“Find anything interesting?” she continued.
“A photo album.” I paused. “Who’s Stuart?” I blurted finally.
“Oh, honey. I don’t think—” Mom started, but Dad put a hand on her arm to quiet her and she stopped talking.
His jaw muscle twitched and he closed his eyes. When he opened them again a moment later, they were shining with unshed tears. “Stuart was my partner before your mom,” he said, his voice soft and deliberate.
“But… I thought you met Mom in high school.”
He nodded again. “I did. But we lost contact when I left for college. I met Stuart when we were freshmen. We were together for six years.”
“What happened?”
Dad was very quiet when he responded. “He died. It was a car accident. He was on his way to visit his parents and an animal ran into the road. Stuart swerved to miss it, and… well, that was it. Actually, your mom came to the funeral to offer her condolences. She was an angel while I was grieving and processing. Things just developed from there.”
“Why didn’t you ever mention him?”
Dad rubbed a hand down his face. “I don’t know. It didn’t seem relevant. It was a long time ago.”
Out of view of the camera, Mason gently put his hand on my knee and squeezed.
“Are you… I mean, I thought you were straight?” I couldn’t help but say it, the thing that had been on my mind about my own sexuality for the entire time we’d been at the cabin.
“Honey,” Mom said. “Sexuality is complicated. Your generation didn’t come up with that part, you know.”
Don’t I know it?I thought. Sexualitywascomplicated, and it seemed like mine was growing more complicated every day. When I nodded, Dad cleared his throat and spoke. “I was in love with Stuart and I’m in love with your mom. That’s all that anyone needs to know about my sexuality.”
“Yeah. I get it.” I hesitated for a moment. Could it be that simple for me? “I’m sorry I invaded your privacy. I shouldn’t have looked in the lockbox.”
Dad shrugged. “I don’t mind. I wasn’t trying to hide anything from anyone except myself. It still hurts to think about losing him.”
“What’s the safe doing here at the cabin anyway?”
“Stuart and I picked out that property together. We were going to move there once the cabin was built. It felt only fitting to keep the album close by.”
My chest ached for them as I took a shaky breath. We chatted a few more minutes about lighter topics, mostly Mason filling Dad in on the progress on the cabin, the work he’d accomplished, what we had left, that sort of thing.
When we hung up, Mason wrapped his arms around me in a bear hug. For a long time, he held me without moving, without being impatient to end the hug. When I finally pulled away, he combed his fingers through my hair.
“You okay?”
I nodded confidently. “I am.”
Chapter Twelve
Emery
Theroofwasfinallyfinished, and after Mason replaced the wet insulation, I helped put the drywall in place. Mason did most of the work of course, including securing the drywall to the studs, taping the seams, and doing whatever else he needed to do to make sure it looked perfect.
I was discovering that I loved watching Mason work. His strong arms flexed as we lifted drywall together and my stomach fluttered. Watching him confidently work the nail gun did things to me, made me ache in the pit of my stomach. It was all I could do not to reach out and pull him to me, every single time. The sureness and competency were hot, and I couldn’t get over how much I wanted more of him.
Another week passed before new insulation was installed, the drywall was done, ceilings were painted, and we were ready to finish the rooms by painting the walls. Finally—something I felt that I could be reasonably competent at. We’d picked up thepaint from the hardware store the previous night while getting takeout for dinner, and the following morning, I woke up to the sun shining into the cabin, birds chirping outside, and the distant, soft slosh of waves hitting the lake shore. Mason was already gone, up and out of bed and doing only God knew what.
I stood and went wandering through the cabin in my boxers. “Mase?”
“In here.”
I followed the sound of his voice to the back bedroom and found him setting up the painting supplies. “You’re up early.”
