by V. T. Do
Now it was my turn to blush. The fact that he remembered what role I played meant a lot. And he wanted to see the play opening night. I had to make this the best play he would ever see, no matter what.
“We would love for you guys to come see the play,” I said, almost shyly.
“Just tell me when and I’ll clear the date,” Mason said. I moved a little closer to him. I couldn’t help it. There was just something magnetic about Mason that made me want to move in close.
We didn’t say anything for a moment, and I like that I wasn’t the only one to feel the pull.
It wasn’t until Lizzie coughed that I realized we weren’t alone. I looked away quickly and sneaked in a glance at Max. He was looking at us like he couldn’t figure out what had just happened. I couldn’t either.
And I didn’t want Max to look too closely, because even though Mason was adamant that nothing like the other night should happen between us again, I still held hope that it would. And Max’s questioning would not help my case one bit.
I cleared my throat and looked to Lizzie, who looked like she was refraining from smiling. I looked away and that was when my attention was drawn to the two black suitcases and a duffle bag on the floor by the foot of the stairs.
“Hey, Max, are you going somewhere?” And I hated how my heart pinched at the thought. This wasn’t just a short trip, judging by the number of bags.
“Huh? Oh, that. No, that’s not mine. It’s Mason’s.”
“Mason’s?” I turned to the man in question and blue eyes connected with mine. I couldn’t decide what that look in his eyes meant.
“Yeah. His apartment flooded today. That’s why we’re both home so early. Almost everything is ruined. Can you believe Mason just spent thousands of dollars on new furniture and they didn’t even last him a year?”
“It’s all covered by insurance,” Mason’s answered gruffly.
“Yes, that’s lucky. Still inconvenient, though.”
“Where are you going to stay while they fix your apartment?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer. I didn’t think my heart could take the excitement.
Max came up to Mason and hooked his arms around the big man’s shoulders. “Here, of course. That’s okay with you, right, kiddo?”
“Yes, of course it’s okay with me.” And I was proud of how steady my voice was, when all I wanted to do was jump up and down with joy. I caught Lizzie eyes behind the men, and she shot me a smile and a thumbs up. I bit my lip to keep from smiling back.
“Can you believe Mason insisted on staying at a hotel while his apartment got fixed up when he could stay here for free?” Max rolled his eyes and messed with Mason’s hair playfully. “Idiot.”
Mason shrugged off Max’s arm and scowled. “When are you going to realize that I’m much bigger than you?”
“Aw, but you’ll always be my baby brother, no matter how tall you get. Now come here and give your big brother a kiss.”
Max puckered up and made a move toward Mason. Mason looked at Max in horror and was backing away.
I would have laughed over their interaction if I wasn’t drowning in hurt. Mason didn’t want to stay here, and I knew it was because of me. Heart, meet hammer.
If I listened carefully, I could almost hear my heart shattering into millions of tiny pieces. Lizzie would tell me not to be so overdramatic, but whatever.
I caught Max’s eyes and motioned upstairs to let him know I was going up to my room. He nodded with a smile and I turned away from them and their playful banter. Lizzie followed me. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” I gave her a what I was sure was a very unconvincing smile. “Nothing’s wrong. You’re staying for dinner, right?”
“Yeah. Thanks. And if you want to talk about it, I’ve been told on several occasions what a good listener I am.”
I smiled then, and it was a genuine smile. That was what we always said to each other when other one was feeling down and didn’t feel like talking. It served as a reminder to each other that we would always be there to listen, no matter what.
I nodded in acknowledgement, and we walked to my room. I threw my backpack on the floor and laid down on my bed, my feet hanging off the edge. Lizzie followed suit and we both looked up at the glow-in-the-dark stars on my ceiling.
There was still light out, so the stars were a little dim now. “If Max would have his way, I’m sure he would keep you as a little girl forever,” Lizzie said, pointing to the stars.
I smiled. “Yeah.”
I didn’t need the stars. I was perfectly capable of sleeping in the dark by myself. But I didn’t have the heart to tell him I didn’t need them. He was more excited about them than I had been. It was cute.
“Have you given Sam your answer?” I asked, because Lizzie hadn’t mentioned the TA from school since the cake shop.
I felt her hesitate before answering. “Yeah. I told him I would go on a date with him.” She paused and kept her eyes focused on the stars. “I really don’t think anything will come from it.”
“Are you sure that’s what you want to do? You don’t sound very excited.”
“I need to move on with my life, Olivia. Loving… him hurts too much.”
I leaned in closer to her and laid my head on her shoulder. “You never know. This could be a good thing. You might actually get something from this date that you would never expect. And it might even be the best thing to have happened to you.”
She laughed. “You’re too much of an optimist. It’s sickening. I think we should stop hanging out for a while.”
I nudged her shoulder. “Shut up. When you have to deal with the kind of shit I have to deal with, being optimistic is the only thing saving you from going insane.”
She was quiet for a while. Then, “Yeah. I know. So, you haven’t heard from your mom?”
“Not even a phone call to let me know she’s doing okay.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Not your fault.”
“I’m sorry it happened.”
“It is what it is.”
