The Moment We Began (A Fairhope New Adult Romance) (23 page)

“Sleep with her? Are you crazy?” He’s
shouting over the sound of the storm and the waves crashing against
the shore. “I was just sitting on the beach watching the waves
come in and thinking about some shit when she just came up and threw
her arms around me. I thought it was you at first, so I hugged her
back. But when I turned around, I see this girl I barely know and
she’s smiling like crazy. She kissed me on the cheek like we
were old friends.”

I’m listening but my body is shivering both
from cold and fear, not sure where this conversation is going. Not
sure where we’ll be at the end of it. Or if my entire world is
about to come crashing down.

“I talked to her for a few minutes, just to
be nice and before I know it, she’s stripping down to her
bikini and saying she wants to get in the water,” he says. “I
told her I was heading back up to see you in the diner and that she
was welcome to tag along if she wanted, but that’s when the
rain came. The clouds had already been gathering, but it was like it
all just came out of nowhere. Before I know it, she grabs me and
starts shivering like crazy, saying she’s deathly terrified of
storms. I didn’t know what to do. I felt like an idiot.

“She pointed to the pier and begged me to
walk her over there and make sure she was safe,” he says. “I
didn’t know what to say. She railroaded me. I felt like a
puppet, just doing whatever she told me to do.”

“I saw you,” I shout. “I saw you
under the pier with your arm wrapped around her. Her face was inches
from yours.”

“Dammit, I know,” he says. He runs a
frantic hand through his hair. “She gave me some line about
being so cold. It just sort of happened. I didn’t do anything
other than exactly what you saw.”

“Why did she come back here, Mason? Why this
place? And why did she seek you out?” I’m crying again. I
can’t help it. I want to believe him, but I don’t know if
I should. If he’s lying to me, I’ll be the biggest fool
to ever for live if I don’t walk away from him right now. After
all the times he left my bed only to show up at a party the next
night with some dumb whore, I’m stupid if I give in to this
story.

But his hands are trembling. He’s never done
this before. He’s never denied what he’s done. He’s
always just put it out there, right in my face. He’s always
made sure I understood that he didn’t care about me the way I
cared about him.

For once, he seems to give a shit, but I’m
too scared to think straight.

“The second I saw you standing there in the
rain, I knew what you would think,” he says. “Penny, I
was wrong. I should have come straight to the diner to find you. She
had my mind all twisted up. She told me she hasn’t been able to
stop thinking about me since the day we met and that she came back to
find me. I was trying to explain to her that I’m with you, but
she kept pushing me. I didn’t know what to do.”

I turn toward the ocean, watching the violent
waves of the tide as it rolls in on the storm. I feel sick.

Mason comes to stand behind me. He wraps his arms
around me and pulls my body close to his. His skin is cold at first,
but our body heat quickly warms us. I’m tense in his embrace.

I’m in too deep to let this go. I need more
from him, but I have no idea how much he’s willing to give.

He dips his head and I can feel his breath close
to my ear.

“I don’t ever want to hurt you again,
Penny,” he says. “But I’m not good at this. I’ve
never gotten close enough to a girl to want to make any kind of
commitment. I don’t know how this works or how to be what you
need me to be. Please don’t let this ruin what we have.”

“What do we have?” I ask. I don’t
turn around, because I’m scared to look into his eyes. I’m
scared I’ll break open and melt into the sea if he tells me
we’re just friends.

He turns me around, his arms still tight around
me. “Do you really have to ask me that?”

“Yes,” I say. I struggle against him,
but he’s not letting me go. “I have loved you for most of
my life, and I think you know that. I think you’ve always
known. But you never wanted me. Not the same way I wanted you. Maybe
I was a fool for thinking this trip could change that. And I know you
told me to trust you, but you’re the one who has taught me not
to trust you, Mason. All this time, do you know how much it has hurt
me to have you in my bed one night and in another woman’s bed
the next? It’s been torture. I can’t go back to that. Not
anymore.”

