“So, what’s going on with you and Mason?”
Shonda didn’t pause in running the brush through Erica’s thick, auburn hair. She’d been expecting this question for the last two and a half days. She admired her friend’s restraint. It was the first time in the history of their friendship.
“Not a thing.”
“I’d turn around to call bullshit, but it hurts to move,” Erica snarked.
Thank God for small favors.
“Take it at face value and move on,” Shonda suggested.
Erica reached up to stop her hand and give a gentle tug. Her sign Shonda was to move in front of her. She complied.
Worried brown eyes met with her carefully blank gaze. “Shonda, this is me you’re talking to. It doesn’t have to go any further. Please don’t shut me out.”
“I’m not.”
“You are,” Erica insisted. “Three days ago at the hospital, you were telling me you met a great guy. You were animated and on the verge of confessing he was the one. Now, here you sit, like the soul has been sucked out of your body.” She sighed deeply and continued, “I’m worried about you.”
“Don’t be. I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine!” Erica’s fiery temper was engaged. “You’d better start talking or, when I can, I’m going to kick your as—”
Zack appeared in the doorway. Three to-go cups of coffee and a box of donuts. “Everything okay in here?”
“Peachy. I was just heading out.” Shonda handed him the brush in exchange for one of the drinks.
“Oh, hell no! You don’t get to leave when I can’t follow to yell at you.”
Erica was always hilarious in her anger, and today was no exception. The first real smile in two days graced Shonda’s lips. She reached into the box, grabbed a donut, and shoved it halfway into Erica’s open pie hole.
“Later,” she sang on her way toward the door.
Erica sputtered while Zack chuckled and followed her out.
“She’s going to murder you in her next novel, you know that, right?”
The twinkle in his eye triggered Shonda’s laugh. “I don’t know if you’ve ever read her books, but one in every four of her murdered female characters bears a striking resemblance to me.”
His bark of laughter, so similar to Mason’s, had her unconsciously placing her hand over her heart and rubbing.
“You okay?” he asked and gestured to her chest.
Leave it to Mr. Perceptive to notice her absent action.
“Heartburn,” she lied.
His skeptical expression said he didn’t believe her, but he remained silent on that front. Instead he lowered his voice and told her about a surprise party he planned for Erica for the following day.
“Dude, she hates surprises. Tell her people are coming and to act surprised, or she may stab you in your sleep.” Zack’s face went white, and Shonda could’ve bitten off her tongue. “Oh, shit! I’m sorry!”
“Can we agree to shelve that term for the time being?” he asked wryly.
“Of course,” she agreed, full of remorse. “Zack, I really am sorry.”
“You can make it up to me by being here tomorrow. Eleven a.m. sharp.”
She smiled at the way he manipulated the conversation and her. “I’ll be here. Can I bring anything?”
“Nope. Just yourself.” Zack leaned in to buss her cheek. “See you tomorrow.”
One hand on the door, Shonda paused to take a deep breath and shove away her envy. “For what it’s worth, I think you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to her. She told me you’re blaming yourself for the attacks. Don’t do that. You’re not responsible for all the crazies out in the world, Zack.”
His solemn nod told her he didn’t quite believe it.
“Speaking of dastardly deeds, Mason told me about the break-ins down in St. Thomas. Have you had any problems since you’ve been home?”
“Dastardly deeds?” she asked on a laugh, ignoring the surge of annoyance that Mason had spilled her business. “I can tell you’ve been hanging around an author.” His no-nonsense expression said she couldn’t deflect this one. “No. No dastardly deeds of any kind since I’ve been home. Either perpetrated by me or against me. Happy?”
He grinned and nodded. “Tomorrow. Eleven.”
“Oh, and tell your brother, I’m going to kick his ass for gossiping like an old woman,” she said with false sweetness.
His grinned widened from ear to ear. “You got it.”
“Thanks.”
She stomped through the dusting of snow to her car. “And shovel your damned sidewalk,” she hollered over her shoulder.
“Nag, nag, nag,” he hollered back. “Drive safe.”
Yep, Erica had found a good one. The non-jealous side of her was thrilled for her friend.
Shonda started her car and headed toward the grocery store. She’d been holed up, wallowing in her misery long enough. If she didn’t get cat food soon, her little fatties would be looking to make a meal of her.
Happy the store wasn’t crowded at this time of day, she leisurely perused the aisles. The staples of peanut butter and jelly were added to her cart, along with chocolate and cheese puffs. A trip to the pet aisle secured enough food to last her beasties a good three weeks. Lastly, she stopped in the beer and wine section, trying to determine the best vino to pair with her chocolate and cheese puffs. She plopped a contender in her basket and lifted another from the shelf to read the label.
A high-pitched giggle caught Shonda’s attention. The sound was familiar and akin to nails on a chalkboard as far as she was concerned. Her old high school nemesis, Rachel Westington, came in to view, linked arm in arm to the man Shonda least wanted to see.
Just her shitty luck. She ducked out of sight and crouched low behind a display shelf.
Mason’s jean-clad legs came into view. Crap! She hadn’t escaped detection.
“Want to tell my why you’re hiding, love?”
She closed her eyes and counted to ten before inching one open. Yep, he was still there. Dammit.
“I’m not hiding. I was studying this display,” she lied, standing slowly and pretending great interest in the back of the cardboard cutout.
