Chapter 51: Chapter Fifty-One
When I got off the plane in Dallas my mamma was there to meet me and I was able to fall into her arms. But I didn’t give in to the desire to bawl my eyes out, not yet. I was 36 now, there was no need to be making a scene in the airport.
So I waited ‘til we got back to our ranch house, which had never looked more dear to me, and then I bawled my eyes out on my mamma’s shoulder.
###
I took a day, and just did some good old-fashioned moping around the house. I let my mamma cook me one of her famous breakfasts, complete with all the things no one needed to eat for breakfast. I had missed that so much.
She could fatten me up anytime.
I wasn’t allowed to do too much moping, however, I had far too many social obligations.
My brother and sister both came over for dinner with their respective spouses and their ever growing broods of children. Before I even knew what was happening I was bouncing a baby on one knee and entertaining a toddler on my other. I just couldn’t resist them; all my nieces and nephews were just too cute, even the tweens who were just starting to become shifty-eyed and sullen. I saw a rebellious piercing in my niece Emilia’s nose and the harried look about my sister Susan.
It warmed my heart, it really did, to see how life in a small town inevitably moved on.
And no matter how overwhelming they were, it was great to see all my little nieces and nephews again. They were certainly happy to see me; declaring it was like Christmas in July since I had taken the time to bring loads of presents with me. I knew better than to come unarmed.
Eventually they tired of me and went off with their various new toys, including pogo sticks to encourage them to go outside.
Susan rolled her eyes at me. “They’re just going to hurt themselves on those. Really, Annie, you didn’t have to-!”
“I wanted to.” I returned with a big, cheery smile.
She huffed and hurried outside to monitor her children.
I sighed as I settled on the couch with my coffee to watch them through the big front window.
Susan worried too much. She seemed to already have forgotten the days when we were kids playing with pogo sticks in this very driveway. And yes, sometimes we fell and scraped our knees, but those were always the best; those golden afternoons with the smell of mamma’s cooking wafting out the windows.
It made my heart twist in a curious fashion as I watched Susan with her three children; her hovering over the two older ones while her husband, Scott, jiggled the new baby expertly in his arms. The man had clearly gotten over his fear of babies.
It was strange, I had never wanted this; the life that my big sister had; with her family, and her job at the high school, and her SUV, and her perfect cookie cutter life. We had competed for everything growing up, but we had both known that we wanted different things by the time we were teenagers.
She had always wanted a family, while I had dreamt of a glamorous life in some glittering city; far, far away.
And yet, sitting here now, with us both having gotten what we’d wanted, I couldn’t help the odd envy I felt in my heart as I watched her.
It’s not that I wanted to steal Scott from her, but if you replaced good old Scott with Mason and...
I gulped and my eyes glazed over as I imagined a baby in Mason’s arms; my baby.
A home that we shared and a life that filled us with more love and happiness than either of us could have ever possibly imagined.
I shook myself free of this tantalizing fantasy; I was only torturing myself now. I went upstairs to take a shower with a full wine glass at my elbow, even though it was only 2pm.
###
When Mason was done talking to his new Zumba instructor - Zumba classes were all the rage these days - he was heading back to his own office when he stopped and stared at the basket sitting on the front desk.
Whatever was in it smelled heavenly and it drew him closer. He lifted the little cloth printed with sunflowers to see that there were some surprisingly healthy looking muffins resting inside.
He glanced around, but saw no one.
Something was wrong, though, he could feel it.
Annie must’ve been here; she must have dropped these off, but why hadn’t she come to speak to him...?
His mind drifted over the last few minutes then he rolled his eyes to himself as he stumbled upon it; him, talking with Heidi, the new Zumba instructor. Annie must’ve seen them...and been so jealous that she had run off? Did she feel so strongly for him? Or was he just flattering himself?
His heart jolted at the thought. Could Annie really care for him, as he had come to care for her?
He wasn’t a man who liked to wait, so the very next day he made a point to go to Caldwell’s Cakes himself to speak to his lady and make this unspoken thing between them finally official.
But she wasn’t there.
She had flown back home, Penelope informed him, with big blue eyes that seemed shocked that he even remembered her name.
They might have only met once in passing, but Mason prided himself on remembering names and faces, it was important in his line of work.
Did he seem like such a jerk that he couldn’t remember a friend’s name of the woman he...?
As Mason was stepping out of the shop, mildly annoyed now that Annie would just ditch town without even telling him, when he got a phone call that interrupted his text to his secretary, asking her to find out for him exactly where Annie Caldwell’s family lived in Texas.
Somewhere outside of Dallas, she had said?
Mason was thus distracted as he answered the phone, he hadn’t even screened the call. “Hello?”
“Mason...” it was a woman’s soft voice, all choked up with emotion.
He frowned then pulled the phone away briefly to check the caller ID. “Mina?” He said in surprise.
Then something cold closed around his heart like a vice. Again he got the unshakable feeling that something was wrong.
“Mina? What’s wrong?”
“Oh, Mason. It’s-it’s Cole. He’s been in a terrible accident. He-he’s lost...the doctors say-!”
“Okay, Mina, just take a deep breath. Slow down and tell me exactly what happened.”