Mikala's Passion (Pulse Series Book 2) (21 page)

“Penny for your thoughts?” Mikala asked.

“Hey.” Mason turned smiling. “Finally decided to get out of bed lazy bones?”

“Your mom wants to leave in an hour, which gives me just enough time to shower, get dressed and do this.” She stepped forward, kissing her lips to his.

As she backed away Mason’s arm locked around her waist pulling her in for another, much longer kiss. He released his hold and wiped cream from her cheek. “I could do that all fucking day,” he said, with a smile.

“Me too, except I need to get ready and you need to get out of here while I do.”

“I think I’ve seen you naked before.” His eyes perused her form, grinning impishly.

“I’d ask you to join me if we weren’t in your mom’s house and keeping
us
a secret.”

“Good thing I never started shaving,” he said, leaning into the sink splashing water over his face, washing off the cream. He wiped a towel over his face and threw it into the laundry basket.

“Where were you?” she asked, turning the shower on and waiting until it warmed.

“When?”

“A minute ago, what were you thinking about?”

His head shook in time with the shrug of his shoulders. “Nothing,”

Mikala scowled. “Didn’t look like nothing to me.”

He took hold of her chin, giving her a peck on the cheek. “Don’t let me forget I have laundry to do, remind me before you leave so I can have it done before you get back.”

Mikala giggled as she dropped Mason’s robe to the floor and climbed into the shower. Mason’s eyes were glued to the jiggle of her tits as she shooed him with her hand, and he playfully pouted closing the door. Mikala laughed, he badly wanted to say fuck it, strip naked and join her.

“Oh my god,” she whispered, leaning against the shower wall remembering absolutely every glorious moment of their love making last night, telling Mason she loved him. But as clear as her memories were, she wasn’t completely clear with whether she heard him right or not. Had it been a dream when he said he loved her too? She put her hand to her heart and longed with all of her being, that she was not mistaken.

***

Marcy was humming while cutting a slice of toast. Mason leaned around her snatching half away and taking a bite startling her in the process. She slapped her knuckles to his chest and he kissed her cheek making a loud smacking sound with his lips.

“Hey toast thief, you want jam on that?” she teased.

“A few slices of bacon and tomato would be good,” he said, silently gesturing with a mug in hand to the coffee pot, Marcy held out her mug with a smile and he filled it before his own.

“Help yourself to anything in the fridge, baby, I’m afraid your own your own for the day.”

Mason put on the pouty lipped face making her laugh as she sat at the table and he joined her. His mom was the greatest, he remembered the fuss she always made on school mornings trying to get him to eat something before the bus came and he darted out the door with an empty belly. He missed her fussing, but was thankful she raised him to be independent and able to survive on his own. She insisted there was no job around the house that a man couldn’t do, and do well. It wasn’t a woman’s job to take care of a household; it was a family’s job. He concluded this was the reason he enjoyed making dinner for Mikala and doing the dishes while she sat enjoying a glass of wine or conversation. Maybe that was why he enjoyed fussing over Mikala so much.

“Hey Ma, what happened to all the shit from my room, did you trash it?”

The raise of her brow warned him she was less than pleased with his choice of words. “Your
stuff
, is in a box in the garage, your trophy’s are in the attic.”

“Seriously, you kept my trophy’s?” he asked, shocked.

“I kept everything from your childhood,” she admitted. “I have your first baby booties, a lock of your hair, the first tooth you lost and your favorite bunny,
Stinky
.

“Stinky?”

“We called it that because we couldn’t get it away from you long enough to wash it,” she laughed, “and believe me when I say, it earned its name.”

They laughed as Mason made more toast, taking a jar of peanut butter from the shelf and spreading it on thick.

“So tell me baby, how are things with you and Mik?” she asked.

Also something he loved, although secretly, was how his mom called him, baby. Obviously by the size of him and the fact that he was thirty two years old, he was anything but, however to his mom he’d always be her baby.

“What do you mean, Ma?”

“Baby, please. I’m not a fool. You two
are
back together, right? Do I hear wedding bells in your future?”

“Wedding bells, holy shit Ma, back up the bus. Talk about jumping the gun.”

