SEALED with a Kiss (Midnight Delta #4) (2 page)

“That you, me, and even Donny were the best things that ever happened to him.”

“Isn’t that a hoot, since living with him was the best thing that ever happened to us,” Steve murmured.

––––––––

M
ason Gault

Sophia traced the contours of Mason’s chest with her fingers.  Mason cherished his Sunday mornings with Sophia.  She didn’t have to be at the diner early so he got to watch the colors of dawn wash over her body and paint her skin with golden light. 

On these mornings, without the alarm, she awoke like a kitten.  All soft purrs, brushing against him, rolling and twisting until she found the right position for them to snuggle.  Sophia had one leg draped over his hips, and he held her head nestled under his chin.  His fingers sifted through the fine silk of her golden blonde hair. 

“Mason,” she whispered.

“Good morning, beautiful,” he whispered the lyrics of the song.

Her fingers dug into his chest, and he ached with hunger. 

“You make me feel beautiful.”  He looked into her green eyes.

“Then I’m doing my job.”  He swept in for a kiss, loving the taste of her happy smile.  He licked, and she opened, he took his time with tender forays, so they could enjoy their precious extra time this morning.

Her hands kneaded his neck, then worked their way upwards until she was scraping his scalp with her nails.  He almost yowled with pleasure.  She grinned into their kiss, and he broke it off to look into her dancing eyes.

“You know what you’re doing, don’t you?”

“Hopefully driving you out of your mind,” she teased.

He cupped her breast, brushed the tip with his thumb, and she arched up with a gasp.  “Mason, it’s too much.”

“Fair’s, fair.”  He trailed his tongue between her breasts, then blew on the wet path making her senses sing.  Ever downwards he went, loving how her soft tummy seemed to thrum with excitement.  Her fingers stroked his cheek, and he rubbed the beard roughed skin against her hipbone.  She shuddered.

“Mason,” she moaned, moving her body against his face so the sensations could intensify.  He coasted his hands behind her, gently caressed the backs of her thighs, and then parted them.

“You’re so gorgeous, I couldn’t ask for a more responsive lover.” He dipped his head and gave a soft lick.  His woman was soon writhing and begging for more. 

“Please, come to me.  Be with me.”  He moved slowly upwards, and pressed inside her warm depths.  Mason savored the carnal connection blended with the beauty of Sophia’s embrace.

The bond between them in these moments was so intense, that he was never quite sure who pleasured who.  But as always they took flight together and landed softly in one another’s arms. 

****

“I
’m thinking you get something extra special for breakfast after that,” Sophia said.  She gave him a long slow kiss.

“Yes, and I should be the one doing the cooking.” He smiled down at her.

“You just did.”  Sophia giggled, as she pushed at him. Mason rolled over and watched as she made her way into the bathroom.  He laid there and listened, the shower ran for a bit before he went in to start shaving.

“Mason?”

“Mmmm?”  He loved watching her put on her lotion in the mornings.

“Have you noticed anything weird about Billy?  He seems to be preoccupied.”

“Haven’t you asked him about it?  I mean, you two talk about everything.”

“I have.  Either it’s about Dad and he’s protecting me, or it’s a girl, and he doesn’t feel comfortable talking about it to me.”

Mason pulled the blade across his chin, and considered what she said. 

“I’ll take him out surfing and see if I can get him to talk.  On one condition.  You arrange to take some days off.  You’ve been working too hard.”  He cut his glance sideways and saw her give him a frown.

“It’s the thing with the gourmet shops.  I’m so excited they want to carry our line of baked goods.  Plus I don’t like leaving Shirley in a lurch.”

“You’re not.  You’ve hired two new girls.  The diner’s fine. You can tell the gourmet shops they’ll have to wait a couple of weeks until you hire additional help. Anyway, my Mom wants to come down and start planning the wedding with you.  So you have to.”  He watched her light up.  He loved that his two best girls got along so well.

“That’s great.  But you know I’m going to keep the wedding simple.”  He rolled his eyes, and rinsed off his razor.  He went over and kissed her.

“Whatever makes you happy, makes me happy.”