Voice pitched low for her ears only, Mason said, “You didn’t strike me as someone who avoids confrontation.”
His words snapped Shonda’s spine straight. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m done here.”
Rachel eyed her cart, patently false sympathy written all over her smug face. “Really, Sondra, can you advertise how anymore single you are?”
“It’s Shonda, as you well remember, and you can kiss m—”
“Actually, Shonda and I are here together,” Mason cut in from where he stood behind her. He reached around her to plunk his basket of goods inside her cart. Then he pulled her against him, her back to his front, one strong arm across her abdomen, holding her in place. “She sent me to get the salad makings for our dinner tonight.” He tucked his head next to hers to get a better view of the cart. “You forgot the popcorn for our movie, but thanks for remembering the cheese puffs. My favorite, as you well know.”
He was laying it on thick, but sounded believable enough that Rachel’s skin took on a sickly hue. “You turned me down for her?”
Never one to gloat, Shonda nevertheless offered up a smug smile of her own. “Sucks for you, doesn’t it, Regina?”
“Rachel,” her nemesis spat and stormed off. The heels of her stilettos tapped out an angry rhythm with her departure.
Shonda’s treacherous body took another long moment to soak up how good it felt to be in his arms before allowing her to pull away. “You didn’t need to do that,” she said quietly, shifting to face him.
“She’s a bitch and has been after me since high school. You did me a favor by playing along.”
She nodded and removed his basket from her cart and held it out. “Fair enough. Here.”
Instead of taking it from her, he leaned his tall frame across the handle of her cart. “Cheese puffs really are my favorite. I can grab some beer and we can go back to your place.” He offered her his panty-melting smile.
It worked. Her panties were no more. But her brain and her cold heart were in sync for once in her life. “Sorry. I’m playing catch-up on some work-related things.”
She set his basket on the ground and grabbed the cart from the far end to give it a yank. He stumbled for a second. It was difficult to tell if his frown was one of disbelief because his PM smile didn’t work this time, or if he was cross because he’d almost lost his balance.
“Besides, I’m done with casual fucks.”
Splendid as far as exit lines were concerned, but her timing could have been better. Due to the thudding of her heartbeat in her ears, Shonda had failed to hear Rachel’s return. She spun around to witness the look of triumph bloom across the other woman’s face.“I was halfway out the door before I realized Mason had to be toying with you. He likes to make me jealous,” Rachel said, saccharine sweet with a hint of pity.
Shonda really wanted this suck-ass week to be over. “Oh, honey, get a clue. The man is breaking out in hives from being within a foot of you.”
Now that was a splendid exit line! Shonda gave herself a mental fist bump as she blindly grabbed another bottle of wine from beside Rachel’s head and swept from the area. It didn’t hurt to hear Mason’s laughter trailing behind her.
In the checkout line, she made a conscious effort to stare straight ahead. Her nerve endings, the ones that always informed her whenever he was close, were firing off left and right. Added was the fact she could smell the yummy scent of Eau de Mason.
When she was one person away from getting her groceries rung up and bagged, the cashier flipped the switch on her light to the blinking position. The customer service price check went out, delaying her escape.
He pressed closer, crowding her between his rock-hard body and her cart. There was nowhere to go unless she wanted to mow down the eighty-year-old in front of her. “I didn’t get a chance to say it earlier, but you smell amazing,” he murmured, lips against her ear.
A delightful shiver raced up her spine. “No means no, asshole,” she muttered.
“I’ll let you sniff me. I know it’s your favorite thing to do.”
It was, but she’d be damned if she’d acknowledge that little tidbit of truth.
“Your line is getting old.”
“So is you calling me an asshole.”
She lobbed back the verbal tennis ball. “If the shoe fits.”
“I thought you liked the size of my… shoe.”
“Dear God, do these stupid lines actually work on women?”
“They worked on you well enough.”
“I thought I was going to die in a plane crash. Here, your cheesy pickup lines need work.” She slammed the cheese puff bag against his chest. The bag bursting open was unexpected, but the horrified expression on his orange-powdered face was priceless.
Unable to help herself, she raised her phone and snapped a picture. The thundercloud forming on his features required a second shot.
“Give me the damn phone,” he growled.
“Nope!” she laughed and tucked it into her bra.
“Shonda, you are—”
The cashier cut him off. “Next.”
“Gotta run. Don’t worry, those cheesy puffs you love so much are on me. Well, they’re on you, but I’ll pay for them.”
She congratulated herself all the way to her car. She’d finished loading her groceries in the back seat and was reaching to start the engine when her door was jerked open and Mason yanked her out.
“Stop man-handling me! I don’t like it.”
“We need to talk.”
“The hell we do.”
As he dragged her toward the side of the building, an explosion rocked the air and slammed her into his back, taking them both to the ground. He instinctively rolled on top of her and wrapped his arms around her head in a protective maneuver.
They lay there for a few minutes until the initial shock wore off. Shonda shoved at his chest until he slowly stood. His motions indicated discomfort.
“Are you okay?”
“I’ll be fine,” he assured her. “I nailed my knee on the pavement when we fell. Your car on the other hand…”
“My car?” She whirled to face the burning vehicle. Sure enough, her beautiful white Maxima was a fireball. “What the hell? Do you think it was a faulty wire or something? Why would it just blow up like that?”
“It wouldn’t,” he stated grimly.