When Its Least Expected (8 page)

Abigail was one tough bitch.

“Okay, I’m gonna be honest here. I don’t think, as of this second, that I agree with
the

idea of you and my best friend hanging out, but I can tell already, that you don’t
give up. I’ll give you props on that one at least.” She looked down and jotted something
into her notebook. Then she ripped it out and handed it over. “Just stop with the
whole
I’m a god
attitude, okay?” Mason rolled his eyes at the insinuation. He wasn’t a god. A ladies’
man maybe, but he was far from god level.

He shrugged, reaching out to grab the sheet of paper she held out to him.

“You’ve got your work cut out for you if you want Harley’s forgiveness. She’s pretty

sensitive sometimes.” He grabbed the paper, and started to open it. “And you may have
had the advantage there for a while, but your idiocy kind of messed that up. So now,
you’re back to square one again. That’s her number,” she sighed, lowering her hands
onto her desk. “Don’t lose it.” He grinned at the seven digits. Yes, he could call,
easy. “Call her, beg for mercy, lay it all on the line, be a chivalrous guy and accept
whatever comes your way. But
please
do me a favor before you take the Harley plunge and remember
exactly
what I told you.” He looked back up at her, his smile turned into a frown when he
noticed her pursed lips. Maybe if she had that much baggage, then this wasn’t such
a good idea after all.

But then her wide smile and those brown eyes popped into his head again, and he knew

he wasn’t going to escape her hold anytime soon.

“She’s been through hell, and she doesn’t need you to screw with her head anymore,
got

it?” He nodded. It’d be fine … for now.

Four more months though … what will happen then?

He shook the idea from his head. This was a friendship, nothing more. Four months
from

that moment on didn’t matter. “Weirdly though dude, I think she needs
someone
like you in her life, someone who doesn’t judge her past, someone who only lives
in the present with her. And you’re not my number one candidate … but I can tell …
she likes you.”

He frowned behind his hand. Yeah, she liked him; he kind of thought that already.
Give

her a few months though. He’d screw up somehow. It was inevitable, but there again,
the thought of hurting her made his chest ache. Now he had to figure out what the
hell did that meant.

“Thanks,” he murmured turning to face the front. His thoughts churned in his head.
He

couldn’t get in too deep with her or anyone for that matter. He was damaged goods.
It was

obvious now that Harley was too.

“No problem. She’ll probably be pissed that I gave that to you, but she’ll get over
it.” She shrugged and winked. He glanced down at the paper again, already memorizing
the numbers,

repeating them in his head. Unfortunately, apologies were not his specialties.

Meeting Harley was not coincidental though. All of his instincts screamed that at
him.

They were two broken souls, with two wildly similar but still completely different
personalities.

Now, if only he could keep his heart and his mind in sync, otherwise a friendship
with a girl like Harley might never be enough.

As Harley lay in bed that night, hands tucked under her soft feather pillow, eyes
glued to

the glow in the dark stars plastered above her on the ceiling, thoughts of her earlier
cry baby attitude haunted her. Mentally, she wanted to smack herself for letting Mason
Daniel get the better of her, but physically, she only groaned, rolling to her stomach
from due to her self-induced misery.

She hardly ever cried like she had today and the scariest part of it all was the fact
that

there was someone out there who had that uncanny ability to control her emotions.

She lifted her head and glanced at the looming red alarm clock, eyes narrowing as
the

numbers cleared in her vision. Yuck, eleven thirty. She’d be a mess tomorrow. Harley
was a

stickler for a ten hour night of sleep, but it obviously wasn’t in the cards. Resolved
to her insomnia, she sat up, hung her long legs over the bed, and tucked her chin
into her chest. Enough was enough. Lying in bed, and feeling sorry for herself, was
so obviously not going to put her to sleep. She had to do something, anything to rid
her brain of all the crap she had running through it.

She popped off her mattress and meandered towards her new shiny pink laptop. She ran

her hand over the smooth surface before lifting it up to type in her password. But
as she stared at her inbox full of spam galore, while unconsciously tapping away at
the same key over and over, Harley still couldn’t manage to shake her idiocy. Why
in the hell did had she let that boy get to her? No boy, except for one in particular
two years ago, had ever had her so messed up this badly! But that in itself should
have been a warning sign.

