Page 192 of Mason

I freeze.

My gun’s on the edge of the table. My hand brushes the grip out of habit.

Then I hear her voice.

“Mason.”

Soft. Cracked open. Laced with something close to fear—or maybe it’s hope. I can’t tell the difference anymore.

My fingers go numb.

I walk to the door like I’m sleepwalking, each step heavy with disbelief. My heart’s not racing—it’s stalling, like it’s afraid to get ahead of itself. Like it knows this could be a dream. A trick. A memory that decided to bleed into the present.

I open the door.

And there she is.

Shelby.

Alive. Here. Real.

Her hair’s windblown, her cheeks flushed from the cold, and she’s wearing one of those sweaters she stole from my closet—the one that’s too big, sleeves swallowing her hands. Her eyes shine, but not from tears.

From knowing.

Knowing she’s come home.

I don’t speak.

I can’t.

Because if I say something, I might ruin it. I might fall apart.

She smiles, but it’s fragile—like if I breathe too hard, she’ll shatter.

“I was scared,” she whispers. “Not of you. Never of you. But of what it means to be wanted. To be… kept. Of what I’ve become.”

My chest caves in.

“You were never just wanted, Shelby. You were it. You’ve always been it.”

“I didn’t think I could be enough for you,” she says, eyes glassy now. “I didn’t think I could be that girl. The one a man like you waits for.”

My hands shake.

I close the distance, take her face in my palms, rest my forehead against hers like I’m praying with skin instead of words.

“You were never just that girl,” I whisper. “You’re theonlygirl.”

Her breath hitches.

And then she’s kissing me.

It’s not sweet. It’s not tentative. It’s a fucking claim. A collision. Like she’s trying to remind my mouth how to feel again. Like her hands on my jaw are anchoring us both to this exact second in time where everything that broke is being stitched back together with heat and forgiveness and something dangerously close to salvation.

I kiss her back like I’ll never get another chance.

Because I won’t let her leave again.

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