Gabi had to squeeze her knees together at the sudden image, and she groaned as she felt her flush overtake her entire face. She was caught. How was it fair that she had a built-in lie detector? She could never hide anything. Especially from Kylie.
What she wouldn’t give to be swarthy and mysterious.
She cleared her throat. “It doesn’t matter whether or not I think he’s attractive,” she defended. “I’m not interested. If I never date another man again, I won’t care.”
“Gabs, doll,” Kylie soothed, “it’s been three years since the divorce.”
She held a hand up, knowing precisely where this was going. “And I’ll be single for the rest of my life if I can help it.” There was no way in hell she was going to find herself at the mercy of another man. Not after what Matt had put her through. She’d rather die.
Kylie pursed her lips but refrained from saying whatever else was on her mind. She was the one person in her life that knew all the terrible details, the one that helped her out when she saw no other way. “Just admit that you think Mason’s hot and I’ll drop it.”
Gabi laughed and threw a pillow at her friend. “Okay, yes, he’s hot. Those shoulders alone make my knees feel funny.”
“And those eyes.” Kylie sighed. “He really should be a model or an actor, not stuck behind a lathe all day long.”
“I don’t know,” Gabi mused. “There is something incredibly sexy about a man that works with his hands.” She didn’t add that she was imagining him shirtless.
“True.” She sighed. “Anyway, I’m glad he’s not famous, we can keep him as our little secret.”
Gabi laughed, grabbed the remote, and started the show again.
Mason
“Oh my God, he actually came,” his brother Seb said as their oldest brother Dom walked into the bar. Since he had gotten engaged a few months ago, it had been damn near impossible to talk him into going anywhere.
Mason waved him over to their table, and Dom smiled at them. It was good to see him so fucking happy, even if it meant he hardly saw him anymore. Of course, if he had a woman like Lula, he would probably smile nonstop too.
A quick image of Gabi’s irritated smile floated through his brain, but he brushed it away and greeted his brother with a manly one-arm hug.
“You look good,” Dom told Mason, sitting down, “but you look like shit, Seb.”
“Ha ha,” Seb said, taking a swig of beer. “At least I don’t look like a man with his balls in a vice.”
Mason laughed.
“Trust me,” Dom said, slinging his arm confidently over the chair next to him, “Lula’s vice is well worth the trouble.”
This drew a snicker from Seb.
“Anyway, Mace tells me you’re headed out for another tour, where you headed this time?”
Seb grinned, his very favorite thing to do was talk about his jazz career. He played tenor saxophone for a nationally famous band and was well known for his prodigious playing. “Fuck yeah, man, we’re headed to Europe for three months. Starting in London and ending in Amsterdam. Can you even imagine it?”
Mason shook his head. He could imagine all the women Seb would bed in those three months, and the number made his brain hurt. “I can, but I don’t want to,” he said dryly.
Dom chuckled and added, “Sounds amazing. Plus, I’ll be glad to have your annoying ass out of the country for an extended period of time.”
“Fuck off,” he retorted. “You’ll miss me and you know it.”
“Not really,” Mason interjected. “Well, maybe Sundays, but only because you’re the only one that can hold a conversation with Steve.”
Seb signaled to the waitress for another beer and shook his head. “If you two would get your heads out of your asses, you’d realize he’s not that bad of a guy.”
“He’s a Yankees fan,” Mason pointed out.
All three of them grimaced.
“I didn’t say he was perfect,” Seb continued. “And besides, he makes mom happy.”
It was true, their mother hadn’t been this happy since before their father’s death over twenty years ago. Dom and Mason had struggled to accept the new man in their mother’s life, but it seemed to bother Seb very little. Mason wished he could corral an iota of his brother’s chill.
Dom shifted in his seat uncomfortably. He had taken the whole thing the hardest. “But you’ll still be in town for the wedding, right?”
“Of course,” he said. “I leave the week after. I wouldn’t miss my brother getting shackled for the rest of his life. Also, Lu would kill me.”
