Page 50 of Mason Wilder
Audra grunted a laugh. “Are you calling my husband old?”
Tessa smiled at Audra without trying to answer gracefully. “He’s my parents’ age, so, yeah.”
Everyone laughed, except Audra who was trying very hard to hide her smile and to act insulted, with a balled fist on her hip. “I’ll have you know that Jimmy is as voracious in the bedroom as he was when I first met him, and he looks just as hot with his clothes off.”
Tessa immediately put her hands over Bella’s ears, but really wanted to put them over her own. “Children are present.” What was with the overtly sensual relationship that both her parents and Mason’s parents displayed? She would’ve thought that things had cooled off after being married forever, but apparently not. At least Damien and Alyssa were private with their physical affection for one another.
Bella playfully tugged Tessa’s hands off her ears. “Can we bake? Mommy doesn’t know how to make stuff that tastes good like you, Tessa.”
Kira laughed at the blatant honesty of her daughter. “Thanks a lot, Bella.”
“Sorry, Mommy. But it’s true. You don’t make stuff as good as Tessa.”
This little girl was adorable, and Tessa wished Kira would have given birth to her 14 years earlier so they could have been kids together. “I’d love to bake with you, sweetie.” Tessa looked off to the side, trying to think of something Bella would like that wouldn’t be too complicated. “How about I come to your place tomorrow and we can make pastelitos? They’re those little cheese pastries, remember how much you love them?”
Bella pouted. “Can we do it now? Pleeease?”
Tessa frowned. “I don’t think your Aunt Audra has the right ingredients.”
“Can we buy them?”
“No, honey,” Kira told her daughter. “We’re visiting. It would be rude to leave to go shopping. Tessa can come to our house tomorrow.”
Tessa had no idea how Kira could say no to that precious little face and her heart broke for the girl. She tenderly cupped Bella’s chin in her hand. “I’ll come by first thing in the morning.I promise. We can make three kinds of pastelitos – pineapple, cheese, and guava. We can have pastelitos for breakfast! How does that sound?”
Bella clapped her hands and bounced on the balls of her feet. “Pastelitos for breakfast? Yay!”
“Wonderful.” Kira let out a small laugh. “Pastry for breakfast. I hope you’re gonna stick around and deal with her sugar rush, Tessa.”
Ronnie ran into the kitchen holding up a brand new virtual reality game. “Bella, look at the new game Uncle Jimmy got me!”
Bella forgot all about baking and rushed to her brother in order to see the new electronic device. She inspected it with awe, then pouted. “I didn’t get one. No fair!”
Jimmy walked in, a dimpled smile on his face that looked just like Mason’s. “Would I forget about you, darlin’?” He waved an identical shaped present in his hand.
“Yay! Thank you Uncle Jimmy!” Bella ran to him and Jimmy lifted her in his arms while she ripped the paper off. “Look Mommy, I got one too!”
“That’s fantastic, Bella. Now you and your brother don’t have to learn to share.” She shook her head at her brother-in-law. “You spoil these kids, Jimmy.”
“You spoil mine. I spoil yours. That’s the law of the land.” Still holding Bella, Jimmy took Ronnie by the hand and left the kitchen.
As Tessa watched the twins and Jimmy go into the other room, she noticed Mason on the other side of the apartment standing by himself. Concerned, she went to him.
Mason’s head turned in her direction as she approached, his signature brilliant smile now lackluster and wilted. “Hey.”
“Did Kira say something about Kendall that upset you?” she asked softly.
“I don’t care what anyone has to say about Kendall. I’m making up my own mind about her.”
Tessa realized that he wasn’t staring at the wall, as she thought. He was staring at the elevator that led to the second floor of the penthouse, and grief washed over her. She gave him a wrinkled smile, slipped her arm around his waist and waited for him to talk.
“It still strange to be here without Aunt Mary.” He put his arm over her shoulder and pulled her close. “I keep expecting the elevator doors to open and see her wheelchair glide across the floor.” He looked to one side of the room and then to the other. “I feel her presence everywhere. Memories are constantly jumping into my head. When my dad had this elevator installed for her, she was so overwhelmed that she cried. She said she would have been happy with one of those chair things that goes up the stairs.”
“I know what you mean. I feel her here too.” Tessa exhaled a deep breath as she eyed the ornate elevator doors. When she first passed them on the way to the kitchen, she immediately thought of Aunt Mary and almost expected to hear her sweet voice calling to the twins with her arms wide open. Aunt Mary loved children. It made Tessa think back to when she, Lucas and Mason were kids and how Aunt Mary had doted on them. The hollowness in her chest reminded her that the woman she loved like a grandmother wasn’t going to be rolling in from the other room. Not now. Not ever again.