****

B
illy Anderson

He loved the days when Mason took him surfing.  They had to be the best thing about having left the Bard’s and moving back in with his sister.  He stopped short, his feet buried in the sand.  Mason continued to run towards the surf.  Billy couldn’t believe that thought had actually entered his head.

Living with Sophia really was the dream come true, and Mason was the cherry on top. Billy remembered how it had been before Mason came into the picture.  Sophia had been working her ass off to scrape together enough money for a place big enough for them.  And it needed to meet the approval of DHS so she could regain custody of him.  Then Mason came in to their lives, and it made the day he could move out of the Bards and in with Sophia happen much sooner.  When he thought about all Sophia sacrificed on his behalf, no matter what kind of emotional shit he put her through, he knew he was blessed.

“Hey Billy, you afraid of sharks?” Mason yelled.

“They eat SEALs,” Billy quipped.  Mason laughed.

Billy trotted towards the water, and eyed the man who was going to marry his sister, and thought here was another blessing.  He knew thinking in terms of blessings wasn’t typical for a fourteen year old boy, but it was for one who watched his dad desert his family.  It was for one who watched his mother waste away from cancer.  It was for one who lived on the streets at times.  Billy had vowed never to take his good fortune for granted.  Which was why he refused to take Rebecca for granted.

“Billy, you listening to me?”

“Huh?”

“That’s what I thought.  Let’s just sit and enjoy the sunrise, the waves will still be there.  You can tell me what’s on your mind if you want.  You know I won’t judge or tell anyone you don’t want me to tell.”

“Even Sophia?”

“Well it depends.  If it concerns your health or safety, then yeah, I have to tell her., your safety comes first.  If it is just something you need to confide in me, than no.”

Billy considered what he said.  He looked at Mason, and knew he could trust him.  He realized it was probably why he made it to lieutenant in the SEAL team, he had good judgement and people could rely on him.

“It’s about a girl.  Her name is Rebecca Barnes.  She’s my partner on a social studies project.”  Billy rubbed the back of his neck, and then he gave a self-conscious laugh.  He never used to do that, but it was exactly what Mason did when he was stressed.

“Tell me about her.”

“She’s nice to everyone even when they aren’t nice to her.  Too nice.  I can’t figure out if it’s because she wants people to like her, or if she’s wired that way.  She needs to push back.  But I think the fight’s been beaten out of her. I’m worried that might of literally happened, and it’s why she landed in foster care.” 

Billy stared off into the ocean.  He’d thought about Rebecca for a long time.  She reminded him of the abused golden retriever Lori Bard had brought home.  Goldie had always flinched when someone raised their hand too fast, thinking they were going to hit her instead of pet her.  At the same time she craved attention.

“You worry about her.”

“I do.  But she has great instincts.”  Billy grinned.  He fished around in the sand and pulled out a stick.

“Tell me,” Mason prompted.

“She’s been asked out to the Valentine’s Day Dance by two of the worst players at school.  I mean they’re slick.  A lot of girls really want to go with them, and she turned them down flat.  It was a thing of beauty.” 

Billy paused, and started digging in the sand with the stick.

“What?” Mason prompted.

“Actually the way she’d looked Eric from the top of his head to the tips of his toes and said, ‘No thank you,’ like he’d been something she needed to wipe off her shoe had been a little scary.”

“You saw this happen, huh?”

“Yeah, he came up to her in the library where we were studying.  After he left she explained his reputation was known far and wide.  Apparently, he had started a nasty rumor about one girl after they’d gone out.  Then with another girl he had pushed too hard for intimacy and left her in tears.”

“Is this Eric Jameson?”

Shit, he was in for it now.

“Yeah, it’s the same guy I had the unnecessary roughness foul with two weeks ago, when I got thrown out of the Lacrosse game.” Billy looked sideways at Mason, but the man’s expression didn’t change.

“So you did it on purpose?”

“Yes.”

“Would you do it again?”

“Yes.

“Are you going to do it again?”

“I won’t have to.  I got my point across.  He knows why it happened, and what will happen in the future if he doesn’t shape up.”

“Okay then.  So back to Rebecca.  It sounds like, despite everything, she can handle herself.”

“Maybe a little too well,” Billy mumbled.

Mason chuckled.  “So you want to ask her out, but you’re afraid of getting wiped off her shoe.”

