Chapter Twenty-One

They spent the next few days in a sort of emotional truce. Mason tried several times to bring up her staying, and she dodged, evaded, or pushed aside his every effort to draw her in. Somehow, she had a feeling that whatever the conversation would be, it would result in her admitting that she was crazy in love with him, and him saying something along the lines of, “Whoa, I was just wondering if you wanted to move in for a few months. What’s all this business about love?”

Honestly, she was pretty proud of herself for letting things get as serious as they had. After all, she was still here, wasn’t she? Despite all her fears and misgivings, she’d opened herself up this far.

Seriously, she deserved a medal or something. She didn’t need him pushing her off the next cliff before she was ready.

Finally, he shifted tactics completely. For each apartment she found, he managed to dig up some reason why it was completely unacceptable. This one had had a bedbug infestation. That one had a landlord who’d stolen tenants’ deposits. The one she liked best? He’d found a map that showed the location of car break-ins in Oakland, and they all seemed to occur on that block. She had enough money in the bank to afford something nicer, but not for long. And she refused to run down her savings account when she had only just built it up.

Thanks to Mason.

She knew he wanted her to stay with him, for now at least. He obviously did care about her. But even if she did have a glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe they could become something more, that only hardened her resolve. There was nothing capable of wrecking a relationship quite like moving too fast. And moving in with Mason was clearly moving too fast. Becoming dependent on him? Even worse.

She could imagine the advice column now: Dear Abby: I’m twenty-six and have no place to live, so I moved in with my boyfriend. He’s really sweet and I’m totally in love with him, but now I can’t tell if he really wants me to stay, or if he just feels sorry for me. What should I do? Signed, Trouble in Paradise.

Dear Trouble: What is this, the seventeenth century? Move out, girl! Women need to be independent. That’s the only way you’ll ever really be free to love each other.

Yep, the more she thought about it, the simpler her path forward became.

She had to sell the land.

She’d been approached by at least six firms already. They left notes with Gracie, or in plastic envelopes on what had been her doorstep. “Contact us if you want to sell,” they announcement. “We buy in cash!”

She needed cash. She needed a lot of it. Building wasn’t an option without a loan, and a loan wasn’t an option without a big down payment and a lot of credit. Neither of which she had.

Which meant she had to sell.

She didn’t want to involve Cece—she would probably try to buy it herself—and really didn’t want to involve Mason. He’d probably come up with some clever reason why she didn’t have to sell, like some weird double-backward mortgage with a half-flip that only MBAs from Harvard knew about.

Screw that. She was going to do this the only way she knew how—by herself.

Except she wasn’t quite stupid enough to do that. Instead, she did something that was either completely crazy or a stroke of genius.

She called Luke.

He’d known about the fire already and sounded sweet and concerned when she told him she needed his help. The hesitation came when she explained that she needed their meeting to be a secret from Mason. He agreed to talk more at a coffee shop in the Mission District, far from Livend’s offices, but also told her as a lawyer and a friend, he couldn’t lie to Mason. If asked, he’d have to tell him that they’d met. Figuring she had little choice, and hoping it wouldn’t be an issue, Tess agreed. When she arrived, Luke was already at a table, sipping from a large cup of coffee and scribbling notes on a yellow pad.

“Hey Tess, it’s good to see you. I’m so sorry about your house, by the way. Mason told us and it sounds terrible.” He greeted her with a kiss on the cheek and a worried look.

She smiled and forced herself not to panic and run out the door. “Thanks. And I’m sorry for all the secrecy. I don’t want to create any kind of weirdness between you and Mason. This really has nothing to do with him. I just want to make sure it stays that way.”

“If you say so.” His worried expression did not change. “Let’s talk a little so I can understand what’s going on. Can I get you a cup of coffee? Or something to eat?”

