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Gabi
“I brought two bottles,” Gabi sang as she walked into Kylie’s apartment later that night holding up their favorite cheap white wine.
“You are my hero.” Kylie kissed her cheek, taking both.
“And”—she pulled a bag from her purse—“dark chocolate.”
Kylie moaned in happiness. “Oh, Gabs, I love you, have I told you lately?”
“Only six or seven times,” she said as she pulled two wine glasses down from the cupboard.
“Well, it’s true,” Kylie twisted the corkscrew into the first bottle. When it popped open, she smiled and poured two very large glasses. “We deserve this,” she said happily, taking a drink.
“Kylie, we do this every night.” They were neighbors. Literally. Gabi lived in the apartment immediately next door. They spent nearly every evening together drinking wine and watching their favorite BBC shows. There was exactly nothing different about this night.
“So what?” she asked pertly, grabbed the bag of chocolate, and went to settle into her side of the couch. “We survived another day of Mrs. Finch. If that doesn’t earn me some wine and chocolate, then I don’t know why I’m doing this.”
Gabi laughed. She had to agree. The woman was as exacting as a dictionary. She questioned every last detail of every last inch of the plan the girls were putting together for her Victorian.
It was maddening.
But Mrs. Finch also had a lot of pull in the exact community they were aiming to break into, so it was grin-and-bear-it until they pulled it off.
Once settled into her go-to spot on the other end of the well-loved couch, Kylie turned on the TV. Tonight was Doctor Who night, and there was very little that was better than watching a sexy man with an accent defeat aliens and robots.
After a couple of episodes and more than a couple of glasses of wine. Kylie paused the show and looked at Gabi.
“So what did you think?”
Gabi crinkled her nose in confusion. “Of what? Of the show?” They didn’t usually make much commentary over the show, short of squeals and hand clapping.
Kylie rolled her eyes dramatically, her drama often increased with each glass of wine, and she had had several. “I mean Mason, duh.”
“Oh.” She looked at her wine and then back up to her very eager friend who was now sitting crisscross, waiting for her to answer. “What about him?”
“Oh my God, Gabi, you are so dense sometimes I swear.” She collapsed against the sofa and gestured grandly with one hand. “I mean, what did you think of how fucking sexy he is?”
That sexy wasn’t even a good enough word? That thinking about his green eyes made her lady parts twinge in a way that should very definitely not be happening? “He’s fine, I guess.”
Kylie looked at her with her mouth open and eyes wide. “Fine?”
She shrugged and tried to play off the blush that was climbing her neck. It was a curse, this blush. It always started on her chest and then swallowed her like a rogue crimson wave. “I mean, he’s handsome, sure, but I don’t know what else you want me to say.”
“Ugh,” Kylie groaned, throwing her hand up and letting it fall. “I don’t know what to do with you.” She was about to look away, but she spotted the flush rising on Gabi’s neck.
Fuck.
“Wait a second.” She sat forward, eyes sparkling. She grabbed the neck of Gabi’s T-shirt and pulled it down. “Why, Gabriela Turner, are you lying to me?”
“No.” She pulled her shirt from her friend’s fingers. “Why would I lie about that? He’s handsome, end of story.”
She shook her head. “Nope, you’ve got the reds, and that tells me sooo much more.” Kylie narrowed her eyes. “You mean to tell me that you haven’t thought about that super cut body or those gigantic arms on either side of you, or him leaning in to kiss you?”
Gabi had to squeeze her knees together at the sudden image, and she groaned as she felt her flush overtake her entire face. She was caught. How was it fair that she had a built-in lie detector? She could never hide anything. Especially from Kylie.
What she wouldn’t give to be swarthy and mysterious.
She cleared her throat. “It doesn’t matter whether or not I think he’s attractive,” she defended. “I’m not interested. If I never date another man again, I won’t care.”
“Gabs, doll,” Kylie soothed, “it’s been three years since the divorce.”
She held a hand up, knowing precisely where this was going. “And I’ll be single for the rest of my life if I can help it.” There was no way in hell she was going to find herself at the mercy of another man. Not after what Matt had put her through. She’d rather die.
Kylie pursed her lips but refrained from saying whatever else was on her mind. She was the one person in her life that knew all the terrible details, the one that helped her out when she saw no other way. “Just admit that you think Mason’s hot and I’ll drop it.”
Gabi laughed and threw a pillow at her friend. “Okay, yes, he’s hot. Those shoulders alone make my knees feel funny.”
“And those eyes.” Kylie sighed. “He really should be a model or an actor, not stuck behind a lathe all day long.”
“I don’t know,” Gabi mused. “There is something incredibly sexy about a man that works with his hands.” She didn’t add that she was imagining him shirtless.
“True.” She sighed. “Anyway, I’m glad he’s not famous, we can keep him as our little secret.”
Gabi laughed, grabbed the remote, and started the show again.
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Mason
“Oh my God, he actually came,” his brother Seb said as their oldest brother Dom walked into the bar. Since he had gotten engaged a few months ago, it had been damn near impossible to talk him into going anywhere.
Mason waved him over to their table, and Dom smiled at them. It was good to see him so fucking happy, even if it meant he hardly saw him anymore. Of course, if he had a woman like Lula, he would probably smile nonstop too.
