Page 69 of Love Me Ever After
“It’s all been a whirlwind to be honest. He came back from New York, we, um, had some fun and things kind of escalated from there.”
“What does he think about it?”
I tightened my grip on her hand. “He doesn’t know yet. He’s been away for work and I haven’t been able to tell him.”
“Don’t leave it too long, sweetheart. He’ll want to know, believe me.”
“But we’ve never spoken about having children. What if he dumps me, Mum?” It wasn’t often I called her that, but somehow, right now, in the middle of this conversation, it felt so right.
“He won’t. And if he does, he’ll have me to deal with.” She fixed me with a stare. “You know you can always come here. Whatever happens, I won’t let you go through this on your own.”
Relief flooded through me, and I couldn’t hold back the tears any longer. Mum pushed her chair back and came around to my side of the table, catching me in a warm embrace. For a few minutes, I sobbed on her shoulder, not caring about the people who kept glancing over in our direction. She stroked my hair and rubbed my back, just like she used to do when I was a kid and almost immediately, I started to feel better.
I pulled away and grabbed a napkin, sure my face was a mess of snot and tears.
The server hovered by the table. “Are you ready to order food yet?”
Mum and I exchanged a glance, then burst into peals of laughter.
“I think we might need a couple more minutes,” she said, then turned to me. “Why don’t you go and get cleaned up first?”
I did as she suggested, resisting the urge to check my phone while I was in the bathroom. Mason could wait. I needed this time with my mum.
We feasted on dirty burgers, a side of mac ’n’ cheeze, and fries, chatting like we’d seen each other only yesterday. Jacqueline told me all about the guy she was seeing. As I’d suspected, she was seeing someone younger, a forty-year-old CEO of an arts charity she was hoping to work with.
Shortly before ten, I found I couldn’t keep my eyes open and yawned every few seconds.
“You’d better get used to that.” Mum finished off her last cocktail. “I couldn’t stay awake much past seven in the latter stages of pregnancy.”
“You can bet I’ll be contacting you with a bazillion questions every step of the way,” I said as we got ready to leave.
“Anytime, Ems, day or night. I mean it. You don’t have to do this on your own.” She pulled me in for a last hug. “Take care, sweetheart.”
Full of food and love, I walked back to the hotel, feeling a hell of a lot more positive about the future than when I’d arrived in London. Rebuilding the relationship with my mum was important and knowing she had my back meant everything.
I had to hope Mason would feel the same.
31
Mason
Jet lag hitme like a bitch.
I’d powered on through yesterday, making sure not to nap too much so I could sleep through the night, but it didn’t happen.
Thoughts of Ems swirled around my head. She still hadn’t answered any of my calls or texts.
Worry ate at me.
Worry about what that meant for our future.
Ifthere was a future for us.
The thought of getting on a train and heading into the Bristol office made me even more exhausted than I already was. Shortly after eight thirty, I called Janine.
“Mason, good morning. How was the New York office?” Her cheery tone caught me off-guard. Normally if I phoned her at this time of day, she was as grumpy as fuck.
“Pretty full on,” I said. Now wasn’t the time to give her a blow-by-blow account of what had gone on. “I’m going to work from home today. I’m feeling the aftereffects of the travel and will be able to accomplish more here.”
