“It seems it was a long time coming. Like it was inevitable. I can’t explain it.” Sierra checked to be sure Danny and Oliver were still upstairs with their cousins and out of earshot. “He told me he loves me.”
Amy did the eye roll thing again. “Of course he loves you. He loved you when you were dating David.”
That stopped Sierra’s heart and set off an alarm. Mason told her he had had feelings for her for a long time, but what did Amy know about it? “What are you talking about? We were friends, but there wasn’t anything romantic going on.”
Amy held her hands up and let them drop. “I guess it doesn’t matter if you know now, but Mason told me one night before you got engaged to David when we were all out that he wanted to tell you how he felt about you.”
Sierra put the pieces together. “And you told him not to say anything.”
Amy shrugged. “You were with David.”
Anger flashed inside her. She couldn’t believe Amy could be so callous about this. “Was this before or after I confided in you that I wasn’t sure a life with David was what I wanted?”
“Before. After. What does it matter now?” The question sounded like a plea for Sierra to drop it.
Maybe it didn’t matter now. Not after all this time. But still, she needed to know. “When did you tell him I didn’t have feelings for him?”
“It wasn’t exactly like that. I just never told you he had feelings for you and made it clear that you and David were solid.”
Her stomach dropped. “But you knew differently. I told you David and me, we were fine, but I felt like the relationship wasn’t as strong as it should be.”
“You mean you felt like David loved you but wasn’t in love with you.”
She didn’t remember saying it like that, but the description fit. Even now, looking back, it seemed exactly right.
Amy shrugged. “Some people don’t get the love of their life.”
“You did. Rex is crazy about you.”
“Mason is crazy about you.”
Sierra thought so, but appreciated that her sister saw it, too. “I’ve never been happier.”
“Everyone has second thoughts when faced with the rest of their lives with one person. Sounds like with Mason, you don’t have any.” Amy tried to make her focus on now and not what happened then.
Sierra wouldn’t let her get away with it. “Exactly. Yet you kept quiet about the fact that I had second thoughts about David because of my feelings for Mason and that Mason had feelings for me. Why?”
“You picked David. It worked out fine. You had two kids and a good marriage. Now you’ve got Mason. It even looks like he’s been waiting for you all this time. Lucky you.” It didn’t sound like Amy was really happy for her.
“What was it really, Amy? Why keep the secret?” She really wanted to understand why Amy would keep her and Mason apart for no reason.
“Everything was always so easy for you. You had two great guys who wanted to be with you. David wanted to marry you. After years of just being friends, out of the blue, Mason decides he has feelings for you. While I believed him, I thought that maybe it was possible he didn’t want to lose you to his buddy, but he also didn’t want to give you what David offered: marriage, family, a good life. So I kept it to myself because I didn’t want to see you give up all those things I thought you wanted. You were ready for them. At the time, Mason was married to his job.”
Sierra had to admit, that was true. Mostly. She still wondered, if given a chance, like they had now, would Mason have married her back then? Would they have been happy all this time?
“He could have told you about his feelings no matter what I’d said back then. It’s clear now, the two of you are meant for each other. Is that because you’re both ready for each other now because you know what you don’t want?”
Maybe.
“I’m sorry if you think I purposely set out to hurt you. I didn’t.”
Sierra wasn’t so sure about that. Amy could be selfish. “It’s hard for me to hear that maybe if I’d listened to my heart I’d have been happy with Mason all this time.” Maybe David would have been happier with someone else, too.
And then she heard what she’d just said and sighed. “I don’t mean that.”