Aria sighs and her eyes begin to shine. “No, babe, of course not. I want you to have everything you’ve dreamed about—an amazing husband and babies and years of wedded bliss. I just…” She presses her lips together. “I know how easy it is to have the wool pulled over your eyes. I just want you to be careful.”
“It’s too late to be careful,” I say, sniffing, trying not to break out in full-fledged sobs.
I haven’t even admitted it to myself until now, but it’s true.
The second I laid eyes on Mason Stewart, it was too late to resist. He is it, the one. A part of me has been waiting for him to come back since the moment he left, a part that knows no other man will ever touch my heart the way Mason has.
“It’s not too late,” Aria says. “You just need to—”
“It is,” I say firmly. “It was too late the night I saw him at Lisa’s wedding. There is never going to be anyone else for me, Aria. Mason is it. He’s the only man who’s ever made me feel this way.”
“Addicted?” Aria supplies.
“No!” I remember the baby is asleep and lower my voice as I add, “Not addicted. Hopeful. And happy. And understood. He gets me, Ra.” I meet my older sister’s gaze, hoping she’ll understand. “He knows me, inside and out. He’s the only man who has ever made me feel loved for exactly who I am, warts and all.”
“You don’t have any warts. You’re gorgeous, Sissy,” Melody says, using the old nickname from when she was too little to say ‘Lark.’ “You could have any man in Bliss River. Any man in Atlanta!”
“But I don’t want any man,” I say. “It’s Mason or no one. If things don’t work out this time, then that’s it. I’m done dating. I’m done looking for someone to fill the Mason-shaped place inside of me because no one ever will.”
Aria sighs again and slowly shakes her head. “Okay. If that’s the way you feel.” She pulls out a kitchen chair and sinks down into it, hands coming to cup her cocoa.
“Does that mean you’ll stop looking for dirt on Mason?”
“Yes, fine,” Aria mumbles, staring into her mug.
“And could you maybe be a little nicer to him when he comes to pick me up tomorrow morning?” I know I’m pushing it, but if things work out the way I’m hoping they will, then…
Well, then Aria will have to learn to be civil to Mason, sooner or later, because Mason is going to be around for a long, long time.
The thought makes me smile.
“Felicity and I are going to the store tomorrow morning,” Aria says.
“What time?” I ask.
“In the morning,” she says. “The entire morning. Especially whatever time Mason is coming to pick you up.”
“Oh come on, Aria, be nice,” Melody snaps in a rare burst of temper. She raises her voice so rarely even Aria tends to pay attention when she does.
“Fine!” Aria rolls her eyes. “I’ll be nicer to him.” She takes a sip of her cocoa, grimacing as she swallows. “But for the record, I think Mason should stay on the suspicious list for at least another month. You’re making this entirely too easy for him.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” I say, silently thinking that tonight was anything but easy for Mason. “But that’s my choice to make.” I back away from the table. “See you two in the morning.”
“Night, Lark,” Melody calls after me as I move toward the stairs.
I wave and head up to my old bedroom, the one I lived in when I first met Mason. It’s still decorated the way I left it, with light blue paint and old restaurant signs I’ve collected since I was a kid nailed to the walls.
I decided I was going to run a fancy restaurant—not a string of BBQ shacks like my dad and mom—when I was five. I started my first imaginary café when I was six, designing a sign and a menu and forcing Melody and Aria to play “out to dinner” for hours every weekend. I always dreamed of being a cook, and of having my own restaurant someday. It used to be my one, all consuming, “when I’m grown up” fantasy.
So many of my friends in high school daydreamed about getting married and having babies, but, though I wasn’t opposed to getting married and having kids, I never thought about settling down right out of high school. It seemed like such a far-away thing, something to consider once I graduated with my business degree and started down the road to making my dream come true.
It wasn’t until I met Mason that I started to imagine myself with a new last name, to think about a future with someone else in it, a forever someone, someone I would grow up with and grow old with, who would share my life and help me bring new lives into the world.