Vicious Circles - By Leann Andrews Page 0,78
was equivalent to him wanting to marry me.
***
“My feet are killing me,” I whined as I flopped onto the couch.
Lynn sat in the recliner across the room and Mason sat down next to me, taking my feet into his lap. I moaned slightly when he began to rub gently. Lynn laughed at the look on my face.
“You two are like an old married couple.”
“Just think,” I said thoroughly enjoying my foot massage, “this time next year Mason and I will actually be married.”
“It’s about time!” My best friend made kissy faces at me from across the room.
“Lynn, you’ll never guess what Mason bought.”
He grinned but kept rubbing my feet.
“He bought a new car. It’s so close to a van I almost died.”
“What? Mason you are whipped. Do the others know about this soccer mom car?”
“Hey,” he warned, “it’s not a soccer mom car. It’s fuel efficient and good for the environment.”
The fact that I was sitting around on the day after Christmas and talking about the environment and new cars was crazy. It was always surprising to me when normalcy invaded our lives considering our extended family was anything but. Our Christmas tree was glowing angelically from the corner as Pilgrim batted at a ball on the bottom branch. Martin had taken up residence in Lynn’s lap and that’s exactly how we spent the entire afternoon.
Mason ran off to play with his friends after Lynn left for the night, so I hopped in bed and pulled my laptop out to finish the last chapter of my book. For some reason, the bad shit had been much easier to write. Writing the amazing things that I’d been bombarded with after the fact was the hardest part about the whole project.
How does one put Mason into the right words? In my eyes, there was no way to describe what he meant to me, then and now.
He’s not so patient, but he’s always kind. He never leaves the toilet seat up so I fall in when I have to go at three in the morning. I love blueberry pop tarts and he despises them, but there is always a box in the cabinet when I forget them at the store. He loves that I make Christmas cookies for him every year and he hasn’t once complained that they’ve never been in holiday shapes. His mother was taken aback at the swear words spelled out in the container on the counter but he just laughed it off.
Mason is a gentle soul wrapped in many different layers and I’ve been lucky to see them all. I pretended to sleep when he tiptoed in at two so he wouldn’t feel bad. I could hear him stripping his clothes off and then the bed dipped on his side. He slid under the covers and rolled toward the wall. When his breathing evened I sat up in the bed and looked down on him.
His hair was knotty because he just refused to cut it and he was really bad about brushing it more than once a day. I didn’t mind it at all. The look on his face as he slept was comforting to me. His eyes fluttered under his lids, causing his eyelashes to graze against his skin over and over. The moment didn’t last however; because Mason knew I was staring at him.
“Are you gazing lovingly at me while I sleep?” He asked with his eyes still closed.
I slid down under the covers and he pulled me into his arms. “I was just thinking.”
“About what?”
“I’ve been having trouble finishing the last chapter and I was hoping for inspiration.”
“By staring at me while I sleep?”
“Shut up.” I pushed against his chest in an effort to move away but he grasped me tighter.
Mason pressed his forehead against mine and closed his eyes once more. “When I saw you…after you left rehab, I fell in love all over again. You looked healthy. You looked like the person I always knew you could be.”
Sometimes Mason just says the perfect things.
We don’t keep track of how long we’ve been together because it means little to us. Time is marked by milestones in our eyes. It allows us to appreciate the moments in between so much more. Life will never disappoint us.
“Do you think I’m going to be a good father?” He rubbed a thumb around my left eye where tears had begun to collect.
I took a deep breath to calm myself. “You are going to do the best you can, just like me.”
His hand found my pregnant stomach under the covers and he smiled lightly. We would have a baby Jennings in about a month and though we were neither prepared nor ready, things were changing once again. The vicious circle I’d been going round and round in had switched directions.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Leann Andrews is a mother of two living in Maryland. Vicious Circles is her debut book available on Kindle. Aside from writing, she enjoys all kinds of music and spending time with her family.
You can find Leanna Andrews on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/LAndrewsBooks
Table of Contents
Copyright
Dedication
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Table of Contents
Copyright
Dedication
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
ABOUT THE AUTHOR