Page 24 of Mason

She put a finger to his lips. “Don’t bring him into this. I’m over Ray. I have been for a long time. That’s not the problem.”

Mason frowned but waited her out yet again. Jo was the kind of person you couldn’t drag information out of. You had to let her tell you. Sometimes she needed a gentle push, but even then, patience was the key.

“It’s my leg,” she whispered after several long moments. “The scars.”

“Your scars?”

“They’re ugly. They makemeugly.”

The fuck she just say to him? Anger hummed beneath his skin, but he fought to control it. She didn’t need him going off on her, not now. Right now, she needed comfort, but damn, was he pissed.

“You’re not ugly, baby. Never to me.”

“But…”

“But nothing. Those scars are what put you in my arms, and for that reason, they’re beautiful to me.” He smiled and gently swiped the tear that rolled out of her eye. “Everything about you is beautiful. Your wit, your need to roll your eyes at everything you find irritating, the way you grouch at me over carting you around everywhere. Your heart and the way you care so much about everyone. You are the most beautiful woman in the world, inside and out. Don’t you know that,moye dragotsennyy?”

Jo buried her face in Mason’s shirt and cried. His words were beautiful. Part of her wanted desperately to believe him, but it wasn’t that simple. Her leg was a mess, and after having lived through Ray and feeling less than perfect, this was hard for her.

Mason’s arms swept underneath her legs, and he stood, carrying her to the small couch she’d moved into the room for when she was on her laptop and not recording. He stretched out, pulling her on top of him. She refused to look at him, feeling more inadequate than she ever had in her life.

And she felt like a fool, because she knew Mason loved her, and he wouldn’t care about her scars. She knew it, but she didn’t know it too. He was a man who could have anyone, and while Jo knew she was pretty, she wasn’t half as gorgeous as the women she’d seen him with before they got together. Her mangled leg only amplified those feelings.

“I was seventeen the first time I saw you.” He started to stroke her hair. “You had this crazy bun on top of your head and a green t-shirt that said, ‘death to all leprechauns.’ It was the day before Saint Patrick’s Day. I was looking for some Let’s Plays featuringThe Evil Within. I was on the fence about buying it, and your channel popped up with the most videos out about it. That’s not what made me click on that first one, though. There was something about you, something I felt drawn to, even then. When I heard you speak, your voice soon became my favorite sound in the world. Still is, really. I’d feel buzzed just listening to you. I was crushing so hard from day one. Even then, before I’d met you, I knew, I just knew, you were it for me, Josephine.”

Her breath caught at the sheer wonder in his voice. He’d never told her that before.

“Then when I met you, I felt sucker punched. I bitched your brother out, and I acted like such a ten-year-old fanboy. Here was my crush in the flesh, and I could barely string together two words. And to add insult to injury, you informed me you’d watched my channel…once.”

She smiled into his shirt. He still sounded put out about that. Truthfully, she’d watched it a few times when she needed a good laugh. His skits were funny and always cheered her up.

Even before she knew him, he was taking care of her.

“But I was your FIBB, and I’d be damned if I let Keith or you down because of my pride. I was going to be there for you.”

“FIBB, indeed. That is still the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“You know you loved your fill-in-big-brother.”

Jo started to trace circles on the exposed flesh of his upper arm. “I don’t know what I would have done without my FIBB.”

“You’re never gonna have to know, baby girl. You’ve always got your FIBB or your FILB when you need him.”

“FILB?” What new brand of nonsense was this?

“Forever in love boyfriend.”

Only Mason would come up with that. She laughed softly, but the glow the words gave her chased away some of the anxiety gnawing at her gut.

“I’ve loved you since I was seventeen years old, Josephine, and I’ll love you when I’m a hundred and seventeen years old. It’s never gonna change. Not the scars on your legs or anything else. I’m yours, and you’re mine.”

“It’s just…it’s hard, Mason. After Ray…”

“The fuckwad is in the past,moye dragotsennyy. You’re with me now, and you’re loved the way you’ve always been meant to be loved. I’ll show you every single day of our lives.”

“You plan on sticking around forever, huh?”

He tensed up beneath her, and she tilted her head so she could see his face. He looked distraught. “What’s wrong?”

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