Page 4 of One Weekend in Sydney

“I wish you were coming with us. I’m sorry you’re not.”

“Me, too. But we have the rest of the weekend together.”

“Odette!” a male voice calls out.

I glance in the direction of the caller and immediately tense. Are my eyes deceiving me? Is that Mason Abril, Odette’s cousin?

Damn it, yes, it is. He’s a decade older than when I last saw him, and I’m a little breathless at the realisation that he’s still incredibly handsome. His wavy, dark brown hair is slightly longer than I remember, but it’s still above-shoulder length, the strong breeze messing it up a tad.

Obviously, he works out. The white short-sleeved polo shirt he’s wearing showcases his muscular biceps—the kind that can make women swoon. Not me, though! Because I’m sure he’s still the same obnoxious guy I’ve ever had the misfortune of knowing. I didn’t think I’d bump into him this weekend. Bad luck, I guess.

“Mason! What are you doing here?” Odette cries, rushing to her cousin.

But Mason isn’t focusing on Odette. His brown-eyed gaze is on me, and I feel my hackles rise.

I look away, not wanting to have any interaction with him whatsoever. I don’t hear their conversation, so I assume Odette has led him away from our little group.

After a moment, she comes back alone. “Sorry, Tara. I didn’t know he’d be here. He just wanted to let me know his company is in charge of security for the showboat. He’s told his employees that we’ll be onboard in case we run into any problems.”

“Don’t worry about it. I haven’t seen him in ten years. I’m cool,” I say flippantly. I’ve heard of Mason’s successful security business. I’m a teeny-weeny bit impressed, considering I still think of him as the awful, inconsiderate asshole he was in our teenage years.

“You don’t like Mason?” Kelly asked.

“Mason is Tara’s poster boy for the kind of man she’d never want to date—again,” Odette answers.

Kelly raises her brows at me. “Again? You went out with him?”

I force out a chuckle. “Yes. We dated for two years when we were teenagers. And then he did something to humiliate me.”

Kelly’s eyes grow wide. “What did he do?”

I hesitate but decide that I’d rather tell my new friends the truth rather than have them assume something incorrectly or, worse, hear it from Mason. I take a deep breath. “For what turned out to be our last date, we went for a walk in the park. We sat on a secluded bench to talk, and we ended up chatting about our dreams for the future. We were only eighteen, but I was sure I knew what I wanted. It was pretty typical: Finish university, get a good job, get married, have a family. I made it clear that I see the two of us together in that future, and I was happy to hear his dreams were similar to mine.” The memory of our passionate kiss after that conversation tingles on my lips, and I willed it away.

“That was sweet,” says Anne tentatively.

I force myself to continue as if it didn’t matter anymore. “A couple of days later, a video of me in the park with him started circulating. The camera was focused only on me as I talked about my dream future with him. Mason wasn’t in the picture, and all the sweet things he said about me were cut off. Worse, at the end of the video, he added a text that said I was a delusional girl who wouldn’t take no for an answer, and that I was so up myself that I believed I was better than everyone else.”

“What?! That was so mean!” Anne cries. “And you said you’d been dating for two years?”

I let out a ragged breath. “Yup. My first thought was that he couldn’t have created that video. But he ghosted me. He didn’t pick up my calls or answer my texts. I knew he was around because Odette said he holed himself up at their uncle’s after the backlash from the video.”

Odette nods. “Mason got in so much trouble with our familyandthe whole town. Everyone was shocked, especially because he and Tara were always lovey-dovey. But Mooners rallied behind Tara. The person Mason described in that video wasn’t the Tara everyone knew. Anyway, that was the catalyst for Mason moving here to Sydney.”

“Did he tell you why he did it?” Kelly asks Odette.

“No. Everyone asked him that question, but he never answered. Rumour went around that he was doing drugs. That was the only thing that explained his behaviour.”

“If he did, I never noticed,” I murmur.

Odette shoots me a pointed look. “If he did, it was not your fault.”

“No,” I concur. I’ve already dealt with my guilt about that a long time ago.

“To be fair to Mason, he’s grown up a lot. He’s very responsible now,” Odette says. She turns to the other two. “But unless Tara says so, we are not to mention Mason in front of her again.”

I send my best friend a smile. “Thank you. I know it’s not easy for you to be caught between him and me.”

“And I appreciate that neither of you pushes me in any direction.”

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