Page 50 of Bourbon & Bonfires

Turning to leave, I make it only two steps before the door opens. I spin around to find Mason at the door rubbing his eyes. I take in his just-woke-up appearance and am grateful he wasn’t ignoring me for the last few hours.

“What time is it?”

“Almost noon. I wanted to be there by now.”

“Sorry, man. I fell asleep with my headphones on. They’re noise cancelling.”

“It’s fine, but I’d like to get this done and back at a decent hour. We both have to be up early tomorrow.”

Mason nods and turns back to the room. “I’ll be five minutes. Let me change.”

“Shower first. I’ll heat up a few slices of pizza so you can eat on the way.”

Yawning, Mason nods again and walks toward the bathroom. How can he possibly be yawning? He slept like twelve hours. Fucking kids. While he’s showering, I do as I said and heat him up some pizza and grab a few waters from the refrigerator.

By the time he joins me, he appears to be more awake and talkative. Last night we watched two movies he insisted I needed to see. I wasn’t sure I’d agree when he first told me about them, but in the end, he was right. A take on 007 with a lot more humor and younger characters was fun to watch. I’m still not quite sure how I feel about seeing one of my top five hall pass actresses making hamburger meat out of dudes in a meat grinder, but whatever.

“Your mom called last night after you went to bed.”

“Uh uh.”

“She’s staying tonight too. Something about Scarlett’s blood pressure. She wanted to stay with her. She’ll be home late tomorrow night. I told her you could stay at my house again tonight, and we’d hang out at your house tomorrow after work. Sound okay?”

“Sure. Is Uncle Tay coming home?”

“I don’t think so. I guess things are little more complicated than anyone thought. He’s going to stay and help Scarlett with their house and stuff.”

Not much else is said between the two of us as we drive to the outskirts of town where Spencer’s house is. Sitting on about seven acres, he’s also Ben and Piper’s neighbor. Unlike my friends, Spencer opted to tear down the original home on his property and build a modern and rather large house. The home sits just beyond a large wrought iron gate.

I slow as I approach the key pad to the gate. “Mason, will you read me the numbers written on the paper sitting on the dash?”

“Nine-Five-Six-Eight hashtag.”

“Pound.”

“Pound what?”

“It’s the pound sign not a hashtag. Long before that symbol was a hashtag, it was known not only as the pound sign but also number sign.”

Mason snorts in response and I want to smack him in the back of the head. Is that a parenting thing? I’ve seen Addison do it to him more than once, and I must admit, right now, it seems like an excellent idea.

I punch in the gate code he read to me and the gate clanks open. Spencer told me the gate is on sensors to close within a minute of the code being entered unless he overrides it. Since I’m using a trailer, he extended the length of time before it closes so there were no issues. I watch in my rearview mirror to make sure it closes as we continue down the long drive.

When I pull up to the house, I hear Mason whistle. “Dang!”

“Right? It’s pretty amazing.”

The house is less of a house and more of a mini-mansion. Like something you’d see on a home improvement design show, this is most definitely the “after” version. The gravel road blends into a large circular driveway. A patch of grass with a water feature sits in the middle. I pull up so I’m in front of one of the three large garages and put the car in park. The trailer I’m pulling is lined up with the front door.

“Since I’m afraid the awe on your face may remain for the rest of the day if you don’t see the entire place, let me show you around before we get started.”

Like some weird zombie, Mason follows me up to the front door as I pull the set of Spencer’s keys from my pocket. I step aside to let Mason enter before me and can practically hear his mind running a mile a minute. I get it, I did the same thing the first time I came here.

I show him quickly around the main part of the house, motioning toward the large staircase, and down a hall but as we walk into the large den with floor-to-ceiling windows, I hear a gasp. I laugh to myself as I watch Mason walk up to the windows and flip his head back from me to the backyard.

“I know. Spence didn’t hold back with this place. It’s pretty phenomenal. Come on, I’ll show you the back before we get to work.” Opening the french doors off the kitchen, I motion for Mason to follow me as I step out onto the patio. We walk around the pool to another gate before stepping out to the part of the property I knew he’d flip over.

“Holy shit.”

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