Page 46 of Mason Wilder
Mason planned on telling the family tonight that Kendall had been in contact with him, but didn’t know exactly when. Since the entire Immortal Angel family was together in the great room of the Blade-Garcia mansion, it presented the perfect opportunity. He saw Tessa glance at his fingers as they pounded a beat into the arm of the couch. Usually, nothing got to him. That’s just how he rolled. He wasn’t one to get upset and fly off the handle. He had a calm demeanor and rarely got riled up. In that respect, he and Tessa couldn’t be more different.
With the room at a decent decibel, after everyone had spent the last two hours emptying their lungs with stories and laughter, Mason decided it was time to bring up Kendall. He stood and raised his voice above everyone else’s. “I want to say something.” He waited for the family to quiet down before he looked directly at his father. “Kendall showed up at my apartment after the funeral.”
He looked around the room at the unsettled reactions. His dad’s brows rose and the jovial smile fell from his lips. His mom closed her eyes for a moment and visibly deflated, her shoulders falling a good three inches from their usual height. Alyssa rolled her eyes and huffed. Damien didn’t react, but that wasn’t a surprise. The man had two facial expression – a scowl or an evil grin – so, it was almost impossible to tell what he was thinking. Angel pursed his lips together with concern and crossed his arms over his chest. Tommy’s bright eyes lost some of their light, and he glanced at Angel. But it was Jessi’s reaction that disturbed Mason the most. Her eyes narrowed into slits and her lips pressed tightly together. Her chest rose and fell, and she kept looking back and forth between Tommy and Angel.
“What did she want?” Mason’s dad asked.
“She was at the funeral, but stayed in the background because she said she knew she wasn’t welcome. Why would she think that, Dad?”
“I invited her, Mase. Remember? There’s no reason for her to think she wasn’t welcome. She may not have seen Aunt Mary in twenty-five years, but she was her aunt. She was her family. It was her place to be there.” He paused and furrowed his brow. “Did you say she came to your apartment?”
“Yeah.”
“How did she know where you live? I never told her.”
“She said she saw me at the funeral and recognized me right away. She followed me home.”
Mason’s mom quickly came to his side, her high heels clacking on the floor, and rubbed her hand over his upper arm. “Are you OK? Did she upset you?”
“No. I’m . . . I don’t know what I am, Mom. I guess, confused, mostly. She said she wanted to get to know me. She said she couldn’t go back to London without seeing me.” The quietude in the room disturbed him. This group of boisterous people, who always had an opinion and shared it freely, fell silent. The tension was unnerving. As he waited for them to say something, Tessa reached out, took Mason’s hand and squeezed it for support. She was always in his corner, always standing by his side, no matter what. “Why do all of you dislike her so much?” he asked.
Angel spoke up. “We’re concerned about her intentions.”
“Why? Is it because she had a drinking problem? Because she’s clean and sober now.” The remark caused several skeptical facial expressions from those around the room. “She refused alcohol,” Mason stressed, surprised he felt the need to defend Kendall. “Me and Lucas had a couple of beers at dinner. She had water.”
Jessi’s head snapped in Lucas’ direction, eyes wide with alarm. “You met her?” He nodded, and she quickly turned toward Tessa, her voice raising an octave. “Didyou?”
Tessa shot an uneasy glance in Mason’s direction before answering her mother. “Yes. She seemed nice. Sincere in wanting to get to know Mason.”
“What else did she say?” Mason’s dad asked, more serious than Mason had ever seen him.
“She told me that she left because of a chance at a recording deal, which never panned out. That she turned her life around. She said she regrets a lot of things. That she’s changed. She said she wanted to get in touch with me, but felt like too much time had passed.” He looked at the faces around him, all staring back at him with concerned expressions. No one offered the slightest bit of joy at the chance of a reunion.
Jessi was the most reactive. Her nostrils flared, and her expression changed many times. Anger, disbelief and something that looked like mild panic flashed across her face. Mostly, she looked as if there were a mountain of things she wanted to blurt out, but held her tongue.
“I’m glad, Mase,” his dad finally said, although his face remained pinched with concern rather than displaying any kind of sentiment to match his statement. His dad walked over to him and placed a supportive hand on his shoulder. “I wished she could have been there for you when you were a kid. It wasn’t fair. You know it had nothing to do with you, right? I’ve told you that a million times. She left for her own reasons. Not because she didn’t care about you.”
She did care about him. That much Mason knew. He felt it in his heart. He just wished his family didn’t have such a negative reaction to her. “She kept saying she wasn’t welcome here. That none of you like her. Why would she keep saying that?”
“I never gave her any reason to think I didn’t want her in your life, Mase.” His dad lowered his head for a moment. “I’m sorry she wasn’t around. It really broke my heart. You never talked about her, and we never brought her up because . . . well, there was nothing to say. I’m sorry, buddy.”
Mason glanced at his mother – the only mother he’d ever known.
Tears welled in her eyes, and she cupped his face in her hands. “I love you as if I gave birth to you, Mason. In my heart, I did. I live for you. I’d die for you. If you hurt, I hurt. You are a piece of me. But I never wanted to replace Kendall. I may not have liked her, but I still wanted her in your life. I just don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Is that why you don’t like her? Because she left? Because you think she hurt me?”
She nodded.
Her eyes said that she wasn’t being completely honest. “That’s not all there is. There’s more you’re not telling me, isn’t there? What is it?”
A pained expression passed over her face, and her shoulders sunk again. “I’ve known Kendall for a very long time. Me and Aunt Kira were Immortal Angel superfans. You know the stories. Kendall was too, I guess. She was always there. At every show. She was loud and partied too much. We found her abrasive. We clashed. That’s the extent of my interaction with Kendall. I was already with your dad when she showed up with you when you were still a toddler. It was a shock. To everyone. I was afraid she would try to get between me and your dad, but she wasn’t interested in him. She just wanted him to be your dad.”
If he had to pick someone to be his mother, out of every woman in the world, he’d pick her every day of the year. His mom was probably the sweetest and kindest woman he’d ever met. She loved him completely, and he loved her just as much in return. She soothed every ache in his heart, for as long as he could remember. He squeezed her hand and nodded. Then he looked at his dad to see if he had anything to add.
His dad shrugged. “I didn’t know her that well. I wish I could tell you that we were young and in love. That she went off in search of a singing career, and I stayed behind and fell in love with your mom. But that’s not the way it went down. She was just some chick in the bar.” He scratched at one of his long sideburns and hung his head. “I’m sorry. I know that sounds awful.”
It was the cold hard truth, but it didn’t mean anything to Mason. He knew the story. It wasn’t a big deal. It’s the first he heard of his mom and Aunt Kira having a history with Kendall, though. It didn’t matter. Although he suspected there was a lot more background information that wasn’t being offered, he believed that the extent of his parent’s relationship with Kendall had been disclosed. He saw no reason why they wouldn’t want her in his life, and Kendall freely admitted that it was her decision to stay away.
