Page 26 of 40 and (Tired of) Faking It
She closed her eyes briefly, relief rushing through her, before following Erin and Scarlett’s lead to the restroom. Which happened to be past the far end of the bar.
Damn it.
Stiffening her spine, she kept her gaze glued to Erin’s back. Scarlett, their author friend who’d moved to town about a year ago, came up on her right side, between her and the bar. A glance behind her saw Claire bringing up the rear, a reassuring smile curving her mouth.
A few audible remarks about women moving in packs and group visits to bathrooms for suspicious purposes floated on the air, just loud enough for them to barely catch. Her skin tightened across her cheekbones, but she refused to glance Mason’s way.
They’d almost made it past when he stepped directly in front of her, bypassing Erin with the same grace he’d shown on the football field twenty years ago. “Lily.”
She gritted her teeth. “Excuse us, Mason.”
He jerked a chin toward her table. “See you’ve got a new boy toy.”
“You don’t want to do this, Mason,” Claire warned from behind her.
Pure amusement lit his dark gaze. “Do what?” That gaze settled back on Lily. “You can’t have fucked him yet. He doesn’t look disappointed.”
An audible gasp went up from her girlfriends. Lily simply stood, praying the mask she’d perfected as mayor held out a little bit longer. “Let us pass, please.”
Mason smirked down at her.
Scarlett, barely five feet tall but feisty nonetheless, seemed to have had enough. “Move it, dickwad.” She barreled forward, using her shoulder to jar Mason as she rounded him. A hard grasp on Lily’s wrist tugged her along.
The roaring in her ears blocked out whatever happened in their wake. The next thing she knew, they were through the restroom door and she was leaning against the wall.
“Dickwad?” Claire snickered.
Scarlett shrugged a shoulder, scanning her long blonde bangs with pink and blue stripes in the mirror as if she hadn’t a care in the world. “What can I say? I’m magic with words.”
The rest of them laughed when the woman winked at them.
“Get many dickwads in your romance novels?” Erin teased. “I thought you were writing heroes, not villains.”
“Mason is definitely in the villain category,” Scarlett said. “An incredible nuisance who deserves to be put in his place.”
“You certainly did that,” Lily said. “Thank you.” Her heart was still pounding.
Scarlett waved her thanks away as the other two women went into the stalls. Leaning her generous hips against the countertop, she eyed Lily knowingly. “Speaking of heroes, that JD…”
“So hot,” Claire called from her stall. “He looked hungrier for Lily than he did for my desserts the other day, and that’s saying something. The guy has a sweet tooth.”
Heat rushed to Lily’s cheeks, and she cursed her lifelong tendency to blush.
“Definitely hot,” agreed Erin over the sound of the toilet flushing.
“Y’all…”
Scarlett ignored her unspoken plea for mercy. “So has he kissed you yet?”
“No!” Lily rubbed at an ache beginning between her eyebrows. Weren’t they in here because of Mason? Not JD. “Jeez. We’re not a couple or anything. He’s a business associate.”
“He’s an eligible man, from what I’ve heard,” Scarlett pointed out. “That and attraction—which you two seem to have, based on the color of your cheeks—and an agreeable personality make him one of very few potentials in this town; you know that.”
Boy, did she know it. “He’s just visiting; he’s not here to stay.”
“Anything is possible,” Scarlett sing-songed as she headed over to the stall Erin vacated.
If only that were true. She knew what she was seeing in his eyes, reading in his body—especially on the dance floor—but she was afraid to believe it. Afraid of actual hope when it came to anything she couldn’t control. She didn’t dare.
