Chapter 18
18
MASON
Tonight, there would be no sidebar conversations.
No dancing.
As I walked into O’Malley’s, I summoned the discipline that had been instilled during my army days and steeled myself to have more self-control than I’d had at dinner. At any time, I could have moved away, but instead I toyed with trouble, punishing myself by testing boundaries.
Dad would love her .
How many times had that thought intruded this week as I’d watched Pia interact with guests or offer advice on the renovations? He would never know what a coup de grace it had been to hire her. Also for the hundredth time, I wondered what he’d say about my current predicament. Though Dad would love nothing more than for me to take over Heritage Hill, he also knew the reason why I became a cop in the first place. He’d agree that screwing up my pension was a bad idea. In the end, it probably didn’t matter since I was too stubborn to listen to my father, or anyone for that matter, when it came to advice in general.
There was just one person who could decide which direction my life should head, and his judgment was clouded by a five-foot-two-inch, dark-haired bombshell who was currently holding court at the bar. She and her sister sat side by side, Parker next to them, Beck showing off his drink-making skills, and a guy I didn’t recognize standing way too fucking close to Pia.
I angled my way between Pia and the stranger. Since there were no empty bar stools, I stood beside her at the bar.
“Just tryin’ to get a beer, man,” the guy said, now behind me.
That might be so, but he’d been too close. Even I could see all the way across the room the way he leered at her.
“Whatdya need?” I asked him.
“Yuengling.”
“Beck,” I called to my friend. “Yuengling bottle and my usual.”
Pia watched as I handed the guy a drink so he’d bug off.
“Who was that?” she asked.
“No idea. Tourist.”
“You say that as if it’s a bad thing.” She twisted her bar stool to face me. “You do realize your entire business is centered around tourists?”
I shrugged. Tourists were fine. Ones that looked like that and stood too close to Pia were another story entirely. But I couldn’t say that, so instead I sipped my beer and watched Beck try to impress Sophia. The guy really was a piece of work.
“Why so grumpy all of a sudden?”
Again, we were way too close. If I took one more step toward her, I’d basically be sitting on Pia’s lap.
“I’m not grumpy.”
“You kind of are.”
“I don’t mean to be.”
“What’s wrong?”
A loaded question if I ever heard one.
“Nothing’s wrong.”
She looked at me so expectantly, as if I was supposed to change my mind and tell her more. To be fair, something was wrong. But there was no fucking way I could admit that to her.
“Mason?”
“Pia?”
“I think we should talk about this.”
“About what?”
She gave me a look that called bullshit on me pretending I had no clue what was going on. Parker and Sophia laughed at something Beck said. Music blared. People carried on their conversations all around us.
But for me, at this moment, there was only Pia looking up at me, waiting. She’d fired the first shot and it was up to me to respond.
“You know exactly what.”
I took a deep breath and tried not to stare at Pia’s lips as we talked. A storm brewed in her eyes. Not just a storm, a hurricane that was about to be unleashed. Pia had gone from timid to fiery so quickly that I almost smiled.
So my little Pia had a temper, did she?
Discipline, Mason .
On the other hand, taunting wasn’t flirting. I just couldn’t let this one go.
“Do I? Let me think. Is it about the paint color in the reception room? It’s only a shade darker than the original one but they didn’t have?—”
“No.” Her eyes narrowed. “I’m not talking about the paint color.”
“Oh. I see.” Pretending to think about it more, I took a sip of beer and caught Parker’s eye. He seemed amused, and I was fairly certain I knew the cause. “Is it about Esther’s raise?”
“Mason.” Her tone was sharper than usual. I really should stop.
“No? I know. The couple from Maryland. I took care of his refund already, but he did say you spoke to him as well.”
She was ready to kill me.
Teasing her might not have been crossing the line, but what I was about to say definitely was. Leaning toward her, resisting the urge to tuck errant strands of Pia’s hair behind her ears to be sure she could hear me above the noise, I whispered to her.
“Are we talking about the intense chemistry between us that had me wanting to toss you on my bed this morning, not giving a fuck if I was your boss?”
I stood back and didn’t need to wait very long for her reaction. The storm had passed. In its wake, a completely shocked and very turned-on Pia stared at me.
