Not a Reunion

Chapter 28

Thea

At dinner, the conversations around the table are dimmed. My mom had sat down to eat with us, which wasn't a surprise. The one thing that I was shocked to hear was that my siblings were not speaking. They all had frowns on their faces, their eyes glancing toward one another. And they were glancing at Mason as well, giving him looks.

Mason doesn't question their silence, but I do. Of the three days Mason has been here, he has never once gotten the kids to stop talking his ear off. So when I cut up Thomas's food, I look toward the table and say, "So why is everyone sad today?"

None of them answered me, only glancing at each other. They all give each other collective looks, avoiding their gaze from Mason now. I hand the plate back to Thomas and give them a chuckle at their reactions. "What? Something happened today?"

They all remain silent, and I grow worried about them. I had been silent on my part because of the fact that I was thinking about a lot of things. I was thinking of ways to find my mom help, and then I was also thinking of what was happening with my relationship. Which, spoiler: nothing was happening. It was still radio silent on our contact, and that made me worried. Of course, I would notice when my fiancé got distant from me.

But through my silence, their silence was louder. I only give them a raise of my eyebrow, to which they don't react.

Mason leans forward from where he was sitting next to Thomas and says, "Can you guys tell me?"

I send Mason a dirty look at the fact that he thought my sibling would answer to him instead of mee. But Mason only gives me a large grin—one that I hadn't known he was capable of giving—with a quirk of his brow when Natalie speaks up from the table.

My little sister pushes her hair off her face and then looks toward Mason with a frown. Her eyes water just the slightest when she says, "Tomorrow Masey leaves."

Oh, so that made sense.

Mason responds back with a little frown of his own: "Well, but that's nothing to worry about."

"Really?" Nat asks with a little inquisition about her word. Then she says, "Because you're not going to come back."

Mason's eyebrows raise at the statement, and I watch as he picks up Thomas's fork from his plate and hands it to him. Then he turns to Natalie with an incredulous look and asks, "Who says that?"

"Thea," my little sister responds really quickly. Then she cuts her glance at me, and I watch her eyes drop to my ring. That makes Mason look down at my ring as well, and I feel as though the diamond had never been heavier on my hand. Natalie looks up with a frown and says, "Thea says she isn't marrying you."

Mason swallows, his eyes drifting away from my hand, before he nods as well. He picks up his fork and says, "Yeah, that's true."

"So how will you come over now, then?" Harry pipes up from his spot in the middle. Thomas nodded his head in agreement, and Natalie had already fixed Mason with a questioning look.

Mason looks up from his plate and clears his throat. "I could come over if Thea..." His words trail off when his eyes catch mine as I look away from him. My thoughts are correlated with his, and he knows what I am thinking. He knows that I'm not going to bring him home with me anymore. This was just a one-time thing—something that I shouldn't even have done in the first place.

Mason clears his throat and says, "Well, how about we enjoy our time together now instead of thinking about that?

"Hm," Thomas says, and I looked up to find the three little kids conversing with each other. Then, as if they had come to a conclusion together, they turn to Mason, and Thomas says, "So can we watch a movie tonight?"