“Thanks, but I’ve had way too much coffee already. Maybe just a glass of water.” He got up to fill a glass of water for her, and she sank down into an unused chair. Fingers shaking, she opened her bag and withdrew the flyers and notes she’d received since the day of the fire asking if she’d be interested in selling. When he returned, she pushed them in front of him. “I need to sell the lot where my house was, but I don’t know how to go about doing it, and I don’t want to call some random real estate person who I can’t trust. I thought maybe you could help me. Or tell me who could.” The words came out in a jumble. Nervous energy had her practically twitching in her seat. “I don’t have any money now, but I assume you could take a portion of the sale, right? I want to sell quickly—one of these people who would give me cash would probably be best.”

Luke put his hand on top of hers. “Take a deep breath, okay? We’ll get through this, but maybe you could start by telling me why you want to sell so badly, and what the big rush is all about? And maybe why you don’t want Mason to know?”

He looked so kind, with that crazy mix of pirate and corporate lawyer, that Tess felt her eyes starting to fill. “Shit,” she whispered. “I’m sorry, hang on.” She dug around futilely in her bag for a tissue, looking up when Luke handed her a paper napkin. Gratefully, she took it and dabbed her eyes.

“I guess the short version is pretty simple. There was no fire insurance, and I don’t have a lot of money in the bank. I could survive in an apartment for a few little while, but I’m trying to put myself through school and rent would kill me. And I’m not going to go into debt. It would be worse than stupid to take out loans to pay for rent when I’ve got land I could sell. I think it’s pretty valuable.”

She pulled out her phone and showed the location of the property. Luke made a soft sound of surprise. “Wow. An oversize lot like that? Backing right onto the green space and only an hour from downtown? Yeah, it’s pretty damn valuable.”

His affirmation was enormously comforting. “I know it’s got a burned-out house on top of it, but that shouldn’t cost too much to remove, and then someone could build a really nice place there.”

“You loved your home, didn’t you?” Luke touched her hand. She wished she could have found it romantic. It would have been so much easier if she could have been interested in someone other than Mason. But it wasn’t, and she didn’t.

“I did. But that doesn’t really matter now, does it?”

“I think it matters. So what’s the big rush?”

“I need somewhere to live. I figure if I can get enough for the lot, I might be able to buy a little house somewhere. I know it won’t be much, and probably way outside the city, but something is better than nothing, right? And at least it wouldn’t be a fire hazard.” She tried for a smile, but Luke wasn’t buying it.

He cleared his throat. “I don’t mean to be nosy, but aren’t you staying at Mason’s place right now?”

She folded and unfolded the napkin she’d used to dry her tears. “He mentioned that too, did he?”

“We played basketball on Saturday. He’s pretty concerned about you.”

“Yeah, well, that doesn’t really change anything, does it?”

Luke held her gaze for a beat but didn’t challenge her. “If you say so. And why are we hiding this from him, exactly?”

“He’s going to try to do something stupid, like stop me from selling it, or get me some kind of special construction loan or something.”

“I can see how that would be annoying,” he murmured.

“I don’t take handouts,” she said fiercely. “Not from anyone.”

Luke held up his hands in surrender. “Look, I’ll be honest with you and say there seems to be some significant flaws in your logic, but I get the feeling this isn’t about logic. So I’ll tell you even though I don’t mind charging your friend Mason my extraordinarily high rates, I really couldn’t charge them to you. I’d do it for free, but I’m pretty sure, given what I’ve just heard, that you wouldn’t let me. And I’m not a real estate attorney, anyway. I could get a paralegal to do most of the work, but this isn’t our area of expertise.”

Tess felt utterly, completely idiotic. She had known it was a risk to contact him and had known he probably charged more than she could pay upfront. But she hadn’t even thought about the kind of law he practiced. “I’m sorry.” She started to rise. “I shouldn’t have called. It was stupid of me. I’ll figure something else out.”

