Page 70 of Please Save Me

“You’re not funny.”

“I’m hilarious,” I said with a stretch. “Now get down here. I mean it.”

Mason rolled her eyes but didn’t protest. She slowly lowered herself off the couch before straddling my hips. I grabbed her left hand and held it up. The light caught in the golden band on her ring finger, and I turned her hand slightly to look at the gems. It wasn’t anything spectacular, just an oval-cut emerald in the center surrounded by a halo of diamonds in a sunburst pattern. It was the ring my mom had given me for my wife. That’s why Mason couldn’t wear it unless it was just us. We didn’t need the whole fucking house pissed at us because we eloped without telling them.

“Mi Esposa,” I hummed, loving the way it sounded. “Mi corazón. Mi vida. I love yousomuch.”

My smile was so wide that it made my cheeks hurt as I kissed her knuckles over and over and over again, that was until I saw her glaring at me.

“What?” I asked, eager to pacify her if it meant getting her down here so I could love on her.

“We need to get back to work,” she reminded me.

“I recorded most of the songs they wrote for me. Isn’t that enough?” I groaned.

Mason shot me a look that pierced me straight through my core. “If you don’t start writing your other song now, you’re going to get down to the wire and panic; then I’ll have to do it for you. Just like you did in school.”

“It’s not my fault that I got better grades when you did my homework.”

Plus, I was fairly certain Mason liked doing my homework. Even during my half-semester in college, she begged for my Blackboard log-ins so she could help because she was bored. Mason just liked learning, which made it incredibly funny that she didn’t even have a high school diploma—not like she needed it, though.

“I’m going to get up and go back upstairs.” she warned.

“Nooooo,” I whined, holding her by the thighs.

Her hands found mine, and my heart lurched. Mason had this weird ability to make my world stop spinning in the best way possible.

“Then get your notebook and start working.” she commanded.

Ugh, how could I get her away from wanting to work? What could we talk about that would distract her?

I took a deep breath as I lifted her hand, softly rubbing my thumb across her knuckles before realizing her fingers were a little swollen. By this point, I was used to Mason’s swelling—that’s just what happened during pregnancy. But it was a little worse than usual.

“Hey, how’d your appointment go today?”

Mason sighed as she closed her eyes before sinking into the couch. “Fine, I guess…” She hesitated for a moment. “They’re inducing me on the twenty-ninth, and I won’t be able to go to Portland with you guys for Thanksgiving.”

Her tone took on a somber note, and while I was disappointed she wouldn’t be coming to visit my sister and Sophia’s family, I could live with that. Instead of staying the whole week like we normally did, we could go up on Wednesday and come back on Friday. We’d just need someone to stay with Mason. But we’d figure out exactly who closer to the date.

“Did they say why?” I prodded.

I wasn’t going to ask directly, but I was a little concerned about Mason’s blood pressure. At her last appointment, the doctor said it was a little high but nothing to be concerned about yet. That being said, the twins’ mom, Ashley, had pre-eclampsia, so I was acutely aware of the signs. In addition to swollen ankles and fingers, Mason had been getting tension headaches, she’d been short of breath, and she’d been in pain everywhere.

“Just because Rosie is big. They’re worried I won’t be able to push her out if she goes the full forty weeks.”

“...Did they mention your blood pressure at all?”

Mason nodded. “It was actually a little low.”

That helped me feel a little better, but it didn’t fully alleviate the feeling of impending doom. Maybe Sophia had just gotten into my head. I didn’t want to think about this anymore, so I figured a trip down memory lane would be an easy topic change that didn’t involve me actually working.

“Do you remember that time you, Sophia, and I drove to California?”

Actually, it was more like Mason and I taking turns driving because we bothvaluedour lives too much to let Sophia behind the wheel for extended periods.

“You let it slip that you thought all of America was either like Texas or California, and I wanted to prove you wrong.” A smile unfurled across my lips as I remembered everything.

Sophia and I walked the stage to receive our high school diplomas, and less than an hour later, we were in my Jeep. Sure, the trip was under the guise of enjoying our freedom as almost adults, but in all actuality, it was to try to help Mason with how upset she was about not graduating. She never said anything to us, but the lack of spark in her eyes told us everything. If she didn’t take the fall for me getting caught with pot, she was on track to be the valedictorian.

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