Dom smiled with pride. “That’s my girl.”
Mason shook his head.
“What?” Dom asked, taking a drink of beer. “You know it wouldn’t hurt either one of you to settle down.”
Seb laughed and caught Mason’s eye in disbelief. Before meeting Lula, Dom had been Bachelor Number One. The mere mention of matrimony had made him green. It was a stark change from the man sitting in front of him.
Mason shivered. “I still can’t get used to you like this, and for the record, fuck that. I don’t need to be tied down for any reason. The business keeps me busy at all hours, and at the end of the day, all I really need is a good fuck.”
“Hear, hear!” Seb raised his second bottle of beer. “To freedom.”
Mason clicked his bottle against his brother’s while Dom shook his head with a knowing smile. “You won’t think I’m such a pussy when you meet the right woman.”
“Not true,” Seb fired back, “I will never not think you’re a pussy.”
Mason laughed. He couldn’t imagine committing voluntarily to one woman for the rest of his life. It was the definition of insanity. Take Gabi for example, while he desperately wanted to fuck her six ways from Sunday, he already knew she’d be too complicated. He didn’t want complicated.
He’d had one complicated relationship in his life, and thinking of the way he felt for that one long year of his college life made him want to run from relationships forever. Keep it simple. It was a mantra he had used from that moment on, and he had to admit, his life had been pretty fucking great since then.
“And how is the business?” Dom asked, settling back in his chair.
He couldn’t help but smile. AdamsMade was his baby, his heart and soul. “Good, man. Really good. We’re looking at expanding the facility again to keep up with demand, but I have to find the right guys before I can make that decision.”
“Still vetting every employee down to their underwear?” Seb asked.
“You better believe it,” he snapped back. “And I’d do more if I could. This is my livelihood, I can’t have just any jackass screwing with my designs or putting shoddy work out there. I have a reputation to uphold.”
“All right, all right,” Seb defended with one hand up as he signaled for yet another beer. “I get it.”
Dom just chuckled, but Mason caught a brief look of concern flash across his features at how fast Seb’s beer bottles were adding up. This had been a slowly growing problem for the last several months, and a sick feeling flitted quickly through Mason’s stomach as he realized there was going to have to be a confrontation soon that no one wanted to have.
Setting that aside, their conversation turned to baseball, something they could all agree on, and Mason was reminded once again how lucky he was to be close to his brothers.
When they stood up to leave a couple of hours later, Mason did his cursory glance around the bar for any suitable ladies he might like to take home. Seb was doing the same.
“I’m out,” Seb announced, having spotted a cute brunette with huge tits across the room. “See you guys next week.”
They laughed and watched as he won her over in less than three sentences. Seb tossed them a look as they left arm-in-arm.
“Jesus, the man works fast,” Dom said with a shake of his head. “Your turn, I guess?”
Mason looked around the room once more, there was no shortage of beautiful women in the bar th
is evening—it was why they always chose this place. But tonight, all he could think about was a tiny redhead in a green silk blouse. Surely he was going insane. “Uh, nah, I’m just going to head home, it’s been a long day.”
Dom’s eyes widened, but he didn’t push it. He loved that about Dom. Instead, they hugged, said goodnight, and left the bar with Gabi as his little secret.
Chapter 3
Gabi
“I love it,” Mrs. Finch gushed, red-painted fingernails punctuating all of her hand gestures. There were a lot of them.
Gabi let out a tiny breath of relief and she could feel Kylie sag beside her. They were standing in the old gutted Victorian, surrounded by drywall and plastic sheets. This was the first out of many design boards they had shown Mrs. Finch that she hadn’t outright dismissed. It felt like they had won the lottery.
“I’m so glad you like it,” Gabi said, trying to keep her voice from climbing an octave as it often did when she got excited.
“That table,” the woman breathed, pressing her hand to her heart as she gazed at the sketch of the dining room. “It is absolute perfection. Where are you having it made?”
“My friend Mason Adams over at AdamsMade is making it specifically for you,” Kylie piped.
