part0033

I sat in the car stunned and disgusted. What in the world was Tanner doing in Washington state? I hadn’t spoken with him since the boat incident. There was nothing left to say and there was nothing pulling at us, keeping us together, in some random way that often happened with ended relationships. We were truly finished and if there had been a way to anchor him to the ring, I very well might have.

I looked around the property not seeing Mason’s truck and muttered a silent thank you for that little gift from above as I climbed out of my car. I hauled my purse with me and slammed the car door unexpectedly as I trudged up to speak with the unwelcome guest. He was dressed in a pink polo and chinos, and his bronzed skin told me where he’d been most of the summer—his parents’ boat. What in the world had I seen in him?

I climbed up the steps and stayed on the one below the porch, my brow arching as I waited for him to say something.

“I’m so so sorry, Tori, about your dad. I had no idea.”

“Why would you? We broke up the week before. Well, I mean you were having sex with my best friend the week before.” I didn’t know what came over me. It was like venom oozed at the tip of my tongue waiting for the next sentence to come from his lips.

“I just had no idea. I would’ve been here for you.”

“Who said I’d want you? But, really, why are you here?” I set my purse down and crossed my arms. Tanner had always looked out for Tanner so I knew for him to fly across the country, there had to be something else.

“I miss you. What I did was wrong and juvenile. I never meant to hurt you. I hadn’t planned on sleeping with her.”

“Oh, thank God. It wasn’t in your plans for our vacation. That makes me feel so much better. What a relief.” I rolled my eyes and heard footsteps inside the house and my pulse quickened. “Well, that admission really changes things then.” My mouth dropped open in surprise as Mason swung open the front door, balancing two beers in his hand.

Everything about this moment felt surreal and I did my best to keep my focus, but as Mason’s eyes steadied on mine, the familiar electricity shot through me. It was never-ending with this man, no matter the situation, the chemistry was relentless and this was quite the situation.

“I didn’t know you were swinging by,” Mason said, handing Tanner a beer.

I tilted my head, completely bewildered at what universe I’d entered.

“I thought I’d get another few boxes from my parents’ room. I didn’t see your truck,” I said, narrowing my eyes at Mason.

“I had a friend, Sammie, drop me off. My truck’s in the shop.”

Sammie? I disliked her already.

“Would you mind explaining to me what my ex-fiancé is doing here with you?”

“You know, I was as surprised as you are to have him appear on the doorstep.”

“It was the only address I had for her out here,” Tanner explained to Mason.

Mason nodded and flashed a smile in my direction. “Well, there you have it.”

“Well, in less than two days it won’t be mine any longer,” I informed Tanner, “So I guess your timing was impeccable.”

“Seems you’ve left a string of broken hearts across the country,” Mason continued as if I hadn’t said anything. He took a swig of beer.

“I doubt that. I can count possibly one and that’s debatable if there’s a Sammie floating around.”

A satisfied glint flashed through Mason’s expression. “That’s Sammy, with a “y” not an “ ie””. He’s about seventy, but you’re wrong. According to Tanner, he says you broke it off with him and he never heard from you again. You wouldn’t even respond to his texts. The poor guy had to travel all the way across the country to see you.”

“Excuse me?” A cross between a chortle and shriek erupted from my throat.

“Don’t shoot the messenger,” Mason said, standing next to Tanner.

There was no comparison between the two. Tanner looked like a pipsqueak compared to Mason’s magnificent physique. But now wasn’t the time to get distracted. Not with Tanner’s corrupt stories sinking into Mason’s psyche.

My blood was pumping as my anger level rose and I glared at Tanner.

“Did you bother to tell this gentleman why I broke it off with you and never returned your calls or texts?”

“It’s irrelevant. We were engaged. What we shared—”

My hand flew into the air and my eyes blazed with fury.

“It’s irrelevant?” My teeth almost shattered as hard as I smacked them together. “We were vacationing on your parents’ boat and I walked in on you banging my best friend. And that is irrelevant?”

I somehow skipped the top step and landed inches from Tanner. I had no idea what came over me, but instantly Mason set his beer down and wrapped his arms around my chest, trying to pull me away.

Anger, grief, guilt, and sadness crashed into me at once as I watched Tanner try to dismiss the hurt he caused. Mason’s heart was beating so quickly, I could feel it as he kept me pressed into him, holding me back from releasing the kraken.

Everything about this was so unlike me. I was an upstanding citizen, a schoolteacher, no less, and I wanted so badly to—

Shoot! I didn’t even know what I wanted to do to Tanner, but I felt tingling in my knuckles. The longer Mason kept me away from Tanner, I felt something change in the way he held me. It went from holding me back to comforting me, and I realized I never told him about Tanner, about why I left him. What he’d done to me. Maybe if I had, things between Mason and me would’ve ended differently.

“What is it you really want, Tanner? I can see right through you,” I said, trying to keep my voice even. I wasn’t going to let my anger overtake me again.

And then he opened his mouth.

“You know the engagement ring you tossed over the side of the boat? Well, it was a lot of money and I’d really like to be reimbursed.”

My body flew from Mason’s arms, but he caught me just in time.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I screamed, hating who Tanner made me become.

“You’re selling the house. You’ll have the money.” His eyes were cold, exactly like I remembered them that day on the boat. He stood up and pulled a receipt from his pocket, grinning like the monster he was.

Mason released his hold from me and before I knew it, Mason landed his fist right into Tanner’s cheek, knocking him down to the ground. Mason bent over Tanner and twisted his fingers around the neck of his pink polo, lifting him back up to his feet.

