Made to Love Read online

  “Unless…” Aspen’s face broke into a big smile, and she patted Lex’s arm. “…you had someone big and strong to help.”

  Lex nodded. “Sure, just add it to my list of servant chores.”

  “Stop it.” Aspen feigned dismay. “I do not think of you like that. I would offer, but it would take me two weeks just to cover the alley between the houses. “

  “I’m kidding.” Lex kissed the side of Aspen’s head and smiled. “Just let me know when you want to do it.”

  “Is right now okay?” Mason pushed herself out of the recliner. “I need to get out of the house. The dark is starting to swallow me whole.”

  “Sure, yeah.” Lex shot Aspen a surprised look. When she offered to help, she didn’t imagine it would be right that second. “Unless I have something at home to do.”

  Aspen shook her head from side-to-side. “Nope, you’re free.” She lifted her hands toward Lex and sighed loudly. “Help me up. I can carry some of the smaller stuff.”

  Lex locked her hands around Aspen’s and grunted loudly. “Are you helping at all?”

  Aspen glared at Lex. “Yes, I’m helping. Just remember, you did this to me.”

  “I did that to you?” Lex chuckled and pulled Aspen to her feet then planted a kiss on her lips. “Me and my turkey baster have mad skills.”

  “You have something, alright.” Aspen rubbed her belly. “You hear that, little one? This is all your other momma’s fault. The Tataris’ children grow extra big. They make sure you get your money’s worth. If I didn’t know better, I would think you were twins.”

  Mason eyed them both with respect. “When are you due?”

  Aspen rolled her eyes and followed them outside. “It’s supposed to be the middle of June, but I figure I’ll go late. I think that this baby has decided it likes it in here and doesn’t want to leave. Maybe a little manual labor will help.”

  “You sure about that?” Mason turned and watched Lex help Aspen down the steps. “I don’t want to be responsible if the kid doesn’t cook long enough.”

  “Did you just say cook long enough?” Aspen shook her head at her friend. “I’m not baking bread in here. Mm, bread sounds good.”

  “Babe, anything sounds good to you.” She and Aspen fell in step with Mason, who shortened her strides to let Aspen keep up with her. “Yesterday, she ate a jar of green olives with chips and dip and a chocolate shake. My stomach turned at the mere sight of it.”

  Aspen smacked Lex’s arm. “You cannot make fun of a pregnant woman’s cravings.”

  “At least I didn’t tell her about the cream cheese.” Lex raised her eyebrows and shot Mason a look over Aspen’s head. “Out of the tub.”

  “Ew.” Mason made a vomit sound. “You ate straight cream cheese?”

  “In my defense, it was the chocolate cream cheese dip, and I was out of Graham crackers.” Aspen shook her finger in Mason’s direction. “Two words…Chunky Monkey. Don’t you judge.”

  Mason snickered and led them around the side of the house. Anne Cabot’s house shared an alley with Mason’s, but that was the only similarity. The large home was situated on an acre lot, which lent itself particularly well to Mason’s sculptures. She worked mainly in old metals like rusted rebar, aged license plates, mufflers and any and all forms of scrap metal she could procure. She created whimsical yard pieces that complimented the northeastern yards. They passed a group of rebar women standing well over six feet tall, with long, billowy arms and legs that were positioned as though they were walking through the garden themselves. Large, colorful sculptures that resembled party toothpicks rested beside them. Mason had sprinkled large, colored metal spheres in the trees around the property. There were countless other odds and ends that littered the yard. Mason stopped in the center of it all and looked around the yard, hands akimbo. “There’s more here than I remember.”

  Aspen stopped alongside her. “That’s a good thing.”

  “Yeah.” Mason scratched her head. “It will just fill up my workshop and my yard. I was hoping for a little room to do a few more pieces.”

  Mason’s workshop was a garage that resembled the best machinist shop a person could ask for. Hydraulic pipe bender, pipe roller, oxygen-acetylene welding torch, jump shears, an English wheel and a collection of different types of hammers and anvils and other odds and ends. Piles of old, scrap metal went into the garage with no shape at all and came out as beautiful pieces of artwork. Mason was so well-known locally that she spent quite a bit of time doing commissioned pieces that brought in a much steeper price than her art show pieces, which made up the majority of the ones in Anne Cabot’s yard. “I guess just start stacking it in the garage.”

