12. Keeping This Light
KEEPING THIS LIGHT
“Hey,” Baker said to her on Friday. He knew her schedule this week. Knew she had yesterday off and today was her last day of her four-day week.
No weekends, just four days Monday through Friday.
He knew her shift started thirty minutes before the first tour would take off to get people paid and ready to go, and that she always got here earlier to put her things away, fill up her water bottle or even get a coffee.
Maybe he felt like he was stalking her a bit. Stupid on his part, but it was the only way he saw her unless he went up front.
Not that he did it daily when she worked.
Just the second time this week.
He had caught her in the lunchroom once by chance since she took her break at different times. He was busy on top of it and couldn’t always walk away from what he was doing.
Even if he wanted to.
Even if he was dying for another glimpse of Tasha Robinson. The woman taking up way too much residence in his mind.
The things he wanted to do. The things he thought of.
A brush of his fingers along her arm. A kiss on her luscious lips.
Not that he’d do the last at work, but he fucking wanted to.
Six days since he’d had her in his arms and he was itching for another round.
Not good for a man who said that he was keeping this light. Keeping it simple. Keeping his distance.
Yet, seeing her standing there watching his gaze on her said he might have lost the wall he’d built years ago.
“Hi,” she said, looking around. No one was close by. Not close enough to hear them talking by the water cooler while he got another coffee that he didn’t need.
“How has your week been?”
“Pretty uneventful. Though the lines were already around the side of the building when I pulled up. I should get out there and start getting people checked in.”
“Going to be a long one, I’m sure.”
The water was coming out of the jug and going into her large pink Stanley cup. The one with the handle and straw that he’d never be caught dead with.
It looked good on her. Almost made her look like one of her students with her size and the playfulness in her eyes.
As if she knew exactly what he was doing when he told himself he was nuts to make contact again.
The last thing he was going to do was be the man chasing tail nonstop.
Looked like he lost that promise he’d made to himself along with so many others.
What was it about her that made him forget what he’d been through already?
“Fridays go by fast. I’ve worked a few of them.”
The water hit the tip of the cup, she released her finger from the blue button and twisted the top on, then put the straw to her lips and sucked, her eyes dancing and aimed right at him.
He leaned closer to get the top for his coffee that he’d been holding there like a fool and slapped it on. “Are you having fun torturing me?”
She laughed and brushed by him whispering, “Why, yes, I am.”
He moved to the vending machine, put his credit card up to it and hit the button for a cookie, then turned to leave and saw Mason standing in the doorway with his arms crossed.
“What?” he asked. “I can’t get some caffeine and sugar this morning?”
Mason stepped back when Baker moved toward the door, and he wasn’t surprised his boss was following him down the hall to the distillery.
“You can come and go as you like,” Mason said. “No one is watching you.”
“I don’t believe it. Why are you following me now?”
“Thought you might like this conversation in your office, but we can have it in the open.”
He turned quickly but caught the grin on Mason’s face. “Office.”
“That’s what I thought.” His boss laughed and got into step next to him.
The minute the door was shut, he walked to his chair and sat, then wrestled with the wrapper on his cookie. “Shoot.”
“Are you making a move on Tasha?”
“Did your mother’s matchmaking rub off on you? No way you’re helping her.”
Mason shook his head. “Never.”
“Then what do you want to know?”
“Just what I asked. You know it’s her my mother has in mind. I need to get ahead of her.”
He debated sharing anything. Dudes didn’t normally talk like this. Or he didn’t.
But this was a unique situation.
No one had ever taken an interest in him in the past. Not like this.
Not to pull him in and make him feel as if he belonged.
Hell, even his own parents didn’t always make him feel like the Fierces did.
Could be why he moved hours away. He just needed a freaking break from it.
But it followed him anyway.
All it took was a text or a phone call from one of his parents to be dragged down the hole of drama.
At least the shit with the fifty thousand was taken care of. Brittany talked to their mother, told her where the money was, her mother looked and felt like a fool.
In his eyes, there were more actions his mother took that she should be embarrassed about over forgetting that money was moved into her retirement fund.
“Your father and I talked not that long ago.”
Mason laughed. “He’s all about messing up her plans. What did he say?”
“He verified it was Tasha also.”
“So you’ve given in and not fought it? Dude,” Mason said, his voice almost in pain. “I thought better of you.”
“Maybe if I hadn’t already noticed her I would have. I don’t know.” His head went back and forth. “Last weekend I saw her walking her son. She lives about half a mile from me.”
“No shit. Don’t tell my mother that.”
“Do you think I’m stupid?”
“Not at all. So she’s walking her son and you stop and talk?”
“Just for a minute. Just enough to get an idea of where she was coming from.”
And for him to watch her ass as she walked away in a pair of shorts that had to have been made to drop a man to his knees.
Or maybe it was just him and how long it’d been since he’d felt much for a woman.
“Yeah, use that excuse.”
“I was unloading shit from my car, she was walking. She noticed me too. I’m not going to be rude.”
“Nooooo,” Mason said. “Never you.”
“Hey, I’m a nice guy. Even your mother thinks so.”
“Now you want to agree with my mother.”
Baker picked his coffee up to wash down some of the cookie that he didn’t really want.
The way his boss was staring at him said the guy wasn’t leaving until he got some more.
“She pulled into the development with a flat tire the next day. I’m not sure how she got home, but she said it’d just happened not that far away and she didn’t want to pull over to the side of the road.”
“I don’t blame her if she could get somewhere safely. Especially with a kid in the car.”
“Micah wasn’t with her. He was at his grandparents’ for the night.”
Mason rubbed his hands together. “And now we get to the good part.”
“Since when did you become such a chick about these things?”
“Since my mother spends most of her free time in my business looking for candidates for her hobby. Maybe it’s fun to watch. Or better when I know what is going on over here.”
“Not much going on. Not really.”
“Which means it’s something. You fixed her tire, because you would have.”
“I put her spare on. She got a new one the next day. She made me dinner as a thank you and we talked. We’ve chatted a few times since.”
“I’m positive it’s more than that, but I won’t ask details.”
“Like you are now?”
Mason wiggled his eyebrows. “I’ve caught you seeking her out there a few times this week. I’m not the only one noticing it.”
He sighed. “Who else has? The last thing we need is rumors.”
“The minute my mother latches onto you the rumors start. Don’t go there. You know how it is. Does Tasha know what is going on?”
“She does now. We both do.”
“And you’ve come to some kind of an understanding?”
“That’s all you’re getting,” he said. “And keep it from your mother. I’m not sure of Tasha’s background and I sure the hell didn’t tell her mine.”
No one here knew about Alexa. There was no reason to tell them. It was in his past and not a place he was going again.
Yet he was following Tasha around like a lovesick fool, just as he’d done once before.