Read The Mason Dixon Line (A Horizons Novel) Online
Authors: Linda Morris
The Mason Dixon Line (A Horizons Novel) (16 page)
She wrinkled her nose. “How did you think
you were going to get an entire PlayStation past your parents?”
“I didn’t. Think, that is. I was an idiot
with low impulse control, what can I say? I got caught and got sent to an
alternative high school with a bunch of tough kids. After a while, most of the
kids at my old school had gotten bored with bullying me and left me alone. I
had a few friends and most of the bullies ignored me. At the new school, these
kids were kicking my ass on a daily basis. My parents didn’t know what to do,
so they sent me off to Aunt Marjorie’s.”
“I’m sorry, Mason.” When she thought about
what he’d been through, even the self-inflicted stuff, she didn’t know what to
say.
“Don’t be sorry. I turned out fine.” He
leaned forward, grabbing her hand and looking at her intently. “But you don’t
ever
have to worry about me being proud
of you. I'm more than proud of you. I love you.” He pulled her to him, into
those strong arms she adored, and she cried into his shirt for a while as he
soothed her, stroking her hair and rubbing her back. “You’re the best thing
that has ever happened to me. I know you’re not perfect.” He pressed a kiss on
top of her head. “I’m far from perfect too.” A wisp of a laugh stirred against
her forehead. “But don’t you see? We’re not broken people. We’re different pieces
of the same puzzle, and when we come together, we make a whole.”
She pulled away a little, just far enough
to look at his face, embarrassed by her weepiness. She sniffed. “That’s pretty
profound. Did you think that up yourself?”
“Damn straight. I’m a genius, remember?”
“Damn straight.” She grabbed a tissue to
blow her nose and then curled up facing him again, leaning against his chest.
She wanted to ask Mason something, but
hesitated. Oh, to hell with it. What good was being in love if you couldn’t be
honest? “Kayla told me something once. She thinks I ought to go to therapy to
find out why I buy all this stuff I can’t afford.” She watched Mason for his
reaction.
“What do you think?”
Good question. What did she think? “Maybe
she’s right. I’ve tried to do it my way, but it didn’t work. I thought I was
making some strides, but at the first sign of pressure, I cracked. I almost bought
a cashmere scarf from the TV tonight. And a vibrator.”
His eyes widened. “Well, let’s not be
hasty. You can’t give up
all
shopping, you know.”
“You think I should have bought the scarf?”
She raised a brow, all innocence.
“Very funny.” He slid one hand through her
hair, threading his fingers to her scalp, and pulled her close for a kiss. Her
eyes drifted shut on a sigh. She turned in closer to him, needy and hot, just
like that. He pulled her astride him, never breaking the kiss. “I like the
dress,” he said roughly, moving to press a string of hot kisses down her throat.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. Easy access.”
Her lips curled into a smile. Mason might
be an artist, but she was discovering he had a practical side too.
Non-Douchebags of the World, Unite
!
“That was kind of awesome, but I don’t get
why radiation made the ants turn into giant mutant killers.” Carolyn snuggled
her head into Mason’s bare shoulder, feeling more at peace than she could
remember in a long time. At this moment, the trauma of losing her job was no
match for the feeling of rightness that being with him brought her. “It doesn’t
seem to be on firm ground, science-wise.”
“It’s the kind of movie that works best if
you don’t think about it too much.” He pressed a kiss into the top of her head.
“Okay, but next time I get to pick the
movie.”
“Fair enough.” Mason switched off the TV. They’d
just finished watching
Them
, an old
fifties movie about giant ants on a rampage, and she had spent a good part of
it hiding her eyes against his shoulder. A half-empty pizza box lay at the foot
of the bed. It was a lazy, lovely idyll, a reprieve from the real world she’d
have to face all too soon.
“So have you decided what you’re going to
do for a living?”
She groaned. So much for a reprieve.
She had to face facts sometime. “Probably
go work at one of my dad’s dealerships for a while.” She shrugged. Oh, wouldn’t
that be a humiliating conversation when she had to tell her dad she’d quit
Horizons and needed a job?
“If that’s what you want—”
“Of course it isn’t what I want. To go
crawling back to my dad? No way. I don’t know what else I could do though. He’d
pay me more than any other job I could get without a college education. Maybe I
could finally pay down some of these debts.” She straightened, leaning against
the headboard.
“Will you get mad if I offer some advice?”
He ran his hand along her forearm in a gesture that made her skin prickle.
“Okay, shoot.”
“Have you thought about asking Dr. Dunne
for your job back?”
“Ugh, I hate that guy! Why does everyone
want me to go crawling back to him?”
“Yeah, I know. He sounds like a total jerk.”
Late last night, she’d told him all about the confrontation that had led her to
quit. He’d listened to her without judgment, letting her get it out. “But you’ve
always said you don’t have a passion. You’re wrong about that. Don’t you see?
You quit a job you desperately needed because you wanted to help Jacob. You
took a stand on principle. You have a passion for helping the kids at Horizons,
whether you know it or not.”
She frowned. “I’ve never thought of it like
that.” Maybe he was right. She did love the kids, and she’d felt strongly about
standing up for Jacob. She shook her head. “It will never work, though. I don’t
make any money at Horizons. And I’m not being shallow. I have so much debt. I
can’t keep putting off dealing with it. I have to grow up.”
“Why don’t you become a teacher?”
“Because I don’t have my degree.” He sat in
silence, looking at her. She looked back. He quirked a brow. “Oh, so now you
think I should go back to college? Since when did you get all cozy with formal
education? First you tell me I ought to go back to Horizons, now you’re saying
I should go to college.”
