Page 58 of Boundaries

“Nixon was the quiet one and always stayed out of the way. I acted up purposefully so Mitchell would channel his anger issues my way, sparing the younger two.”

I listened with a heavy heart. His voice cracked slightly as he explained a couple of scenarios where Mitchell had lost it. I didn’t know half of what had happened over there and had only witnessed pieces of that life.

“Did he ever hit your mother?” I asked, turning in his arms to face him.

Mason inhaled sharply, “No, never. I would have killed him if he had.” And I believe him, he said the words so vehemently.

“So, now he’s ill, what will happen with the livestock, the farm?”

“I’ll take over completely eventually. Mitchell gets more and more distant each week. It’s pretty fucked up stuff.”

I listened intently, thankful that Mason was sharing something so personal with me.

“Does he still hit you?”

“Fuck no, he hasn’t tried that shit for the last ten years. I saw him go for Seth once and had words. He never tried anything again and when he became ill, he was too confused anyway.”

My heart squeezed for him and we eventually fell asleep. I spent the night in his arms; who would have thought that Mason McKenna was a snuggler?

I then woke up in the morning and he’d gone. Vanished, without a word. He didn’t even try and wake me.

At first, my emotions were mixed. Maybe Mason had left for work or had something important he had to deal with. Either that or he’d left because he thought I’d be embarrassed to face him in the light of day.

Eventually, as the morning progressed, I realised that no matter what, Mason had left me without saying goodbye and the misery I felt was overwhelming. I blamed it on my hormones, I’d had sex now and my body was different. Hell, I was different.

I stood in the shower and allowed the jets to beat down on my body. As the water trickled over my skin, I told myself to treat what had been a beautiful exhilarating experience as an experiment.

One I now did not feel like repeating with Mason.

How could we have spent such a special night together for him to then leave without saying anything? Did he regret it?

I know out of the blue, but I could feel my heart physically breaking into a thousand bits.

Mason McKenna had unlocked something deep inside and he now owned a piece of me. As I made my bed, reorganising those rumpled covers, I realised that I had no idea how I would ever get that back.

Eleven

After finishing off de-Mason-ing my bedroom, I arrived downstairs to some awkward questions as you can imagine.

Jenna, Nixon, and Mattie were in the kitchen, tidying up the aftermath of last night. Trepidation twisted in my stomach.

“So, what happened with you and Mason,” Jenna said when we were in the garden out of earshot of the boys.

“Nothing, why?” I lied. I was holding a black bin sack and filling it with discarded bottles. It looked a bit like there’d been a rave. What the fuck happened when I went upstairs. There was also a shoe in my mother’s flower bed. A shoe?

Jenna stopped wiping down the rattan table and straightened, giving me one of her looks.

“Boyd said you guys kissed. I’m your big sister, you can tell me anything.”

I rolled my eyes, hating the fact that she’d chosen to play that card. I looked after Jenna, not the other way around.

“So, what, it was a dare,” I lied.

“Please, Amy. Stop that and come and sit with me,” she said, lowering her body onto the ratan sofa, and patting the space beside her. It was the same place that Lara had sat. Ironic right?

Sighing, I placed the bin bag on the floor and lowered myself next to her.

“Well?”

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