"What did you do Sunny!" Mason whispered in her ear the next morning when she had stopped in the hallway to watch Eli playing the piano, he was playing Vivaldi's Winter and the angry haunting strains of the music filled the house. "He has been fine the last few days and then this!"
Rhea didn't say anything as she listened to the haunting music, he seemed oblivious to everyone who had wandered in to watch him play.
Phoebe had gone to work that morning and Aion was at school but her mother, Lola, and Cassie, as well as her and Mason, had all gathered to listen to the intense music as it swelled around them.
Rhea could only shake her head in denial about doing anything. She listened for another minute and then walked back to the kitchen to start on lunch. Mason wasn't giving up that easily as he followed her back into the kitchen, sitting at the center island and grabbing an apple to eat with his perfect white teeth.
"You should wash that first," she said inanely, as he was about to bite into it.
"Yes mother," he agreed and walked to stand beside her at the counter. When he was done washing the piece of fruit he leaned against the counter with his back to the sink, facing towards the door as if watching out for something.
"You wanna tell me what's going on?" he asked before he took his first bite.
She looked at him as he munched away, watching her. "No," she finally said as she chopped an onion. It was as good an excuse as any to let the tears run down her face unchecked. Eli hadn't looked at her since their boat ride, it was as if she didn't exist. It was what she knew would happen in the end, but she hadn't thought it would hurt quite so much when it finally did happen.
The sounds of Vivaldi still filled the house and it only added fuel to her crying. Mason sighed turning her to look at him as the sound of the music died away. "Those tears are more than just the onion."
She shook her head trying to deny it as he reached up and wiped away the tears with his thumb.
"Maybe there was something to Otto's suspicions after all," Lola said from the kitchen doorway as Rhea quickly turned her back to her and wiped the tears away with the towel she had thrown over her shoulder.
"What suspicions are those?" Mason asked, still sounding jovial but Rhea could sense the tension building in him.
Rhea reached out and placed her hand on his arm in warning. "It's nothing to take seriously Mason," she insisted as she pulled her hand away at Lola's accusing look.
"No, please, I'm interested in hearing all about it, does it involve me?" he whispered as he looked comically from side to side, appearing to take entire thing as a joke.
"Otto thinks that you are, or have had an affair with Rhea, and that you're pressuring her to continue with it, even while you're here with your wife," Lola hissed, watching his reaction.
He took another bite of the apple, remaining silent while he watched Lola, sensing that she wasn't finished.
"I didn't believe a word of it until Rhea came up with that ridiculous story to try and cover-"
"That's enough Lola!" Rhea threw down her knife and turned to face her friend. "You said you knew me, if you truly do, you know that it wouldn't be true!"
"Well, what am I supposed to think? I enter the kitchen to find that he's all but holding you in his arms. It makes me believe that Otto is on to something. I'm worried about you Rhea, you seem to be upset more than usual and I can't figure out why!" Lola's voice had risen and the music had stopped completely but Rhea was oblivious to it.
"You've been in New York for the last two years, a lot has happened and there is a lot going on, but none of it has anything to do with Mason!" Rhea insisted.
"Wait, let's back-up," Mason interrupted, "what was the ridiculous story that she told you."
"It's not important!" Rhea insisted, as Eli, her mother, and Cassie suddenly appeared in the kitchen doorway.
"I think it is, especially if it led Otto and Lola here into thinking that you and I are having an affair."
Cassie snorted behind Eli at Mason's revelation and Lola looked at Rhea in response, her sudden doubt caused by Cassie's lack of concern evident.
There was a tense silence as Lola looked at her best friend, realizing she had put her foot in it big time.
"I'm waiting for this ridiculous story." Mason insisted. He wasn't going to drop the subject.
Lola swallowed hard, looking apologetically at Rhea. "Rhea said that she and Eli had had an affair, and that you were trying to help Eli get back in her good graces because she doesn't think it would work out between them. She also said that Eli had claimed to love her." Lola shot a look over at Rhea to see how she was taking it but Rhea didn't notice because she had closed her eyes in mortification.
"And, of course, you don't believe that," Mason suggested throwing his apple in the trashcan across the kitchen.
"Of course not," Lola said wearily.
"I'm sure this was all started because Otto was jealous," Mason said grimly, looking over Lola's shoulder at Eli. They two men exchanged a look that no one else in to room understood.
Lola sunk into a chair, her focus completely on Rhea who was pressed up against the counter, trying to make herself as small as possible.
Rhea refused to look anywhere but at her feet as she wondered what she had done to make her end up in this mortifying situation.
"Otto doesn't think of Rhea that way, he never has, they're like brother and sister, he's worried about her is all." Lola said softly.
"That's not what it sounds like," Mason insisted, shooting a concerned look at Rhea.
Lola shrugged. "Otto has always had a thing for me."
"He has, has he?"
Rhea straightened her shoulders and stood up, this was not the time to cower or cry, she should be pleased that the point she had try to make to Eli yesterday had just been proven. That no one would take their relationship seriously. "Yes, he has. Ever since we were kids. Everyone in town knows it," she confirmed.
