soft sweep as he stared into her eyes. “Bring the boys back here. Let’s just spend some time together before we’re back to work and life tomorrow.”
“Sounds amazing. But you’re cooking dinner.”
He smiled. “Deal.”
They shared another quick kiss, then she turned, opened the front door, barely spared Heather a look before she said, “No,” and walked right past her and to her car.
Heather called after her, “I just want to talk.”
Sierra climbed into her SUV, turned it on, and pulled out of the driveway without another thought for her bitch of a sister.
Instead she thought about what she and Mason talked about this morning. She focused on their future, not her messy past.
It may be too fast or too soon to move in with Mason, but she didn’t care. She wanted to start the life Mason painted for her this morning with his plans to make her and the boys part of his life permanently.
In her mind, despite what happened with David, she believed that life with Mason would be a happily-ever-after kind of love.
She deserved that.
And she wouldn’t let anything get in her way.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Heather stared at the back end of Sierra’s car driving away. “She hates me.”
“Yep.” Mason didn’t sugarcoat it at all. “Right now anyway. Can you blame her?”
“No.” She sighed and faced Mason. “That’s why I came. To apologize. To see if we can work this out.”
“Nice try, showing up unexpectedly and forcing her to deal with you.” The sarcasm came across loud and clear. “Don’t you think she deserves some time to process all this?” Mason shook his head. “Yesterday she spent the morning memorializing David with Danny and Oliver, then she finds out he was having an affair with her sister and her niece is actually her boys’ half sister. You expect her to accept all that in less than a day?”
“Can we talk about this inside?”
“I’m not inviting you in without Sierra here. I won’t give her any reason to question me, especially when it comes to you.”
“I’m not going to do anything. I just thought that maybe you and I—”
“Stop right there. There is no you and I. Sierra and I are together. We are going to be a family. Right now, that doesn’t include you.”
Heather’s heart sank. “She’s never going to talk to me, let alone forgive me, is she?”
“Do you blame her if she doesn’t after what you did?”
“I’m sorry. I really never meant to hurt her.”
“I’m sure she didn’t even cross your mind.” The harsh statement was unfortunately mostly true. “If she did, you didn’t care enough to stop what you were doing.”
I couldn’t stop loving David.
Heather sighed. “I wasn’t the only one who hurt her. David did, too, but I’m the only one everyone is mad at.”
“That’s not true. She’s devastated by what David did to her and their children. He ruined their relationship and marriage. He had everything, but he turned his back on Sierra and what they’d built together.”
“He wasn’t happy. He wanted to be with me.”
“Neither of those things excuses what he did or erases the hurt he’s caused. For either of you. Sierra is devastated.”
“How do you think I feel? He’s gone. I loved him, too. I miss him, too. But I’m not allowed to show that because we weren’t supposed to be together.”
Mason eyed her. “Do you really mean you weren’t supposed to be discovered?”
Yes. And no.
“He wanted to be with me.” She kept telling herself that, but couldn’t convince herself anymore that it was wholly true.
“He was never really yours. He got caught up in something exciting and thrilling in the moment but it ultimately left him feeling bad about himself and worried that he’d lose everything over something that didn’t really mean anything to him.” She wanted to deny that. “I’ve seen it a lot. A husband cheats thinking it’s just sex. It doesn’t mean anything. He’s got no real feelings for the woman. He still loves his wife. As long as she doesn’t find out about it, it’s no big deal. But women have intuition. They know their husband better than anyone. Maybe they don’t want to see it, but they know. Sierra knew. And David sensed she knew. I bet he even let on to you that she was suspicious of him.”
She spoke David’s worst fear. “He thought she’d take the boys from him.”
Mason dismissed that with a shake of his head. “The courts would allow him visitation and Sierra would never keep those boys from their father because