Page 80 of Take Me
Mason’sbed, technically, though now that I’ve lived here a while, it’s starting to feel more like ours.
I’m ignoring the fact that Annabelle slept here before me.Shoving that thought from my mind, I roll to my side as Mason tugs off his tie.He’s grinning his warm, Mason grin as he tosses his tux jacket over a chair and sprawls out beside me.
“My life flashed before my eyes when Jake turned around.”He props his chin in a hand and brushes the hair off my face.“I still can’t believe Cass was so chill about the panties.”
“They had to know that was kind of a risky tradition.”Is it really tradition if they just made it up on the fly?“A sweet idea, though.”
“Let’s please refrain from calling my brother’s sex life ‘sweet.’”He shudders like he just pictured Jake in the act.“This is the guy who gave me my first wedgie.”
“Fine.”For the record though, Cass and Jake’s planwaskinda sweet.
Overwhelmed by the stress of wedding festivities, they squeezed in a quickie in Cassidy’s dressing room.High on adrenaline and love-squishy hormones, the bride stuffed her panties in the groom’s pocket.“When you get nervous during the ceremony,” Cass told him, “put your hand in your pocket and picture us on our honeymoon.”
I guess Jake got nervous.
“It was a great wedding, other than that.”
Mason lifts an eyebrow.“Maybe it was a great weddingbecauseof that.”
“Absolutely.”I struggle to keep a straight face.“Every bride dreams of having her panties flung around at the altar.”
He chuckles and toes off his shoes, letting them thump to the floor.“Cass laughed harder than anyone.”
“True.”To be honest, it seemed like she liked the moment of levity.“I guess you’re two for two with comedic wedding interludes.”
“Maybe I should start selling my services.”
“Don’t get too cocky.And definitely don’t make me laugh during Lucy’s wedding.It’s my first time being a bridesmaid.”
“Did you know she didn’t want any bridesmaids at all?”He touches my hair again, one finger gently skimming my ear.“She just planned to have Harper as her maid of honor and call it a day.”
“Really?”
“Yep.Second wedding and all.”Mason shrugs.“She wanted to keep it low key, but Harper convinced her that being a maid of honor wouldn’t feel powerful enough if she didn’t have a whole troop of bridesmaids to oversee.”
“God, I love that kid.”Picturing fourteen-year-old Harper as a bridesmaid overlord makes me laugh.“How do you imagine your future wedding?”
As soon as I ask, I wish I could take back the question.He doesn’t think I’m suggesting a future forus, right?
But Mason answers too quickly for me to explain.“Laughter,” he says.“Lots and lots and lots of laughter.And more laughter.Then maybe—and this might be a wild idea—just a little more laughter.”
“That sounds nice.”
“Yeah.”He’s quiet a moment.“Annabelle and Neil seemed good together.”
“They did, didn’t they?”I watched them glide past on the dance floor, Neil gazing deep into Annabelle’s eyes.“Is it wrong that I felt just a tiny bit smug when he tripped coming back from the buffet?”
“Very wrong.”Mason looks solemn.“A perfectly good pile of mashed potatoes lost its life today.”
“Nice job prompting the DJ to cue up that mashed potato song from the sixties.”
“You think the dance contest was too much?”
“Nah, people loved it.”The mashed potato dance-a-thon got everyone grooving.Even my father did twirls in his wheelchair, Ruby Brooks perched on his lap.
“I still think we should have won.”
“Considering neither of us had a clue how to do the Mashed Potato, I think third place is perfectly respectable.”
