Finding Love in Forgotten Cove (Island County Series Book 1) (10 page)

“Why’d you stop?” Mason asked, walking toward me. His eyes fastened on mine and heat rolled up my body the closer he came. His expression looked as if he wanted to devour me, and I felt completely at his mercy, but he kept walking right on by…right on by to the kitchen.

I certainly misjudged that one.

“I didn’t want to bore you,” I answered, swallowing down the embarrassment of the sorry excuse of an imagination I had.

Mason refilled his glass with water and took a sip, his eyes still connected with mine. And those eyes—that stare—was all it took for my world to be knocked off-kilter. It had to be something to do with the island air.

“You would never bore me,” he said, setting the glass on the counter. “Even if you tried and might I add I think there has been some of that going on.”

He grabbed a bag of sliced apples out of the fridge and ripped it open.

“What do you mean?” I asked, resting both hands on my hips. “Why in the world would I go out of my way to bore someone?”

He smirked and shook his head, rubbing his jaw. “I haven’t been able to figure that one out. You have a habit of starting conversations that you never finish. Let’s just say, I know you’ve been holding back or you’ve got a serious case of dementia starting.”

“I’m not holding back at all,” I lied. “I happen to get easily distracted and I think you’re probably exaggerating.”

“Nope. I’ve been waiting patiently for the conclusions to around eleven half-finished stories. You started about five of them while we were tiling the bathroom.”

It was true. There was something about Mason that made me want to open up and tell him everything all at once, but I couldn’t afford where that could lead so I found myself clamming up every time I caught myself rambling away. I hadn’t expected him to notice or care.

“So I don’t make it twelve unfinished stories, the meeting with Delilah’s mother went well. We think we might have figured out why Delilah flunked her favorite subject, winding up in summer school, and his name is Brendan.”

“A girl wouldn’t do that for a guy.” Mason looked concerned as he walked back into the family room. There was no place to sit except the floor. He’d managed to haul all the furniture onto the deck outside in order to refinish the floors.

“You’d be surprised what crazy things people can do for love, and at that age, it can feel like the end of the world, especially if you have a crush and the other person refuses to see it. And it’s not only girls who are hopelessly denied, by the way.”

Mason’s brow quirked up slightly and it looked as if he was biting his tongue, literally.

“What?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all.” He grinned and shook his head, picking up a trowel. “So I think that still leaves me on pins and needles to hear the dog up the tree, Camp Gilroy,
The Last of the Mohicans
, nude beach, London blow off, boat excursion seasick trips—numbers one-two-and three, sorority dance, and first teaching job stories… and one of the most intriguing, the more recent overboard canoe outing that required a tetanus shot.”

I shook my head. “Now I know I didn’t stop and start that canoe story.”

“No, but your friend did and that’s enough for me.”

I took a seat on the floor next to the fireplace, feeling far too comfortable in this house for my liking. I prepared for the sadness to wash over me, sitting in the same place as I sat with my sister so many years before, but it didn’t. I looked up at Mason and found myself searching for some reason why, for the moment, I didn’t want to go running from this place.

“The stone you chose is beautiful. I can’t wait to see it go up.”

“I think this would be the perfect project for you to be in charge of.” He walked to the kitchen and grabbed the first box of stone. “And it will give me a chance to eat my apple slices.”

“You don’t think I’ll mess it up?” I asked, rather flippantly.

“I’ll be here the entire time to make sure you don’t.”

Mason placed the box of stones on the ground next to the fireplace. They were a beautiful ivory color, and when the light caught the rock in a certain way, it would sparkle in areas and looked almost magical.

“All we do is dip the trowel into this mixture,” he replied, lifting the lid off a tub. “And smear it onto the wall in an even coat. Then you use that tool,” he pointed to another metal tool laying on the floor, “and run it through the material to remove the excess before you place the stone.”

“You make it sound so easy.” I slowly stood up and took a deep breath in as he placed plastic on top of the wood floors to protect his handiwork.

“It is. I promise. Dig in.”

I grabbed the trowel and stuck it in the thick mixture, lifting out quite a load.

“Now splat that thin set over here and start to smear it outward, keeping it under the string I placed there.”

“Is splat the technical term?” I did as instructed and watched the glob of material slide down the wall and land on the plastic covering the floor. I knelt over to pick it back up with my trowel, but he stopped me.

“Nope. You don’t want to use that. Get some new stuff on there and try again.”

“I doubt we’ll get a new fireplace by Christmas at this rate,” I muttered, bending over to scoop more on the trowel. I stood up to have Mason take a step closer from behind. He was only a few inches away, and I could sense every single part of him as wondrous sensations zipped through my veins.

It had been too long.

I managed to get the goop plastered onto the wall right before it dropped to the floor. Mason slipped his arms over my shoulders and I nearly lost my mind. He was a solid six inches taller than me so this wasn’t hard to do by any means, but there was something about being this close to him that made my body respond to him and care nothing about the project in front of us. If I had eyes in the back of my head, I swear I’d see him smirking.

His hand settled over the top of mine as he slowly guided my hand along the wall, spreading the gritty substance evenly.

“See you work with what you’ve got. You can’t rush it. You just work slowly… easing your way into it. Stay consistent with the strokes but learn when to ease off. Then you won’t be left with any sort of disastrous mess to clean up at the end of it all.” His hand tightened over mine as we gave it one last swipe, and I felt the breath he let out cascade over my scalp, sending an intense awareness along my entire body.

He was slick, but in a completely charming way.

My breath caught as he removed his hand from mine, but he didn’t move away from me.

