The Mason Dixon Line (A Horizons Novel) (7 page)

She pushed at his shoulders. He froze,
looking at her with his dark eyes that she had so much trouble reading. What
was he thinking? “I don’t think it’s a good idea to mess up this project so
that we can get naked for a few minutes. I’m sure it would be fun, but we’ve
have to work together afterward and that might be awkward.” She plunged on. “I
really need the money for this project. I have some debt. . .” She trailed off.
“Kind of a lot, actually.”

He looked confused, and maybe even hurt?
Surely not. “It’s nothing personal. I’m sure it would have been fun.” She heard
the wistfulness in her own voice and realized she was disappointed in spite of
herself.

Mason shook his head as if to clear it. “You’re
right. I don’t have casual sex anyway.”

Oh, great. Now he remembered that. Why
couldn’t he have thought of that a few minutes ago and spared her this?

He maneuvered back into the driver’s seat
and helped restore her seat to its normal position. She immediately missed his
weight and warmth. Her thigh tingled where his hand brushed it as he reached
across her to lift her seat back up again.

“Why don’t you run in and get out of the rain?
I’ll bring in the groceries.”

“I can help.” The spitting rain hit her in
the face, chilling her to the bone, but she grabbed two bags of groceries and ran
to the patio, waiting for him to unlock the door. He got the rest of the
groceries, slammed the trunk, and made a dash for it.

His glasses were back in place, she
noticed.

He put the groceries down and unlocked the
door. Before she could enter, he put a hand on her arm.

Just a simple touch of his fingers to her
forearm, but it arrested her attention like a thunderclap.

“I’m sorry about what happened out there,”
he said, as if the whole thing had been his idea. As if she hadn’t reached out,
touched him first, kissed him first. “I don’t know what came over me.”

I did
, she
wanted to say.
I came over you, and you
couldn’t resist me.

But that would be stupid, and she was
determined once in her life to do the smart thing where a guy was concerned. “Don’t
worry about it. It won’t happen again.”

That had to be some kind of a record, even
for him. He’d screwed things up with a girl and he wasn’t even dating her.

In the outer room, the TV blared. He and
Carolyn had spent the day working, their time together quiet but productive. After
a quick dinner of spaghetti and a salad, she’d found an old Goldie Hawn movie
on DVD and settled in for the night. Restless, he’d headed into the office with
the convertible sofa bed to curl up with a book. He told himself he needed some
downtime after working so intently, but the truth was, he needed time away.

Carolyn claimed to understand about the
casual sex thing, but she’d been quiet. He knew he’d screwed up yesterday, but
he didn’t know exactly how.

Best to avoid her for a while until she got
over this weird mood. Or until he got over his weird mood. He honestly couldn’t
tell who was the weird one here.

He knelt beside the desk. He’d pushed the
box with his pet chameleon out of her sight, under the desk where he could
remove the tarp.

“Hey, buddy.” He reached for the box of
meal worms and shook a few into the feeding dish. “Where you at, Barney?” The
tank was filled with fake plants and a couple of hidey-holes for the shy
reptile to take refuge in. Usually he’d come out when he heard someone messing
with his dish.

The green lizard’s snout emerged from under
a tangled vine. “There you are, buddy.” He extended his hand toward the animal,
stretching it out to let Barney get a sense of him. Mason’s medications had
worn off for the day, but spending time with animals always gave him a sense of
peace that had been in short supply for him for the past couple of days.

The thought of Carolyn made his palms break
out into a sweat, so he didn’t let himself go there. Slowly he took hold of
Barney and lifted him out of the cage.

Barney sat unblinking, unmoving on the back
of his hand, his spike of a tail thrusting upward.

A rap came on the door. “Hey, I made some
popcorn. You want some?”

“Uh, no. Um, I don’t —” He trailed off, looking
around. Should he hide Barney?

“What’s the matter? Is everything okay?” He
heard a note of concern in her voice.

