Exquisite (30 page)

He was amazing to look at. Just so
relaxed and free with his smiles it was hard to imagine a time when she hadn’t
been anything but absolutely charmed by him. Every now and then his eyes would
find hers and she’d be caught staring and his grin would kick up an extra inch.
Down next to her sat Rachel, who Lena had decided was slightly ADD but
extremely amusing. The woman had pink tipped hair tonight and it was up in a
high ponytail and her right ear was lined with earrings. Like her brother she
smiled and laughed easily, but unlike her brother she seemed less focused on
the serious side of life. She was more willing to be free of any kind of
responsibility and just be in the background of the restaurant they both ran
together. After what Mason had gone through lately, in part because of her,
Lena couldn’t say she blamed her. Next to Rachel sat Charlie, Rachel’s
boyfriend, she’d been informed. He was a man of very few words but extremely
unique facial expressions. In fact several times she’d caught Mason almost
laughing at the look on Charlie’s face, and she had to admit she was close
behind him. It was almost as though his face was made from rubber and his eyebrows
could fly right off his head. Lena started to suspect some of the things Mason
would say were to get him to pull a certain face and that made it even harder
for Lena not to laugh.

“So Lena?” Catherine asked from the
head of the table. Lena turned her gaze toward the direction her name had been
called and smiled. “I heard you went down to the restaurant the other night
with your mother. I would’ve loved to have met her. Maybe we could have a
family dinner sometime with your parents.”
“Mother, stop meddling.” Lena heard Mason say softly.

“Oh I’m not meddling love. I just
think it’d be nice to meet them since I’ve known their daughter for so long.”

“And now that she’s boinking your
son.” Rachel added.

“Rachel!” Catherine admonished and
Lena could feel her face turning ten shades of red. Mason started to laugh and
Lena whipped her head around to glare at him, and that seemed to only make him
laugh harder. Then she was mortified to hear Catherine cough a little and say,
“Well yes, and there is that now too.”

“Oh my God.” Lena groaned putting
her hands over her face. “This isn’t happening.”

“I assure you it is.” she heard
Mason whisper right beside her ear, she peeked at him from behind her hand.

“I’m going to kill your sister.”

He grinned and tapped her nose. “Oh
I don’t know, you look good this shade of red.”

“Mason stop harassing the girl.
Lena, it’s fine Rachel likes to embarrass us all.”

“Yeah and she embarrasses herself
the most with those hair choices.” Mason added with a huge smile in his
sister’s direction.

“Yeah yeah, whatever.”

“Honestly,” Wendy spoke up looking
toward Lena, “She does this to us all. She announced to everyone in the kitchen
one night that I was suffering a bad back due to the hot sex I’d had the night
before,
which
I’d mentioned in confidence.”

“Well in my defense.” Rachel spoke
up, “I figured it was only fair to warn the staff, that although you were
bitchy and to proud to ask for help, you needed it.”

Lena couldn’t help it then, she
turned to face Mason and burst out laughing. “Your family is crazy.”

He nodded and took her hand
squeezing it tightly, “Yep, and I wouldn’t have them any other way. Welcome to
the circus.”

Half an hour later Lena walked into
the house and found Catherine by the sink. She came up beside her and took a
towel from the oven and started to dry the dishes.

“This is my part of the night. The
kids cook and I clean.” she told her smiling widely.

“You’re lucky. If I remember right,
my mom use to cook
and
clean.” Lena paused then looked out the window to
the back porch where the rest of the group was sitting, laughing and smiling.
She watched as Mason leaned over and punched his sister lightly on the arm and
for a moment she truly envied him. His ease with his family, the fact he could
joke around with his sister and then this woman, who stood beside her watching
her kids with a warm smile.

“You really care about him, don’t
you?”

Lena turned to face Catherine and
nodded slowly, “More than I ever expected if I’m being honest.”

“Well he is easy to love.” She
looked up at Lena and grinned, “But I may be biased.”

Laughing softly Lena picked up a
plate running a towel over it, “You may be biased, but you’re right. He’s a
good man. I don’t know how we ended up here. He just wouldn’t take no for an
answer.”

