Page 8 of Merrily Mine
Divorced. Living in Montana again. My neighbor.
Even so, he was… Mason. My brother’s childhood best friend. The man who wasgood.Who rescued kittens from trees and talked in soft voices to his horses. The man who never failed to make me smile growing up. Who would share his cookie with me—Hunter’s kid sister and all. Who put a bandaid on my cuts and scrapes I’d gotten when I’d followed them around.
My heart was racing.
I let my eyes drift down to his empty ring finger. The gold band he’d worn the last time I saw him at Hunter’s wedding was gone.
It’s in the past,he’d said.I’m over it.And yet, there was a darkness that seemed to cling to him, something behind those blue eyes that seemed to say the opposite.
Suddenly, I wanted to take that darkness away from him.
Maybe he was just as lonely as I was.
Maybe being home didn’t have to be so bad.
His eyes dipped from my eyes to my mouth, and then back up. What would it be like to have his mouth on mine? To have that beard scraping against my skin as his tongue gently pushed inside—not asking for permission, because Mason might have been a gentleman, but he would take what he wanted. And I’d give it to him gladly.
“Mason, I—” I swiped my tongue over my lips. Drank the rest of my drink in one gulp, as if it would give me the courage to say the words desperate to spring free. I…what?What was I about to say? About to do?
Something stupid like asking him to kiss me. God, maybe I’d had too much to drink. I definitely had, if I was thinking of something insane like that.
Turning my head, I looked at Hannah over my shoulder. She raised her eyebrow, the question obvious on her face. We’d always had an unspoken language between us, and I knew what she was asking.Do you need a rescue?I gave a small shake of my head. This was Mason. I was perfectly safe with him. No matter what I said, no matter what happened between us, I had no reason to doubt that.
“I should go,” Mason said, setting his empty glass down on the bar.
“What?” I turned back to look at him, a frown filling my face. “But I thought…” I’d thought we were having a good time.Fun.Wasn’t that what we were saying? “You don’t want to stay a little longer?”
He shook his head. “Have an early mornin’ at the barn. You know how it is. Especially with the weather the way it is.” Mason took off his hat, running his fingers through his hair before replacing it again. “You…” He cleared his throat. “You have a safe way home tonight, Em?” No more Emmie Girl, I guess. We were back to Em. Still, I liked how he was worried about me, that he wanted to make sure I’d be okay. The ten-year-old who had doodled his name on all of her notebooks was practically jumping for joy. I tried to remind that girl that we weren’t infatuated with this cowboy in front of us anymore—that at twenty-eight, we had moved on from the silly childhood crush, but it was hard.
Harder still, with the way he was looking at me with concern in those deep blue eyes.
I nodded. “Yeah. Hannah’s husband is going to pick us up.” That was why I’d taken an Uber to the bar earlier.
“Good.” He rubbed his hand over his beard.
I wondered what it would feel like on my skin. Between my thighs.
Down, girl,I scolded myself. Damn, I was being a horny bitch. Turns out all it took was one cowboy in a Stenson and Wrangler jeans for my body to come back to life.
“Night, Emily.”
“Goodnight, Mason,” I whispered, watching him walk out the door, hands shoved inside his jean pockets. He said something to his friend and then slipped outside.
Fuck it.I ordered another drink. Alcohol was needed, especially after I’d just been rejected. Somehow, he’d anticipated what I was going to ask and had taken off before I could ask it.Dammit.
Hannah frowned as I slid back into my seat at our table. “What just happened? You two looked like you were having a good time.”
“Thought we were.” I turned and looked at the door where he’d just disappeared outside. “Honestly, I have no idea, Han.” Propping my elbow on the table, I rested my head on my hand. “He just…” I shrugged, twirling my straw around my drink.
Was it crazy to think maybe I could have a bit offunover the next two weeks while I was home? Maybe. But it was even crazier that I’d actually thought about suggesting it to Mason. Of course he’d turn me down. Of course he didn’t want tokiss me.
I groaned. “Let’s never speak about this again.”
My head was pounding, and I was seriously questioning my last drink I’d had before we’d left the bar last night. I was getting too old for this. Letting out a groan, I buried my face into one of the soft, plush pillows that littered the living room couch.
Why did I drink so much?I rubbed my temples. The smart thing to do after being rejected by my much older brother’s childhood best friend would have been to go home and hide, to let the sting of embarrassment fade. I hadn’t done that. Somehow, I was even more mortified this morning.
Running my index finger over my lips, I thought about that moment when his eyes had found my mouth.Was I really going to ask him to kiss me?
