Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Mason
Lunch with his fiancée. Easy enough. Or so he’d thought.
But she wanted to talk wedding plans, just like his parents, and he’d been ducking his mother’s calls for the past few days, much to her annoyance. Wasn’t it the job of the bride and her family to plan the wedding? He thought he was just supposed to take care of the honeymoon.
Although, to be honest, he hadn’t started making any plans toward that, either.
“Okay, so a year out works for you?”
“Yeah, that should be good.”
“Or maybe we should make it a year and a half so we can have a spring wedding. Or a June wedding.” Yasmine dragged her teeth over one side of her lip as she stared down at her tablet, which she had open to a calendar.
“Does it matter?” Part of him wanted to get it over with faster, but another part of him wasn’t unhappy with the idea of pushing it off farther. Another symptom of the proverbial ‘cold feet.’ Making a major life change was always accompanied by resistance in one way or another.
Yasmine’s head jerked up, and she stared at him across the table. Shit. Maybe it did matter.
“I mean, whatever you want is fine with me,” he said hastily. “Are weddings supposed to happen at a certain time?”
“May and June are really popular for weddings, but that means it’s also when everything is the most expensive.
People like spring weddings. There are really beautiful things for fall weddings, too.
And winter weddings. I don’t think I would want to do a summer wedding past June, though, or a winter wedding, just because of the unpredictability of the weather.
Though if everything’s inside, the summer weather won’t matter as much. ”
“But the winter weather will?”
“Well, yes, because there can be icy conditions on the roads and things like that.” She tapped her finger against the table, then smiled at the server, who appeared with their food. “Thank you.”
The poor guy looked like he’d been hit by lightning and stammered out a hasty ‘enjoy your meal’ before backing away. He still sent a yearning glance Yasmine’s way over his shoulder as he turned to head to another table, though she didn’t appear to notice.
She really was stunningly gorgeous.
So, why wasn’t he attracted to her?
With tonight’s scene looming closer by the hour, he was doing his best to notice everything attractive about her, but… he might as well be trying to find Naomi attractive. Or Cassidy. Or Jennifer. All attractive women, and all women he’d never been attracted to.
The attraction would come. They just needed to work on it a little. And he needed to stop letting his brain distract him.
“Would you like a big wedding or a small wedding?” she asked, sliding her tablet to the side but not turning it off as she picked up her fork.
“Ah, small, I would think. Close friends and family.” Mason hadn’t ever really thought about it before, but a big production sounded awful.
Especially since this was an arranged marriage.
But the expression on Yasmine’s face, although she did her best to keep it neutral, shifted.
Shit. He was fucking this up again. That clearly wasn’t what she wanted.
“Did you want a big wedding? What if we do something in the middle, a medium-sized wedding?”
“So, like, a hundred to a hundred fifty people?”
“That’s medium sized?” The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them; that sounded like a big wedding to him.
He tried to remember how many people had been at his cousin Cyrus’ wedding because that had been huge, but he honestly had no idea how to gauge the crowd. He would have to ask Cyrus.
Yasmine pressed her lips together.
“Maybe we should come up with our guest lists of the people we want to be there, then we can see how many people that is. You should ask your parents if they have people they want to invite, too.”
If he let his parents have their say, they’d end up with three hundred people in attendance.
Maybe Yasmine had a point about a hundred to a hundred fifty being small.
“Maybe we could elope,” he suggested, and Yasmine’s lips immediately flattened in obvious displeasure. “That was a joke.” It had been. Sort of.
“I don’t think our mothers would ever forgive us,” she said, the edge of her mouth curling up in a smile, but the amusement didn’t reach her eyes. If anything, she looked exasperated with him right now.
He couldn’t blame her.
“What’s your favorite color?” she asked, apparently ready to move on from the guest lists for now. Mason made a mental note to make his list over the weekend, although he didn’t think it would be very long. His team. His parents. His cousins and aunts and uncles.
“Um. Grey?” He looked down at the shirt he was wearing. It was grey. Like most of his shirts. Did that make it his favorite color?