"Now, if you all want to eat lunch anytime soon I need to finish cooking." She looked at Mason pleading with him to get everyone out.
Thankfully he took her hint and started towards the door to the hallway.
Rhea dared to let herself glance at the little group gathered there, Cassie was watching Mason carefully and her mother was looking from one to the other trying to figure out what was really going on, while Eli had absolutely no expression on his face. It reminded her of the way he would look at Victoria when she was screaming at him. Lola hadn't moved from her chair.
Unable to take the attention she turned her back to everyone and went back to chopping her vegetables. If she ignored them they would all have to leave eventually.
After a few minutes she heard Lola's voice, "Rhea, I'm so sorry."
"It's fine Lola, why don't you go find something to do and let everything calm down. It will eventually."
"You're not mad at me?"
"I should be, but no, I'm not. You were trying to protect me, I get that. It was coming from a good place. I just wish to God you would have done it a little bit more privately."
"We'll talk later?" she sounded desperate.
'Sure Lola, we'll talk later," she said, forcing her voice to remain even. She didn't breathe again until she heard Lola's footsteps die away.
*******
Eli had decided to take a walk, if he could take himself out back and beat himself he would. He had, once again, let his jealousy rule over his heart. Sunny had been upset last night and he had assumed it was because she had had a fight with her boyfriend, Otto.
But she hadn't.
She had actually tried to tell them the truth and they hadn't believed her, they had thought she was lying. Why on earth would they believe that she was having an affair with Mason over him? Why was it so hard for her, and others, to believe that he saw how truly beautiful she was?
Sure, Mason had more swagger and charm about him, and Eli had always done his best to present as a rough and rebellious rocker, but Sunny had always seen through that. She had always seen the real him.
His hands itched to be at a piano, it was how he worked through his troubled thoughts, but the music that he would play now would give too much away, and he felt the need to protect Sunny as best he could, even if it meant protecting her from himself.
The question was what would protect her most, telling the world the truth or keeping it all a secret?
He heard footsteps behind him and he looked over his shoulder to see Mason approaching him. There was an old stone wall that was on one side of the path that they were walking and he sat down heavily with Mason following his lead.
Eli rubbed his face and could feel the bristle from his whiskers. He hadn't felt like shaving that morning, he hadn't felt like doing anything but playing the piano.
"I wish I could say I know what you're going through, but I don't. Cassie chased me until she caught me. She was never afraid of the persona I had built around myself, she saw through it."
"Sunny sees the real me, she always has." Eli denied that part of Mason's statement but he couldn't deny the fact that she was afraid of his persona. "And I see the real her. I find it amazing that I know her better than her supposedly best friends do. How could they believe that someone as wonderful as her wouldn't interest me? That I wouldn't see that beauty and grab it and hold on to it?"
"But you didn't hold on to it, did you?"
"There were reasons..."
"What reasons?"
Eli stood, Mason had never known the details of his marriage to Victoria, he had known it wasn't a happy marriage but that was all. "Victoria decided to go after Sunny, she was going to say that we were having an affair and I had to let her go."
"Sure, I get that. But what about when she came back into your life, that night at the concert when you started to sing Sunny at every show in hopes that she would be there? Why didn't you look for her?"
"I did!" he started to pace. "I hired the best detectives, but nothing. She lives on an island, she doesn't exactly have a real address and everything, as far as I can figure out, is still in her parent's name. All I knew was that she was from Georgia."
"Couldn't you track her through Lola, she had won those tickets after all?"
"Are you kidding, she won them through a radio station, the news would be all over town if I tired to get her name that way."
"So, you were, and still are, just as afraid as she is, perhaps that is why you didn't look for her and why you are so willing to believe the worst? I chose to believe the worst in Cassie because it made it easier to deny the fear. The anger was better than the fear." Mason nodded. "You really did find her by accident this time?"
Eli nodded as he sat heavily on the wall again, had he been afraid back then, could he have looked harder, and why hadn't he? But more importantly, was he still afraid?
"Fate threw you another chance. Take it and run."
"How?"
"The truth, always the truth, and an interview."
"An interview?"
"Yep." Mason stood. "Now, I have to go convince my wife that I haven't been having an affair with Sunny all of these years." He grinned, as if it was something he was looking forward to.
"I hate to break it to you, but I don't think she believes it for a minute." Eli shook his head, unable to not smile at his friend's sudden glee.
"Then woe is me, she thinks I'm not able to catch any more women, I'll have to show her exactly how I would catch a woman."
"Good luck with that my friend, I find it amusing that you still think you stand a chance against that woman, and I'm insanely jealous that you have her in your life." How lucky would he be to have Sunny be that sure of him? But he realized that first he had to give her proof that she could be sure of him, and so far he hadn't done that very well.
Mason clapped him on his shoulder. "The truth my friend and a kiss."
"And an interview?" Eli didn't get it.
Mason started to whistle the song, 'Sunny', as he walked away and it was as if a light had come on, his friend was a genius! But first he had to grovel at Sunny's feet and hope she would forgive him once again. It was back to square one. A date. She had agreed and he would insist, even if she slapped him.