A knock came from my door and we both lifted our heads. Mason stood at the threshold, looking too beautiful for words, and I was still hurt, so I looked away.
“Hey,” Lizzie said, when I didn’t say anything.
“Hey. Max wanted to know what you girls wanted to do for dinner.”
Lizzie shrugged. “Anything is fine with me.” But then, as if sensing Mason wanted to talk with me alone, she got up. “Actually, I think I’ll talk to him about it. I’m sure he has something in mind.”
I sat up and watched her leave and debated about whether or not I should follow her. I was still avoiding Mason’s gaze.
“Can I come in?” he asked quietly.
I nodded. Then felt him take a seat beside me on the bed.
Calm down, my beating heart. He was just sitting. On my bed. With me on it. But that meant nothing. There was even a respectable distance between us. Almost the length of his two hands. And he had big hands.
I glanced down at his hand at the thought, which he had laid out casually between us. He really did have large hands. And long fingers. I shifted a little in my seat, just from imaging what he could do to me with those hands.
I was inexperienced, not naïve. At least, not naïve enough to not have dirty thoughts about him. Especially at night, while lying in this very bed…
Yeah, I wasn’t going to go there. Not now.
“What are you thinking about?” Mason asked, his lips tilting up in a small smirk.
“Nothing,” I answered slowly. I was sure my face gave me away. I was absolutely thinking about something.
Mason nodded. “Okay. We should talk about what happened downstairs, huh?”
Unable to meet his eyes anymore, I looked to the space past his shoulder. “What happened downstairs?”
Mason gently moved my chin until I was looking at him. He moved his thumb mindlessly back and forth on my jawline, and goosebumps rose across my skin
. How could he not know how much he affected me just from the simplest touch?
“When I insisted on staying at a hotel until my apartment got fixed, it’s because I didn’t want to stay in the same house as you.”
I pulled away from him with a scowl. “I know. You didn’t have to come up here and tell me again.”
I tried to leave, but Mason grabbed my hand before I could even take a step, and then he pulled me back down until I was sitting again—this time, closer to him. “Yes, but you don’t know the reason behind it.”
I crossed my arms. “Oh, I know the reason behind it. You don’t want to be near me. I get it.”
“Olivia. Do you honestly think I don’t want to be near you?”
Something about his voice gave me pause. I took in his eyes, but Mason was one of those men who knew how to keep their emotions in check. It was hard for me to tell what he was thinking.
“I don’t know,” I answered quietly.
“Sweetheart, how could you not see how much you have come to mean to me?”
I shrugged but couldn’t answer. Did I really mean something to him? Like I said before, Mason was hard man to read.
“I didn’t want to stay here because I knew how much harder it would be for me to stay away from you.”
My eyes widened in surprise, and Mason looked like he was refraining from smiling, though there was something somber about his eyes I didn’t want to think too much about.
“But things will work out. I just have to be the adult here and not do anything I know Max wouldn’t approve of.”
I frowned at that. It wasn’t what I wanted to hear. Not at all. He playfully tapped my nose with his index finger, smiled as if everything had been resolved, and stood. “Come on, let’s go and see what they have decided about the dinner situation.”
Mason held out his hand for me, and I took it without hesitation. His hand was warm and dry, and felt so good against mine, I wanted to hold on for as long as possible.
He pulled me out of the room, but let go when we got near the stairs that led straight to the kitchen. I missed his touch instantly.
Mason let me walk ahead of him. I took three steps down when I paused and looked back. Our eyes met and he smiled. I didn’t smile back. I let him see the determination in my eyes.
And when his smile slowly died on his lips, mine took hold. His eyes widened and he took a step up.
“Olivia…” The warning was clear in his voice. I flipped my hair over my shoulder, a gesture that I hoped portrayed how uncaring I was over his self-control.
I was going to annihilate every single roadblock he placed between us. I was going to show him what a losing battle he was trying so hard to fight.
I bared my teeth as my smile widened, and then I turned back around and walked down the stairs.
Max looked up from browsing over the takeout menus with Lizzie. His eyebrows pinched together in concern, but he didn’t say much. I hoped I hid my nerves well, because even though I had acted confident with Mason upstairs, my hands were trembling a bit from all the adrenaline rushing through me.
I had never been so forward with a guy. But then again, I had never wanted anyone as much as I did Mason.
“What are we having for dinner?” I asked.
“You feel like Chinese?” Max waved the paper menu of our favorite Chinese restaurant in the air, and I nodded.
“Ooh, can we get steamed pork dumplings? And chicken fried rice?”
Max laughed. “Yeah, we can get all of that. How about I call the place and Mason and I can go get it? You girls could get an early start on your homework while we wait for the food.”
Lizzie rolled her eyes beside Max. Lizzie wasn’t tall by any means. We were about the same height, so that meant she only stood to Max’s shoulder. But Lizzie was leaner than me. And I hadn’t realized how breakable she looked until she was standing next to him.
My heart pinched.
She was vulnerable to Max in every way possible. He could so easily break her. Did he know that? Did he know she loved him since the very first day they met?
Lizzie met my eyes and shot me a questioning look. I shook my head and looked away.
