Rock Bay 2 - Letting Go (15 page)

loved that there was someone out there who wanted to spend time with him that much.

“Of course not. I was just wondering. It’s game night at Lex and Tally’s. Amy usually comes too. Would you want to do something like that? I can come pick you up and take you home later.”

“That sounds fun,” Mason answered. Drew thought he might sound a bit hesitant. “I’d love to see Amy outside of work.”

“You sure?” Drew didn’t want him to be saying that just because he’d asked.
“Yeah. Totally.”

“Okay, then I can come get you at six. Is six okay?”

“Six is great.” Drew loved that he could hear the smile in Mason’s voice. “So, how was your day?” Mason asked. That usually started their conversations, some short, others marathon.

“It was okay. Better than Monday.”
“What happened Monday?”
Drew realized they’d been so busy asking

each other questions about the past the night before that Drew had never managed to tell Mason what was going on.

“Oh, it totally sucks. You have a few minutes?”
Mason made a scoffing sound. “For you? Of course.”
By the time Drew was finished with his story, which he tried to end on the positive note of him getting a new account with Lex, Mason was totally livid. Drew could practically hear the anger over the phone.
“I can’t believe he’d do that to you. What an asshole! You guys have known each other for years, right?”
Drew sighed. “Yeah. And most of those clients have known me since I was a kid too. That didn’t stop any of them from ditching me when Brock snapped his fingers.”
“I wish I could do something about that.”
“No one can. It’s not your fault he’s a douche.” Mason snorted loudly. “What?”

“I can’t believe you just said douche. That’s so out of character.”

“It is
not
,” Drew protested. He had to laugh, though. He’d been the uptight one of most of the groups he’d ever been in, including their little Rock Bay foursome. Maybe it was time for him to loosen up just a touch.

“I’m home now. I think I’m going to grab a shower and crash early.”
Mmm. Mason. Shower.
Drew tried to yank his mind out of the wet heat where it was trying to decide if Mason’s legs were really as long and gorgeous as they looked.
“Drew?”
“Oh. Um, yeah?”

Mason laughed out loud. “I know what you were doing, mister. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?”

“Of course,” Drew answered. “Night.” “Night,” Mason answered. “Oh, and Drew?” “Yeah.”
“Don’t worry. I picture you naked too.” With that, Mason hung up. Drew was left

staring at the phone and wanting to kiss Mason so badly he could barely stand to not jump in his car and race down there. He cleaned a few dishes, flipped through some television channels, couldn’t sit still to save his life. He’d nearly decided to go for a late-night jog when his phone rang. It was Mason.

“Hello?” he answered with a grin.
“What are you doing?” Mason asked quietly. “Nothing. Pacing. What are you doing?” “Staring at the ceiling.”

Mason sounded a little embarrassed. Drew had to smile. “What’cha thinking?”
There was a long pause. Drew was afraid that Mason had lost service. “I’m thinking I want to kiss you.”
“I want to kiss you too.”
God, did the butterflies come like this every time?
Drew couldn’t remember them happening in the past. Maybe once or twice when he’d had a crush in college… but not
really
. “I can be there in twenty minutes.” If he sped.

“I’ll be waiting.”

Drew hung up with a laugh, grabbed his keys, and ran down the stairs of his building to his car. Driving nearly half an hour just for a kiss? Yeah, he was totally gone. The drive to Astoria never seemed so long. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel the whole time, willing the miles to go quicker. When he finally passed over the bridge into Oregon, Drew smiled and pushed the gas down just a touch more.

Mason was waiting outside the old Victorian house he lived in, hopping back and forth and rubbing his arms, when Drew pulled up.

“Hey,” Drew said. He felt kind of silly. That was until he saw Mason’s smile. It got all big and sweet and so happy.

Mason held his hand out to Drew. “Hi. Come up.”

Drew reached out and took Mason’s hand, happy to be led into the apartment. He couldn’t believe how impulsive he was being; even more, he couldn’t believe how damn good it felt.

“Sorry I dragged you all the way down here,” Mason whispered with a smile as soon as they were in his place. “I just wanted to see you. I tried really hard not to call back.”

Drew cupped Mason’s face with his hand. “I was pacing in circles around my phone anyway. I wanted to see you too. There’s no way I would’ve made it to Saturday.”

Mason slung his arms over Drew’s shoulders and rubbed their noses together like he’d done on Saturday night. “Yeah?” And there was that smile again.

