coming toward the bedroom, he walked in and found us lying down together.

  
‘I wondered where my ladies were, are you both ok?’

  
‘We’re fine sweetie. Lily why don’t you go down and let Mel know we’ll be down in a few minutes.’

  
‘Ok mum.’ Lily walked out closing the door behind her, we waited until her footsteps faded and then I turned toward him.

  
‘Baby, are you ok? I’m sorry but I thought it was best to leave you alone with your family so you could discuss things with them, they looked a bit…well pissed off to be honest.’

  
‘I’m sorry you had to see that. They were just shocked that I would give you something so committing without discussing it with them. I usually run things past them before taking any huge leaps but this is different. I know what I want sweetheart, that’s not going to change just because your not here. I knew it the moment I saw you, and every moment we’ve shared since then. It’s not about you, so don’t think that, it’s just that I always discuss any huge decisions with them. When I started my career in music, my mom came everywhere with me, so I wouldn’t be alone but also so I never felt pressured to make the wrong decision. When I made the decision to withdraw from the scene my dad was my sounding board. After that every business decision I made, I knew I could talk to them about it. When I didn’t I knew they supported me regardless and the more successful I became the more I knew they would always be there. Its hard for them to watch me get where I am today and not feel reserved about the decisions I’m making now, but I know who you are, where your heart is, and how loving and selfless you can be. I know my decision to be with you is the best one I could ever make.’

My heart was beating so fast that I thought it would explode. It was the most heartfelt explanation but the emotion on his face told me everything. He loved me so much that not even 3000 miles could come between us. My eyes glazed but I smiled up at him and said

   ‘I know you too, and everything you do, everything you say shows me how much you love me. I feel it in every touch, I see it in every smile. You have nothing to prove to me, your family is your family. They earned the right to be concerned, I mean we haven’t known each other that long’ he moved to stop my words but I carried on ‘I just mean that I understand, and I won’t be the person that comes between you all, but I won’t apologise for falling in love with their son. I don’t care about your money, if they need something to assure them of that I am more than willing to put it in writing.’

  
‘That’s not going to happen’

  
‘Just hear me out.’

  
‘No, this is my decision.’

  
‘I understand but it’s for your protection, it’s no different than me asking you for something regarding Lily.’

  
‘What… what do you mean?’

  
‘If we got married…I mean if that’s what you wanted then I would love for you to consider adopting Lily… what I mean is, you’ve been more of a father to her in this short time than ‘he’ ever was and I would always want you to have that relationship with her…of course only if you wanted that’ I looked away trying not to make eye contact but he leaned in and used his fingers to move my face toward his

  
‘Baby…I don’t know what to say. She already feels like mine, I never really thought you would consider it, oh umm, I’m speechless baby. I love you, and I love Lily. Nothing would make me happier.’

His eyes shone with unshed tears so I quickly kissed him. We were breathless in no time at all so decided it was best to join everybody downstairs before dinner was forgotten.

   Dinner was quiet, and well sort of
…shit. I tried my best not to look anybody in the eye, but that was hard especially since Lily was asking questions and Mason looked like he was sat on a cloud oblivious to anything around him, apart from Lily. He answered everything she asked and made sure to keep her entertained. It wasn’t until she excused herself to the bathroom that Mase decided to acknowledge the whole table.

  
‘Well this is nice,’ everybody froze mid chew to look in his direction, I tried not to but I couldn’t help it, the tone of his voice was like acid

  
‘This is hard enough as it is, I feel like I’m loosing something tonight and your supposed to be the people to understand that and support me, us, but I get the impression your glad Summer’s going home’ Oh My God, I wanted to disappear into the ground. The air began to suffocate me so I started to stand but Mase grabbed me before I could move away ‘Sweetheart where are you going?’

  
‘I just need a minute.’ I looked into his eyes, pleading for him to understand that this was just not something I wanted to be involved in, but the look he returned told me that he needed me with him. Maybe it was a show of commitment who knew but I sat back down and just lowered my head, once I was settled he continued

  
‘So are you pissed off that I made a decision for myself about the woman I love or is this just because of the money?’

  
‘That’s enough son. You know better than that, we like Summer and Lily, it’s never ever crossed our minds that she’s after your money. I’m sorry Summer but this is nothing to do with you.’ Was he really trying to justify their disapproval to me, oh god please open the floor so I can jump in.

  
‘Dad please, tell me why then? Why are you making it seem like you are disagreeing with my choice?’