He pulls away and places his hands on my cheeks,
lifting my eyes to his. “Penny, I’m not attracted to her.
You’re the one I want. You’re the only one. What can I do
to prove that to you?”

I close my eyes and let my head fall back against
his arm. I want him to tell me he loves me, but it can’t happen
like this. Not if I have to force it. I don’t want him to say
it because he felt he had to to keep me here.

But more than ever, I wish he would say it on his
own. From his heart.

I’m beginning to wonder if those are the
three words I’ll never hear him say.

“Let’s leave, then,” he says.
“Would that show you I don’t want to be with her? We’ve
been in this town for almost two weeks. There’s so much more we
could see and do. Let’s just pack up and go. Start again
somewhere else. We can make this work.”

I pull away and look up at him. The rain is dying
down, but the wind is blowing his hair all around. There’s hope
and fear in his eyes, and I want to trust him. I want to believe him.

“Where would we go?” I ask.

His lips curl into a small smile and he wraps his
arms around me. “Anywhere you want,” he says. “I
just want to be with you. Please say I didn’t fuck this up.”

I can’t help but smile. Out of all the times
he’s hurt me, he’s never offered to make it up to me or
given me any hope that there was something between us worth not
fucking up. I slide my arms around his waist and press my head
against his chest.

“Is that a yes?” he asks. “And
can we go inside to get a cup of coffee and talk the rest of this
out? I’m freezing.”

My teeth are chattering, so the thought of a hot
cup of coffee sounds amazing right now. Maybe I could convince
Delores to make a pot of decaf for me.

“Okay,” I say. “Let’s go
by the store and grab a new map first, though. Maybe while we’re
there, we can figure out where we’re heading next.”

His face breaks out in a huge smile and he lifts
me up off my feet.

I laugh and the sound carries in the wind.

I can’t help but hope it carries all the way
to the space under the wooden pier.

Mason and I sit in the diner drinking coffee and
trying to dry out.

Delores comes over to fill our cups and eyes the
map spread out on the table. “Don’t tell me you guys are
getting the itch and are thinking of leaving us already?”

Guilt tugs at my insides. I promised to help her
keep the diner, and I don’t want to leave her hanging. But I
don’t want to have to stay here when Harley the Harlot is in
town, either.

“We’re considering it,” I say.
“But don’t worry, I’m not abandoning you.”

A few tourists walk in and Delores steps away from
our table to grab a few menus for them.

“Did you figure something out that might
help?” Mason asks. “I forgot to ask.”

“The diner is really in trouble,” I
tell him. “They’ve only got sixty days to make a balloon
payment and they just don’t have the income. With the end of
the season coming up, they’re terrified.”

“That sucks,” he says. “This
place is a real treasure.”

“Exactly,” I say. “I’m so
used to being able to just write a check and help someone out. I’ve
never helped a business like this, but I’ve written more checks
than I could count.”

“For who?” he asks, an eyebrow raised.

I shrug and take a sip of the coffee. I forgot she
just refilled it and it burns my tongue. “The homeless shelter.
A couple of families around town. The elementary school a couple of
times. I give a lot of money to families of sick babies at the
hospital when they don’t have insurance to pay for treatments.”

He draws in a loud breath and his mouth drops
open.

I look up and see that his eyes are wide and
filled with tears. I put my hand on his. “What’s wrong?”

“Are you serious?” he asks, his eyes
wide. “You do all those things?”

“I don’t really advertise it,” I
say. “I don’t want my parents to find out. Dad says our
family business isn’t a charity and if we started giving away
money to everyone who needed it, we’d be broke by morning. I
know he has a point, but at the same time, why do we need so much? My
parents are so set on giving to these big national charities. They
completely ignore the fact that there’s a real need for help in
our own community.”

I look up and see that Mason is really affected by
this. He’s in shock or something.

“What?” I ask, my cheeks flushing.
“I’m not the world’s most shallow person after all,
huh?”

He shakes his head. “You know I’ve
never thought that about you,” he says. He takes my hand. “I
just think that’s really great what you’ve done.”