The tell-tale ring of her cell phone wailed at an alarm clock volume from her dresser.
She

hurried, reaching for the loud contraption as she tripped and stubbed her toe against
her bed frame.

“Holy shit balls!” she cried out, grabbing onto the phone, as she hopped up and

down one footed, only to then land her butt on a metal clothes hanger lying murderously
at the foot of her bed. Damn. This wasn’t her day. Good thing it was almost over.
“Hello?”

She flopped onto her back as she waited for a reply, bending and flexing her now,
most

likely bruised foot. She leaned the majority of her body onto her uninjured side.
She’d be

avoiding
that
butt cheek for a while…

“Um, Harley?” Her entire body went rigid. The voice was lulling and deep, way too

familiar. It was the voice of an angel and a devil all rolled up into one too-cute-for-his-own-good
package.

“Yeah, who’s this?” She bit her lower lip, playing dumb. There is no way in hell

she wanted Mason Daniel to know that she’d already analyzed the sound of his voice.
Now that would have been stalkerish. And Harley was
not
a stalker.

“Err, it’s um … its Mason,” he stumbled with his words, and Harley grinned at the
sound.

Wow! Was he actually nervous?

“You weren’t sleeping were you because I can let you go…?”

The fact that this guy could even
act
vulnerable wasn’t a good thing. Vulnerable meant that he had a decent, sweet side
hidden somewhere in his body, and that wasn’t a good scenario for her heart.

“No, I’m awake,” she paused, biting her lip even harder as all pain in her toe was

replaced by the harsh, uncontrollable beating in her chest. “What’s wrong, Mason?”
she snapped at him, unintentionally of course. She cringed at the silence that followed,
but seriously, she couldn’t exactly forget his pity date proposal from earlier so
easily.

“Nothing’s wrong, little beast, I just wanted to hear, uh…” Mason cut himself off
and

cleared his throat, “... I mean I just wanted to, uh … see how you were feeling, that’s
all.” A grin made its way to Harley’s lips as she listened to his rushed words. The
calm, collected surfer boy was so anxious, that it was damn near adorable.

“I hope you don’t mind that I called though. Abigail gave me your number earlier today

because I felt I needed to um,” he paused again, clearing his throat once more, “apologize
for earlier, you know, with the whole asking you to the dance the way I did, thing.”

Harley narrowed her eyes as she stared at the dark shadows of her fingers. “So … you’re

sorry you asked me at all then?” she snapped. Her hand gripped her comforter so as
not to throw something. Once again, she was a basket full of moodiness, all because
of him. She was also being dumb, ridiculous, and a whiny girl too, but that’s just
how he made her feel. It sucked, but it was the truth. “Because you certainly didn’t
need to bother me if —“

“Damn it, little beast,” he groaned. “Quit putting words into my mouth, you stubborn

girl!” His muttering filled her with an instant sense of relief, and Harley felt her
shoulders relax.

Okay, so she was a little over spastic tonight. She had to get over that.

“Okay, fine, Mason. Jeez, don’t get you man panties in a bunch.”

Secretly, she was the one with the major wedgie; it just felt good to put in on someone

else for a change.

“I do
not
wear
man panties
!” Harley giggled at his not-so-cool-now comeback. He sighed, her humor vanished.
A teensy bit of guilt crept into her chest. He was obviously doing something he wasn’t
comfortable with apologies, that is, so she should have been nicer. But on the other
hand, making him squirm wasn’t so bad, especially since he’d been so jerk-ish earlier
in the day.

“Fine, I’m sorry. Totally listening now.”

“Thank you,” he barked back. “Anyways, I never meant to ask you to the dance that
way.

I guess I don’t seem to have a filter with my words when it comes to you.” He was
quiet for another second; the weirdness between them was seeping through the phone.

Harley fidgeted with the end of her night-shirt and decided she’d be the bigger person.

