Page 4 of Unfold
Mason’s hand left mine “It’s okay Kat, trust me,” he said and smiled. I was about to argue, but one look from my mom stopped me.
The woman helped Mason out of the car as Jake and Aaron ran to assist her. I followed as they led him into the house, only stopping when my mom called out to me. I turned around and walked up to her, where she now stood by the driver’s side, taking in her weary features. “I’m sorry to put you through this mom,” I said. My beautiful mother now looked like a shell of herself.
“That boy saved my daughter’s life. What else would I rather be doing?”
“Thanks, mom.” I pulled her skinny body into a hug, Christ, when did she eat last? “Listen, mom. You don’t have to come out here anymore. You can just stay home and rest, I’ll stay and take care of Mason from now on,” I asserted, leaving no room for argument.
She nodded with a smile, probably amused by how mature I sounded. “That’s fine by me. I’ll do what I can by cooking meals for him. He seemed to like my dishes that one time he came for dinner.” Her loving smile mirrored mine at the memory.
When I made to leave again, she pulled me back. “Bebé, what’s going on… with the boys, I mean? I thought you liked Jake and wanted to be with him. He isn’t particularly discreet when sneaking into your room every night.” She smirked at my agape mouth. “But now it seems to me that you like all three of them?”
I lowered my head, not knowing how to respond. “I don’t know how to choose,” I confessed. Maybe my mom could offer insight. I scrunched up my nose at the thought. I really needed female friends.
“I understand how difficult making this decision will be Katrina, but even though those boys try to pretend they are okay with it, I can feel their hurt. They all want to be with you, and they are all in love with you. You might think it’s better to prolong your choice so they won’t get hurt, but it really isn’t. You’re only hurting them more.”
She patted my head gently. “I trust you to make the right choice Kat.”
My eyes widened. I had always begged my mom to call me Kat instead of Katrina, but she never did. She smiled knowingly at me before getting into her car and driving off.
As I made my way into the mansion, I thought over my mom’s words. She was right, I couldn’t prolong this anymore. I had to make a choice, and I had to do it fast, or I would be hurting the ones I love.
CHAPTER FOUR
Mason’s bedroom was nothing like I expected. As neat and large as it was, there were no personal touches to the room at all. His king-sized bed sat in the middle of the room against the wall with curtains draping down before it. An expensive-looking rug was placed at the foot of the bed, and a purple-colored bean bag sat a few inches away, which Aaron now occupied. The reading table only had an electric lamp on it, and Jake took the seat before it. Apart from these, Mason’s room was completely bare of anything else.
Sure there was furniture, but there were no pictures of him and friends or family, none at all. The children’s book,The Princess and the Frogsat lonely on the nightstand, and that was about it.
There was no place else for me to sit and the boys hadn’t noticed my entrance yet, so I walked toward the bed and sat, smiling to the boys as I did. “Your room is huge,” I said, interrupting whatever conversation they had been having. It was twice as big as the living room at my mom’s house. But I still liked our home, it was warm and cozy while Mason’s looked like a hotel suite.
“My everything is huge darling,” he winked at me, and I rolled my eyes, glad that he was well enough to make jokes. I had missed them.
Aaron chuckled and stood up at the same time Jake did. “Hey Kat, would you mind staying with him? I have to get back to Renee. I’ve left her alone for too long,” he said, referring to his cute, little four-year-old sister.
I nodded in agreement before turning to face Jake. “It’s okay, you can go too. I know your mom needs you,” I said, knowing Jake’s mom sometimes suffered panic attacks. Only her son could calm her down. “I already checked with mom, and she said it’s okay, so you’re stuck with me buddy,” I said to Mason, hoping he would allow me to stay.
“No other way I’d have it, babe.” His devilish smirk caused me to blush, and I couldn’t hide it even if I wanted to. I could already tell that taking care of a sleeping Mason had been much more challenging than taking care of an awakened Mason would be.
I saw the boys off, and by the time I came back to his room, Mason was struggling to sit up. He was making no progress, grunting in pain.
“Hey, what do you need?” I ran to his side.
He looked irritated, but not at me, or at least he didn’t look like he was irritated with me. He kept glaring at the t-shirt he had on. “I need to get this off,” he murmured.
Understanding how helpless he was and how much he hated it, I nodded and moved closer to him before gently taking off the shirt to reveal a muscled, very chiseled chest and pecs. A part of his abdomen was wrapped in a bandage, but I could tell that six-pack abs hid beneath it.
A weird sound escaped me, causing my face to heat up once again. It was somewhere between a moan and a gasp. If he heard it, he didn’t react. Probably because he already knew how embarrassed I would be.
The shirt was off, but I found myself still touching his warm body, unable to take my eyes off him. Slowly, my fingers wandered across his chest, which was usually tan but had become pale ever since his stay at the hospital. My heart beat faster, and I felt my mouth dry up as I trailed my fingers over his wrapped abdomen, then moved them dangerously lower.
What was I doing?I couldn’t seem to stop. A groan from him jolted me back to reality, and I quickly cleared my throat to break the intense atmosphere. “I’m sorry about your parents,” I said, quickly grabbing on to a conversation that could stop me from turning into a blubbering mess. It worked because as soon as I thought about Mason’s parents, anger swelled inside me. “I mean, you’d think they would be there for their only son when he needed them the most.” A scowl formed on my face.
“It’s fine Kat, just drop it,” Mason said, sounding irritated and tired.
“No, it’s not fine. There is nothing fine about it. You were in a coma for weeks, Mason, and we all thought… I thought I would lose you.” I swallowed back the tears that threatened to fall. “How could they just act as nothing had happened? How could they abandon you like that?”
I should have stopped talking, or I should have at least raised my head to see the storm brewing in Mason’s eyes. Instead, I had gone on like an idiot.
“I said it’s fine, that’s enough Katrina,” Mason bellowed. I had never seen him this angry before, and it looked like I was staring at a stranger.