“Yes, sure.” Before he could replace Barney
in his cage, the lizard jumped off of his hand and scampered across the room. “Shit!”

“Mason, what’s the matter? I’m coming in.”

Before he could respond, she opened the
door. “What’s going on—” He knew exactly when she spotted Barney, because that’s
when she gasped.

“What the hell is that thing? How did it
get in here?” She cast a frantic glance around the room, as if she were
expecting to see a big crack in the wall where exotic lizards might have gained
entrance.

“I brought him. He’s my pet.” He jerked his
head at the cage under the desk.

“Your pet?” The bowl of popcorn sagged in
her hands, forgotten, until a few kernels spilled. She righted it and stuck it
on the nearby desk. “You’ve had a lizard in here this whole time and didn’t
tell me?”

“Well, I didn’t run out and buy him
yesterday.”

“Testy, testy.”

He didn’t know why he hadn’t wanted her to
know about Barney. Maybe having a reptile for a pet was one more weird thing
about him he didn’t think the cheerleader in her would understand.

Why he cared whether she understood or not,
he couldn’t say.

Barney took a few slow halting steps to
seek refuge under the hem of the drapes.

“Does he bite?”

“No.”

To his surprise, she knelt down to get a
closer look.

“Can I hold him?”

“You want to hold him?” he repeated.

“Yeah. Why? Shouldn’t I?”

Why not? “I guess I thought you’d think he
was gross. Most people prefer cats or dogs.”

“Well, I do prefer cats or dogs. He isn’t exactly
cuddly. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t interesting.” She looked at him. She’d
changed into baggy gym shorts and a T-shirt at some point, washed off her
makeup, and pulled her hair back into a ponytail. It surprised him. He thought
she’d never want to be seen at any less than her best.

Even though they were out here in the woods
alone together, she’d still blown out her hair and put on makeup every morning,
earning his mockery every day. This new casualness probably meant she didn’t
care what he thought of her, now that they’d decided to keep things
professional. She looked very young without makeup and not a bit less
attractive.

Unfortunately.

“What’s his name?”

“Barney.”

She snorted. “Where’d you get that from?”

“Barney Rubble, from
The
Flintstones
. He was
the first cartoon character I learned to draw. I copied him off of the cereal box.”
He carefully lifted Barney. “Hold out your hand.”

She did so, looking apprehensive. When his
claws touched the smooth skin of her arms, she flinched but said nothing.

“Nervous?”

She nodded, eyes wide.

“Don’t be. He wouldn’t hurt a fly.” He
watched Barney fixing his unblinking stare on an equally unblinking Carolyn. “Well,
actually, he would hurt a fly, but he wouldn’t hurt you.”

“You weren’t kidding when you said you
liked reptiles, huh?”

“The lead in my online comic strip is a chameleon.
I studied them so much to learn how to draw them, I became fascinated and then
decided I wanted one.” Obsessions were part and parcel of ADHD. His fixations,
drawing and lizards, were benign. Others weren’t so lucky.

“His eyes are funny. He’s so bug-eyed,” she
said in what he could only describe as a marveling tone. She actually liked his
pet. She didn’t think it was weird or gross. Unbelievable.

He’d been watching her for a long time,
just thinking, when she looked at him. “What?”

“Nothing.” He forced his gaze down to
Barney, who shifted uneasily on her forearm, lowering into a chameleon crouch.
He lifted one foot slowly and put it down, and then froze, his eyes abug.

“What’s he doing?”

“I think he’s a little stressed, probably
from being handled too much. Time to go back in your cage, big guy.”

He lifted it off of her and put it back in
the cage, and then secured the lid.

“I hope I didn’t do anything wrong.” She
bit her lower lip.

“Nah. You were great. He’s just a little
hard to handle.” Like owner, like pet.

“Sooo, I had a favor to ask, besides just
wanting to deliver popcorn, by the way.” She looked uncertain.

He helped her to her feet, grabbed the
popcorn, and took a seat on the sofa, gesturing her to sit.

