CHAPTER 13
Mason could feel her eyes on him as he walked away, but he didn’t dare turn around. Something was bothering Clara, and he had no idea what it could be. She’d been fine at the lake, and he was sure she wasn’t mad about him leaving her to take the horses home. He’d asked more than once, and he knew Clara wouldn’t say she was okay with something when she wasn’t. No, something had happened. Her demeanor had taken a complete turn, and the cold reception she’d given him had felt personal.
“You did something,” he muttered to himself, his steps heavier than when he’d been on his way to see her.
He’d been so excited to surprise her, and since the weather was so nice, he’d decided to walk the path that led to her house. Now, he wished he’d brought the four-wheeler. A little recklessly fast driving to the house and around the property would have helped him clear his mind. Now, he was left alone with his thoughts, wondering why he’d bothered to get through his work so fast, making the final changes to the community plans to adjust for the land that was actually owned by Clara.
Once he’d accepted his feelings for her, he’d let go of the plans that required him to own her land and found a way to give the future community access to the colony without using her property. The lake was another issue altogether, but he’d gotten to know Clara in the past few weeks, and he knew that she would never block access to the lake as long as everyone treated the space kindly.
To ensure that, he’d come up with a path that would access the lake from the north side of his property, placing a boundary that would keep the south side of the lake private. The boundary would be subtle, but it would also give the wild animals a safe space to visit the lake without having to worry about being disturbed.
They didn’t seem to mind Clara at all, but they’d scattered the few times he’d visited the lake by himself, and he knew that having part of the lake reserved for them would be the best bet. He knew Clara would think so, too.
So, he’d been working on his plans, eager to show her all he’d done, hoping that she would be happy. But her obvious upset had thrown him, and her terse words had stung him.
What was going on, he wondered, pulling his phone out of his pocket to check the time.
He’d been so intent on everything he was working on that he hadn’t even noticed his cell phone was missing until she handed it to him in the barn. He was thinking of getting rid of it completely, but he knew he never would. There were some creature comforts that felt like second nature and having instant access to his emails and texts was something he wasn’t willing to give up.
He stopped, swiping at the dropdown menu where the message icon let him know he’d received a text. When he read the words on the screen, he knew exactly what was up with Clara.
“You fool,” he said, cursing himself for leaving his phone set to preview text messages on the lock screen.
It had never occurred to him to change it because he’d never even thought of a situation like the one he had just found himself in.
“Damn it,” he said.
He read the words again, and his heart sank thinking of how Clara must have felt. Bethany was expecting a huge commission when Clara’s sale was final, plus a bonus for the sale completing his collection of every acre of private property on the mountain and surrounding areas. He fully intended to give her the final bonus, but she had failed to send him a property owner ready to sell, and he wasn’t about to pay her a commission for work she didn’t get done.
Yes, meeting Clara had changed his life dramatically, and he was thrilled, but Bethany had failed to secure a sale, and he only planned on paying her for the work she did finding Clara and the bonus for the mountain. According to their contract, which was ironclad, he didn’t have to pay her the bonus because he hadn’t bought all the land. But he felt like it was the right thing to do, and Bethany was a good friend.
He didn’t know how to tell her, and if he was honest with himself, he would probably pay her the commission on Clara’s house just to ensure she kept her mouth shut about Bear Mountain. It would be worth it to maintain his privacy. But he’d planned to drive to Seattle that week to meet with her personally, and he hadn’t told her that he was no longer seducing Clara to run her off the mountain.
He was a man in love. And now, his love knew exactly what kind of asshole he could be when there was money and power involved. He’d messed up badly.
“You have to fix this,” he growled at himself, turning around though he was within sight of his house.
He discarded every explanation he came up with, trying to find a way to explain what he’d meant to do without sounding like a complete heel. But nothing sounded good because the truth was he’d been in the wrong no matter what his motivation was. To make her understand why he’d almost done the unthinkable, he would have to reveal his secret to her.
“You can’t do that,” he said, irritated because he knew that he had to tell her.
She would find out eventually, and she would feel even more betrayed if he kept his real self from her. Ready or not, he was going to have to come clean and tell Clara everything about himself, including the curse that kept his kind from mating with humans and the fact that they could never have children, if she even wanted any.
How could you love a woman this much and not even know if she wants kids? Mason asked himself angrily. The answer was clear. He’d been selfish. Sure, he’d wined her and dined her, treating her like the queen she was and asking her about her plans for the horses and the cabin. But his questions had been self-serving. He was feeling out the situation and wondering how they would move forward and move in together when they both owned homes a mile apart. He didn’t think she was ready to give up the tiny cabin, and he certainly wasn’t ready to move into her place. It was a situation that was a long way off, but falling in love had forced him to think ahead, and his questions all centered around the things that had mattered most to him.
The answer to all his questions was that he’d been thinking with the wrong head. He was thinking about the future, but he’d been thinking about the long winter and weeks spent enjoying the solitude, trapped in his home with a home gym, a movie room, and five more rooms to keep them occupied while they rode out the harsh winter. If he’d taken a moment to think long-term, he might know about her hopes and dreams. He might already know that his inability to mate with a human meant that he could never fulfill her dreams.
The realization crushed him. Clara leaving had seemed like the best thing for him when he’d planned to break her heart to get at her property. But now that he loved her, he might still have to let her go. He wasn’t about to get in the way of her happiness, even if that meant hiding his own feelings and letting her walk away, knowing that, if she did, he would never again be the same.
He had to find the words to tell her, and he was running out of time. Already walking fast, he quickened his steps, the short distance between their homes feeling so much further. The sooner he got there, the sooner he could tell her his secret, and hopefully she would believe him when he tried to explain why he had wanted her gone at first. Not now, but before he’d fallen for her.
Rounding the final bend before her cabin, he stopped in his tracks, the wind rushing out of him in a single moment. He could see Clara standing defiantly in the yard near the horse barn, shouting at the top of her lungs.
He stared at the scene in front of him in disbelief, frozen for a split second by shock at what he was seeing. It turned out he wouldn’t have to tell Clara a thing, because she already knew his secret. And because of him, she was in trouble, and he wasn’t sure he could get to her in time.