“Really?” The tall, willowy woman eyed her designers. “I’ve not heard of AdamsMade. Are they local?”
“Yes, Mason was born and raised here,” Kylie answered.
“His furniture is to die for,” Gabi continued, ignoring Kylie’s knowing look. She needed Mrs. Finch to okay the design plan sometime before they died. And it wasn’t a lie. She wasn’t crazy about Mason, no matter how handsome he was, but his work was swoon-worthy.
“Yes, very up-and-coming,” Kylie interjected. “I heard he’s supplied bespoke tables for the new Madison Hotel down on the river.”
This seemed to please her enough that she very nearly almost smiled. “Well, the Madison is just so well done.” She pursed her lips. “Still, I would like to meet this man, see some more of his work before I sign off on a project this big.”
“Of course, Mrs. Finch,” Gabi said through a tight jaw. It took everything inside of her not to roll her eyes. Everything with this woman felt like one step forward and then a weird leap back.
“I’ll set up an appointment,” Kylie said, pulling out her phone. “When would work best for you? I’m sure Mason will clear his schedule.”
“Let’s say tomorrow morning at ten.”
“Perfect.” She dialed Mason and the two women waited while she made the plans.
Gabi tried her hardest not to listen for his voice on the other end, and then was subsequently disappointed when she couldn’t hear him. If she could have kicked herself without looking foolish, she would have.
“All set,” Kylie said cheerily as she ended the call. “He said he’ll have the entire showroom reserved just for us.”
“Heavens,” Mrs. Finch said, beyond pleased. “That sounds wonderful.”
“You will love Mason,” Kylie continued. “He’s not just a carpenter, he’s an artist.”
Gabi turned away so Mrs. Finch couldn’t see the eye roll she couldn’t control. Kylie was so much better at this than Gabi. Which was why they worked so well together. Gabi was the ideas girl, Kylie was the saleswoman. It was Kylie that had talked Mrs. Finch off the ledge at least a dozen times since they began this project. It was Kylie that knew how to flatter her into submission.
“Is that so?” Mrs. Finch said, touching at her carefully styled white-blonde hair. For a woman in her late fifties, she was admirably fashionable. Gabi could only hope to look half as elegant as this woman at any point in her life.
“Well, that makes tomorrow’s meeting a little more fun,” she said with a satisfied look in her eye. And with that, she swept past them and toward the front door. “Ladies, thank you. I’ll see you at ten sharp.”
“Yes, thank you, Mrs. Finch,” Gabi said and Kylie waved.
The very moment her driver pulled the car away from the house, the two girls collapsed in a heap on the floor.
“This project ...” Gabi sighed. She slipped her heels off and rubbed her sore feet. They had been walking through the house for the last three hours discussing lighting plans and furniture placement. “Is going to be the end of me.”
Kylie propped herself up against the wall and pulled her shoes off. She threw them into a pile with Gabi’s. “Nah,” she said. “If we survive this, we’ll be set for life with projects.”
“But surviving this is going to take every last one of my nerves. I don’t know how you do it. How you’re so pleasant with her all the time. She looks at me with her lips pursed together and I just feel my nails coming out.”
Kylie laughed. “You’ve never been good at the sales side, that’s why you have me. Besides, I think it’s easier for me because she isn’t attacking my work. For you, it’s personal.”
She supposed that made some sense. Closing her eyes, she rolled her neck from side to side.
“On the plus side, we get to see Mason in the flesh again tomorrow.”
The singsongy way Kylie said it made her groan aloud. She had just gotten over having Mr. Adams feature strongly in her fantasies. It had taken a whole week. Now more?
“Oh, come on,” Kylie said. “You want to see him again and you know it. Every woman does, just to make sure they weren’t imagining him.”
Fuck. Well, now she wanted to. She didn’t tell Kylie this.
Instead, she pulled herself up off the floor and held her hand out for her friend. “Come on, let’s go home. The Doctor is calling.”
