They arrived at the restaurant and pulled up to the valet parking area at the front entrance. Mason strolled around the front of his Lexus and tossed the keys to the attendant, then opened the passenger door to assist Shonda. When the employee nodded to her, it struck him she must be a regular here.
Inside the grandiose restaurant, they shuffled their way to the front of the line through the throng of would-be diners to give their name to the host. The man studied them both for a long moment as if weighing their worth. “I’m sorry, sir. There’s a two hour wait.”
Mason slid him fifty dollars and asked him to be sure.
“I may have been mistaken. The wait is only an hour and a half.”
Irritation flooded him at the extortion happening. A quick glance showed Shonda studiously looking about and biting her lower lip to keep the laughter at bay. He slid another fifty across the stand. “And now?” he bit off.
“Yes, I see here I can seat you in about one hour.”
He was on the verge of reaching across the podium when a distinguished older gentleman approached. The other man had all his attention focused on Shonda. A welcoming smile graced his face. “Hello, Bella. When did you get back in town?”
“Hello, Papa.” As she was wrapped in a bear hug by her father, Mason stood stunned. “I arrived this afternoon.”
“Why didn’t you call ahead? I would have had a table ready,” he chided.
“I thought it would be more fun for Nico to play with my date,” she laughed.
Mason met the unrepentant eyes of Nico, the host, who shrugged and smirked.
“You’ll never find a husband if you torment the men you date. Come, I’ll take you to the private dining area.”
A flush blossomed on Shonda’s face. “I’m not looking for a husband, Papa.”
Based on her color and her father’s skeptical expression, Mason wasn’t so sure she wasn’t lying. Sweat beaded on his brow and he experienced an inexplicable urge to run a finger around his collar, which he curbed.
“Nico, give the man his money back,” ordered Shonda.
“No.” Mason held up a hand. “He earned it.”
The sparkle of delight in Shonda’s eyes was worth the hundred bucks. He placed a hand on her lower back and guided her to trail Luigi.
Their meal was splendid. One incredible dish after another was placed in front of them. Mason thought he’d died and gone to heaven. He’d always been a foodie, and Italian cuisine happened to be a favorite. The food creations here caused his taste buds to weep with pure joy.
The dessert sampler appeared to be Shonda’s top pick. The sounds coming from her rivaled their earlier shower sport. He sat back with his glass of wine, watching her spoon in a small bite of tiramisu and close her eyes in ecstasy. Next she reached for a scoop of dark chocolate gelato. He found himself aroused by her every reaction. Absently, he wondered if there was anything about her that didn’t turn him on. He’d been so engrossed in observing her, he failed to register Luigi walking up.
A large hand clamped on his shoulder, and Mason shifted to drop the napkin in his lap. The booming laugh of the older man told him the action didn’t go unnoticed.
“What are your intentions toward my daughter?”
The question sent his wine sputtering from his lips.
“Papa!” Shonda leaped to fill the awkward gap. “We’ve only known each other for a week. Please, don’t.”
Luigi was quick to pick up on her mistake. “A week? You only returned today.”
“We met on the plane.” She stated the truth, but Mason knew her intent had been to make it seem as if they’d only decided to date on the return trip.
The perverted part of his brain, the one ignoring the logical part trying to shout its warning, piped up to cut her off. “We were seated next to each other on the flight to St. Thomas. We went to dinner that first night, then spent most of the week enjoying… the island.” Why it was important their week be acknowledged left him clueless.
Her green eyes showed horror and promised retribution.
“I suppose your mother is all right with this… this…” Words failed her indignant father, and his hands gestured wildly as his face took on an alarming color.
“Mason, will you excuse us?” Shonda stood and dragged her father toward the rear of the restaurant. When she returned a short while later, her distress was apparent. “We should go.”
“Shonda,” he started, worried at how she worked to keep it together. “If I—”
“We should go,” she stated more firmly and gathered her belongings.
Mason stood and threw money on the table. She picked the bills back up and shoved them in his hands. “He’ll be offended.”
On the ride home, he couldn’t help but try to draw her out again. “Want to talk about it?”
“No.”
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”
“I don’t know why you said what you did, Mason, but it was a dick move.”
“I know.” He attempted another tactic to get her to open up. “How is it that you are the daughter of Luigi De Vitis and your last name is Grant?”
“My mother left him and remarried Nolan Andrews when I was still a small child. She wanted Nolan to adopt me, but Papa objected. He wanted me to have his last name. If it was good enough for generations of De Vitises then it was good enough for me. Mama thwarted him and used her maiden name on all my school forms.”
“That’s right! I remember! Luigi was married to…” He shot her a disbelieving look. “Your mother was Eva Grant, the famous model?”
“The one and only.”
She didn’t look too happy about it.
“I can see the resemblance. Her hair was slightly redder than yours, but the features are the same. And the body…” He trailed off, embarrassed now that he remembered doing things all teenage boys did in the privacy of their own room while gawking over a swimsuit spread of a swimsuit model. Awkward didn’t begin to describe it. The knowing look she graced him with caused him to shift in his seat.
