Page 50 of Untethered Heart
I don’t look back at him as I hurry past a curious Isabelle and Riley and rush over to the elevators.
I don’t turn at the sound of my name while I wait for the doors to open.
I keep my eyes locked on my feet as I step into the carriage and push the button.
But as the doors start to close, I falter. I give in to temptation. Before I’m sealed inside and trapped with my thoughts, I look up. For just a second, I hold his green gaze in mine, filled with the same questions I have.
What the fuck do we do?
Chapter twenty-six
“Are you free this Friday to look at that house with me?” Mason asks as he leans against the bench opposite me in Grams’s kitchen, pissing Beth off as he continues to get in her way.
“Why do you want my opinion?” I ask and take a sip of my ice-cold beer.
The heat is picking up, I’ve even traded my usual button-up shirt for a thin cotton T-shirt.
“I can’t bring Mum. She’ll tell me it’s too much work.”
“You’re such a mama’s boy,” Beth says from behind him, where she’s mashing potatoes for dinner. “Make yourself useful and pass me the salt.”
“And I can’t take Beth, she just takes over,” he whispers to me before taking two steps toward the pantry.
“No, it’s right there where you were standing!” Beth scolds.
Mason makes an elaborate turn on his heel, dancing back over to where he was originally standing, and picks up the salt shaker to put it next to Beth.
He rejoins me and leans against the benchtop. “So, you’ll come?”
“Sure.” I shrug.
I see Beth pick up the salt shaker, and with one flick of her hand, the lid flies off. Beth slowly turns her head like an owl, swivelling on her neck with wide-open eyes. She totally justfucked Grams’s potatoes. As if I needed more disappointment with this week. First Lex. Now my dinner.
“Good—” I start to say before Beth cuts me off.
“Hey, Mase, can you pour it in? My hands are full.” She works harder to mash and stir in the big pot.
Mason turns away from me, stepping over to our sister, picking up the shaker with a smile. “Say when.”
The second he starts to pour, the lid flies off again, emptying half the canister into the pot. Mason’s face drops in horror, while Beth looks at him with a shake of her head.
“Grams!” she shouts. “Mason ruined your potatoes.”The little shit.
I raise an eyebrow at my diabolical sister. She shrugs without apology as Grams walks into the room.
“What happened, sweetheart?” Grams goes straight to my baby brother with a hand on his cheek. He holds up the shaker.
“The lid came off.”
With a gentle pat, she says, “That’s okay, my darling. There’s still plenty of food. Come.” She hooks an arm through his and leads him outside.
“You’re so evil,” I tell my sister once Grams and Mase leave the room.
“We both know he’s the only one who wouldn’t get in trouble for that,” she says as she crosses to the fridge to grab a cider.
I pick up my beer, and we make our way to the patio where the rest of the family is.
Dad, Grandpa, and Gage hover over the barbecue, plating the various meats while Mum arranges cutlery around the table.