“I know a lot of people in town think my
family is greedy,” I say. “They don’t see the whole
picture, though. Even though I might not agree with all their
choices, my parents donate more than a million dollars a year to
various charities and organizations. But because he drives an
expensive car and lives in a big house, people call him greedy.”

“My dad is the greedy one,” he says.

Mason doesn’t talk about his father much, so
I’m surprised when he says this. I’ve tried several times
over the past week to get him to open up about what’s really
going on at home, but he always closes up and refuses to talk about
it. I glance over at him and see there’s some kind of battle
going on inside his eyes. There’s a mix of anger and hate and
something like fear.

I’m scared to ask him more. This is when
Mason always shuts down. He opens the door, then when I take a step
inside, he slams it right in my face.

So I wait. When and if he’s ready to say
more, he will.

“You know how you said you were so tired of
people judging you the second they found out whose daughter you
were?” he asks.

“Yes, it’s like I’m Penny, the
normal girl until someone says my last name and suddenly it’s
like, Oh, you’re Tripp Wright’s daughter? The
bazillionaire? That’s when they start asking about my trust
fund and assuming that I’m just another spoiled rich girl with
a credit card. They automatically act like I’m shallow and
superficial.”

“It’s been easier here, though,
right?”

“It’s been amazing,” I say. “To
be judged solely on who I am and not what I have.”

“That’s what I want more than
anything,” he says. Sadness seeps into his voice and it scares
me. “I don’t want to be judged for who my family is. Or
what my family has done.”

“What are you so afraid of?” I ask him
softly. “What’s really going on at home?”

Mason lowers his head into his hands. When he
comes up, his eyes are vacant. The moment has passed, just like that.

My heart sinks. I don’t want to let this go.
I need to know what’s bothering him so bad. Why he really
wanted to get out of town.

“Mason,” I say. I put my hand on his
and he looks up at me. “I know there’s something going on
that you are scared to talk about for whatever reason. But you know
you can trust me, too, right? I’m not going to judge you or be
upset with you. I just want to know so I can help. So I can be here
for you. You don’t have to deal with everything alone.”

He shakes his head. “There’s nothing
to talk about,” he says, and I know the discussion is over.
He’s closed up again and there’s no point pushing him.
“Let’s just map out a route. I’m thinking it’s
too late to really get on the road tonight, but we could head out at
first light.”

“There’s something I want to do at the
bank first,” I say.

He eyes me. “I know you want to help them,
Pen, but if you call your parents or try to wire money here, your
parents are going to come here to find you. You know that, right?”

I shake my head. “I’m not going to
call them. I’m not even going to use my family name. I just
want to see if I can talk to the loan officer and get another thirty
day extension on their loan. I have some ideas for how they can help
their business, but I’m going to need some time tonight and
tomorrow to get it set up before we can leave.”

He sets the map down flat on the table and nods.
“Do what you gotta do,” he says. “I can get things
packed up while you head to the bank in the morning.”

“Have you two decided which direction you’re
headed?” Delores asks, dropping off our check.

“West,” I say. “Always west.”

She looks down at the map and points to a town in
Texas called Beaumont. “If you guys end up around this area,
you’ll want to stop into a little country bar called Knockin’
Boots,” she says. “My brother Lester and his wife
Caroline manage it. They have live music and they’ll set you up
with some free drinks if you tell them you know me. Might even let
you get up on stage and sing if you want.”

I laugh. “No,” I say. “Trust me,
no one wants to hear me sing.”

“I can sing a little,” Mason says.

I laugh at first, then realize he’s not
joking. “You’re serious?” I smack his arm. “You
never told me that. How come you’ve never sung for me?”

He shrugs. “You never asked me to.”

“I don’t believe you,” I say.

He smiles. “Someday, I’ll prove it to
you,” he says.

“Is that a promise?”

“Yes it is,” he says. “Just you
wait.”

I smile and look down at the map. Beaumont, Texas
it is, then.

I spend the rest of the afternoon going through my
ideas with Delores and Buddy.