“Please,” Louisa said, gesturing to the chair beside her, “take a seat.”
Mason swallowed heavily. The last time a parent had asked him to do that, he learned he was royalty. He wondered what bomb might get dropped during this conversation.
He sat down anyway, noticing the way Louisa primly lowered herself into her chair after he did. She smiled nervously at him again. “It’s so nice to meet you . . . well, see you.”
He was surprised to realize she spoke with a slight accent.
“Yeah, I, uh, know what you mean,” Mason said. He tried to give a smile back, and Louisa let out a breathy laugh. Her hand fluttered at her collarbone and she reached for one of the glasses of water sitting on the table, taking a long drink.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t think I would be this nervous when the time came.”
Mason nodded.
“Perhaps we should start from the beginning,” Louisa started, sitting up straighter and clearing her throat like she was about to interview him. “How is school going?”
Kind of a weird place to start, thought Mason. And school wasn’t something he particularly enjoyed speaking about. “It’s fine, I guess. I have good friends there.”
She nodded. “And classes?”
He shrugged. Louisa cleared her throat again and gave him what he guessed she hoped was a reassuring smile. “I only ask because, as you know, part of the reason we wanted to bring you here was so you could consider taking on my title eventually. And schooling would be very important for that aspect, so—”
“Wait a minute.” Mason sat up. “What do you mean ‘as I know’?”
Her eyes darted over to where his dad was still standing by the house, and Mason was able to put it all together. “Dad told you what we talked about on my birthday?”
Before Louisa could answer, Mason’s dad walked over. “Hello, Louisa. How are—”
Mason cut him off. “You two were emailing even after we had that talk?”
“Mason,” his dad said, looking surprised, “you knew I was in touch with Louisa to get this set up.”
“Yeah, but I thought it was just, like, making travel plans. I didn’t realize you were still talking about me.” He flushed at the idea of the two of them discussing him. What had his dad told her? And, more importantly—
“Why didn’t I get to talk with her over these past few weeks?” he asked. “We could have at least emailed or something.”
“Mason,” Louisa started, “we just thought—”
“So once again you made a decision about me without me,” he interrupted. “Even though it affects me more than either of you.”
“That’s not what we were trying to do,” his dad insisted.
Mason turned to Louisa. “And what is this to you? A job interview? You’re meeting me for the first time since I was a baby and the first thing you ask me is if I have good enough grades to take over your job some day?”
Louisa’s eyes went wide. “I didn’t mean it that way.”
“How about I get to try an interview question now? Here’s one: why did you leave me?”
“Mason—”
“I could have spent my summers here or something. Couldn’t you have at least visited me?”
Louisa stared at him for a moment. “It’s not that simple. I had obligations, responsibilities that I couldn’t just leave behind. And,” she tucked her hair behind her ears nervously, “there were some who believed it would be better not to call attention to you or David—er, your dad.”
“What?” Mason said. “So you cut us out of your life entirely because you were afraid of what people might think about you?”
“No, that’s not what I meant,” she said hastily. She took a deep breath. “Listen, Mason, what you have to understand is that my family—my parents especially—were very strict. They were . . . rather old-fashioned in their ways.”
Mason frowned. “So, what, your family didn’t want you to have me?”
“I—well, I think they just would have preferred if I’d been married here and settled down first . . .”
“So my own grandparents didn’t want me, and because they told you to abandon me, you did.”
“No, of course not. There’s more to it than that—”
He stood quickly, his chair scraping against the ground. “I think I’m done talking now.”
“Mason, wait—”
He walked past his dad back into the house, not knowing where he was going but not really caring either. He clomped up the stairs and found a bedroom that had his suitcase waiting inside.
Mason slammed the door closed behind him, not caring that he was in somebody else’s house. Especially since that somebody was supposed to be his mother and instead was a total stranger.
Screw the plan, he thought to himself angrily. He’d had enough already. He was ready to go home.
***
Mason was left alone for about an hour before he heard a soft knock on his door. Figuring it was his dad, Mason was surprised to see Louisa standing on the other side of the door. He didn’t know what to do other than stare at her.
“Could I come in?” she asked quietly.
He stepped away from the door, pushing it open in invitation as he sat back down on the bed. Louisa glanced around and eyed the desk chair at the other side of the room before sitting at the foot of the bed instead.
“Mason.” She looked him squarely in the eye, and Mason forced himself not to look away. But he also felt sort of amused at her obvious determination and wanted to see where she would go with this. “I want to apologize for what happened in the garden.”
Then she did something else Mason wasn’t expecting—she began to laugh. She lowered her face into her hands, letting her hair fall in a curtain around her. “I can’t believe you’ve only been here for an hour and I already have to apologize for my behavior. This didn’t go at all the way I had planned.”
“I guess this is kind of weird and new for both of us.”
Louisa looked up at him and gave what looked like the first genuine smile he’d seen from her since he arrived. “Look, I know I’ve made a lot of mistakes—it’s going to take me a long time to get this right. But I want to try. I want to make things right.”
He nodded.
“How about we start over?” She brushed her hair away from her face and straightened up. “It’s just about time for dinner. We can sit down together with your dad. I’d love to hear all about your life—your friends, your hobbies, anything you want to tell me about.”
“Um, okay,” Mason said. “Yeah. I’d like that.”