“Yeah.” Drew brushed his lips across Mason’s. “I thought about kissing you all day, you know.” Another brush of the lips, two, three.

“Me too,” Mason admitted. “I was dropping things left and right, spacing out in the middle of conversations. The other nurses must’ve thought I was a pod person. Thank God it was Amy’s day off. She’d have given me so much shit.”

“She’s good at that.”

Drew kissed Mason again, his hands resting on the small of Mason’s back. He felt the heat of Mason’s skin through his thin shirt, wanted so badly to run his hands up under that shirt and feel the long line of Mason’s back, cup the roundness just underneath his loose pajama bottoms. It was too soon, though. Drew contented himself with getting lost in the kiss, being drawn into Mason’s smell, his taste, the sexy little moans that he let out when Drew did something he liked. The experience was intoxicating. Drew was sure he’d never felt anything like it.

“You’re
such
a good kisser,” Mason murmured when they broke apart.
“Really?” Drew had never been told that before.
“Uh. Yeah.” Mason chuckled. “Let’s just say I never dragged another guy out at ten at night before just so I could kiss him.”
“Well, I’ve never driven a half an hour for a kiss either. So maybe we just fit together.”

Mason nodded. “Kiss me again. I need at least two more before you go back home.”

An hour and a half later, a grinning Drew jogged down Mason’s front stairs to his car. His lips were puffy and red, and his hair had been raked through over and over by Mason’s greedy fingers. He was happier than he’d ever remembered being.

“See you Saturday!” Mason called from his window way up at the top of the house.
Drew waved a couple more times, then slid into his car, where he sighed happily and turned the ignition on. Mason….

M
ASON
was nervous. Again. Nervous to see the guy he was
so
into, nervous to hang out with his own friends? He rolled his eyes at himself
.
It was just Drew. Yeah, they’d had progressively more and more flirtatious and downright innuendoed conversations lately, and sure, he was more attracted to Drew than he’d ever been to anyone else that he could remember, but he needed to get a hold of himself.
Jesus
. It would be better when Drew was there, when he could concentrate on Drew’s kisses instead of how his stomach was fluttering over hanging out with people he already knew, for Christ’s sake. He wondered when he’d just be able to relax and not worry about how Drew thought of him. Hopefully soon. His stomach gave another gurgle.

By the time Drew pulled up to get him—he’d insisted on driving Mason back and forth—Mason had talked himself down from some of the nerves. He was still a bit jittery, though. Hadn’t quite figured out why. Drew waved at him from the curb after he’d gotten out of his shiny car. His car said upper middle class the same way his designer jeans did, and the watch he wore, and his nice haircut. It wasn’t much like the station wagon upbringing that Mason’d had, but at least Drew’s attitude didn’t match his belongings.
So far
. Mason hated that little niggling doubt in the back of his head, the one that Todd had shoved there so forcefully. He hated even more that he’d already taken his relationship with Todd out on Drew. Wasn’t going to happen again. He locked his place up and headed down the long, narrow stairs to the front door of his building.

The spring evening was balmy and gorgeous. Mason breathed in the faintly salt-tinged air happily then trotted down the front stairs to meet Drew at his car down at street level.

“Evening, young sir, can I offer you a ride?” Drew asked with a smile.

“You’re cheesy.” Mason giggled. Then he kissed Drew soundly to take away any of the sting in his words.

“I’m the master of cheese.” Drew rolled his eyes at himself. “C’mon. They’re waiting for us to fire up the grill. You should see it. Lex has the whole roof of his place all set up to barbecue. The view’s awesome. You can see all of downtown.”

Mason settled into the passenger seat of Drew’s car. “How the hell did Lex afford a whole building anyway?”

Drew shrugged. “Rock Bay has picked up. A few years ago it was pretty depressed. I bet that building cost less than most of the houses would now. Since he lives there too, it saved him some money, and his coffee shop is doing pretty well.”

“Yeah, he said Tally was working on building the catering side of things. Doing luncheons and stuff.”

Drew snorted. “Wonder how Lex roped him into that. He hates catering.”

“Hey, you know, my friend Logan is getting into town tomorrow, and he’s going to look for a summer job. Wonder if they need any help with the catering, you know, serving and stuff?”

“Probably. Ask Tally. I bet he doesn’t want to do all of it alone.”