“Mmm, speaking of hot men,” Kylie said with a smile and hopped up.
Mason
Mason walked around his showroom the next morning one more time just to make sure everything was perfect. It needed to be. He knew who Mrs. Finch was and he knew how loud her voice was in the community he was targeting with his designs. The second Kylie had said her name, he understood this was an important appointment for all of them.
Plus, he would get to see the pert little Gabriela Turner again. And that was enough to make the rest of his day. Week, maybe. He didn’t know exactly what it was, but something about the fact that she didn’t seem to want him strongly compelled his ego to change her mind. The challenge of it made him grin.
“Good morning, ladies,” he said to the two women when they arrived just before ten. He couldn’t keep the seductive curl out of his voice; he didn’t have that kind of strength. Not when faced with the cutest redhead he had ever seen. Today she was all done up in a fifties-style red and white polka-dot dress. She looked as if she just walked out of a post-war magazine ad.
An image of diving beneath that dress and showing her how quickly he could make her come made him grimace. This was a bad sign this early in the day.
“Good morning, Mason,” Kylie sang out, sweeping to him and landing a great big kiss on his cheek. “Thank you so much for doing this for us.”
“Anytime,” he said.
“Yes, thank you,” Gabi chimed in, but she wasn’t smiling. She didn’t even look mildly happy. Annoyed is how he would describe her, and fuck it if it didn’t make him want her more. He wanted to pull those crossed arms from her chest and kiss her until she giggled.
This was now his ultimate fantasy. He’d get there. Someday.
“I should be thanking you, ladies,” he said. “Mrs. Finch is a valuable person to have in your corner.”
“Which is why we are working our fingers to the bone for her,” Kylie answered. “Whatever she says goes.”
“And Lord does she say a lot,” Gabi mumbled.
It was so quiet he almost didn’t catch it, but it made him laugh out loud. Kylie slapped her arm and all three of them turned around like soldiers when the front door announced the arrival of said customer.
“Mrs. Finch,” Kylie cooed, rushing forth to greet her. “Good morning.”
“Good morning, Miss King, Miss Turner.” The elegant, cl
early wealthy woman looked his way. “And who is this?” she asked in a voice that signaled outright attraction. Her eyes shone playfully.
Mason grinned and stepped toward her. He wasn’t interested in being any kind of plaything for this woman, but he didn’t mind using his looks to make some sales. He took her hand and pressed a kiss to it. “Mrs. Finch, it is so lovely to finally meet you. I am Mason Adams.” He motioned toward Gabi and Kylie. “These ladies have been telling me all about your impeccable taste. I only hope my work lives up to your standards.”
“Well,” she breathed, eyes wide, smiling like a schoolgirl, “if that isn’t the loveliest thing I’ve ever heard.” She motioned around the showroom. “Please, show me around.”
“Of course,” he said, taking her arm. He sent a wink to Gabi, who was staring at him with her mouth open. She reddened in the most delightful way. Yet another thing he was going to have to explore when the time came. He was going to have to see just how red he could make her.
“Tell me all about you,” Mrs. Finch demanded, cozying closer to him than he would have liked. “Miss King tells me you’re from Chicago.”
“Born and raised,” he answered.
“I’ve always had a thing for strong, Midwestern men,” Mrs. Finch said coyly.
He thought he heard Kylie snicker and Gabi cover a snort, but he ignored it. Instead, he steered the elegant, if too-eager woman around the showroom discussing the attributes of each piece. She peppered him with questions about his life and he answered as well as he could while being constantly distracted by the redhead he left by the front desk.
Christ, she was delicious. Like a strawberry. He wanted to taste every last inch of her, wanted to make her come so hard she couldn’t say his name.
“Two brothers?” Mrs. Finch was asking, drawing him out of his fantasy. “Are they as handsome as you?”
“Actually, I’m the ugly one,” he said with a wink, and she laughed out loud.
“Mr. Adams, you are too much.”
“So I’ve been told,” he countered and led her back up to the front.
At Once Page 2
