Page 24 of Hypnotized By Love

“Maybe not, but now all I can think about is shell-less turtles, and it’s making me sad. Along with the serving size on this bag. Fifteen chips is one serving? I eat fifteen chips while standing in the pantry trying to decide whether or not I want chips.”

It made me deliriously happy that my sister could joke about eating. That she was eating mindlessly without worrying about calories. She mocked serving sizes now, but I could remember a time when she wouldn’t have let herself eat chips and would have scrutinized every calorie and bite of food that she would allow herself to eat.

My eyes felt a little misty, and I shook my head in an attempt to clear my vision. “That shell-less turtle is going to hang out with Bridget and alligators.”

That got Sierra’s attention. “Both are going to eat him alive.”

“Exactly.”

“Meh, he’s a big boy. He doesn’t need you to save him.”

That reminded me of something Mason had said in our session. “Do you think we want to rescue people?”

“From alligators?”

“No, in general. Like we have some need to save people. I mean, you are a nurse.”

She shrugged and ate another chip. “I like my job. If that means I have some savior complex, so what? People get helped either way.”

Right. Mason needed help, and given that I was the one who had done this to him, it felt like my responsibility.

I couldn’t tell Sierra the thing I was most worried about, because he’d said it in confidence. That he’d been used by his last girlfriend and didn’t want it to happen again.

And I adored Bridget, but she would a hundred percent use that man all up and then toss him to the side. Although maybe that’s what he was after, and I should just step aside and let him have his fun.

Unfortunately, I had this thing in my head called a conscience, and it made me feel like I should intervene.

At least for the next twenty-four hours or so.

“Does this mean he’s stuck this way? Always saying yes to things?” Sierra asked. “Like, are you going to have to be his babysitter for the rest of his life?”

That sounded like my version of hell. “There are Buddhist monks who spend their whole lives trying to stay in a deep trance state and never achieve it, so I think it’s safe to say that Mason Beckett is not going to be stuck this way. He’ll be back to his old obnoxious dirtbag self soon enough. But I think for the next day or so, given what I suspect, I have to watch out for him.”

She chewed her chip thoughtfully, looking at me like she didn’t believe me. “So you’re just going to crash their date? Bridget’s not going to like that.”

“They both invited me.”

Her eyebrows shot up her forehead. “They both invited you? That’s ... entirely abnormal. Explain to me how this happened.”

“Mason asked me to go to dinner with him and I obviously said no and then Bridget showed up and he asked her out instead and they said I could come.”

I knew how weird it sounded, and Sierra’s look confirmed it. “He asked you to go to dinner with him?”

“Right. But I shot him down.”

A long pause and then she said, “By going to dinner with him tonight anyways?”

I was trying to put my necklace on, and that made me stop, my hands hovering behind my neck. She was right.

He had gotten me to go to dinner with him even though I’d said no.

Sneaky jerk.

“Why do you think he wants to take you to dinner?” she asked when I didn’t respond to her correct and now blatantly obvious observation.

I shut the clasp and made sure the pendant was hanging correctly. “He said something about talking things over.”

“Why does he want to talk now?”

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