“Something like that.”  Billy dug deeper into the sand, then finally threw the stick towards the ocean.

“Would it help to know that no matter how old you are, and how many times you’ve asked for dates, you always worry about that?”

“Did you worry about it with my sister?”

“I kind of side-stepped the asking out part.  She needed a ride to her car, so I just arranged to pick her up from the hospital.  I kind of kept maneuvering things until she got used to me.  Seems to me like you have the same opportunity with the homework project.”

Billy grinned.  “Trust me, I’ve never needed as much tutoring as I have had with this project.”

“Good man.” Mason grinned in return.  “So do you think she likes you?”

“Definitely as a friend.  But I still don’t know how she would feel about going out with me.”

“Hmmm.  Does she want to go to the dance?”

“I honestly don’t know.”

“I think you need to find out.  Because if she does, going with a ‘friend’ would be pretty appealing.”

Billy sighed.

“I know, it will still suck if she shoots you down.” Mason bumped his shoulder with his.

“I can only tell you, if she does, there will be pizza and video games waiting for you at home.  I’ll even let you win.”

“Hell, Mase, you never
let
me win.  You’re old, you naturally lose.”

“In that case we’re playing
Call of Duty
.  You will lose on that one my man.  I live that game.”  Billy laughed.  It was true, Mason always beat him at
Call of Duty
.

––––––––

F
inn Crandall

“Come on Mom, you have to admit it’s better living here than in Minnesota.”  He grinned at the beautiful Scandinavian woman who was his mother. 

“I don’t have to do any such thing, Finnius.”

Damn, apparently he was not scoring points if she was calling him Finnius.  They were currently having lunch overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  It was the end of January, and it was a beautiful sunny day.

He raised his eyebrow.

“I hated moving here and then having you gone for the first two months.”

“I hated it too, Mom.”

“Of course, you did arrange for Darius to babysit me.  That was nice.  You have nice friends.  I’ve always liked your team mates.”

“Is it the only thing you’ve liked about moving here?  Being close to me and my friends?” he asked.

“Fine, it is a little bit better than being buried in three feet of snow,” she admitted reluctantly.

“Was that so hard?”

“Yes,” she said sadly.  “I left your dad and my dad there.” 

Finn reached over and grasped his mother’s hand, and she grabbed on tightly, tears in her eyes. 

“We’ll be visiting Gramps next month,” he promised.

“Oh Finn, I don’t want you wasting your leave on that.  It’s not like he knows who either of us are.”  She sounded so forlorn.  He rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand.

“He does on some level, Mom.”

“No, he doesn’t.  I’ve talked to the nurses.  He’s deteriorated to the point that he doesn’t recognize anyone or anything.”

Finn’s heart clenched as he thought of his once vibrant grandfather.  “Even more reason to go and visit.”

She gave him a watery smile.  “Thanks, son.”

“And we’ll go visit Dad’s grave.  Brush off the snow.” He grinned.  “Of course,
he
liked the snow,” Finn teased.

“I remember you two going ice fishing, and him coaching your lacrosse team.  I’m so happy you’re taking the time to coach lacrosse.”

“I never know what my schedule is like so I just run some clinics now and again, and ref when they ask me too.”

“You’re going to make a good father one day.”  Finn carefully schooled his features, but his mother wasn’t fooled.

“You will, and you’ll find the right girl.  Look at Mason.  Look at Clint.”

“I’m not the same as Mason and Clint.”

“No, you’re better.”  Finn threw back his head and laughed, causing the seagulls to fly away from their perch on the deck posts.

“You know, since that girl in college you have given up all hope of a happily ever after.” His mother leaned forward.  “Ginger wasn’t worthy of shining your shoes, let alone shining anything else of yours.”

Sweet tea spewed out of his mouth, as he looked at Evie goggle-eyed.

“Good, I have your attention.  Yes Finn, you were very focused in college.  Yes, you’re very focused and committed to your career now.  Well welcome to the world.  So are a lot of people, and they juggle relationships and family just fine.  You will too son.  So you better start looking around, because I want grandbabies.”

His mother’s words were reverberating throughout his head.  She had not just said what he thought she had.