Page 121 of Sapphire Spring

“I’ve known him a long time.”

“Yeah, but how long have you beenseeinghim?”

“A few weeks.” Which felt like a lie because the second andthird week had been spent apart, and his attempt to formalize theirrelationship before he’d left had been an unmitigated, bloody disaster.

PeteWorthergrunted. It soundedlike he was shifting in his chair. “A few weeks. And he gets the number onespot? Jesus.”

“It’s rehab, Dad. Not a competition.”

Another silence fell, and in it, Mason’s fear bloomed. Hadhe accidentally insulted his father into coming by denting his ego?

“Okay,” Pete finally said.

Oh,fuckinggoddammit to hell,Masonthought.

“I’ll be there. But don’t throw anything. I never raised ahand to you in my life. You can at least show me the respect of not throwingshitat my head.”

His father hung up.

When the door to the office opened and Tony returned, Masonwas resting his forehead on the desk and trying to remember how to breathe.

Family Week, it turned out, wasn’tactually aweek. It was three days. But this news didn’thelp Mason sleep any easier as his father’s arrival drew near.

The residents of Pine Rise spent the Tuesday before startday meeting with counselors and preparing the statements they were supposed tomake during the one-on-one sessions that would close out their loved one’svisit.

One on one.

Never in such a short time had a single phrase come toembody so much dread in Mason’s mind. He’d seen a version of it in movies andTV shows—two chairs facing each other in the center of the room, two relativesstruggling to look each other in the eye as they bared their messy souls, theonlookers appearing quietly grateful it wasn’t them in the ring.

His instructions from Tony were clear—they hadn’t invitedhis dad so Mason could validate the man’s verbal abuse. Instead, Mason’s jobwas to tell his father how much the man’s words had hurt over the years and howthey’d given Mason a paralyzing fear of revealing his true self.

But it was time for Mason to own the fact—out loud and tohis father’s face—that he’d accepted his father’s financial assistance when hehadn’t wanted to, and that he’d done so because it was easier than coming cleanwith his firm in LA about his substance abuse problems.

And then, of course, there was the all-important goal ofbeing completely honest about his sexuality outside the angry theater of theiroffice confrontation.

This all sounded good, Mason told Tony again and again, butoddswerethe whole thing would end his relationshipwith his father once and for all, so why go to all the trouble? Tony’s responsewas, “If your old man’s gonna walk, he should walk away from the real you. Thenyou know you did everything you could to fix the relationship.”

Honesty, Tony reminded him again, was a gift you gaveyourself, the ability to be comfortable in your own skin. If you were doing itfor any other reason, it probably wasn’t all that honest. Either way, even ifhis father rejected him, Mason would be permanently liberated from the falseversion of himself that had served like a cumbersome suit of armor in a battlethat had raged for too long.

In other words, Tony had a response for everything.

It was all a moot point, Mason figured.

No way would PeteWortherlast allthree days. One, tops, Mason figured, before the man lost his temper and wasasked to leave. Would that be so bad? Mason would be vindicated in the eyes ofPine Rise’s staff, and hell, maybe they could bring Naser in for the last fewdays of activities and workshops.

Tuesday night before Judgment Day, he barely slept a wink. Instead,he tossed and turned and scripted and rehearsed all the things he’d say duringthe awkward-to-agonizing reunion they were sure to have first thing in themorning.

There was no reunion first thing in the morning.

The first bell rang early, and the residents were rushedthrough their showers and a quick breakfast, then they were escorted on a longand sweaty hike to one of the worksites they’d been visiting since theirarrival—a wooden staircase cut into one of the steeper dirt slopes on theproperty. The family members, he realized, all of whom were staying at motelsjust down the road, would arrive toa fairly emptyproperty where the staff would have them all to themselves.

Nerves aflame, he worked alongside the other men, offloadinglogs from the flatbed before pounding them into the remaining stairs that hadbeen carved in the dirt in the days prior.

Had his dad shown up?

Would he last until Mason got back, or would someone ask himto hug a tree first and he’d blow his stack?

For the next few hours, he’d have no way of knowing.

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