  Lex and Aspen nodded and began gathering her sculptures and carrying them across the alley to the garage. Aspen was careful not to pick any of the larger pieces or tug too hard to get the smaller ones out of the ground.

  Mason slipped on her work gloves and bent over to pull out the base to one of her larger sculptures, a large green geode that was suspended in a circle by thin pieces of metal, giving it the look of a floating orb. She didn’t hear Mrs. Cabot’s door open or notice the footsteps on the porch.

  “Can I help you?”

  The words startled Mason and she fell backwards, landing on her butt in the soft grass. “Son-of-a-bitch. You scared the bejesus out of me.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Mason pushed herself up and met the woman’s questioning eyes. “I’m Mason. Who are you?”

  “Marly Cabot. And I’ll ask again…can I help you?”

  “Sure.” Mason shot her a smile. “Grab those pieces over there and follow me.”

  “That’s not what I meant.” Marly pushed her hand through her shoulder-length brown hair and her brown eyes flashed impatiently. “What are you doing in my yard?”

  Mason bristled at her curtness. “Your yard? This is Anne’s house. Who are you?”

  “I’m Anne’s daughter.” Marly came down the steps and stopped in front of Mason. “May I ask why you are taking my mother’s things?”

  Marly was now close enough that Mason could see her eyes were red-rimmed and knew she had been crying. “I’m sorry about your mother. She and I were quite close.”

  “Thank you.” Marly’s tight-lipped stare remained despite Mason’s attempt at being nice. “Now, about the sculptures?”

  Mason stared at the smaller woman, dumbfounded. She wasn’t sure what the woman had against her, or if she was just that surly to everyone who came along. Either way, it hit a raw nerve. “Listen, there’s no need to get uptight. Your mom and I had an arrangement. She let me display my pieces in her yard. Now that she’s…” Mason fumbled for the words and pushed back the tears that threatened to fall. “…I can’t keep them here anymore.”

  “You’re the artist?” Marly’s face softened slightly, but she kept her distance. “My mother mentioned you. Can you just leave it for now? I’ll let you deal with it later. Right now, I’d appreciate it if you just left me alone.”

  “Uh…yeah, sure.” Mason hesitated, unsure if she should push further on the matter. It was her art after all, not Anne’s, and certainly not Marly’s. “I’ll come back later.”

  “I’ll let you know when you may come over.” Marly turned to leave then spun back around and faced Mason, pinning her with a hard gaze. “You live in the house with the junk in the backyard, right?”

  Mason nodded, unable to speak. Not one to react so drastically, Marly had pushed all her buttons and then some and Mason was ticked off. First, Marly all but accused her of stealing then forbade her from taking her own art, and now she called Mason’s yard a junkyard. “It’s not junk. It’s scrap metal…for my art…it’s my job. Oh, the hell with it.” Mason glowered at Marly’s retreating form and pounded her fist into her palm angrily. “Damn woman!”

  “Hey, I’m right here. I can hear you.” Lex shot Mason a perplexed smile. “That aside, who are you talking to?”

  “Anne’s daughter, Marly some
thing or other. She just kicked me out of her yard. Said she would let me know when I could pick up my stuff.”

  “Mrs. Cabot had a daughter?” Lex cocked an eyebrow and let out a low whistle. “She ever mention her?”

  “Only briefly. She hadn’t seen her in years.” Mason removed her gloves and hit them against her thigh. “I probably wouldn’t say much about her either. She’s not exactly the nicest person I’ve ever met.”

  “Oh.” Lex’s eyes went back and forth between Mason and Mrs. Cabot’s house. “Maybe she isn’t here for too long.”

  “I don’t know.” Mason shrugged and started walking back to her house. “It’s her house now, apparently. God help us if she stays. She already referred to my house as a junkyard. She will probably call Burlington’s finest next and report me.”

  Lex fell in step beside Mason and squeezed her arm reassuringly. “We’ll bail you out. This is, as long as I can pull Aspen away from the cream cheese.”

