Ruth wasn’t sure what the protocol was for calling a guy you’d kissed, freaked out on, and then punched in the stomach.
Hopefully, the fact that Mason had made a point of giving her his number before they said goodnight meant he wanted her to use it.
She’d been up half the night obsessing over their kiss because it had been the single-most earth-shattering experience of her life. Not only had she spent plenty of time fantasizing about such a thing, but Mason was as good at kissing as he was at everything else.
But more than just the quality of the kiss, she was stunned by the emotional whirlwind it stirred up inside—like a huge gust that scooped up not only her excitement and pleasure but all her fears, insecurities, and buried wounds, then swirled them together till she couldn’t make sense of any of them.
Unfortunately for Mason, it resulted in her taking him up on his joking offer to take her revenge. And though she’d never hit anyone in her life, the tornado inside her had blown away her impulse control.
Even though she’d been completely exhausted, she hadn’t been able to sleep in as late as she usually did on Sunday. After eating breakfast and showering, she spent an unholy amount of time getting dressed for the day.
Usually she couldn’t do more than throw on the first clean clothes she could put her hands on and sweep her hair in a ponytail if she was going to be to work on time. Lately she’d managed to put on a little makeup as well, but today, for some reason she didn’t want to examine, she spent two hours trying to look better than usual. Facial masks, curling irons, and an eyelash curler all came out.
Wearing faded skinny jeans, suede ankle boots, and a dark, olive green sweater with her hair curled and makeup on-point, she thought the effort had paid off. Now she just needed to call Mason.
With all the courage she could muster, she called his number, but when no one answered and it went to voice-mail, she hung up. Sighing, she put her phone down on her kitchen counter. It would be par for the course of her life if she got all dressed up just to eat lunch at home by herself. But then her phone rang. Mason was calling her back. She grabbed for it so quickly she accidentally knocked it flying off the other side of the counter. It clattered on the floor and her stomach clenched. It kept ringing as she ran around to the other side of the counter.
Grabbing it up, she almost melted with relief when she saw she hadn’t broken the screen. “Hello?”
“Ruth, hey. Sorry, I was playing basketball with my nephew and didn’t get to my phone in time.”
“Oh, that’s okay. I didn’t mean to interrupt anything.”
“You didn’t. What’s up?”
“Oh, I was going to ask if you wanted to get lunch with me since we aren’t working, but don’t worry about it.”
“No, wait. Yes, let’s go to lunch. Let me text you the address to my parent’s house. If you’ll meet me here, I can finish up my game with David.”
That’s all it took for Ruth’s stomach to change from a hard knot of nerves to fluttery excitement. “Great. See you soon.”
As soon as the address came through text, she grabbed her keys and headed for the door.
The weather in Arkansas could never make up its mind. In December, it could be anywhere from balmy to cold-enough-to-freeze-your-eyeballs. Today, it was in the fifty’s so threw a jacket in her car but didn’t put one on.
Apparently, Mason was feeling the warmer temperature too. When she pulled up at his parents’ house, the first thing she saw was Mason without a shirt on.
It surprised her so much she threw her car in park before it had come to a complete stop. The resulting jerk surprised a squeak out of her, but she didn’t take her eyes off the unbelievable sight before her.
She was familiar with the set of his shoulders and after their embrace last night, she shouldn’t have been surprised by the tight, corded muscles of his biceps and deltoids, but seeing them unveiled in the afternoon sun, she was gobsmacked.
And then he turned.
When she saw the glory that was his chest and abs, her throat tightened, restricting her breath, and her jaw clamped tight. Sure, a surge of pure attraction shot through her, but so did an avalanche of other feelings—frustration that he could eat so much chocolate and still look like that, sharp, stinging disappointment from the painful reminder that he was completely out of her league, and the suspicion that he was doing this to her on purpose. Frozen with confusion, she sat in her car, not moving.
Mason grinned, passed the ball to the young boy she recognized from the group that had come into her store the day before, and jogged over to her. She closed her eyes to block out the pure poetry of the sight. She jumped when he knocked on her window.
“Ergh…” Reluctantly, she rolled the window down.
He leaned down and braced his arms on the open window, so that she was inches away from his shining arms and shoulders. His scent surrounded her—fresh and woodsy and—salty? She knew the really good smells were likely from his deodorant, but for the first time she realized that sweat could smell good
“Are you getting out of the car?” he asked, laughter warming his voice.
“What? Yes. Of course I am.” She tried to sound like he was being ridiculous, not her. She rolled the window back up and got out of the car.
As she shut the door, he said, “I’m one away from winning.”
Ruth raised an eyebrow. “You’re playing a kid.”
Mason laughed. “Yeah, but we’re playing horse, and I lose if I get to horse, but he only loses if he gets to hippopotamus. Which he will if he misses one more shot.”