She laughed rising from her seat and fetching the carafe to top up their mugs. “And that would be a bad thing?”

Mason’s eyes checked out the doorway, leaning in a bit closer as he quietly spoke. “We are and we aren’t. We talked on the drive here and decided to give it a try. We just want to wait a while before telling anyone…you know, just in case.”

Marcy placed her palm over Mason’s clutched hand around his coffee mug. “Never start relationships with a ‘just in case’ it’s like jinxing it before it has a chance. I’m happy for you both, you know I’ve always loved Mikala, she’s good for you.”

“I know. I love her, Ma. I don’t think I ever stopped.”

“I know you didn’t.” She released her hold moving from the table and walking around to give him a hug, and a kiss on the top of his head. “One day you’re going to have it all, a beautiful wife and the family you deserve. One day you’re going to make me a Grandma again. Have faith, baby.”

“From your lips, Ma.”

***

“Hey,” Mel said.

“Hey, what are you up to?” Mason asked.

“I was looking for you, what are you doing in here?”

Mason was in the last place she thought she’d find him, he never liked the garage. The garage sat at the rear of the property large enough to house two vehicles with an apartment above. The apartment had never been used as such, instead Marcy used it as storage with a small office area off to one side. Well organized, as if it would be anything less, Mason had no trouble finding his belongings and dug right in. Like stepping into a time warp, Mason revisited his formative years, the last years of high school that made him who he was today.

Opening a year book and spanning through it, Mason found a picture of himself and laughed at his tall skinny frame, the shoulder length hair that resembled something like a bedraggled sheepdog and Bob Marley’s smiling face adorning his black t-shirt. The grin on his stupid face, he knew was the product of the joint he and his buddies had shared not five minutes before that photo was taken. Luckily hanging with the wrong crowd had opened his eyes, it was a wonder he wasn’t a strung out drug dealer living on the wrong side of the tracks where the majority of his so called friends ended up. But the tragic death of a friend had changed everything within a few short hours.

The group often hung out on Thunder Bridge, a rickety old wooden bridge used by the occasional freight train. A quiet river expanding into a pond ran under it, this was where they partied and hung out most. Joey was the one that often experimented outside of the usual beers and marijuana; on a dare he’d try almost anything. That’s why he lived in a halfway house on the outskirts of town. Uncontrollable, school officials called him. Mason had a soft spot for the guy, often tried to sway him in other directions, but rarely succeeded. He even introduced him to Marcy in hopes she would take him under her wing and be his mother figure. Where Mason lacked a father figure, Joey needed a mom.

That Saturday night, the last time they would ever meet again, Joey arrived higher than a kite. He was wired like his ass was on fire. He couldn’t sit still and the mickey of Jack that he fisted tight was nearly empty, when he started to climb the bridges wooden trellis system to the top.

Jumping from the bridge at night was frowned upon, the dark murky water made it far too difficult to judge where the rocks lay beneath it’s surface. When they realized he wasn’t just shitting them and was actually going to do it, they raced to stop him. But as he raised his hand to the sky and recited “Goodbye cruel world” Mason had to wonder if it was an accident at all.

Police and rescue workers searched the pond for nearly an hour before dragging Joey’s lifeless body out of the water. It was a haunting image that still, to this day, was indelibly engrained in his mind. That was when Mason’s life changed for the better, the best. When Captain Hurst sat behind his desk and instead of rambling with lectures that undoubtably would go in one ear and out the other, he showed him his badge, told him stories of taking down criminals and even let him hold his gun.

Twice a week Mason met Captain Hurst at the precinct and he’d go over the events of the day, entrusting him with confidential information and making him feel important. He filled that all important father roll in Mason eyes and showed him the kind of trust and stability he needed. It was Hurst that got him interested in fitness and helped him get into the Police Academy.

Mason smiled. “Just looking around, man this place is full of memories. Mom really doesn’t throw anything away does she?” He tucked the year book back in the box and closed it.

“Not a thing, I bet if you look hard enough you’ll find a container with your first shit in it.”

“That’s too fucking gross,” Mason scowled. “But you’re probably right.”

