After what happened in the kitchen. The tension, the awkward silence, and Mason’s perfectly inconvenient call. I needed air. Not the kind you breathe… the kind that clears your head.
I slipped out to the pool, letting the cool evening breeze brush against my skin. The water shimmered under the moonlight, still and inviting. But I didn’t get in. I just sat at the edge and dipped my toes in, staring into nothing while Mason’s name looped in my head.
Why did he call? And why now?
He could’ve waited. He should’ve.
His timing couldn’t have been worse.
Eventually, I made my way back inside, quietly slipping into Liam’s room. I assumed he’d be asleep by now, wrapped in that cold, proud silence of his. But as I laid down beside him, the shift in the mattress said he was still awake. I didn’t