A quick image of Gabi’s irritated smile floated through his brain, but he brushed it away and greeted his brother with a manly one-arm hug.
“You look good,” Dom told Mason, sitting down, “but you look like shit, Seb.”
“Ha ha,” Seb said, taking a swig of beer. “At least I don’t look like a man with his balls in a vice.”
Mason laughed.
“Trust me,” Dom said, slinging his arm confidently over the chair next to him, “Lula’s vice is well worth the trouble.”
This drew a snicker from Seb.
“Anyway, Mace tells me you’re headed out for another tour, where you headed this time?”
Seb grinned, his very favorite thing to do was talk about his jazz career. He played tenor saxophone for a nationally famous band and was well known for his prodigious playing. “Fuck yeah, man, we’re headed to Europe for three months. Starting in London and ending in Amsterdam. Can you even imagine it?”
Mason shook his head. He could imagine all the women Seb would bed in those three months, and the number made his brain hurt. “I can, but I don’t want to,” he said dryly.
Dom chuckled and added, “Sounds amazing. Plus, I’ll be glad to have your annoying ass out of the country for an extended period of time.”
“Fuck off,” he retorted. “You’ll miss me and you know it.”
“Not really,” Mason interjected. “Well, maybe Sundays, but only because you’re the only one that can hold a conversation with Steve.”
Seb signaled to the waitress for another beer and shook his head. “If you two would get your heads out of your asses, you’d realize he’s not that bad of a guy.”
“He’s a Yankees fan,” Mason pointed out.
All three of them grimaced.
“I didn’t say he was perfect,” Seb continued. “And besides, he makes mom happy.”
It was true, their mother hadn’t been this happy since before their father’s death over twenty years ago. Dom and Mason had struggled to accept the new man in their mother’s life, but it seemed to bother Seb very little. Mason wished he could corral an iota of his brother’s chill.
Dom shifted in his seat uncomfortably. He had taken the whole thing the hardest. “But you’ll still be in town for the wedding, right?”
“Of course,” he said. “I leave the week after. I wouldn’t miss my brother getting shackled for the rest of his life. Also, Lu would kill me.”
Dom smiled with pride. “That’s my girl.”
Mason shook his head.
“What?” Dom asked, taking a drink of beer. “You know it wouldn’t hurt either one of you to settle down.”
Seb laughed and caught Mason’s eye in disbelief. Before meeting Lula, Dom had been Bachelor Number One. The mere mention of matrimony had made him green. It was a stark change from the man sitting in front of him.
Mason shivered. “I still can’t get used to you like this, and for the record, fuck that. I don’t need to be tied down for any reason. The business keeps me busy at all hours, and at the end of the day, all I really need is a good fuck.”
“Hear, hear!” Seb raised his second bottle of beer. “To freedom.”
Mason clicked his bottle against his brother’s while Dom shook his head with a knowing smile. “You won’t think I’m such a pussy when you meet the right woman.”
“Not true,” Seb fired back, “I will never not think you’re a pussy.”
Mason laughed. He couldn’t imagine committing voluntarily to one woman for the rest of his life. It was the definition of insanity. Take Gabi for example, while he desperately wanted to fuck her six ways from Sunday, he already knew she’d be too complicated. He didn’t want complicated.
He’d had one complicated relationship in his life, and thinking of the way he felt for that one long year of his college life made him want to run from relationships forever. Keep it simple. It was a mantra he had used from that moment on, and he had to admit, his life had been pretty fucking great since then.
“And how is the business?” Dom asked, settling back in his chair.
He couldn’t help but smile. AdamsMade was his baby, his heart and soul. “Good, man. Really good. We’re looking at expanding the facility again to keep up with demand, but I have to find the right guys before I can make that decision.”
“Still vetting every employee down to their underwear?” Seb asked.
“You better believe it,” he snapped back. “And I’d do more if I could. This is my livelihood, I can’t have just any jackass screwing with my designs or putting shoddy work out there. I have a reputation to uphold.”
“All right, all right,” Seb defended with one hand up as he signaled for yet another beer. “I get it.”
Dom just chuckled, but Mason caught a brief look of concern flash across his features at how fast Seb’s beer bottles were adding up. This had been a slowly growing problem for the last several months, and a sick feeling flitted quickly through Mason’s stomach as he realized there was going to have to be a confrontation soon that no one wanted to have.
Setting that aside, their conversation turned to baseball, something they could all agree on, and Mason was reminded once again how lucky he was to be close to his brothers.
When they stood up to leave a couple of hours later, Mason did his cursory glance around the bar for any suitable ladies he might like to take home. Seb was doing the same.
“I’m out,” Seb announced, having spotted a cute brunette with huge tits across the room. “See you guys next week.”
They laughed and watched as he won her over in less than three sentences. Seb tossed them a look as they left arm-in-arm.
“Jesus, the man works fast,” Dom said with a shake of his head. “Your turn, I guess?”
Mason looked around the room once more, there was no shortage of beautiful women in the bar this evening—it was why they always chose this place. But tonight, all he could think about was a tiny redhead in a green silk blouse. Surely he was going insane. “Uh, nah, I’m just going to head home, it’s been a long day.”
Dom’s eyes widened, but he didn’t push it. He loved that about Dom. Instead, they hugged, said goodnight, and left the bar with Gabi as his little secret.