They drove in silence on the way back to her apartment. After pulling into the parking lot, Mason placed a restraining hand on Shonda’s arm when she would’ve reached for the door handle.
“You’re far more beautiful than your mother,” he told her, willing her to believe he meant it.
Their eyes locked, and whatever she’d been torturing herself with on the long ride home, disappeared from her eyes.
“Thank you,” she choked out. “Now take me upstairs and do what you do best.”
Mason didn’t need to be told twice.
“We have to go back to the real world, love.”
Shonda knew it was true, but their last three days had surpassed their time in St. Thomas. The passion burned brighter, and the sex was absolutely mind blowing. How Mason could dismiss this connection was beyond her ability to comprehend.
“Same rules apply?” she asked quietly. Pushing him would only lead to an ugly blow up.
For the longest while he remained silent. His voice was firm and void of emotion when he said, “Yes. Nothing’s changed.”
No, not for him in any case. However for her, everything had. Without a doubt, she loved him. Based on the heart-wrenching flight home, she’d thought she had an idea of how bad his abandonment would hurt. Had actually braced herself against the pain of his walking away. That had been nothing compared to today. She’d fallen back to her old pattern of equating sex with love. She shook her head at her stupidity.
“Want a cup of coffee before you go?” Being casual took every ounce of self-control she possessed.
“Actually, I’m running late. I’ll pick something up.”
Was it possible for the situation to be more awkward? How did it come to this between last night and this morning?
“Thank you.”
His softly spoken words halted her action in doctoring up her morning caffeine fix.
“For what?”
“I knew from the beginning a casual affair wasn’t your thing. It made me hesitate to take it further than our first dinner date, yet you haven’t made it weird or awkward. You haven’t gotten clingy. I thought I should let you know, I appreciate it.”
A startled laugh escaped. She could see he was being sincere, and she wondered if there ever was a more clueless man on the planet. Awkwardness and weird vibes were ricocheting off the walls all around them. The ridiculousness of the situation was enough to tickle her sense of the absurd. Enough to inject her backbone with a little more steel to stand proud and not beg him to give them a chance.
“Think nothing of it,” was her dry response.
His slight frown told her he’d picked up on her sarcasm. Shonda didn’t give him a chance to respond. She keyed in the alarm code, removed the security stick which had arrived the day before, and held open the door for his grand exit.
Suitcase in hand, Mason paused before her. They shared a long look. With his free hand, he tucked back a strand of hair that had escaped her haphazard bun. For an inordinate amount of time, he studied that single strand before focusing on her lips. His pale eyes flared with something she couldn’t name before he ruthlessly banked it. With a quick, hard kiss, and he was gone.
Shonda was left standing with her back against the door and tears streaming down her face. It was doubtful he would understand the havoc he’d wreaked in her world. The destruction of one’s love life required bedrest, and so she headed back to nest under the covers.
Hours passed. Two or twenty, she didn’t care. All she wanted was to wallow in her grief. Her self-pity session was cut short by the incessant ringing of her phone. It went off three times in less than five minutes. On the fourth try, Shonda answered.
“Ms. Grant? This is Stonebrooke Memorial Hospital.”
“This is Shonda Grant. How may I help you?”
“We have you on record as the person who would make medical decisions for Erica Sutton in the event of an emergency. Is this correct?”
Her heart dropped to somewhere around her big toe.
“Something’s happened to Erica?” Her voice was three octaves higher than normal, and her respiratory system would need an assist in about two minutes if she couldn’t calm down.
“Ma’am, I hate to have to inform you this way, but Ms. Sutton has been attacked and is being taken into surgery now. Do we have your verbal consent to treat her?”
“Of course! Yes! Do what you have to. Is she going to be okay?”
“Unfortunately, I cannot give any more information out by phone. We have papers we’ll need you to sign.”
“I live ten minutes away. I’ll be there soon.”
Erica attacked! In Stonebrooke! Nothing happened in Stonebrooke. Shonda couldn’t wrap her head around it. As she rushed to drag on clothes and find her keys, Shonda sent up a prayer that her bestie would pull through.
Finding a parking spot proved easy enough, and she hoped it was a sign from the universe things were going to start looking up. She ran for the entrance with nothing on her mind but to find out the current status of Erica’s condition.
“Shonda?”
She whirled and came face to face with a harried Mason.
“What… why…?”
He understood her questions without her needing to elaborate. “My brother’s girlfriend was admitted.”
Her mind was blown. She didn’t make the connection. Her mouth opened and closed. Somewhere in the smallest region of her brain, she recognized she wasn’t coming across as the brightest bulb in the pack to the man jogging up to stand beside Mason. She assumed it was Dane, youngest of the Sharp brothers. The resemblance was uncanny.
Suddenly, it all became too much. She needed to find what was happening with Erica or she’d have a meltdown on the spot. “I’ve got to go.”
“You’re looking for Erica, right? Come on. I know where she was taken,” Dane piped up.
How he knew was anyone’s guess, but if he could lead her to Erica, Shonda would blindly follow. “Thank you.”
The three of them tore through the corridors on their way to the O.R. waiting area.