Page 11 of The Only Reason (The Trident Trilogy 2)

Chapter Six

Mason

San Diego, California

2020

When we get out of the car, Millie takes my hand and starts leading me toward the bar. I lag behind so I can watch her long blonde hair as it sways back and forth—giving me little peeks of the tanned skin her backless sundress exposes. She knows this is my favorite dress. It’s the one I want to rip off her the second she puts it on. The sheer-blue material cascades off her butt and flows all the way down her long legs. When she walks, it looks like gently rippling ocean waves. I’m thinking about how I’d like to be swimming in those waves when a jarring voice brings me out of my haze.

“Mason! So nice to see you!” Mariel laughs loudly as Millie and I walk to their table. “Chase, isn’t it so nice to see him again?”

Annie and Charlie are already there, lounging at the other end of the table. They’re laughing, too. Everyone is laughing except Chase, who has his head buried in his hands.

“Uh, what’s happening here?” Millie wags her finger suspiciously at them.

I share her suspicions. Since I moved to San Diego, Chase and his friends have slowly accepted me as Millie’s boyfriend, but they’ve never been this excited to see me.

“It’s just that Chase saw you an hour or so ago, and here you are again,” Mariel says, shoving Chase on the shoulder. Chase straightens up in his chair and shakes his head violently like he’s trying to get rid of everything inside of it.

“Wait. You saw Mason an hour ago?” Millie says. She hasn’t caught up with the conversation yet. I unfortunately think I have. Millie’s been trying to break Chase of his habit of showing up to her house unannounced. I’m guessing by the anguish on his face he finally learned his lesson about an hour ago.

“Chase. Are you going to tell her?” Mariel is staring at him with her perfectly honed I-told-you-this-was-going-to-happen face. Chase shakes his head, again.

I pull Millie back against me and wrap my arms around her—partially to try to shield her from what she’s about to hear, but mainly because I don’t want her to hurt Chase. “Babe,” I say quietly, “I think Chase might have walked into your backyard again. Unannounced. Where the shower is. An hour ago . . .”

I don’t even have to look at Millie’s face to know it’s tensed up as violently as her body has. “Oh my God! Chase! Did you see me showering?” She presses her body back against me. I wrap my arms a little tighter around her. “Please tell me that didn’t happen! Chase!”

Chase puts his face back in his hands—massaging his temples—as he lets out a groan that sounds like something you’d hear from an animal caught in a trap.

Mariel stops laughing just long enough to say, “Well he didn’t exactly see you showering . . .”

Charlie walks over and hands me what looks like a double shot of whiskey. I shoot it quickly.

Chase finally looks up. Through tightly clenched teeth, he says, “I came into the yard and heard a scream and . . . oh fuck. I can’t do this. I’m going to go gouge my eyes out.”

As Chase chugs the beer in front of him, Mariel says, “Mason. Chase saw your backside as you had Millie pressed up against the shower wall.”

“Oh my God,” Millie says, groaning. “Were we having sex? Chase! Seriously. I’ve told you to stop letting yourself into my yard.”

She breaks free of me and shoves Chase on the shoulder on her way over to the chair on the other side of Mariel. She’s glaring at him when he finally looks up at her.

“I will never go to your house again—even if I’m invited. I will never unsee what I saw today. The image of Mason’s butt is permanently burned into my retinas,” Chase says, rubbing his eyes vigorously.

Millie leans back in her chair, crossing her arms and shaking her head as she continues to glare at Chase. Mariel hands her a martini. She slams it and starts aggressively pulling the olives off the pick with her teeth.

“You know, to be real honest, I’d like to see Mason’s butt,” Annie says enthusiastically.

“Girl, cosign!” Mariel says as they exchange an air high-five across the table.

“C’mon, Mason. It will make Chase feel less awkward if you show all of us your butt,” Annie says.

“Annie, I’m sitting right here,” Charlie says, looking at her incredulously.

“I know, baby,” Annie says, patting her husband’s arm.

“Seriously, I don’t know what the big deal is,” Charlie says. “It’s not like you two aren’t all over each other all the time. Really, we’ve all seen way too much.”

“We’re not all over each other all the time,” Millie says as she whips her head around to Charlie.

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