  Lex’s attempt at humor worked enough to elicit a quick laugh from Mason. “Speaking of, is she okay?”

  “Yeah, she looked a little tired, so I made her sit down and rest.” They rounded the front of the house seconds later and found Aspen on the porch swing, swaying gently, her eyes closed.

  Lex and Mason tiptoed up the steps, trying not to wake her.

  “I’m not asleep.” Aspen looked at Lex and Mason and crinkled her brow. “That was fast. You get everything moved?”

  “No.” Mason sunk down on the step and leaned against the porch railing. “Anne’s daughter kicked us off the property.”

  “Daughter?” Aspen leaned forward and rested her hands on her knees. “I didn’t know she had a daughter.”

  “I knew she had a daughter. I just didn’t know much about her. But Anne was quiet that way sometimes. Anyway, Marly is holding my stuff hostage until she’s ready for me to get it.”

  Aspen paused at the way Mason’s voice slid over Marly’s name. She said it with slow deliberateness as if memorizing her face as she said it. Had the comment not been made with a look of disgust, Aspen might have believed that Mason was taken with her new neighbor. As it stood, Marly made quite an impression on Mason, just not a good one. “That’s not right. You had an arrangement with Mrs. Cabot. She should honor that.”

  Mason shrugged. “She doesn’t see it that way. So I guess I will just wait until Marly is ready.” Mason groaned and stood up. “I’m sorry I dragged you over here for nothing.”

  “Nonsense.” Aspen held her hand out to Lex, pulling herself out of the swing. She wrapped her arms around Mason and hugged her tightly. “Come by tomorrow night. I’ll make your favorite. We’ll get your mind off of the neighbor from hell.”

  Mason’s mouth watered at the mere mention of meatloaf. It had been a favorite of hers, for as long as she could remember. “How can I turn that down?” Mason pulled away from Aspen. “Thank you again, both of you.”

  “What are friends for?” Lex pulled Aspen’s arm through hers and smiled. “Five okay?”

  “Yeah. I’ll be there.” Mason watched Lex help Aspen down the steps and couldn’t help smiling. Everything took her three times as long as normal, but anyone could see that Aspen was overjoyed at being pregnant. She waved as Lex pulled away then watched the road long after they’d gone. The ache in Mason’s stomach hadn’t lessoned, but at least she had someone to talk to about the pain. She and Aspen met at the small studio in town where Aspen’s art was on display. They had become fast friends, and before long Aspen and Lex had adopted Mason as a surrogate sister. Mason was the older of two girls by quite a few years, so she and her real sister were never close and having them as family helped fill the void that had been left by her less than normal family. That’s why she felt so close to Aspen and Lex and why Anne Cabot had been like a mother to her. Anne was the woman who had finally given Mason the feeling of having a home. She loved her as her own, which is why it bothered her so much to butt heads with Marly.

  Mason opened the screen door and went back inside. She started for the chair she had abandoned shortly before then decided she should at least shower and change clothes. She’d lived in what she had on for the last three days and knew she must reek by now. Fortunately, Aspen and Lex were kind enough not to mention it. Mason undid her overalls and stripped off her T-shirt. Her muscles rippled beneath her tanned skin, and she flexed almost instinctively. Hours of working with metal and steel had toned her upper body, giving her the look of someone who worked out religiously. She stopped in front of the mirror, and her eyes flicked up and down the length of her body. She looked thinner. Grief was a horrible way to lose weight, but eating hadn’t been at the top of her list since Anne died.

  Mason met her reflection in the mirror, and she ran a finger over the dark circles under her eyes, surprised at just how gaunt she looked. She exhaled loudly and started the water in the shower, turning it just hot enough to steam. Moments later, she stepped under the spray and prayed it would wash away the ache she felt deep inside.

  Chapter 4

  Mason pulled her welding mask down and ignited her blowtorch, opening the oxygen valve on the torch head to match the acetylene. The hiss of the flame filled the small garage. Mason felt herself smile, at least briefly. She felt most at home in her tiny workshop. It was her safe haven, the place where she escaped from the harsh reality of the outside world. She could get lost in there for hours on end, creating, designing, crafting works of art.