“What are you two talking about over there?” Sophia asked at the very worst possible time. As much as I wanted to ignore her, and the guys, and everyone who wasn’t Pia, I’d probably done enough damage for one night. Moving closer to the bar, and farther away from Pia, I raised my glass.
“Caught,” I said, diverting attention away from Pia’s still very-surprised expression. “We were talking about you.”
“And how I am the favorite daughter?”
“You have that in common. Parker thinks he’s the favorite son.”
“Because I am,” Parker said.
Having successfully diverted attention away from Pia’s and my very private discussion, the sidebar conversation I’d not planned to have, I went back to being an observer. If I’d had this little discipline with my unit, I would have ended up dead or putting somebody in danger.
You are in danger, buddy. Big time .
Two drinks later, when a stool opened up next to Sophia, I took it, having managed not to engage with Pia after I blew my plan to hell with that comment.
“You are as broody as my sister said you were.”
“And you’re as outspoken,” I shot back.
“Pia said I was outspoken?” Sophia pouted more than her sister but had a lot of similar mannerisms.
“Nah, just a good guess.”
“I’ll choose not to be insulted because it’s true.”
“Good, because it wasn’t meant as an insult. One of the best women I ever knew was as outspoken as they come.”
“Who’s that?”
Already regretting having said it, not wanting questions, I had no choice but to answer. “My mother.”
“Pia told me she died when you were young?”
“Eleven,” I said. “Breast cancer.”
And now Dad was gone too.
“I’m so sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry for,” I said as Beck came over to us. “That’s life.”
“You two are much too somber,” he said, putting shot glasses in front of us, then Parker and Pia. After filling four of them, plus one for himself, Beck raised his own into the air. “To outspoken women everywhere, may they never be silenced.”
I caught Sophia’s surprised expression just before downing the shot. Whether she was surprised he overheard us—Beck was actually a good listener, especially behind the bar—or his sentiment, I couldn’t be sure.
“What was that all about?” Parker asked from my right.
When I looked over at him, I noticed Pia was gone. Turning around in my seat, I scanned the bar. Nothing.
“Bathroom,” Parker said.
I ignored that as if I hadn’t been looking for her. “Beck overheard Sophia and me talking.”
“Ahh, seems like he’s moved onto another conversation.”
Across the bar, Beck’s elbows rested on the bar as he listened to something two women were saying. Tourists, most likely, since I’d never seen them before. The dirty blonde was Beck’s type, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up with her tonight.
She was coming back.
I should have continued to give my attention to Sophia. Or Beck or Parker. Instead, I watched Pia make her way through the crowd back to the bar. I watched the looks she got from men, and even women. I watched as her attention turned directly onto me, and Pia’s entire body language changed. Before, she’d been relaxed, but now she was on high alert.
By the time she sat, Pia was wound as tightly as me.
Something had to give. There was no fucking way I could sit here like this and pretend I didn’t want to spend the night learning how Pia liked to be kissed, to be touched.
Fuck.
I stood up, tossed some bills on the bar and said, “Parker, you’ll see the ladies back?”
All three of them looked at me with the same “What the hell?” expression. Didn’t matter. I’d done enough damage for one night.
“Sure.”
“Calling it a night,” I said to all three. “Catch you tomorrow.”
Some might call me a coward for hightailing it out of there. I preferred to think of it as self-preservation. As I made my way down the street and beyond the town square downhill toward the lake, my mind began to clear. There was a simple fix to my Pia problem. I just couldn’t be trusted to be with her socially. No more drinking or dinners or O’Malley’s. Work and that was it.
And certainly no more inviting her to stay down the hall from me.
Before they got back, I took a quick shower, considered rubbing one off after hours of an on-again-off-again hard-on, but decided to hit the sack instead. They could come back from the bar anytime, and if I saw Pia tonight, I was pretty certain all of my platitudes about what would or wouldn’t happen between us would crumble to pieces.
All went well, no Pia in the hallway. Her bedroom door, empty. Until ten minutes later, courtesy of me being wide awake, I noticed my phone light up. Grabbing it, I stared at the text from Pia, trying to decide if I should text her back or pretend I was already asleep.
Can we talk?
Three little words, but so fucking dangerous given the fact that she would be sleeping down the hall from me.
I couldn’t leave her hanging.
Sure. Where are you?
Right outside your door.