They laughed as they searched through numerous boxes, laughing and joking at items one would consider worthless trash. But not Marcy, everything was a treasure if it included a memory. No matter how insignificant it appeared to others Marcy held it dearly in her heart.

“You remember this?” Mel asked, holding up a hool-a-hoop. “I bet you dishes for a week that you couldn’t keep it going for five minutes.”

Mason held up his hands. “I still have dish pan hands after falling for that bet.”

“Masy, you should have seen your face when you put everything into it and it dropped to the ground before the two second mark.”

“You were such a bitch,” Mason snorted.

“And you Masy, were one gullible schmuck.” Mel laughed at the slighted look on his face.

“I remember you telling me that eating worms would help my dick grow,” Mason said, with a laugh.

“Oh my God, you remember that?”

“I’ll always remember that,” Mason shook his head. “I couldn’t get that fucking taste out of my mouth for weeks.”

“Jesus Masy, you actually ate a worm?” she roared, throwing her head back. “Too bad it didn’t work.”

He ignored her as he rifled through more boxes. “Oh my fucking God, look at this.”

Lifting a large framed photo from a box, he sat, taken aback by the sudden whoosh of memories that grasped his chest.

A bridal party, the bride and groom both dressed in white beaming at each other, six bridesmaids all dressed in powder blue, six groomsmen in grey tuxedos with powder blue bow ties and comberbuns with blue carnations in their lapels. The flower girl was no more than two and the ring bearer’s eyes were captured in rolling mode, he was apparently not enjoying his day. Mel came and sat beside him placing her chin on his shoulder with a sigh.

“Oh Masy, I’m so sorry.”

“Hey,” Mason lifted Mel’s chin. “Those regrets have long been dealt with. I loved Gloria with all my heart and I did everything in my power to help her. Yes, I probably could have done more but Gloria was living with some pretty dark and powerful demons. They managed to take hold of her soul and robbed us all of a very special lady.”

“I haven’t thought about her in years,” Mel admitted.

“Don’t do that to yourself, her drug addiction tore this family apart and I won’t allow bad memories to seep in again. Gloria’s gone, God rest her soul,” he said, as he stood and placed the photo back in the box. “Let’s get outta here.”

“What do you want to do know?” Mel asked, as Mason yanked her out of the garage.

“I’m thinking you’re going to take your brother out for a burger.”

“Oh you do, do you?” Mel laughed, watching as Mason opened her car passenger door and waited for her to sit. “And we’re taking my car?”

“And you’re going to throw in Fries and a chocolate shake too,” he winked as she sat and buckled her seatbelt.

“I’m a real fucking sport eh? My car, my gas and I’m paying for lunch?”

“If you insist,” he joked, reversing down the driveway.

***

Marcy was glad Mason had insisted they take his truck, since she ended up buying more than she had planned and would have never fit it all into her PT Cruiser. Besides, it was nice to be chauffeured around for a change.

Mikala found a drive thru and they sat in the parking lot enjoying freshly brewed coffee and a donut.

“So, darling, tell me how things are going with you and my boy?”

“Not much to say, Marcy,” Mikala shrugged, “I’m staying with him till my place is ready, another few weeks or so.”

An eyebrow shot up and Marcy twisted around to face Mikala. “Do I look like a fool?”

“What?” Mikala asked, taking the lid off of her cup and blowing off the swirl of steam as it circled her face.

“I see the way you two look at each other, the way he watches you when you’re not aware. I see you sharing smiles and if you think I can’t tell your holding hands under the table during dinner, you’re only kidding yourself girl.”

“Oh god, Marcy, we promised to keep things quiet. He’ll be so angry if he thinks I told you.”

Marcy put her hand on Mikala’s knee to assure her. “Not too worry, I’m sure he wouldn’t be as angry as you think. But mom’s the word,” she smiled. “I’m happy for you, darling. I know Mason hasn’t always made the best decisions but I think, given time, he’s going to prove to be a great man. Maybe one day we’ll be hearing wedding bells.”

The idea of seeing Mason on one knee was not only laughable, it was scary. As much as Mikala wanted to see Mr. Macho drop to the floor at her knees, she knew it was far too soon to be thinking about marriage. Her heart was adjusting to the terms of forgiveness; a lifetime commitment was far out of reach.