When Life Throws Curves (Mason Brothers Book #3)

Chapter 35

DAMON

I take Eve’s hand and we walk up the stairs together. I close the bedroom door behind us as Eve sits on the bed and wipes her tears again.  “What’s going on? I thought you said it was happy tears and now you’re all in here crying.”

“I don’t know why I’m crying. Maybe it is happiness? Jesus, I didn’t expect the conversation I just had with her.”

“Okay…” I take a seat next to her and she takes my hand.

“She wants to be a Mason.”

“Wants to be? As far I am concerned she is. Pretty sure that goes for the rest of my family too.”

“That’s what I told her, but she wants to be one in name, not just in feeling.”

I didn’t expect that answer. “Whoa, she wants to change her name?”

Eve shrugged, “That’s what she said. I don’t know what to think. I’m worried that she’s just saying this out of jealousy or fear, maybe both.”

“Who would she be jealous of?” I’ll admit it, I didn’t really understand teenage girls. Lizzie and I bonded over food and cooking, beyond that, I had no idea what I was dealing with.

“She said that the baby would be a Mason and eventually we’ll probably get married and I’ll be a Mason, which means she’ll be the only one without the last name of Mason.”

“But you two don’t share a last name as it is.”

“I told her that,” Eve said, clearly exasperated. “But I get where she’s coming from. In this day and age, blended families are normal, but it isn’t one child having a different last name. I think she’s worried it would be this reminder to her that she’s not like everybody else.”

“That’s bullshit. I’m never going to treat her differently because she has a different last name and neither will anybody in my family.”

“Once again, I know this and you know this, but this is about the hormonal almost 15-year-old that is sitting downstairs. She’s gone through a lot of changes this year. I think this is a pretty normal reaction.”

“What did you tell her?”

“I told her that we could talk about it, but I guess I didn’t really know what to say either. She’s going to be an adult in the blink of an eye, I guess she could always change her name then.”

I cringe, “I’m guessing it didn’t do well to tell her she needed to wait.”

Eve shook her head, “She doesn’t understand why we can’t do it when the new baby is born.”

I run my hand through my hair, “So before we’re even married she wants to change her name?” Eve nodded. “But Eve, we haven’t even talked about marriage except it is something we’d both like to do in the future. She wants to change her name to my name and I’m not even her step-dad yet.”

“You may not technically be her stepdad, but how else would you refer to your relationship?”

“Um,” I pause to think, “I guess I haven’t thought about that. Everybody knows who Lizzie is, I don’t have to define our relationship when I talk about her. She’s just Lizzie. I love her, she knows that, right?”

“She knows that you love her, Damon. That’s probably why she’s taking this so hard.” Eve leans into me and I wrap my arms around her. “God, this is so confusing. They didn’t cover this in the parenting books.”