“Man up and get the hell off our property,” Mason ordered, his voice low. His other hand was fisted as if pleading to have one more chance at Tanner, and all I could do was stand in awe and complete amazement that Mason just punched my ex-fiancé. I’d had so many fantasies about what I’d do to Tanner to teach him a lesson, but never once did this perfect scenario enter my mind, and I loved every second of the pain my cheating ex was feeling.

Tanner shrugged himself out of Mason’s grip and shoved the receipt back into his pocket. Rubbing his sore cheek with his free hand, he glanced at Mason and then at me.

He looked as if he was going to say one last thing but thought better of it before walking down the steps and to his car. My pulse was still racing, but I snuck a look at Mason, who was studying me.

A few minutes went by as we watched Tanner pull out of the driveway. This time I was pretty certain it would be the last I heard or saw him and a sense of relief spread through me, knowing his send-off couldn’t be any more perfect even if I planned it .

“Why didn’t you tell me what happened with Tanner?” Mason asked, leaning on the porch railing.

“Would it have made a difference?”

Mason sucked on his lower lip for a second and pressed his lips together. He slid his hands into his pockets as his gaze remained on mine.

“Yeah. It would’ve made a difference. I would have understood more about you, about why you were so afraid of getting involved…”

“I wasn’t afraid. Cautious but not afraid.”

Mason smiled. “Oh, no. You were afraid. Don’t get it twisted.”

I laughed hearing that phrase come from his lips. “You’ve been hanging around the high schoolers a little too long, I’d say.”

The tension we’d been harboring slowly started slipping away, but I knew it would take far more than a few shared laughs to get us back to where we’d been.

“So you think it would’ve made a difference, huh?” I sat on the steps, somewhat surprised that Mason sat next to me. Our form of communication had been through our real estate agents and nothing else.

“In all honesty, it would have told me to keep my mouth shut and not press for something you couldn’t give. I would’ve waited however long it took. I wouldn’t have sent that text.”

I nodded, propping my elbows on my knees. “It didn’t help I overheard Lily at the barbeque.”

Mason’s brows furrowed in bewilderment. “Saying what? ”

I contemplated whether or not to tell him. After all, it really didn’t matter now. Nothing would change the events that had already transpired.

“You can’t leave me hanging like that.” His expression softening.

“All right. On our way to the rope swing, I heard her whispering to Gabby, You don’t think he’ll get bored with her like he has in the past, right? The moment I heard that I knew I couldn’t go through it again.”

Mason turned slightly on the step, his expression completely baffled. “And you assumed they were talking about me, about us?”

I nodded. “It seemed logical.”

“There’s no way.”

“How so?” I asked.

“First of all, I don’t bore easily, and second of all, my mother raised us well.” His eyes twinkled with amusement and he shook his head. “But I bet I know who she was talking about.”

He didn’t answer. Instead, he looked out over the driveway, somewhat dazed. “I can’t believe how many things have been working against us all because we didn’t communicate.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know how I was in Paris?”

“We were there because Aaron asked my sister, Brandy, to marry him. That morning at the lake he phoned my parents, we’d all found out about his plans and he asked us to keep it secret.” Mason paused for a second. “Aaron wasn’t the most focused guy when it came to past relationships and Gabby knows it firsthand since they’re siblings. It’s a complicated mess, but I’m guessing Lily was referring to Aaron’s dating life. And since they’re all best friends…”

I dipped my head into my hands. “Are you serious?”

“That’s my best guess.”

“I can’t even tell you how much I tortured myself over that sentence.” I threw my head back in frustration. “That had been the tipping point for me and never in my real world would I have let something like that push me over the edge. I would’ve asked you, but I was such an emotional mess.”

Mason slid his hand along my back and rubbed it softly. “Don’t beat yourself up.”

I laughed. “Too late. I just can’t believe…”

“Cut yourself some slack. You lost your dad, you broke off an engagement because your fiancé was a prick, and you came back to an island that you tried to forget for obvious reasons. Not to mention you ran into an incredibly sexy and talented contractor to confuse your normally impeccable judgment.”

I chuckled. “I like your version way better than mine.”

His hand slowly ran up my spine and the feelings of longing I’d spent more than a month pushing aside crept back into my life. But I knew it was too late. The damage had been done.

“I’ve missed you more than anything, Tori.” His hand rested at the base of my neck, and my body lit up like a firecracker as his eyes met mine. “Staying away from you has been pure torture. I can’t get you out of my head. Thinking about you has become part of my day. I can’t even get a coffee without wondering what you’ve been doing all this time.”

“I’ve been finding my way again.” I smiled. “And the one place I thought I needed to forget was the place that showed me what it meant to be home. It taught me home wasn’t a place. It was a way of being. I’m content. For the first time in a very long time, I’m fulfilled. I’m not searching for something. I’m not running away from something. I just am. And I realized I truly am a Pelican not a Pelican’t.”

Mason let out a seductive growl. “I’ve waited months to hear that.”

He leaned in and my heart nearly exploded as his lips came so close to mine, but he didn’t kiss me. Instead, his lips parted and he hovered far enough away to make the chemistry between us unbearable.

I shook my head and his expression crashed to depths I never wanted to see again. I touched his cheek, smiling, and spun on my knee as I anchored myself on his lap. Resting both arms over his shoulders, I pressed my forehead against his, hovering my lips barely out of reach.

His expression was scorching as he slowly shook his head. “I’m not playing anymore, Tori Aickens.” He cupped the back of my head in his palm and kissed me like I’d never been kissed before, his mouth claiming mine with a rawness and passion that made my heart finally succumb.