“Yeah, well.” He rubbed his chin. “Listen
up because I’m only going to say this once.” He paused. “I might have been
wrong about that.”
“Might have?” This was getting good. She scooted
down, sinking one elbow into a pillow and resting her cheek on her palm.
“Just because I had a horrible experience,
doesn’t mean everyone else does. And because my schools sucked doesn’t mean
Horizons does. It actually sounds pretty great from what you’ve told me,
despite Dr. Dunne.”
“It is. He’s a pretty major drawback,
though. He only cares about money. You should have seen him last night, sucking
up to anyone and everyone with money. I’ve seen him with the board members,
even your Aunt Marjorie. It’s ridiculous.”
“But don’t you see? All the more reason for
you to stick it out. Cool people like you need to stay in the fight, to balance
out the douchebags. Otherwise, douchebags rule the world.”
“You are full of profound statements lately.
Can I get that stitched onto a sampler or something?”
“Wiseass. You know I’m right.” He whacked
her with a throw pillow, startling a laugh from her.
“You think I’m one of the cool people of
the world?” Despite her mockery, she found the idea touching.
“Absolutely.”
“I’ve never been a crusader for justice
before.” She’d always thought of herself as selfish, but maybe that could
change. Mason didn’t see her that way. Could she live up to his generous image
of her?
She hoped so.
“You crusaded for Jacob.” He rubbed her
knee through the soft cotton of the sheet.
“Yeah, look how that turned out. He’s still
skipping a grade and I’m out of a job.”
“All the more reason for you to talk to
Dunne.”
“I just keep coming back to that, don’t I?”
She shook her head. “I still need more money though. An aide salary won’t cut
it, and if I go back to school, I’ll be taking on even more debt. I’ll be
damned if I let my dad pay for another round of college.” He probably would if
she asked, but she couldn’t accept help from him now.
“Too bad you can’t take back all the crap
you’ve bought over the years. Did you save the receipts?”
She frowned, a touch annoyed at hearing her
beloved things called “crap,” but he had a point. A thought struck her. “Wait a
minute.” She retrieved her laptop from the floor near the bed and switched it
on.
“What are you doing?”
“Looking at something.” She pulled up an
auction website and typed “Gucci clutch.”
“What?” He craned his neck to see the
screen. “Carolyn! Are you shopping again already?”
“No! Look.” She turned the laptop in his
direction. “This is the clutch I carried to my parents’ anniversary party. It’s
going for three hundred bucks. Don’t you see? I could sell some of this stuff.”
Her mind whirled. “I have a lot of jewelry and designer bags too.” She frowned.
“But three hundred bucks is only a quarter of what I paid for that clutch.”
“Hey, but it’s way more than you’ll get for
letting it sit in a drawer. Besides, if you sell enough of your jewelry, you’ll
finally be able to afford that vibrator.”
She swatted him without looking away from
the screen. “You are hilarious."
She sat back, a whole new world opening up
to her. She could make some money getting rid of all the
stuff
that had gotten her into this mess in the first place. Money
that would help pay down her debts and maybe help finance a return to college.
She could get her teaching degree.
She looked at Mason, a new life in her eyes.
“I could really be a teacher. Go back to school, and then work with kids like
Jacob and Mallory full-time.”
“But you don’t want to work for your dad’s
dealership in the meantime, right? Which means that first you have to ask Dr.
Dunne for your job back.”
“Crap.” The thought of going back on bended
knee to ask Dunne for anything made her feel like she’d swallowed a bowling
ball, but it had to be done. Mason was right. She cared about Jacob and the
other kids at Horizons in a way she’d never cared about any other work. If that
wasn’t a sign she should get her act together and make it her life, she didn’t
know what was.
“Even if he gives me my job back, it’ still
too late for Jacob. He’s already gotten permission to skip a grade.”
“My Aunt Marjorie might have something to
say about that.”
“What?”
“Look, Dunne is a sucker for anything a
donor or board member wants. My aunt is the heir to a big chunk of Freeman
Pharmaceuticals stock. She’s given a ton of money over the years.”
“That’s right!” Carolyn chewed on a
fingernail. “Do you think Dunne would listen? I mean, the Fanes are donors too.”
“Whatever the Fanes have given, trust me,
Aunt Marjorie can give more. And she
hates
seeing a kid get jerked around. She’ll talk to Dunne if I ask her to.”
A faint hope rose, until another thought
made her come crashing down. “But the Fanes might pull Jacob out of Horizons.”
He brushed her hair away from her forehead.
“Maybe. I could ask my aunt to arrange a meeting with the Fanes. You know, a board
member taking an interest in Horizons’ most exceptional student.”
“Oh, my God. The Fanes would eat that
up
.”
“My aunt can be pretty persuasive when she
wants to be.”
“I don’t think she’s the only member of the
family who can say that.”
“Oh, yeah?” His eyes darkened as he leaned
in. “Let’s test that proposition.”
She knew what that meant, but she had
something to say first and stopped him with a hand to his bare chest.
“Did you mean what you said last night,
about us being two pieces of the same puzzle?”
“I’ve never meant anything more.”
She loved hearing those words, but anxiety
niggled at her. “But you live in another city, and we’re so different—”
“It’ll work out, Carolyn. We’ll make it
work. Because I love you. And you love me, right?” He cupped her chin and
lifted it to meet his gaze.
“More than anything.” That, she knew for
sure.
“Then it’ll work, because there’s nothing I
won’t do to be with you. We just have to have faith.”
Obviously he was persuasive, because as he
leaned forward to take her mouth in a tender kiss, she didn’t have even a
sliver of a doubt.
