Page 52 of Take Me
“Your girlfriend didn’t like being close to you?”I laid my board right next to his and dropped down beside him.“No wonder you broke up.”
“No, she didn’t like how closeyou and Iwere.Jealous, I guess.”He reached over and tugged a ribbon of waterweed off my bikini strap.
His hand barely grazed me, but for one tiny second, I thought he was grabbing my boob.My heart started thudding, a tingly pulse in my ears.
“Jealous.”The idea sounded absurd at the time.“What, like you can’t have a friend who’s a girl?”
“Right?”Shaking his head, Mason lay back in the grass.“I told her there’s absolutely nothing between us.You’re just like a guy friend, you know?”
“Yeah.”That was the summer I’d gotten my ASE Masters certification and started working full time at the garage with his brother.“A customer told me today I’ve got balls.”
Laughing, he let his eyes flutter shut in the sunshine.“Gretta couldn’t handle us, I guess.Probably a good thing we broke up, huh?”
“Yeah.”I lay back beside him, my hand brushing his in our usual platonic way.For the next twenty minutes, the spots where we’d touched kept tingling like someone had tasered me.
But even then I understood Mason liked girls who wore ruffly skirts and knew how to wield a mascara wand.One week later, I started dating an Army Ranger with searing gold eyes and a ’68 Chevy Camaro.By the end of the summer, I’d gone back to Neil, and Mason returned to dating a long string of girly girls.
Rolling over in bed, I punch at my pillow again.There’s a damn good reason nothing ever happened between Mason and me.We’re meant to be friends.That’s all there is to it.
I drift off to sleep, reminding myself that’s how it should be.Mason’s my buddy, that’s all.
We wake the next morning, both blurry from wine and poor sleep.Breakfast is scrumptious, but quiet.Packing is a silent task, too, though Mason has the good sense to blame it on hangovers.
“Shouldn’t have had so much rosé,” he mutters as he hoists himself into the truck.
“No kidding.”I sling my bags in back and slide into the passenger seat.“I took two Advil, and my head’s still pounding.”
My head is just fine, and even my boobs are all right.A little tender, but not red anymore.My brain, on the other hand, won’t stop spinning six-thousand miles per second.
Why did I beg him to touch me like that?It’s true that he started it, maybe for altruistic reasons.It makes sense that suckling an injured body part would soothe pain.When I whack my knuckle working on an engine, instinct commands me to stick the injured finger in my mouth.I generally don’t, but I get why Mason would do what he did.
I’m the one who let things get out of hand.The one who clutched the back of his head, begging him to suck harder, to tease me with his tongue as I wrapped my leg around him and?—
“Knock knock.”
I turn to face him as Mason slips on his sunglasses and pulls out of the parking lot.He looks easy and calm with one elbow propped on the armrest.
“Who’s there?”I deliver my line as casually as I can, praying he can’t hear the shake in my voice.
“Needle.”He says it so straight-faced and breezy.
“Needle who?”
“Needle little water over here.”He grins and nods to my Hydro Flask.“Meant to fill up my bottle before we left.Mind if I steal a sip of yours?”
I twist off the top and pass it over, relieved at how normal we’re being.Mason’s still Mason and I’m still me, and we can get through this just fine.It was just a silly blip on the radar.A tipsy moment that meant nothing at all.Certainly not enough to cost us our friendship.
I watch him gulp from my bottle, doing my best not to stare at his lips.When he hands back the water, he grins as he wipes his mouth with his wrist.“Thanks.I’ll get you a refill when we stop for gas.”
“Need any Tylenol?”
“Nah, I’m good.”
I hesitate.I need to address it, just once, to be sure.“Arewegood?”
I wait for the smartass response.For Mason to pretend he doesn’t know what I mean.“Yeah,” he says softly, making my insides hum.“We’re good.”
Thank God.
