Page 56 of I Heart Mason Cartwright
He comes back out a brief time later with his own cup of coffee and sits next to me at the edge of the deck to watch the dog and the shoreline. The area of Bainbridge that I’m in has a small beach between the houses and the water. It’s mostly grasses, but a small strip of about twenty feet is sand. I like it. So does Princess Tinkerbell.
“Do you think I need a dock?” I ask Mason.
“Do you have a boat?”
“No. But I’m thinking that maybe I should get one. Most of my neighbors have boats.” I gesture to each side, up and down the sound.
“Do you know how to sail?”
“No, but I think I’d get one with a motor. Then you just steer it, right?”
“I think it’s a bit more difficult than that, but sure, go with that.” He chuckles.
“Maybe I’ll start with a kayak,” I say.
“Have you kayaked before?”
“No.”
“Have you done any water sport before?”
“Swimming. A little water skiing. Tubing.”
He nods and sips his coffee.
I like this companionable silence we’ve slipped into.
It’s comfortable.
Too comfortable.
Time to end it.
“Are we knocking down a wall today?” I ask, standing.
“We are. Better carb-load, keep your strength up.”
“Aye aye, Captain.”
I head inside to grab some leftover donuts from the fridge and almost run into AshLynn who is rubbing her eyes, blindly walking through the kitchen.
“Hey, there’s coffee if you want it,” I tell her.
She grunts at me in return then asks, “He leave?”
“If byheyou mean Mason, then no. He’s out on the deck.”
“Hmmph.” She fills a cup with coffee then adds a lot of sugar and creamer.
“You kicked him out last night?”
“He told you that?”
“Well, kind of. I mean, I caught him sleeping on the lounger outside. He didn’t really have a choice. He said you guys argued. I can stay scarce if you want to talk to him.”
“He knows where to find me if he wants to talk.”
“Okay, but if you’re the one who kicked him out, maybe you should make the first step toward apologizing.”
