Chapter 24
24
MASON
“How’d you do?”
Beck had just finished reinstalling the new baseboard when I came back with more nails. “Good. But I swore Parker just got some. No idea where they went.”
Grabbing a water from the cooler, he looked around the room. “You’ve got me for an hour or so before I have to wrap up. Early shift tonight.”
I sat down on the cooler and tossed the bag of supplies next to it as Beck took a break.
“I’ve got this. Go do what you need to do.”
“I’m good.”
“Thanks, man. I appreciate you helping out.”
“And I appreciate the entertainment.”
“I assume you’re referring to Pia?”
“Jackpot.”
“Let’s get back to work,” I said.
“Not so fast. You’ve been tight-lipped since this morning.”
“With good reason.”
“Mace.”
“Beck.”
“Come on,” he said. “Kindergarten, buddy.”
Since Ranger training, I considered myself impervious to any kind of manipulation tactics, but there seemed to be an exception. His name was Beck Claymont, who refused to take a dime off his richer-than-Croesus father and was currently helping me renovate the inn for the cost of breakfast and board. What a winner.
“Fine. But you’re not getting details.”
“I know, I know. You’re not a kiss and tell guy. Gimme something.”
“We got together last night.”
“And this morning, from what I could tell. Well done on trashing your father’s old office.”
Unfortunately I’d thought of that only after the fact. But I didn’t think Dad would have minded. “He’d have loved Pia.”
“What’s not to love? The woman is smart. Beautiful. Only downside I can see is that she seems to think highly of you. I tried to talk her out of it but?—”
“Hey, asshole. That’s enough.”
“Kidding, obviously. I consider Pia a friend.”
“She said the same thing about you.”
“See? The woman also has good taste.” He made a face. “Usually.”
I swear Beck couldn’t be serious for three seconds if his life depended on it.
“So now what?”
“With Pia?”
Beck rolled his eyes. “No, with the baseboard. Of course with Pia.”
“I dunno. I’m making her dinner tonight. We definitely need to talk.”
“Good start. What are you going to say?”
I shrugged. “That I can’t get into anything serious. Not without knowing where I’ll land in a few weeks. I’m meeting with Paul Baker on Friday.”
“Still thinking of selling?”
Frowning, I tried to sort out my current thoughts aloud. “I have to at least hear his offer. I can’t imagine walking away from a pension, or Heritage Hill. With you guys here, and Esther?—”
“And Pia.”
“Right. And Pia.” Banking on the fact that Beck knew my father better than any of the guys, and the hope that he could manage a serious conversation, I asked the question I’d been wondering these past few days.
“What do you think Papa Bennett would tell me to do?”
Beck grabbed the bill of his hat, squeezing it. His tell. It meant he was unsure. Not surprising since it was a major life decision, and no one, including Beck, could tell me what Dad would say. It was a stupid question.
“Never mind,” I said, standing.
“Wait.” He circled his neck, another of Beck’s nervous habits. If there was a person alive with undiagnosed ADHD, it was Beck. “This might be a cop-out, but I don’t think he’d give you a straight response. He’d ask questions. Like… Mason.” Beck used his Papa Bennett voice. “What’s most important to you? Time? Money? Relationships? Quality of life? Decide that and the answer will come easier.”
That did sound remarkably like my father.
“You’re a piece of work.”
“I also think he’d remind you I’m unlikely to ever leave Cedar Falls, which is a major plus in the ‘stay here’ category.”
“You think so?”
“I know so.”
Smiling, I pulled a box of nails from the bag. “Thanks,” I said, effectively ending the conversation. “Oh, by the way, I saw your Aunt Ginny when I went into town. She mentioned your mom was on a girls trip in Aruba?”
“Sure,” he said. “Girls trip.”
“You don’t sound convinced.”
He sighed. “Last time I saw Dad was in late August, strolling down Shethar Street not even bothering to hide his new mistress. My guess is Mom found out, hence, girls trip.” He put the last phrase in quotes.
“You haven’t talked to her?”
“I did, just last week. But she didn’t say anything about a trip so…” He shrugged, like it was no big deal. But I knew otherwise.
“Hey there.”
My head whipped around to the entranceway. “Pia,” I said, stupidly. I could execute a perfect ambush, but one look at Pia and I was grasping for words like a raw recruit.
“Mason,” she said back as I belatedly realized her arms were full of bags.
“Let me grab those,” I said to Beck. “Be right back.”
“No problem. I’ll just be here working if you want to join me.”
Pia stifled a smile.
“Thanks,” she said as I grabbed her bags and brought them to the kitchen. I began to put the things away. “I’d help, but I don’t know where anything goes.”
“I got it. Thanks for grabbing these. I ended up having to go into town anyway but figured you’d gone already. I should have texted you.”
When Pia didn’t say anything, I shoved chicken into the fridge, closed it, and glanced back at her. She had an odd expression on her face.
“What’s up?”
“Nothing,” she said, her voice unnaturally high. Something was up.
“No?”
“Nope. It’s just… I did see you in town.”
I grabbed the box of angel hair pasta and put it away. “You did? Why didn’t you say anything?”
“You were…”
I couldn’t read her expression, but something was off. I stopped putting away the groceries.
“I was?”
“With someone.”
It took me a second to figure out what she meant. Beck’s aunt. She was his mother’s youngest sister and had Beck’s good looks. I tried not to smile. Pia was jealous. For some reason, that was hot to me.
Sidling up to her, amazed we were in a place that I could now touch her as I’d wanted to do from almost the moment we met, I reached around to the back of her neck.
“That was Beck’s aunt.” To drive the point home, I brought her face to mine and kissed her, hard. When her mouth opened for me, I immediately captured her tongue, promising her, without words, tonight would be more than dinner and a talk.
As quickly as the kiss began, it ended.
That felt like a good place to leave it.
“Dinner’s at six.”
I was certain Beck’s strange look when I left the kitchen and re-joined him was because of the way I grinned from ear to ear as if I were him, or Parker.
Just a few more hours, and I’d be with her again. Why did that suddenly feel like forever?