5. Mason
5
MASON
As I wash dishes in the kitchen sink, something catches my attention. There’s a window just above the dish rack, letting the light spill into the generously sized kitchen area, and something beyond the glass has drawn my gaze.
I dry off my hands and peer outside. Sure enough, there is someone—several someones, actually—heading toward the cabin. That new neighbor woman, along with her daughter. She grins and waves when she sees me looking through the window, and I raise my hand in greeting, going to the door to intercept her.
“Hey!” she calls to me as she and her daughter make their way toward the cabin. “I’m Vanessa, and this is Callie—we met the other day. We were just passing by this way, and I thought I would stop in. Make myself a proper introduction…”
She reaches the doorstep, the smile not moving from her face. I study her for a moment as I give her my name and shake her hand on autopilot; given how much the guys have been talking about her, it feels like she’s been conjured out of thin air.
Opinion seems mixed on her. Well, about whether she’s responsible, anyway. Jake is still pissed as hell about what happened the other day, and no matter how much Killian argues that she’s hot enough to overlook the drama, he just won’t let it go. I’ve had to step in between the two of them a few times now, just to stop things from blowing up. I can tell when my brothers are not going to let something go, and Killian, being the kind of guy he is, just can’t let it drop when he finds something that really gets under Jake’s skin.
As for me, I don’t know what I think of her. At least, not yet. Jake’s got a point—she’s old enough to know better about being responsible with her cooking, even if she is ten years younger than us. But Killian’s not wrong about the fact that she’s hot—even standing before me now, in a simple tee and a pair of jeans, she’s sexy as all hell. Her hair falls in waves around her face, and her soft, curvy body looks good enough to eat.
“Can I come in?” she asks, glancing past me. I frown. I don’t know about that. My brothers are out right now, responding to a call in another part of the forest—nothing too serious, just a couple of hikers who got lost and needed help to get back to the road. I was in the middle of finishing lunch, so they left me behind to clear up around the cabin and check that our equipment is in good working order.
But before I can answer, she flashes me another smile and steps inside, her daughter right behind her. I can’t help but chuckle. I’m pretty sure I never said yes, but something tells me she’s not the kind of woman who gives much of a damn about that.
“Mason, this place is amazing!” she says as she looks around. Yeah, I’m not going to lie—by this point, we’ve gotten the place looking pretty good. We preserved as much of the original cabin as we could, but we’ve installed everything that keeps this place running as an emergency response station too. Glossy black screens look out from among the polished wood, and the dark red carpet on the floor matches the flashing light of our walkie-talkies where they’re charging on the wall.
“Thanks,” I reply, nodding. “You guys…new to the area, right?”
“Right,” she replies, waving her hand back in the direction of her cabin. “We just got here last week. Still getting settled in, but we’re loving it, right, Callie?”
The little girl, who has slipped her hand into her mother’s, nods. She looks up at me with nervousness, and I soften at once. Vanessa just wants to get to know the people she’s going to be living next to for the forseeable future, and I’m not going to turn her down.
“You want a coffee? I was just going to make a pot for when Jake and Killian get back,” I offer, gesturing over to the kitchen.
“Oh, I would love that,” she sighs. “I’m living off instant coffee and it’s just not the same as you would get back in the city…”
I go to fill up the pot, and she settles down at the breakfast bar, helping her daughter up onto the stool in the process.
“So what is it your brothers are doing?” she asks me curiously, tipping her head to the side as I push a cup of coffee toward her.
“Right now? Responding to a call from some lost hikers.”
I don’t know why, but I find myself cautious when I’m answering—as though the wrong thing will expose something I don’t want to be known. I’m sure I’m being paranoid, but there’s something about the way she looks at me that tells me she’s sharper than she might present herself to be.
“Oh, okay,” she replies, taking a long sip of the coffee. She closes her eyes and lets out a sigh of pleasure.
“That’s so good,” she murmurs as I pour a cup of juice and place it down in front of Callie. I don’t like the thought of her being left out.
“Yeah, I’ve got it down to a science,” I reply, grabbing my own cup. “What about you?”
Her eyes widen for the briefest moment, as though I’ve struck a nerve.
“What about me?”
“What are you doing out and about? Just exploring?”
She calms at once.
“Yeah, that’s exactly it,” she replies, ruffling her daughter’s hair. “She wanted to see a little more of the forest. You’re still getting used to it out here, aren’t you, pumpkin?”
Callie nods again, and taps the side of the glass. “Thank you for the juice,” she tells me, and I can’t help but grin.
“You’re very welcome.”
“Good girl,” Vanessa whispers to her, giving her hand a little squeeze before she turns back to me.
“So you didn’t go with them? Not the kind of call you all have to go out on?”
I shake my head, still cautious. “No, it’s under control. I trust them to deal with it.”
“But if it was something more serious, you’d be with them, right?”
“Right.”
“When was the last time you were all out together? What happened?—”
But before she can press any further, I hear voices approaching the cabin and, looking up, see my brothers approaching through the window. I’m grateful for the break in her questioning—I get that she’s interested, but there’s something about the way she’s going about it that has me a little worried. Could just be paranoia on my part, but she seems pretty damn direct for someone who’s just making a friendly visit.
I don’t let the thought linger, going to open the door just as Killian and Jake arrive.
“We’ve got company,” I tell them, tossing my finger over my shoulder in the direction of Vanessa and Callie. I don’t know why I feel the need to tell them—not like they wouldn’t have guessed as soon as they saw her, anyway—but I guess I just want to give them a heads-up before they’re hit with the presence of the woman who’s been causing so much tension between us all this time.
