Page 64 of Meant to be Falling
Bodhi’s silence is unnerving. “Then you’re what he needs right now,” he says simply, and I hiccup as I try and smother a sob. “As long as that’s what you want.”
“Yes.”
“He’s not broken, Lana, but he can be. Treat him like a partner. He’s young but he’s not a kid. There’s nothing he can’t do; you just need to give him the chance. A real one.”
His words are firm.
Knowing.
Like he’s been practicing them for this exact moment his whole life, and a burst of warmth flows through me becauseI’ve been waiting for this exact moment too.
The one where I’d felt like I was being ripped in two watching him leave. How I’d run from the house with no shoes on after him, the door still open behind me, becauseI had to get to him.
A ferocity to make things right burned me from the inside out as I collapsed at his feet, his expression both despondent and tortured when I met his unfocused gaze.
I’d died a little inside seeing him like that, my feelings solidifying the longer I stared at him.
I was already falling for him.
I’d just been in denial.
“I will,” I say, turning my head and using my free hand to cup the side of Mason’s face, pulling him up to look at me, “as long as he forgives me.”
Mason’s lips twitch the slightest bit as Bodhi lets out something that could almost be described as a chuckle.
“I’ll leave that up to him. But Lana?”
“Yeah,” I reply, my gaze not leaving Mason’s.
“You only get one from me.”
“I won’t need another.”
“Tell him to call me if he needs me, but Ithinkyou’ll know what to do.”
“I’ll take care of him,” I say, my thumb brushing over the slight stubble on his chiseled jaw. “I promise.”
The line goes dead, but it’s just as well because there’s nothing else to say.
“Not really how I saw today going,” Mason says quietly, his voice full of gravel, but it’s not because he’s trying to be sexy. He’s exhausted.
“Me either. Mase, I’m so, so sorry.”
“I shouldn’t have thrown it back on you,” he counters with a slight shake of his head. “I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry.”
“We have a lot to talk about.” And despite everything, I feel ready to finally put it all out there. We’ve been togetherfor such a short time, but it’s already so much more than any other relationship I’ve ever been in—my marriage included. “Will you come inside with me?”
“Are you sure?”
“Mason, I’ve never been surer of anything in my life than you.”
He chuckles at that, pressing his forehead to mine as he sighs. “I never wanted to be that guy, Lana, the one who loses it like that. I never?—”
“Sometimes conversations have to get loud to be heard,” I say honestly, because Ihadn’tbeen hearing him. And maybe I hadn’t fully been hearing his words, but it didn’t matter because I couldfeelwhat he was saying. The hurt and the anguish and the soul-deep yearning to have something just for him.
“But…”
“You didn’t scare me if that’s what you’re worried about. The only thing that scared the bejesus out of me was the thought of losing you.”