“Ahh yes. Stubborn and persistent,
just like his father.”

Lena put the plate aside then asked
softly, “Have you told them about your heart?”

Not taking her eyes from the window
she watched as Catherine shook her head slowly and responded in a soft voice.
“No. They don’t need to know that. They’ll just worry unnecessarily.”

Lena took a deep breath and pushed
a little further, “Don’t you think they’d want to know? So they could help you
in some way. Prepare for,” she was cut off by Catherine turning big eyes to
her.

“Prepare for what? Me to die? We
don’t know it’ll happen for sure and we sure don’t know when.”

“But,” Lena tried.

“There are no buts here Lena. I
watched them loose their father that way, knowing was agony. I don’t want to do
that to them.” she smiled fondly out the window. “Plus I could be here in five
years watching Mason with your baby telling you,
I told you they didn’t need
to know
.”

Lena picked up another plate
feeling that Catherine no longer wished to discuss the issue and looked out the
window. She felt her eyes tear up and was amazed to find that out of that whole
statement the most monumentally disturbing part wasn’t the thought of having
Mason’s child, but the thought that Catherine wouldn’t be there to see them.

Mason watched his mother and Lena come
out from the kitchen. He thought his mother looked a little tense and wondered
why. Looking at Lena he didn’t sense she was upset, she just seemed quieter
than she’d been earlier. He would have to remember to ask her about it later.
She came over and sat down beside him on one of the outdoor love seats.
Reaching over he took her hand, smiling at her when she turned to him. “You
okay?”

Nodding she squeezed his fingers a
little tighter, “I’ve never been happier than right at this moment.”

“Really? Because you look a little
sad.”

Her smile changed then and morphed
from a half smile to something he’d never seen on her, a confused look.

“Do I? I don’t mean to be. If
anything, it’s sad things can’t stay exactly as they are right this second.”

He snuggled in putting an arm
around her. “So you’re enjoying yourself then?”

Tilting her head she leaned in and
kissed his lips, “Every second.”

He was about to respond when he
heard her beeper go off. She sighed and reached down into her bag. Pulling it out
he watched her brow come down to form a serious frown line then she reached up
and rubbed a hand over her eyes.

“I’m so sorry. I need to go to the
hospital, one of my patients, Robbie.”

“That little boy?” Mason asked
watching as she stood pulling the bag over her shoulder.

She nodded at him then smoothed her
hands down her thighs, “Yes. He’s taken a turn for the worse. That was Shelly
letting me know his parents have been asking for me.”

Mason nodded understanding
immediately that she had to go. His mother stepped forward and grasped Lena’s
hand.

“We understand dear. You have a
very important job. It’s important to be around those who need us in times like
these.”

Mason felt Lena stiffen a little
and he pulled her toward the door, “I’ll walk you out.”

When they reached the back door she
looked over her shoulder and smiled at his family. “Thanks again. Dinner was
amazing.”

“Anytime honey, you’re welcome in
this house anytime.” his mother answered with her warm smile. When they finally
reached her car they stopped and she turned slowly.

“Are you going to be okay?” he
asked tilting her chin up so their eyes met.

“Probably not. This is when it gets
hard. When the child really has no other option then to fight hard or to let go
gracefully. The parents are going to have a rough decision to make.”

“And you’re going to have a rough
night.” he paused then reached down into his pocket. He’d wanted to give her
this the day after their first night together, but he hadn’t thought she was
ready, he was hoping she was now.

“Will you come home to me when
you’re finished at the hospital?”

He took her hand and placed a key
in it. She looked down at her hand then back up to him nodding.

“If I’m asleep just let yourself
in. Okay?”

Closing her hand around the brass
key he heard her whisper, “Okay.”

He leaned forward and kissed her
forehead, “I’ll see you later. Be safe.”

She climbed into her car looked at
him where he was standing on the curb, then without another glance she turned
the ignition on and drove away.

