Page 87 of Desired Hearts
“Give me a minute.” Beck headed to the opposite end of the bar to fill a drink order for the waitress.
In the meantime, I stared at my bottle, waffling between sending Delaney a text, apologizing for leaving, abandoning my beer and heading back to her house, and my current course of action—to sit here and do nothing.
Turns out, I went with option three.
“Hey,” a gruff voice from behind said.
Mason sat on the stool next to me.
“What are you doing here?” I knew for a fact he and Pia were supposed to be at dinner. They’d asked us to go along, Delaney being off tonight, but we’d already planned for a solo night at her house.
“I dropped Pia off and came over.”
Since it was all he said, Mason not a man of many words, I took a guess at how that had happened.
“Beck texted you?”
“I did.” Beck slid Mason’s drink to him.
“I was just pulling into the inn,” Mason said. “Pia was tired and told me to come solo.”
“You didn’t have to come at all,” I said. “Everything is fine.”
“Oh, yeah? Doesn’t look fine.” Mason took a swig of beer.
I closed my eyes. Tried to block everything out, but that didn’t make the vision go away. My mother’s head was down, at the kitchen table. She was crying so hard, I’d turned and walked away. Seeing her like that had been a shock. Of course my mother had cried before. She did it a lot, actually. Sad movies. While reading books. My mother was as sentimental as they got. But I’d never, ever, heard her cry like that.
I waited in my bedroom for her to come and explain. Tell me who died. Or was sick. But she never came, and I’d been too afraid to ask what was going on. It wasn’t until she came to tuck me in, hours later, that I asked her what was wrong.
“Nothing for you to worry about,” she’d said. Too young to press her on it, I accepted Mom’s words and went to bed. It was more than six months later that I’d pieced two and two together when my brother overheard an argument between my parents.
My mother had cried alone at the kitchen table because she found out my dad had cheated. It was the first, but not the last, time.
The worst part? I confronted my father, though not at first. I could remember his words to this day.
It just… happened. No one sets out to cheat on their wife. I loved your mother. Wouldn’t have married her otherwise. But even the strongest of us has a weak spot. Who knew mine would be fidelity?
It never made sense to me. How could something like that just… happen? And if he hadn’t intended it, loved my mother like he’d said, could anybody find themselves in a similar circumstance?
Me?
Delaney?
“You look like shit,” Mason said.
“Thanks.”
“It’s bad,” he said to Beck.
“I know. That’s why I told you to come. Parker,” he said to me. “This isn’t you. What’s up?”
I wanted to confide in my friends. Not long ago, we did the same when Beck found out the love of his life was getting married. And when Mason and Pia hit a rocky patch before he decided to quit the force and take over the inn, the normally stoic former Army Ranger talked to me about it. There was no reason for me not to do the same.
But I couldn’t.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have stayed the night.” I saw Mason and Beck exchange a look. It didn’t matter. What was done was done. Next steps were mine alone to take.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” Mason said. “But I do know what Pia tells me about how Delaney feels about you.”