When they pulled up in front of the building, a skinny, dark-haired kid was locking up the coffee shop. He had a skateboard shoved under his arm and a baseball hat covering most of his black fringe. Mason remembered Lex telling him about a guy named Travis who worked for him.
Must be him
. Mason climbed out of Drew’s car. Drew followed and waved at the kid before going to his trunk to get out a salad and a six-pack of Corona.

“Hey, Trav,” he called with a smile. “Hey, Drew.” The kid waved back. “I’m glad

I ran into you. I wanted to tell you the news.” “News? What news?”
“Cheri got into Stanford. I’m moving down

south with her.”

Drew’s face fell. “That’s great.” He tried to look happy, but Mason saw right through it. Obviously, Drew had connected to Lex and Tally’s employee. He turned to Mason. “Mason, this is Travis. He makes the best coffee ever. I’m going to miss him. Travis. This is Mason.”

“Hey.” Travis’s greeting was casual. Mason liked the kid already.
“Hi.”

“Anyway, I gotta take off. And no worries, D. I’ve got till September, and my cousin is moving into town. He’s had a rough couple of years, but I think he’ll like it here. We’re going to work together for a few weeks, then he’s going to replace me at the shop. I’ll make sure he does it right for ya. I know how you like it.” Travis gave Drew a big wink. Mason would’ve been jealous if he didn’t know that Travis was totally joking.

“You’re a jerk.” Drew laughed anyway.

“I’ll see you around. Have a good night. And it was nice to meet you.” Travis smiled at Mason. Mason nodded and smiled back.

“Hey, Trav. Don’t leave town without saying good-bye, yeah?”

“I won’t.” He tossed his board on the ground and took off down the street.
Drew sighed. “I’m gonna miss that kid.”
“You close?” Mason took Drew’s hand as they started to walk around the side of the building to where an old wrought iron fire escape led to the roof.
Drew shrugged. “Not really, we just kinda bonded. His girlfriend is black, people gave him shit about it, he’s one of the ones who talked me into coming out. I’m glad he did.” Drew squeezed Mason’s hand.

“Me too.”

The rooftop looked awesome. Drew had been right. Between the view, the delicious smells from the grill, the picnic table that was all covered in

great-looking food, and the colored lights that were draped along the roofline, it was festive, fun, and just felt like summer.

“Hey, honey!” Amy was the first to greet him. Drew was a few steps behind him.

“Hi, Amy.” Mason couldn’t help chuckling at her obvious tipsiness.
“I made pineapple daiquiris. You so need to try one of these.”
Mason allowed himself to be dragged off by Amy. Once his daiquiri was in hand, he greeted Lex and Tally and found Drew’s hand again to hold. They took seats in two of the lawn chairs that had been scattered about and relaxed, fingers loosely threaded together, in the balmy twilight. Drew closed his eyes and leaned back against the cushion.

“This is such a perfect night,” Mason said aloud. He hadn’t been talking to anyone in particular, but Lex answered.

“Isn’t it? Not too hot, not raining. Perfect.”

Drew didn’t say anything, but he ran the pad of his thumb around Mason’s palm. Mason shivered and tipped his head back to stare at the darkening indigo night.

“You guys are freaking adorable,” Amy said in a rather loud stage whisper. “I still can’t believe
Drew’s
the guy Mason was talking about all those weeks. How coincidental is that?”

Drew cracked his eyes open and looked at Mason. “You were talking about me?”
God, how embarrassing. I hate you, Amy. “Maybe.”
“It’s okay, I was talking about you too. You can ask Tally.”
“He was,” Tally called from the grill. “He wanted to meet you from the first time he saw you.”

“And all of his friends already knew you. Such irony.” Amy did a mock swoon, then twirled around.

“Babe, I think you might need some chips and dip before you finish that drink,” Lex said. He picked the daiquiri out of Amy’s hand and set it on the table.

“Probably,” she singsonged. Mason stood, with a slight squeeze to Drew’s hand, and joined her at the table to grab each of them a plate of tortilla chips and a few of the awesome dips that were laid out. He dunked a chip in some black bean dip that looked homemade and amazing. Amazing it was.

“Damn, who made this dip?”
“I did,” Tally answered. “I’ve been getting into cooking lately. All those years waiting tables, and here I come to find out I should’ve been one of the chefs.”

“I want to try it,” Drew said from the lawn chair.