“Time to place the first stone piece. We won’t need to use the other tool. Our finesse was perfect. We make a good team,” he said, placing both hands on my shoulders before giving me a gentle squeeze. The idea that setting stone could be such a turn on completely shook me to my core. How could this man make home improvement sexy? And more to the point, what in the world had gotten into me?

“You doing okay?” he asked, tucking some of my hair behind my ear that had escaped from my ponytail.

“Uh-huh.” My voice was far more breathless than it needed to be.

“Good.” He took a quick step back and reached for the stone veneer.

I watched the length of his body move and extend next to me as he lifted the stone and instructed me to hold out my hands. He placed it right side down and pointed at the wall.

“Stick it on there. Go ahead.” He smiled. Whatever little war he’d set up in his mind, he’d won and that unknown victory had me worried.

“Okay.” I tried desperately to shake off the feelings that he produced, but it was near impossible. I took a step closer and placed the stone onto the thin set we’d just applied. He’d marked off with a string where I needed to place the first line of veneers, which made it easy to level the stone.

“Perfection. Now take this and tap it.”

I nodded and took the rubber block he handed me, secretly hoping for another hands-on lesson.

None came. So the next time, I repeated the steps all by myself as he wandered into the kitchen to finish his apple slices, and I was left to wonder if everything that transpired had been in my head.

Probably. It often was.

I took a step back after the first several rows were completed and nodded.

“That looks pretty good, if I do say so myself,” I called out to him.

Mason brought over a soda water for me and I opened it up and took a sip.

“It looks amazing,” he agreed. “Almost like the guy who planned this knew what he was doing.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” I teased. “It was the skill behind laying the stone that made it really sparkle.”

He playfully touched my chin. “You have some thin set right there… Got it.”

My gaze landed on his thumb as he pulled it away, and I didn’t see any of the grey substance.

“So you guys bid on the high school job every two years?” I asked, trying to get my mind back on work, any work.

Not fingers.

Not lips, definitely not lips.

He laughed unexpectedly and nodded. “Yep. Like clockwork.”

My gaze landed on his mouth, and I cursed myself for not being able to follow a simple rule. Don’t look at his lips, or fingers, or anything below the nose really.

“And you always win the bid?” I questioned. “Seems lucky.”

“Sure do.” He had a twinkle in his eyes that I’d come to look forward to since meeting him. It was a blend of pure amusement and secrecy. It was like he held onto one big, life-changing secret that he’d someday divulge, if we were lucky enough. But I somehow believed that was just how he operated.

“Why do I think there is more to the story?” I placed my soda water on the floor and dipped my trowel back in the compound and continued on. I was determined to get the fireplace finished tonight.

“Our bid is always the lowest.”

“Yeah, I gathered that, Captain Obvious,” I chuckled.

Mason stood next to me and crossed his arms, staring at my work, and I suddenly cared what he was thinking.

“We ensure that no one can beat our bid. It helps we only charge for materials and nothing for time.”

I laughed. “So it’s a running theme for your company? How in the world do you stay in business?”

Mason laughed and pointed at a bare area. “Missed a spot.”

I rolled my eyes and filled in the area with more gunk—the technical term.

“Well, that’s one way to outbid the competition. Why do it?” I asked. “It makes no sense. Here, I kind of understand it. You like the house. You want the house. You’re probably going to get the house. But at the school?” I shrugged, completely baffled.

“My dad went to the school when he was in high school, and he knows there’s very little funding to keep it going. The amount of time it takes us to maintain it isn’t much. The moment that school starts to fall into disrepair, they’ll probably close it and ship all the kids to one of the other schools. My dad wouldn’t handle that well. He’s full of nostalgia over that place. It’s where he met my mom.”

Could it get any more perfect? I think not!

“Wow. That’s a love story I’m dying to hear.”

“Well, it will only be from my parents’ lips. They tell it perfectly. If I tried, the sentiment would get lost pretty quickly.”

“I doubt that.” I smiled.

“I’m not really that romantic of a guy.” He stopped himself and our eyes met. “But for the record, Tori. It’s not only the house that I want.”

Not serious. Only fun. Not serious. Only fun. Not serious. Only fun.

“Tori, are ya still with me?” Mason asked. He’d removed the trowel from my hand, but I stayed staring at the fireplace.

“I am.”

He ran the top of his finger along my bare arm. “I assumed you knew.”

“I wondered, but I wonder about lots of things and most never transpire.”

“I guess I should have taken my own advice,” he said, putting the lid back on the thin set. “But slow and easy when you’re so damn beautiful standing there with your red hair pulled into a pony tail…” He stopped, finally taking a breath. “I couldn’t help myself. I should go.”

“You don’t have to leave. It’s no big deal.”

Mason’s eyes stayed locked on mine, the blue intensifying the longer I watched. I’d never seen anything like it. I was utterly transfixed.

“That’s the problem. It is a big deal, a really big deal. The moment I saw you watching me while I was working on the building—”

“Hey now,” I interrupted, hiding my grin. “You didn’t see me watching you. That is very presumptuous.”

He flashed a wicked smile—brief—but wicked.

“I know you feel the attraction too, and if you’d open up, maybe I’d understand why you act as if this thing between us isn’t real…isn’t a big deal.”

“Sometimes in life, timing really is everything,” I responded.

He didn’t say anything.

“And the timing of this,” I motioned between us with my hands, “is the wrong timing.”

“That’s a layered statement, and one I won’t get any answers to, I suppose.”

“We’ve only known each other for a few weeks,” I started, but he shook his head.

“It sounds like you’ve thought about this and will throw every excuse in the book my way.” His hands went up. “I know when to lay off.”