Chasing Daylight

Chapter Thirty

Time, mystical time

Cuttin' me open, then healin' me fine

-Taylor Swift

Maria

At the end of the week, I sat on the couch watching tv while I waited for Mason and Max to come home. Almost as soon as the door opened I was up off the couch.

"Maria!" Mason grinned stepping ahead of Max and wrapping me in a tight hug. "I missed you so much love."

"I missed you too," I laughed holding him tightly.

"Disgusting," Max mumbled setting his bag down and closing the door.

"You know you missed me too," I smirked giving Max's shoulder a squeeze.

"I don't know, it was nice to have some peace and quiet," Max said shooting me a wink.

"You guys want to finish watching this movie with me?" I asked as Mason wrapped his arms around my shoulders.

"Sure," Mason smiled kissing my cheek.

"Is it one of your stupid rom-coms?" Max asked glancing at the screen.

"Yes," I said rolling my eyes.

"I'm going to pass on that one," Max replied. "I'll be in the kitchen, if you need me."

"Lame," Mason said before pulling me over to the couch.

"How was your Christmas?" I asked as I pressed play.

"I missed you," he sighed pulling me down so my head rested on his lap. He stroked my hair gently.

"I missed you too," I answered turning to watch the tv. We finished up the last hour of the movie and then made our way to the kitchen to find something to eat. Max was sitting at the counter eating a frozen meal and scrolling through his phone.

"You want some leftover pasta?" I asked looking through the fridge.

"Sure," Mason nodded sitting down at the counter. "How was your Uncle? Did he like Washington?"

"Yeah, I'm trying to convince him to move here," I smiled. "He really hates being so far away from me. He was trying to convince me to go back to Maine."

"Are you thinking about it?" Max asked looking up from his phone. I was surprised he had even been listening.

"No," I laughed. "I told him there's no way I'm moving back. He just doesn't really understand why I left ya know. He thought I only wanted to stay here because of Mason, but it's not..."

"You want to stay because of me?" Max said with a chuckle.

"Well, I mean I have a lot of people here that I'm close to, yes, you are one of them," I said rolling my eyes. "But there's also just people and things that I don't really ever want to see or think about again in Maine."

"You know none of us know why you came here," Max said his eyes sparked with curiosity.

"Not something I really want to think or talk about," I said taking the pasta out of the microwave and pouring it into two different bowls.

"No one here is going to make you talk about anything you don't want to talk about," Mason said giving Max a nudge.

"Yeah, sorry," Max said.

I shrugged, "my Uncle did a lot more prying than either of you have ever done."

"I'm sure he's just worried about you," Mason said rubbing my arm gently as I sat next to him.