She’d accept his apology, move on, and end their little friendship once and for all.
Well, at least that’s what she’d planned to do. “Listen, Mason, It’s no big deal.
I know that you probably didn’t mean anything by the way you asked me anyways.”
But it still hurt
. She let that thought go. For some reason, being mad at Mason and arguing with him
was too exhausting. “Can we just forget about it?”

She had to get over her major emotional malfunction when it came to guys, so the best

way to do that was by getting this boy out of her life permanently, and quickly, without
losing any more emotions along the way.

“It’s really
not
okay, Harley. I know it, and I know
you
know it too. I want to go to this stupid dance with you even if you don’t think I
want to.” The nervousness in his voice was thick, accompanied by an unexpected confession.
“You are whole hell of a lot different than any other girl I’ve ever met, and I want
to get to know you,” he hesitated. Harley held her breath as she waited for his words
to come. “As a friend of course. That is, if you don’t mind.” Just friends, yeah that
was what she wanted. Yes, totally.

But the other unthinking part of her body, the one not connected to her brain was

saddened by his request. Maybe it was because she wasn’t the one who initiated the
idea. Yeah, that was it. Maybe…

No second thoughts, Har. This is what you wanted, remember?

Ugh! This sucked! These constant rollercoaster emotions were draining. It was going
to

be one hell of a year. “No, Mason. I don’t mind.” Her voice screeched, going for a
seriously high C note. She was nowhere near believable. “And as far as the dance goes,”
she paused and held her breath in anxiousness as the words spilled out, “I’ll think
about it, okay?”

She rolled onto her side and closed her eyes. Her fingers pinched the bridge of her
nose.

God, now she was
thinking
about accepting his invitation to the stupid dance? This was not her.

Little pea brain aliens had to have crept into her ears and implanted those thoughts.
Yeah, that was it.

But then another idea hit her, and she smiled. Sure, she’d go to the dance with Mason
…

Then Abigail and David would go too. She was a genius! “Are you still there, little
beast?”

Mason chuckled, and the sound of his laughter crept into her spine. Tingling sensations
did sprints up and down her back. She wiggled; it was a failed attempt at easing the
unfamiliar sensation. Damn the boy for having a laugh like leather, smooth and rough
at the same time and so addictive too.

“Yeah, I’m here. Sorry, I’m just a little tired tonight.” She sat up and scooted back

against her pillow, letting her hair spray all around her. It brushed her bare shoulders,
and she shivered as she closed her eyes waiting on edge for his reply. She sure as
hell hoped that he’d tell her goodbye so she could get the ridiculously goofy grin
off her cheeks. It hurt to be that happy.

Her face wasn’t used to it.

The quiet gave her more time to think, and time was definitely not her friend. As
the

unfiltered words left her lips, she realized that even thinking could get her into
some serious trouble. It was a well-known fact. Harley was an idiot. “Okay, fine.
I’ll go with you to the dance.” She slapped a hand over her mouth and stiffened.

Oh crap! What’d she do?

“You will? That’s great, awesome, but I thought I was going to have to do a whole
lot of

groveling and begging. You surprised me, little beast,” his voice went low, sweet.
“And I like surprises.” Harley’s heart dipped into her toes and she suppressed a longing
sigh. Damn, she’d gone all hearts and butterflies with
those
words.

“I’ve got one more question.” Harley’s eyes squeezed shut, worried that whatever else

he’d have to say would send her over the edge. “What are you doing Friday night?”

Oh no. Not a date. This was so not a date. Well, maybe it was. Would that be so terrible?

Yes, yes it would.

“Well, I’ll have to check my ever exciting social calendar and see,” she giggled,
actually

freaking giggled. Harley Anderson did not giggle over boys. Not ever. “…but most likely
I’ve got nothing planned.”

Okay, so the dance was one thing, but a date? Oh, God. That was a completely different

thing, a completely different
and
a very bad thing. She cleared the nervous ball of something or another that was stuck
in her throat. The unavoidable questioned she’d been avoiding slipped out of her mouth,
“Why?”

“Well, I was hoping we could hang, get to know each other. I could just come over
to