Jake’s eyes dart over to her, and I can tell at a glance he’s irritated. He grits his teeth, but before he can say anything, Killian strides past me, a wide grin crossing his face as he approaches them.
“Callie, Vanessa, it’s so good to see you again,” he greets them warmly. Again? What is he talking about…?
“Yeah, you too, Killian,” she replies, and I can sense a tension between them at once. My eyes dart to Jake, and I can tell he has clocked the same thing too. I’m not sure what’s going on between them, but I’m not sure I want to find out.
Or maybe I’d be too jealous for my own good if I did.
“I’m actually really glad the three of you are all here,” she continues, rising to her feet and looking past me to smile at Jake. “I wanted to invite you around for dinner this week.”
I stare at her. This is what she came for? I’m not entirely certain I buy it, and I can tell without looking that Jake is on my side with this too.
“We’d love to.” Killian replies before either of us have a chance to so much as consider what’s going on here. My lips part in protest, but Jake nudges me, as though telling me to keep my mouth shut. He hates seeming like an asshole, no matter how much he might not like someone. I know he’s still pissed at himself for going so hard on her when we made that visit to her cabin before.
“Oh, that’s amazing,” she gushes. “I was so embarassed about what happened the other day, and I know you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression, but—I thought I would try. I want to cook for you, whenever works for you. Just let me know.”
“I don’t think we have anything specific planned tomorrow evening, do we?” Killian remarks, looking back at the two of us as though daring us to argue with him on this. The big, shit-eating grin he has on his face tells me exactly where his head is at. He’s just enjoying pissing off our oldest brother, and if he gets to hang out with a hot woman in the process, then there’s no way he’s going to turn that down.
“I guess not,” I reply, my voice dropping slightly. We can’t let him think that he can just get away with acting like this; he can’t think we’re going to just brush it off as though it’s nothing. Yes, we might not be planning anything now, but we need to be on-call all night in case something happens. If we’re distracted and allow something bad to happen to this place as a result…
“Awesome,” Vanessa replies, clapping her hands together. “Around six, then? I know it’s early, but this little one needs to get to bed at a reasonable time…”
She puts her arm around Callie, who leans into her happily.
“Yeah, sounds perfect,” Killian replies. “We’ll see you then.”
“You sure will,” she agrees as she throws back the last of her coffee and then heads for the door. “I’ll catch you later. Thanks for the coffee, Mason!”
And with that, she brushes past the three of us, leaving the faint scent of vanilla and coconut hanging in the air behind her. My brothers and I exchange looks, and I can tell that whatever we’re about to do tomorrow night is going to cause all kinds of consternation between us.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Jake hisses at Killian as soon as the door swings shut behind our surprise guests. Killian shrugs, as though it should be obvious.
“She invited us to dinner. It would have been rude to turn her down. We should get to know our neighbors, if we’re going to be seeing this much of each other over the course of the summer…”
“Oh, yeah, about that,” I cut in. “What did she mean about seeing you again? She didn’t say that to me when she arrived…”
Killian raises his eyebrows slightly. He knows he’s been caught, and he’s not exactly ready for it.
“We ran into each other while I was out on patrol, a couple of days ago.”
“And you didn’t say anything about it why?” Jake demands, rounding on him.
“Because you were getting pissed off whenever I mentioned her,” he replies, playing at innocent. “And because there was nothing to tell. We just chatted a little when we ran into each other, and that was it.”
There’s something to his voice that tells me he’s not being entirely honest, but I can’t help but wonder if that’s just me overthinking because I want something to happen between us. I have no idea, but I’m starting to feel as though I might be trying to contain something when it comes to Vanessa that I don’t want to contain.
“Chatted.” Jake snorts, his tone derisive. “Yeah. Sure. Like you’ve ever just chatted with a woman who looks like that.”
“What’s the problem, Jake?” Killian replies. “You jealous?”
“Not jealous,” he fires back, a little too quickly. “Just pissed that you’ve agreed to take us out of work for a night so you can play like you’re back in the city.”
“We won’t be off duty,” Killian assures him. “I’ll bring our scanners with us. If anything happens, then we’re going to be the first to know about it, okay?”
“Fine,” Jake mutters back.
“So there’s no reason to be pissed about any of this,” Killian remarks. “We’re just going to dinner. That’s all. Nothing more to it.”
“Nothing more to it,” Jake repeats, and with that, he turns his back on us to stalk toward the showers. I can already tell this isn’t going to be the last of the shit we get from him, but Killian is clearly looking forward to getting his hands on that woman again too much to care.
“I’m going to clear up,” I say, gesturing to the coffee cups still laid out on the counter where Vanessa and I had been sitting.
“Seems like the two of you got on fine when you were here alone,” Killian remarks. Maybe he’s the one who’s jealous, and he’s just projecting onto Jake.
“She wasn’t here for long before you got back, thank God.”
“Thank God? Why? Is she that difficult…?”
“No, no, I just…” I trail off. I’m sure it won’t go well if I tell him about my paranoia regarding the way she interrogated me about the other guys and what they were up to. “Nothing. Forget it.”
Killian looks like he wants to press for more, but I shake my head, letting him know I’m really not in the mood to discuss it. He closes his mouth again. While he can be an ass sometimes about pushing for certain reactions, he knows when we’re seriously done, and he’s not going to push it any further than that.
Even if I still have to go through with this dinner tomorrow night with that woman, regardless of my own feelings about her.