  Mason grabbed a piece of flat metal about a foot long and two inches in diameter. She held the flame about a quarter of the way down the metal strip, allowing the heat to soften the metal. She moved the torch down the metal, allowing each section to heat up before moving further down. When it was pliable enough, she set the blowtorch down and grabbed a pair of pliers, twisting the end of the metal strip until it resembled a blade of grass. She held it out for several more seconds as it cooled then set it next to a stack of petals she made earlier.

  She was working on a piece for Mrs. Cabot. Anne had loved orchids and Mason was working on a new design, meant as a surprise for Anne. Even though she had passed away, Mason decided she would continue the piece and place it next to Anne’s headstone. It was the least she could do for the woman who had taken her in and loved her as her own. Mason sighed behind her mask and blinked back the tears. She grabbed an identical strip of metal and centered the flame on the same spot, duplicating her last movements.

  “Hello?” Marly stopped at the open door and watched Mason at work. She could see the skill with which she worked, despite not knowing the first thing about welding. She leaned against the doorjamb, knowing that Mason wouldn’t hear her with all the noise.

  It was a good five minutes before Mason sensed company and caught sight of Marly at the door. She held up her finger before she closed the acetylene and oxygen valves then opened the needles on the blowtorch head to release the gas inside the hose. She set the torch down and pushed her mask off her face. “Marly.”

  “It’s Mason, right?” Marly shoved off the doorframe and stepped inside Mason’s workshop. She forced a smile at Mason’s nod, trying not to laugh at the giant mask that bounced with Mason’s movements. She met her questioning eyes and smiled apologetically, but this time it was genuine. Marly handed Mason a foil-covered plate. “I came to apologize. I wasn’t very nice earlier.”

  Mason grabbed the plate and set it on a bench. “No, you weren’t exactly cordial.”

  “That’s why I’m here.” Marly flexed her fists and eyed Mason warily. She felt bad enough for being so mean earlier, but one look at Mason’s face and Marly knew she wasn’t planning on letting her off the hook too easily.

  “Well?” Mason eyed her impatiently.

  “Well…I just told you. I came here to say I’m sorry.” Marly put her hands on her hips. “Are you always this hard to get along with?”

  “No, but you seem to bring out the worst in me.” Mason pinned Marly with an impatient glare. “So?”

 
“So what?” Marly threw her hands up in exasperation. “This is where you forgive me.”

  “You haven’t said I’m sorry yet.” Mason swallowed a smirk. Despite their earlier kerfuffle, she found Marly to be somewhat enchanting. Her short, brown hair accentuated the deep brown of her wide-set eyes and framed her face perfectly. Her small nose curved slightly upwards and her full lips, pursed in a slight pout, gave Marly a very inviting look, despite her surly attitude. If Marly kept her mouth shut, Mason might almost find her attractive.

  “Yes, I did.” Marly stamped her foot impatiently. “Didn’t you hear me?”

  “I heard you just fine.” Mason took off her gloves and chucked them onto her work table. “You said you were here to apologize. You didn’t actually say I’m sorry.”

  “Are you always this literal?”

  Mason cocked an eyebrow and looked at Marly askance. “Are you always so obtuse?”

  “I…” Marly shut her mouth quickly. She would have taken offense if it weren’t for the fact that more than one person had called her insensitive before. She didn’t mean to be. She just didn’t have the time or the patience for unnecessary gestures. She was very efficient in everything she did and her behavior was often misconstrued as cruel. “I am sorry. I didn’t mean to be unkind.”

  “Thank you.” Mason slipped her gloves back on. “Are we done?”

  “I guess so. I wanted to let you know that it’s okay to pick up your stuff anytime, or leave it. I’m not sure what you and my mother worked out, but I will honor the arrangement. She was very fond of you, and I owe her that much.”

  Marly turned to leave but Mason stopped her. “It’s funny. She rarely mentioned you at all.”

  A look of pain flashed across Marly’s face before she replaced it with a perfunctory smile. “No, she wouldn’t have. My mother and I have never been close. We had a falling out a long time ago, and I suppose I never forgave her for it.”