The Price of Mason (Forbidden Men 10)

I could only shake my head. “You have no idea. She doesn’t even stop moving in her sleep. I get exhausted just watching her.”

Nia laughed, and I decided I liked making her laugh. She had a good laugh.

Once we got started jumping over the line of the rope, we thought we’d set a nice easy speed, until she tripped and fell into me, her face landing in the center of my chest.

“Whoa there.” Laughing, I caught her against me. “You okay?”

“Yep. Just peachy,” came the muffled answer. I swear she took extra-long to look up at me because she was sniffing my shirt. When she finally did, she cringed. “Should we slow it down even more?”

“Sure.” Skylar had said to go as slow as we needed to. And since I got to be this close to my suck buddy, I didn’t care how fast we moved.

After we started over, we made it through the length of the rope without either of us tripping once. We might’ve gone at a snails speed but, by God, we made it. So we tried it again, going a little faster, only to have to slow it back down once more.

Meanwhile, we cracked jokes about getting passed by turtles and growing grass. Nia had just laughed about something I’d said and was leaning against my chest, giggling, when she pulled back, squinting at something behind me.

“Um… Do you know those women? I think they’re watching you.”

“What?” I jerked around, only to groan, “Oh, hell, no,” and spin back to her, pressing my hand to my forehead as I closed my eyes.

“I take that to mean you do know them?” Nia sounded amused.

“Nope,” I said. “Never seen them before. They’re definitely not my mom and Aunt Reese, that’s for damn sure.”

Nia laughed. “Really? Which one’s your mom?”

“The blonde one,” I muttered on a resigned sigh before glancing back to see if they were still there.

When they grinned and waved, I lifted my hands in a “what the hell are you doing?” gesture, and they took that as an invitation to hurry over and give me a hug.

“Sorry,” my mom gushed, wrapping her arms around me and smooshing her lips against my cheek. “We were just dropping Chloe and Bella off for their tap dance class and wanted to peek in to see how you were doing.” She pinched my cheek. “I can’t believe my baby boy’s taking his first dance class. This is so exciting.”

“Seriously,” I said, lifting my hand and backing away. “Don’t ever do that again.” I was not a cheek-pinching kind of guy. At all.

Mom merely laughed and

turned to Nia. “Hi, I’m Eva. This is my cousin, Reese. You guys look so cute together. What’s your name?”

Strangely, Nia seemed charmed by my adoptive mother. She introduced herself and even patiently answered a rush of intrusive questions about herself that I hadn’t even thought to inquire about yet; although I gotta admit having a snoopy mom had its perks. In thirty seconds, I learned Nia was the same age as me, had just moved to a new neighborhood with her mom and would be attending the same school with me as soon as summer break was over, and her biggest wish after high school was to open a new hair salon with her mother.

When Skylar noticed Mom and Aunt Reese loitering, she chased them off and forced me and Nia to continue with our footwork drills.

By the time our hour was over, Nia and I were adept at jumping over a rope, two feet at a time, at the speed of a super-fast sloth.

“So…” Biting her lip, Nia sent me a coy smile. “Think you’ll come back for the next class?”

If it gave me the chance to touch her again, hell yes, I’d be back. Unlike Coach, I wasn’t so certain dance class was going to make me a better football player, but if it made him happy and gave me more time with my suck buddy, I could keep doing this, no problem.

Chapter Four

Nia

Four weeks passed. Julian and I practiced three evenings a week, an hour each session. Some days we made some actual progress, and some days it felt as if we were worse than when we’d started this impossible mission. But one thing never wavered: the chemistry that steadily grew between us.

I started wearing tighter, skimpier workout clothes. He put on a little cologne before class. My eyes lingered on him; his hands lingered on me. And we talked nonstop whenever we were together. We’d laugh, we’d argue, we’d flirt. And yet, when the hour was over, we’d go our separate ways and have no other contact with each other whatsoever until the next class.

Because of that, I didn’t want to put too much hope into whatever I felt like was growing between us, but the hope kind of blossomed anyway. I just couldn’t help it. I liked Julian. I liked him a lot.

So when I walked into class for what was supposed to be our last practice together, since he’d be trying out for the team the next day and I’d be surprising my mom with her special anniversary dance the day after that, I was equal parts excited to see him and equal parts sad. I didn’t want this to be our last day together.