He walked beside her up to the driveway but stopped when they were still a ridiculously long way from the basketball goal at the other end. “Hey, David. Ball.”
“Oh, man. I can’t make it from there,” David complained.
Mason grinned. “That’s the point, buddy. My date is here.”
David passed him the ball. Mason caught it, dribbled three times, and shot a perfect, arching shot. The ball sank through the hoop while barely disturbing the net. Rebounding the ball, David dribbled over to the spot where he had to take his next shot, and Mason stepped out of the way, coming closer to her.
David crouched low and jumped up as he shot, using his legs to get as much power as he could. He actually got enough distance, but the ball went a few feet wide of the goal.
“Hippopotamus,” Mason shouted triumphantly. “But that was a great shot, and it took me longer than I thought it would to beat you.”
“Can we play again later?”
“Maybe. We’ll see.” While David went back to shooting the ball, Mason turned and picked up a t-shirt that was draped over the fence. “Do you mind coming in while I clean up a little? You’ve already met everyone here.”
Ruth nodded. “Sure. Does your family hang out a lot?”
“On weekends and holidays we do. It’s one of the things I really missed the last six years.”
As they walked inside, she looked around curiously. The front door opened into a large living room with a big Christmas tree in front of the window and stockings hanging on the mantle over the fireplace. Since no one was in there, she took her time looking around at the pictures on the wall and all the other decorations.
“I think Lori and my mom are in the kitchen if you want to wait in there.”
She felt a little nervous being around his family, but they’d been nice, even if overwhelming, when they came to buy cookies the other day, so she didn’t hesitate to nod. When they walked in, she saw they were busy making cookies and relaxed. This she could handle.
“Hey,” Lori said, looking up and smiling at Ruth. Then her eyes shifted to Mason. “Oh, good grief. Put a shirt on.”
He grinned. “I’m going to after I clean up. I didn’t want to get it sweaty since we’re going out.”
Lori rolled her eyes. “Oh sure. It didn’t have anything to do with wanting to show off for Ruth.”
Mason grinned at Ruth and winked. “Not completely. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
She had to bite her lip to keep from grinning back at him. He was so shameless and utterly charming that what had annoyed her just minutes ago made her want to laugh now. And after all, it was definitely flattering. Turning back to Lori and Mason’s mom, she said, “Do you need any help?”
Lori waved a hand, brushing away her offer. “No doubt we should jump on your offer since you’re a professional, but it’s your day off.”
“Oh, I don’t care about that.”
Mason’s mom smiled. “Just sit down and munch on a cookie if you want.”
“They won’t be nearly as good as yours,” Lori warned. “Which were amazing by the way. It was shameful the way I kept sneaking bites of the kids’ cookies when mine was gone.”
Ruth laughed and sat down on a stool at the bar. “I haven’t done my job until you’re addicted to my cookies.”
“Mission accomplished then.”
Just then the oven timer went off, and she turned to take out a pan of cookies. These were chocolate chip and smelled amazing. She watched as Lori moved them onto a cooling rack and realized her mouth was watering. Maybe she would eat one.
Mason’s mom turned to her then. “Actually, there is something you could do to help me. Would you mind unwrapping these Hershey’s kisses? I’m about to put these peanut blossoms in the oven.
“Sure!” Ruth went over to the sink and washed her hands before sitting at the counter to unwrap the kisses. The bowl Mason’s mom had given her to drop the chocolate in was nearly full when Mason came back in.
She let herself glance at him just long enough to see that his hair was damp and spiked and that he wore his t-shirt again. It fit tightly enough that she could still see the definition in his chest, and now that she knew exactly what he looked like underneath, it was tantalizing. Not wanting to further inflate his ego further, she turned away.
“Ready to go?” he asked.
“Let me finish these kisses for your mom.”
“Sure. You want to give me one?”
Rolling her eyes, she put one in the palm of his hand. Lori groaned across the counter as if she couldn’t handle the cheesy joke either
“Are you sure you want to eat that?” Ruth asked. “It’s not gourmet.”
He took it. “I’ll take a chance on it since no kiss from you could ever be bad.”
Lori threw a cookie at him. It bounced off his forehead and fell on the counter. “Can you just stop already?” Then she got a curious look on her face. “Wait, have you kissed her?”
Ruth jumped up. “Well, it’s been fun. Let’s get going, Mason.”
She grabbed his hand and pulled him away. Behind them Lori called, “I’ll find out eventually.”
When they were outside, she dropped his hand and elbowed him. “That was embarrassing.”
He grabbed her hand again, threading his fingers through hers. “Don’t worry about it. The only way she’ll know about our kisses—”
She threw him a look.
“—or lack of—is if she sees one. And that’s not going to happen.”
“Especially since kissing is still in the box.”
He sighed. “Yeah. My car or yours?”