Which meant my excuse for acting like an asshole was no better than Mase’s.
We’d both lost people that we loved. Him, his wife, and me, my gran. I could only speak for myself, but I was still hurting…and I was really fucking angry that I’d had to say goodbye. I’d known she didn’t have long left in those months before her death, and I’d used my default, anger, to protect myself from feeling the fear and pain. Mase had been an easy outlet.
I could only assume he felt something similar after ending his marriage.
So yeah, maybe we were both in the wrong.
Goddamn it.
Which meant I needed to talk to the guy and clear the air, so we could at least be civil in the future. We had the same friends. I lived in his backyard, for Christ’s sake. I had no choice but to talk to the guy.
But first I was going to cool down some more. Making sure no one was around, I stood and stripped down to my underwear, then ran into the water.
It was dark by the time I pulled up outside the house. Jimmy tore across the yard to greet me as I opened the gate and followed me to the back door of Mase’s house.
Here goes nothing.
I knocked and waited.
I had a weekly catch-up with my girls at Lake’s End, Addy’s cafe, and I didn’t want to have this whole Mase thing hanging between me and Quinn when we next met up. I had to deal with it now.
There was no reply.
I tried again.
Still nothing.
Ugh. I wanted this over with.
“Come on, Jimmy.” He followed me to the trailer and trotted inside when I opened the door. “Did you miss me today?” With big, adoring eyes he watched as I filled his bowl with kibble and fished out a little piece of steak left over from last night’s dinner. The neighbor across the street checked on him regularly throughout the day. Quinn had an encounter with a mountain lion once—yes, it was a long time ago and it hadn’t been back, and yes, the house now had a decent fence—but still I didn’t want to risk it.
While Jimmy woofed down his dinner, I jumped in the shower to rinse off the lake.
I moved quickly, not wanting to miss Mase when he got home, and dressed in shorts, my favorite pink ones covered in yellow roses and a yellow tank to match.
I’d just finished drying my hair when Jimmy barked at the door. Pulling back the curtain, I peeked up at the house. The kitchen light came on. Mase was home.
As much as I wanted to keep on avoiding the guy, enough was enough, right? I needed to pull up my big girl panties and get it over with.
“Come on, Jimmy, let’s show him what a handsome guy you really are.” I gave his boxy head a rub and opened the door.
My mind raced as I strode across the yard.
What the hell are you going to say?
No idea.
Awesome.
Looked like I was just going to have to wing it. Probably a good thing. Because if I thought about all the shitty things he’d said, and the way he’d said them with that short, surly attitude, I’d just get pissed off all over again.
Marching up to the back door, I dragged in a steadying breath, gritted my teeth, and knocked.
“Who is it?” a male voice called from inside.
I was at the freaking back door, who else would it be? “It’s Trix.”
“Just a sec,” he called back.
Jimmy danced around, his excitement increasing at the sound of Mase’s voice. He wriggled between me and the door and bumped it with his butt. It obviously wasn’t latched properly, because the thing swung open.
Jimmy took his shot and rushed inside.
Shit. “Jimmy, get back here.” I ran in after him. Mase already wasn’t a fan of my dog; he sure as heck wouldn’t want him in the house.
Jimmy bounded down the hall, full of excitement, right as someone stepped out of the bathroom’s open door.
I could see it happening in slow motion, and there was no stopping it.
Jimmy collided with the tall, half-naked body that stepped out, knocking who could only be Mase, right off his feet. He landed hard, the air bursting out of him when he hit the ground with a deep oomph. Jimmy instantly closed in, standing over him, wriggling with glee and licking the guy’s face.
Mase was going to kick me out.
He was going to tell me to hitch my trailer and get the hell off his property.
I rushed forward, grabbed Jimmy by the collar, and dragged him back. “Bad dog. Sit. You sit there and don’t move.” I spun back to Mase still sprawled on the floor. “Shit, I’m so sor—”
Electric-blue eyes slammed into me.
Adonis.
He was blinking up at me in shock, and my expression no doubt mirrored his, because I was suddenly struggling to breathe.
I opened my mouth. Closed it. We stared at each other, neither one saying anything. My mind was struggling to process what my eyes were seeing. It’s him. No, it can’t be. But it is. No. Yes, it is!
I stumbled back a step as he climbed to his feet, tall and muscled, that body achingly familiar, in only a pair of running shorts. The tattoos, the body I’d spent hours worshiping, all there, all gorgeous. My eyes darted back to his face, and that mouth that had worshiped me back was currently pressed in a thin line.
Say something!
I cleared my throat, once. Twice. “So, uh…this is unexpected.”
His gaze moved over me, and he shoved the fingers of one hand through his hair. “Trixie?”
“That would be me. Which means you’re…Mase?”
“Yes,” he kind of growled.
I took another step back. “I’m not sure what to say.”
That blue gaze moved over me again, and his nostrils flared. “What the hell were you doing at that bar?”
How could I not have recognized that voice? Hearing it now, thinking about the calls we’d had,