When he looked up again, Yasmine was staring at him in dismay.
“Your favorite color is grey?”
“I don’t think I have a favorite color. I like all colors.” He just didn’t like wearing very many colors. “Why?”
“Because we need to choose colors for the wedding.” She sighed when he stared at her blankly.
“That determines what the bridesmaids and groomsmen wear, the color of the table linens, the bouquets, that kind of thing. Although I guess we should decide if we’re doing fall or spring before we choose colors.
We can’t do a fall wedding with spring colors or vice versa. ”
“Right, that would be terrible,” Mason agreed, even though he had no idea what she was talking about. Yasmine narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m happy with whatever you choose.”
“I want us to choose this together, though,” she said plaintively. “I don’t want you shut out of the decisions about your own wedding. We should both have a say.”
Well, when she put it that way… Mason sighed inwardly. This was clearly important to her. He should make an effort.
“Right. Um, what about blue? Could that go with fall or spring?”
Immediately, Yasmine brightened. “Yes, depending on the shade.”
“Well, I like blue.”
Beaming, she switched to a notes app on her tablet to record his preference, and Mason felt a surge of relief. Finally, he’d done something right.
“What’s your favorite flower?”
Fuck. This was torture.
Somehow, he got through the meal, doing his best to give Yasmine some kind of answer for everything. But the further they got into the questions, the more he felt off-kilter.
He asked for the check and a box, and Yasmine frowned again as she noticed his mostly full plate.
“Was it bad?” she asked in a low voice, presumably so none of the workers would hear her.
“No, I just wasn’t very hungry. Plus, I want to make sure I still have room for the bakery.” The truth was, his stomach had started feeling queasy over the questions and had gotten worse with each one she’d asked. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to eat anything once they got to the bakery, either.
“Right.” She smiled again, but it looked forced. “So. Tonight. Is there anything specific I should wear? Or prepare for?”
“Ah, no. Wear whatever you want. I figured we’d start with basics and see how that goes.”
“That makes sense.”
Was she disappointed? Her expression hadn’t changed, but Mason was getting the sense he’d disappointed her. Again.
Shifting in his seat, he tried not to let his discomfort show. They were engaged. There were things they were going to have to work through. Everything had moved very quickly thanks to it being arranged. They were still getting to know each other.
That’s all.
The server came, and Mason paid for their meals, quickly boxing his up. His stomach still felt tight and uncomfortable. As did the rest of him. Getting to his feet, he rolled his head around, trying to loosen the muscles in his neck and shoulders.
Heading to the door, he was going to try to hold Yasmine’s hand, but she was walking too far ahead of him.
He settled for holding onto his leftovers, which at least gave him something to do with his hands as they left the restaurant.
Once they were outside, she had one gloved hand tucked into her pocket while the other held the strap of her shoulder bag where she’d stored her tablet.
It was too big for Mason to call it a purse.
“The day is turning out nice,” she said, turning her face up to the sky as they walked down the street. The House of Starrett, where they’d had lunch, wasn’t too far from Audrey’s bakery, thankfully. The air was nippy, but not so cold that they’d be miserable walking.
“It is,” he agreed, happy to have an easy answer. The tension in his stomach eased a little now that they were away from the restaurant and past all the wedding talk. “I think we’ve got a few good weekends left before it gets too cold to enjoy walking.”
“I can’t say I ever really enjoy walking, but I do like the nice weather,” she joked with a little smile.
“Oh, I love going for long walks on the weekends. Around the city, maybe doing some hiking on trails. I’ll probably be doing that tomorrow during the day, trying to get in the good weather before it’s gone. You could come with me—you might like walking better with someone.”
“Not really.” She shook her head. “I’ve done the group thing before; it doesn’t make a difference other than making me feel bad if I can’t keep up.
Besides, I have a yoga class tomorrow afternoon.
I was thinking about stopping by the bakery at some point, just to support Audrey on her grand opening day as well as today. ”
“Oh, me, too. The whole team is planning on going in the morning.”