T
he night had been horrible. Lena had arrived at
11pm and had gone straight down to the Pediatric ICU. Robbie Tipton had been
brought in with a severe pneumonia and it didn’t look good. When she walked in
the unit Becky Tipton had turned to her with red glassy eyes and just burst
into tears. Her husband Chad had an arm wrapped around her shoulders and looked
as though he’d gone ten rounds in a boxing ring. Lena had known there was
nothing she could say. After all what can you say to the parents of a child who
was lying motionless on a hospital bed with a breathing tube down his throat?
Not a whole lot. So she just went to their sides and held their hands while
Becky told her what Dr. Monroe, Shelly, had explained to them.

Lena had finally left the room,
emotionally exhausted, around 1am. She was sitting in her office staring out at
the night sky clutching the key Mason had given her earlier.
What did it
mean? Was it just a heat of the moment decision on his behalf because he
thought she’d need the company tonight?
After all, she had told him that
when he slept next to her the nightmares seemed to leave her alone.
Or was
this more serious? Did he expect her to use this key whenever she wanted, or
was it only to be used this one night? Or worse on the nights he wanted sex?
She
gripped it in her hand and tried to push aside all the thoughts that were
nagging her. Her emotions were running high and she didn’t know if it was wise
to even go by his house. Between the talk she’d this evening with Catherine and
then having to deal with the Tipton’s she felt like she was walking on an
emotional tightrope and didn’t know how or when she was going to fall. Pulling
her bag up and over her shoulder she took the elevator down to her car, walked
over and got in it then drove where her heart was telling her, straight to
Mason’s.

He didn’t know what to expect.
Quietly honestly he wasn’t even sure if she was going to turn up. He’d given her
the key to keep and use whenever she wanted. He liked having her in his house,
and loved having her in his bed. In fact he couldn’t remember being happier
than the mornings he got to wake up with her lying beside him, but right now as
he sat in his living room in the dark, watching the clock and waiting for her,
he felt nervous. Nervous she wouldn’t show up, nervous she would and he
wouldn’t know what to do to help her and nervous that she wouldn’t let him.
Just as the clock turned to 1.27am he heard a key push into the lock and turn
slowly. The door was pushed opened lightly and he watched her softly tiptoe
into the room. She hadn’t seen him sitting on the couch since it was completely
dark, and he wondered if she would turn a light on. He’d seen her lit up for
just a moment from the light in the hall and she was still wearing what she’d
been dressed in earlier this evening. A cream buttoned down blouse and his
favorite black pencil skirt. He watched her silhouette gently put down her bag
and then his eyes tracked her as she made her way toward the large window in
the dark.

Not turning on any lights she
stopped when she got there and put her hands on her hips rolling her head back
and forward, like she was stretching out the kinks. Finally he stood quietly,
having changed into long pajama pants and socks, and padded softly over to her.
Not until the last minute when he was right behind her did she tense and turn
to face him. With the lights off he knew she couldn’t see much, but he had the
added benefit of the glowing lights from the city outside, beyond that they
were surrounded by the night sky and darkness.

“Mason. I didn’t mean to wake you.”

Reaching out he placed a finger
over her lips. “Shh. You didn’t. I was waiting up for you.”

He felt her head shake, “You
shouldn’t have done that. You should go to bed.”

Stroking a finger down her cheek he
noticed how tense her jaw was and rubbed at the tight spot just in front of her
ear. “I wanted to. Rough night?”

Nodding she replied softly, “One of
the roughest.”

He stepped in close to her crowding
her back up against the cool window. He watched her head tilt up toward him and
he knew her eyes were on his face. “What can I do?”

He heard her take a deep breath
then let it out. She remained rigid in front of him so he asked her again.
“Tell me Lena, what can I do to help you?” Pausing he lifted a hand and brushed
a curl back behind her ear. “What do you need?”

He felt her throat, where his
fingers rested, as she swallowed deeply then asked in a low voice. “Take me?”

Mason’s hand froze against her
neck. That was the last thing he’d expected. He had thought maybe hold me, kiss
me or talk to me, but what she’d just said had knocked the wind right out of
him. He felt her hands come up and rest low on his hard stomach right above the
drawstring of his pants.