“You didn’t see shit,” he tells her.
“I saw your ass, and then I saw that one”—she points at Chelsea—“running away from you.”
“I was not running.” Chelsea looks at Mayson.
“I had my weapon exposed,” Mayson cuts in. “She was running for cover.”
I roll my lips while Amelia puts a hand to her stomach. “I’m going to be sick.”
“Why don’t I start cooking, and you show Willow the backyard,” Chelsea says, and Mayson looks over at me and nods his head.
“Right this way,” he says, turning and walking out of the house. I follow him, my heart is beating so fast in my chest, and my mouth is suddenly so dry. I should have gotten a water bottle. He walks outside, and I see the difference now. There is no pool here, just a hammock. “Do you mind sitting on the steps?” He points at the concrete steps, and I shake my head. He walks first, and I follow his lead, sitting down next to him. He must sense my nervousness because he talks first. “We come out here every morning to watch the sunrise.”
I laugh, looking down at my hands. “This family is obsessed with sunrises and sunsets.”
“I think if you grew up like them, you can see the beauty in it.” His voice goes soft. “But if you grew up like us, it’s just a sign you are going to live another day.”
I look over at him. “I …” The only word that comes out of my mouth. “I’m trying to see it.”
“It took me a while,” he admits.
“Are you okay talking about it?” I ask him. “I don’t want to make you feel weird or uncomfortable.”
“There is no one in this whole world besides me and you,” he says, “who understand what the other is going through.” Those words hit me right in the chest.
“I never thought I would ever meet someone who would know what I felt,” I say softly, the tears coming even though I have been fighting them off. “I would lie awake at night.”
“And look up, wondering what you did.” I look over at him. “It took me a long time to figure out there wasn’t anything I could have changed.”
“How did you do it?” I ask. “How did you take that leap of faith?” He doesn’t have a chance to say a word. “How did you take that chance?” I look down. “Like I want to. I want to do it all. Take the help that people give me.” He nods his head, knowing that I need to talk this out. “I want to smile and be okay with smiling and not smile, looking over my shoulder to see if someone is watching. Because you know the minute they see you smiling, they have leverage over you.”
“That was the hardest part for me, too,” he says softly to me. “To see the good in people out there. To know they weren’t taking notes to use on you later.”
“Exactly,” I say. “Quinn, he’s …”
“I know,” he says, nodding his head. “But not everyone is our parents. There are good people out there,” he says. “People who would put their lives before others. If I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t believe it either.”
“Quinn, he asked me why I haven’t unpacked,” I say.
“He’s afraid,” he says, and I just look at him with my mouth hanging open. How could the strongest man in the world be scared? “He’s afraid you’ll leave him. Afraid he’ll wake up one day and you’ll be gone.”
I close my mouth and then open it again. “Yet the only thing you are afraid of is that they’ll see the bad in you. That they will see everything that Benjamin did and put you with him.”
“I am not like him or my birth mother,” I say, my voice shaking now. “I would never be them.”
“See.” He points at me. “That right there is you taking your life back.”
“I like it here,” I say and then look down. “A lot.”
“It’s a great place to settle down,” he says. “I knew that after I came to visit Ethan. I knew I wanted to live in a town where everyone knew me, but not as Braxton but as Mayson. If there is anywhere to do that, it’s here.”
I’m about to say something to him when the door opens. “We have incoming,” Amelia says. “He is fit to be tied. Chelsea went outside to see if she can calm him.” She closes the door behind her.
Mayson shakes his head. “Gotta admit,” he says, getting up. “Took him longer than I thought. I’m going to go and save my woman.” He takes a step down. “You’re going to be okay, Willow,” he says softly and then turns. “No matter what, you have me in your corner. We may not be joined by blood, but our bond goes deeper than that.”