“I was going to go after my class,” Yasmine replied hesitantly, and he got the sense she didn’t want to tell him no right after rejecting his invitation to go hiking, but that she also didn’t want to go in the morning.
“Okay, well, it’s probably good to spread it out some.
Keep her busy all day.” Mason smiled. Yasmine really was a thoughtful person.
He liked her. They were good together. If he made a list of everything he wanted in a life partner, she would check all the boxes.
That’s why he’d agreed to this arrangement in the first place.
Was it weird that physical chemistry hadn’t been one of his boxes?
Maybe. But in his defense, until he’d met Audrey, it hadn’t played that big a part in any of his relationships.
Though there had always been a little spark previously. More than he and Yasmine had. But those relationships had all come about naturally, not through his parents. It made sense that this one was different.
“What do you do on weekends once you can’t go hiking?” Yasmine asked as they turned onto the street for the bakery. Mason could see the pink-striped awning immediately, despite the distance. It was a good way of standing out from the buildings and other businesses around it.
“Hang out with friends, watch movies… sometimes I read. Or take a class. I do winter hikes too, when I start feeling too cooped up. What about you?”
“Friends, of course. And my yoga class. I also have a belly dance class that I’m starting soon. I prefer reading or listening to podcasts over television or movies. I usually like to do my podcasts or audiobooks while I’m doing something else, like cleaning or my laundry.”
“Ah, I can’t really do the audio stuff. It’s kind of in one ear, out the other.” Mason shrugged sheepishly. “I need something visual to hold my attention.”
They’d reached the bakery, and it was clear they were not the first ones to arrive.
The inside of the small space already had quite a few people milling around within it.
Mason pulled the door open for Yasmine to enter in front of him.
Despite stepping back in order to do so, he was immediately hit with a warm blast of air, scented with cinnamon, chocolate, and that soft smell that always came with anything freshly baked.
It smelled like Audrey. Or, he supposed, Audrey smelled like her bakery.
Either way, his body immediately reacted, interest perking up, blood humming in anticipation. He felt more awake, more aware.
None of it made sense, and it was driving him a little nuts that he was still reacting like this.
“Wow, that smells amazing,” Yasmine said, walking past him.
“It does.” Mason let out a long, slow breath as he followed her inside.
Pretty much the entire team was there. Ashley’s mom and stepdad were there, sitting with Lincoln at one of the tables, eating and watching Ashley as she moved around behind the counter.
Naomi, Drew, Cassidy, and David were at another.
The visual of Drew and David’s large, muscular frames seated on the delicate-looking chairs was highly amusing.
In line in front of the counter were Jennifer and Jensen, standing awkwardly beside each other as they picked out their treats. Mason wondered if Jensen had considered the fact that their head boss was also going to be here when he’d invited Jennifer to accompany him.
He would guess not by the way Jensen kept shooting little glances over at Lincoln to see if he was paying attention to the fact that their receptionist/office manager was there with one of his team members.
At least, Mason assumed that was what Jensen was worried about—it wasn’t like Lincoln had any room to talk when it came to age gaps in a relationship.
Behind Jennifer and Jensen was Claudia, her brother Manuel, and her brother’s best friend, Ian.
They were occasional regulars in the office, stopping by to visit Claudia.
Ian’s grandfather had been their client a few times, but it was really his relationship with Manuel that got him inside the office.
Manuel had a pass to see Claudia, and Ian could show up with him.
His attention came to rest on the redhead behind the counter.
Hair pulled back in a high ponytail with a navy and cream striped bow adorning it, Audrey was wearing either a navy dress or shirt to go with it, with a creamy apron atop it. Between the apron and the counter, Mason couldn’t tell whether it was just a top or a dress.
Her eyes were bright with excitement, and she was beaming at everyone and everything, happiness practically spilling out of her. There was just something about her that drew his attention, even though he was trying to focus on the woman who’d walked in with him.
As if his thought summoned her gaze, Audrey looked straight at him, and the moment their eyes met, his heart did a little triple beat in his chest.
Fuck.