“He’s been trying to get me to do my homework since the moment I came downstairs.” She turned to Max. “I didn’t think you cared so much about my schoolwork.”
With the way her eyes lit up, she was obviously teasing him, but Max was serious when he answered her. “Of course, I care. I care more than just your schoolwork. I care about you, Lizzie.”
That wiped the smile from her face. She paused for a moment, before saying. “Thank you. But I’m fine, I promise.”
Now it was my turn to shoot her a questioning look, but she was avoiding my eyes. The stairs squeaked behind me, and Mason finally came down. I bit my lip to keep from smiling.
“Hey, I was starting to wonder where you were. I was about to send up a search party,” I joked.
Mason tugged my hair playfully, and I shot him a glare.
“Ha-ha,” he said drily. “As you can see, I made it downstairs just fine.”
“You got everything settled?” Max asked. Mason nodded. “Good. We’re having Chinese, tonight. You and I will go pick it up.”
It might have been my imagination, but I swore Mason looked relieved over the prospect of not being here with me. Unlike before, I knew the reason for his relief. I wasn’t hurt. My smile wanted to widen, and I had to bite my lip to keep my expression from showing too much.
Now it was Lizzie’s turn to frown at me.
I let out a sigh. It appeared we were both keeping something from each other. I walked over to her and grabbed her hand. “Come on, let’s go make Max happy and start on our homework.”
I caught Max’s grin when we passed him.
“But it’s barely the second week of school. I don’t have any homework,” Lizzie complained.
I groaned. “You’re so lucky. How come Dr Martin has already assigned a big project to my class?”
She shook her head. “I told you not to take biochemistry. This is all your fault, you know. We both could have had an easy first year. But no, you had to be an overachiever.”
I stuck my tongue out at her. This was the first year since middle school that we didn’t share a single class together.
When I looked back, both Max and Mason were watching us with amusement on their faces. I waved goodbye and they waved back as we made our way up the stairs and back to my room.
28
Olivia
After dinner, I watched Max watch Lizzie as she made her way to the front door to go home.
I don’t think he was aware of what he was doing, and I didn’t know what that look on his face meant, only that I had never seen him look at her like that.
When she closed the door softly behind her, I quickly moved away. I didn’t want Max to see me. I didn’t think he would want me to intrude on his moment, so I walked back to the kitchen, where Mason was cleaning up.
“Can I help?” I asked, standing next to him by the sink. I could see our reflection in the garden window just in front of us.
He handed me a soapy sponge. “How about you sponge the plate while I rinse?”
I nodded. I wet a plate in the water-filled sink, sponged it with soap and handed it to Mason, while he rinsed it off. We didn’t say anything while we did the dishes, but I did catch Mason’s eyes on me in the window’s reflection several times.
When I handed him the last of the plates, our fingers touched, and I swore I felt a zing of electricity all the way to my heart.
I sucked in a sharp breath and Mason avoided my gaze. I knew I wasn’t the only who felt it. Mason was attracted to me.
When our eyes met in the reflection once more, I was smiling. He quickly looked away, shut off the water and took three steps back.
“You should get ready for bed, Livie. You have school tomorrow, don’t you?”
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t have a bedtime, if that’s what you
’re getting at.”
His lips twitched. “I was sure Max told me you went to bed every night at ten. Isn’t that a bedtime?”
I looked away, my cheeks burning a little. Yes, I did go to bed at ten every night, but that wasn’t an “official” bedtime. I just liked my sleep. I looked at the clock on the microwave. It was only eight.
“It’s still early.” I didn’t want to leave Mason just yet. I wanted to be here with him for as long as possible. But I forgot we weren’t in this house alone, and Max walked in moments later with some documents in his hands.
“Hey, do you have a second? I want to get your opinion on something, legally speaking.”
Max looked expectantly at Mason, and I almost deflated on spot. So much for wanting Mason to myself tonight. When neither of us answered, Max frowned. “Oh, am I interrupting something?”
The question was innocent enough, but I didn’t know if Max thought something was going on between Mason and me.
Mason, for his part, didn’t even look bothered by the question. He shook his head and smiled. “No, we were just talking about bedtimes.”
I sent him a glare and he smiled at me, and yes, I could feel my anger dissipating. It was hard to be mad at Mason when he smiled like that.
Max grinned. “Oh, didn’t I tell you Olivia likes to go to bed early? She’s such an early riser.”
“I guess I’ll go get ready for bed. Night, Mason.”
“Goodnight, Livie.”
I walked over to Max and he place a chaste kiss on my forehead. “Night, Max.”
“Night, kiddo.” And I walked upstairs without another word. Disappointed didn’t even begin to cover how I felt.
A week passed, and we had gotten into a routine. In the morning, I would go to school and Mason and Max would leave for work. I was usually the first one home on the days I didn’t have work, and then Max would be home, and even more surprising, Mason would come home soon after that. I had dinner with all both of them for almost the entire week.
By Sunday, I could almost stop my heart from beating so erratically from the sight of Mason. Then he would do something like walk in a room with one of those fitted shirts of his, and all the self-control I had would evaporate within seconds.