“It’s kind of a big favor, I warn you.”

“Shoot. What do you need?” His brain raced
ahead of him. What could she want? A back rub? Money? Sexual favors?

In his dreams. They’d already settled that
issue once and for all in his Subaru.

“I need a ride back to Indy on Friday. My
older sister is throwing a thirtieth wedding anniversary party for my parents.”
She made a face that hinted at some history there, but didn’t explain. “With
everything that’s been going on, I forgot about it until the reminder popped up
on my phone.”

“Oh, sure.” Not what he was expecting, but
not much trouble, either. “Sure, I can give you a ride. How long you think it
will last? I can kill time for a while and pick you up later.” He could drop in
on his aunt while Carolyn socialized with her family, or look up some old
friends.

She reached for a handful of popcorn,
chewing deliberately and then swallowing. The movement of her mouth electrified
him, and he shifted the bowl of popcorn in his lap to hide his reaction.

Fortunately, she’d chosen a really big
bowl.

“Actually, I was kind of hoping you’d go
with me.”

“Huh?” Surely he hadn’t heard that right.
The cheerleader wanted a geek on her arm for the night?

“I kind of hate to go to this sort of thing
by myself. It would be nice to have company.”

“You hate to see your family by yourself?”
He didn’t get it. “But you’re not by yourself. You’re with your family.”

Eye-roll. “I mean, without a date. I was
hoping you could sort of be my date. And before you get all worked up, I know
we’re keeping it all business, okay? This is just for my family’s sake. They’re
always on my case about dating someone. If you came with me, it wouldn’t be so
bad.”

“So you’d lie to your family and tell them
we were dating?” He was still having trouble getting the concept that Carolyn
Hart was choosing to seen with him in public, among people she knew.

She swallowed another bit of popcorn and
shook her head. “We wouldn’t have to tell them anything. If they ask, I’ll say
you’re my date, which is kind of true. They won’t be rude enough to question
you about it to your face.” She tilted her head thoughtfully. “Actually, my
sister, Gwen, who is planning this thing,
might
be rude enough to do that. But we’ll avoid her as much as possible.”

Amazing. Not only was she willing to be
seen with him in public, but she expected people to think they were a couple,
and she was okay with that. Huh.

Obviously that meant nothing. Anyone
roughly her age and male and reasonably good-looking—which he flattered himself
was a fair description of him—would do to keep her family’s nosiness at bay, so
why did he feel ridiculously pleased by the whole thing?

“So what do you say?”

“I don’t have anything to wear to something
like that.” It was a stall, but he had a point too. She’d go crazy if he showed
up at a formal event in his red-tassled hat and a pair of holey jeans. He didn’t
actively relish the thought of pissing her off anymore. Wow, how far they’d
come. “I don’t think your family’s going to be too impressed by my collection
of indie rock T-shirts.”

“True.” She eyed him. “Stand up for a
minute, will you?”

He complied, feeling terribly on the spot.
Fortunately his hard-on had dissipated, thank God, so he didn’t have to worry
about that.

“I think my brother-in-law, Gwen’s husband,
is about your size. He’s an attorney and he’s got a million suits. My sister wouldn’t
let him get away with anything less.”

Once again, he got the feeling of tension
there, but he didn’t ask. Her family stuff was none of his business.

Still, her hints surprised him. He would
have thought Miss Perfect had come from an equally perfect family.

“They won’t think it’s weird that I don’t
have any dress clothes?”

“I’ll tell them you came in from Chicago
and weren’t expecting to attend an event like this, which is the truth.”

True enough, but he didn’t have any dress
clothes at home, either. He’d keep that fun fact to himself.

She narrowed her eyes. “You do have dress
clothes at home, don’t you?”

So much for keeping that to himself.

He shrugged. “They never seemed necessary.”

She shook her head. “You and I live in
different worlds, Mason. Different worlds.”

He didn’t even bother to agree with her, it
was so obvious.