“Hey, don’t even think about leaving.” Luke stood even faster than she did and caught her hand. “I’m here as a friend, not an attorney. And as a friend, it doesn’t matter what kind of law I practice, right? How about you sit back down and we can talk about what to do next.”

She softened. “I don’t want you to go out of your way for me. You barely know me.”

Luke pointed to the seat. “Sit.”

“But—”

The gleam in his eyes moved from lawyer to full-on pirate. “I get the feeling you aren’t particularly good at accepting help, so I’m going to be patient. But I’m not going anywhere until we talk this out, and neither are you. Now sit.”

Tess gave a short laugh. “You are way bossier than I realized.”

“Occupational hazard.” He smiled. “You don’t work with guys like Nate and Mason and Connor without developing a little bark to go with your bite.”

She slid back into the chair with a reluctant smile. “Okay, I can see Nate, but Mason? Connor? Seriously?”

“Well, Connor is different. He’s doesn’t argue with anyone or play games. I don’t think he knows how. He makes up his mind, tells you the answer, and waits for you to realize he’s right. And usually, he is.”

The night at the Aspen, Tess had only chatted briefly with Connor, but she’d gotten the impression of someone who was incredibly smart but wasn’t entirely comfortable in a crowd. “I can see that. But what about Mason? I thought he was just the guy who made friends for a living.”

“Don’t tell me you fell for it, too?”

“What do you mean?”

Luke shook his head. “You know the Pop-In deal that put Livend on the map? That was Mason’s pick. And their decision to move into the clean energy industry and artificial intelligence? He pushed them both. Right now we’re getting ready to close a deal for a company that makes a new virtual reality headset, and it’s all because Mason heard about it from a friend of a friend. The guy has connections everywhere, and very few of them have any idea how good he is at what he does.”

“I don’t understand,” Tess said uneasily.

“In this field, you’ve got to know spreadsheets and financial analyses, and Mason is damn good at that. He didn’t go to Harvard Business School for nothing. But just reading spreadsheets isn’t what makes you successful. Great investors have to be able to read people, too, and trust their instincts about who’s going to win. Like the old saying: you don’t bet on the horse; you bet on the jockey. You don’t invest in an idea; you invest in a person.”

“And Mason’s good at that?”

Luke laughed. “Mason’s not just good. He’s the best I’ve ever seen. But even beyond that, he’s got this incredible talent for getting people to want to work with him. That’s key in this business, especially for a bunch of young guys like Livend. See, most people, they hit a wall and they stop moving. Or if they’re Nate, they bring out a load of dynamite and try to blow a hole in it. It’s messy, but not always effective. Mason never does that. He finds the one weak spot in the wall and pushes his way through. Or discovers a way around it no one else saw. Or hell, he convinces the wall to open a door for him, and the wall does it with a smile.”

Tess struggled to reconcile it all in her mind. “He’s never said anything about that.”

“That’s not an accident. Mason always downplays what he does, and as a result, everyone underestimates him. They think he’s nothing but looks. I did the same thing when I started working for them. Sometimes I worry that he hears it so much he starts to underestimate himself. It isn’t easy to have everyone tell you that your job is to look pretty and make friends. Those of us on the inside know that’s not all it’s about. But we’re the minority.”

A tiny shiver ran up Tess’s spine. “I never thought about it that way. I mean, I knew he was smart, but all everyone seems to talk about is the four-date rule and how he spends all his time going to parties and schmoozing with people.”

Luke leaned in toward her. “Look, we joked about that four-date thing, but you have to know it’s different with you. In all the time I’ve known Mason, you want to know how many women he’s brought to drinks? Or forgotten how to play basketball because of? Or invited to move in with him? None. Not a single one. Not until you.”

Tess slumped forward, burying her head in her hands. “I can’t think about this right now. I just need to sell my lot. That’s all I can handle.”

“I’ll make some calls and find someone who can work with you. But I have to tell you that I think you should talk to Mason.”

“I will. Right after I close the deal.”