CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
MASON
Riding through Silver Springs, the top down on the GTO, endless blue sky overhead, music streaming through the air that’s sending Jeanie’s hair fluttering, flashing as it catches the sunlight, feels about as close to heaven as a guy like me could ever hope to get.
Part of me still wonders if I have any right to this kind of perfection, but then Jeanie looks at me with that hungry look and I forget to worry about it.
It’s July 29th, Jerry’s birthday, time for the big surprise we’ve been building towards. Since I’ve been back I’ve come over several times to the house, spent time with Jerry. Both he and Jeanie know the truth of my past. Their acceptance has been humbling.
I told Jeanie first. It was terrifying, exposing all the darkest corners of my past to her. But the relief was swift and intense. Her words had been far more forgiving than I deserved.
“Thank you for telling me, for trusting me with this. I’m not going to pretend it wasn’t wrong to keep quiet, but I can also, honestly say, that doesn’t make you a monster. You were young, you were scared, and you trusted your friend. You didn’t hurt anyone and nothing you could have said afterwards would have changed the fact that that poor girl went through something awful,” she’d said, green eyes full of empathy.
Still, I couldn’t let myself off that easily. “Well, it’s more than that, if Buddy has hurt anyone else in the years since...”
“It still wouldn’t be your fault. Doesn’t sound like that boy Charlie even went to jail. You’re not responsible for their behavior. You’re responsible for you and you alone.”
She’s got a point.
I’d never really given much thought to the repercussions Charlie faced. He’d been expelled, there had been a scandal, but he’d still gone on to a career in finance courtesy of his father’s connections. Poor Madeline had never gotten her justice, but maybe Jeanie was right, that there were larger factors behind that than my unwitting participation.
“I never thought of it that way. But it still doesn’t change the fact I went on and made a career out of defending people that likely deserved the punishment I helped them avoid,” I admitted, needing her to understand I hadn’t been all lightness and good deeds, needing her to see all of me, not just the glossed-over version.
She grabbed my hand. “A career you were pushed into… and that you had enough sense to get out of, even if it took you a little while to do it.”
“Yes, but…” I started to say.
“Mason, you’re not going to talk me out of loving you.” She smiled, leaning in to kiss me with those sumptuously soft lips.
No matter how many times I had her, I couldn’t help wanting more.
“How about I talk you out of your clothes instead?” I asked, snaking my hand around her waist.
“That might be doable.”
Then we had promptly christened the many rooms of my new place, a rambling farmhouse down the road from Jeanie and Jerry’s.
Jerry’s reaction, on the other hand, had been slightly more colorful—something about me being dumb as a watermelon or some such.
But he’d come around when I had made clear I was serious about Jeanie and that I was owning up to my mistakes.
“I s’pose we all make mistakes from time to time, and I s’pose you’d have to be double-backboned to come out here and lay it all out for me. I wasn’t inclined to be too forgiving, not after the way you had Jeanie slinkin’ round here like a dog that got his tail lopped off, but all this reminds me of when John Black…”
And then he started in on a story about some woman named Marlena Evans I didn’t quite understand. Jeanie ended up interrupting him about five minutes in when he started talking about demonic possession, and refocusing the conversation.
We’d been good since then, though, an understanding of sorts between us. In some ways, he reminds me of my own Pop and I find myself enjoying dinners at the house.
Now we’re pulling up outside their pale pink two-story house. Jeanie’s been buzzing with excitement the whole morning.
“He’s going to be so thrilled!” she exclaims, giddiness showing in her wide smile. “Let’s park it in the driveway over here,” she says, directing me around the corner, just out of sight from the front door.
“Did you bring the bow?” She asks.
I pop the trunk and pull the giant, oversized red ribbon out. “And risk your wrath?”
She laughs grabs it from me, “You know you love it when I’m a pain in your ass.”
I pull her to me and steal a quick kiss, dipping my tongue into her mouth as I cup one perfectly curved cheek. “I know that I love you, and if you’re interested in ass-play, I’m happy to help a girl out.”
She blushes and slaps at me playfully, before she hurries over to the windshield and plops the bow front and center.
Watching her bend over the car, breasts smashed against the glass, leaves my cock uncomfortably alert. I remind myself that we’ll have plenty of time for that later.
Jeanie bounds up the front steps and I try to keep pace, her giddy excitement is starting to wear off on me. I wait at the door while she helps Jerry to the front stoop as I hear her happily chatting.
He looks weak, smaller even, in the doorway. They won’t know for another few weeks if the chemo is working, but my heart tells me Jeanie doesn’t have much time left with him.
“Happy birthday, Jerry!” I say, smiling.
He looks at me a little grumpy, “Hmph! This is the surprise you just had to drag me out here for? Coulda said that to me from my recliner!”
We both laugh and I come over, bracing an arm and letting him lean into me, supporting his weight as we descend the handful of steps.
Jeanie explains, “Actually, Uncle Jerry, the surprise is a touch better than that.”
We walk the few steps around the corner and come into view of the GTO, in full shining glory.
Jerry stops short, tenses up, and stares… and stares… and stares.
“Happy birthday!” Jeanie announces.
He’s still silent, staring in shock.
After a moment, Jeanie finally urges him, “Well what do you think?”
It takes him a bit to answer, his voice sounding soft and a broken. “My baby, you fixed her… but how?”
Jeanie smiles. “Do you think I took the job at Mason’s garage for fun?”
“No, I thought you took it ’cause you liked droolin’ over him,” he quips back.
I laugh. “It’s true. You do drool,” I tease Jeanie.
Jeanie gives me a narrow-eyed look that is probably meant to threaten me but only serves to arouse me further.
Jerry keeps walking forward and reaches the car, running his fingers over the frame, taking in every detail.
“Fine job you did here. She looks almost the same as the day I bought her,” he looks wistful. “Took me a heck of a long time to save up for her, but man, when I drove her down Main Street, there were some necks cranin’.”
I nod. “There were a few doing just that on our way over.”
He gets to the fender and finds the decal Jeanie wanted special ordered. A small chrome nameplate that reads ‘LOLA’ circled in roses.
Jerry smiles briefly before his expression turns sad, holding back tears as runs his fingers over it and explains. “This was the car I was in when I picked up Lola for our first date, near sixty years ago now.”
He breathes heavily, and his expression and voice seem lost in memories as he continues, “She was so beautiful in that pink dress, smart little white gloves, and her hair all done up. I had to put the top up cause she was worried it’d get ruined from the wind. Lord, I can almost see her there in that passenger seat.” He smiles wider. “It was our wedding car, too.”
And it will be ours too, I think, the ring I picked up in New York hidden safely away.
Jeanie comes up and puts her hand on his shoulder and after a moment asks, “Shall we go for a ride?”
Jerry nods, too choked up to respond. I open the passenger door and help him lower into the seat. I hop in the back seat while Jeanie climbs into the driver’s seat, looking so sexy with her hand on the gearshifter.
We head out onto the road. In the side mirror, I can see Jerry close his eyes, enjoying the sunshine on his face.
Ten minutes later, we’re pulling out of Silver Springs onto the highway. Jerry looks around, confused.
“Where are we going?” he asks, turning to Jeanie.
In the rearview mirror, Jeanie gives me that sexy, wayward smile of hers and then reaches over into the glovebox and pulls out a post card, handing it to Jerry with a smile.
“The Grand Canyon, and we’re going in style,” she says, surprising us both.
I’ll have to pay her back later for this wild hair, but I can’t deny it, I love being on her leash.