Crashed (Mason Brothers 2)

Andrew frowned at me. “Well, sure. Wait a minute—what girl?”

“The good-looking one I watched from my window.”

“You watched Candy from your window?”

“Her name is Candy?” I thumped my palm against the arm of my chair. “For real? No one is named Candy. Plus she’s younger than me, and her boobs were almost as nice as mine. I’m going to have to kill her.”

“Tessa.”

“Now I’m going to have to go to haircutting school as well as nursing school. Damn it.”

He rolled his eyes. “I didn’t see Candy’s boobs, okay? She cut my hair, that’s all.” Politely he added, “Though from what I could see, they weren’t as nice as yours at all.”

Just like that, the air went heavy between us. We were talking about sex, about us, and yet we weren’t at all. This was just how we did things, two people as damaged as we were. This was how we understood each other. And we did.

I said, “You read my texts.” It wasn’t a question.

Andrew looked away for a minute, his shoulders tensing again. “Yeah, I did.”

“I meant them,” I said. “I’m sorry for what I said. For freaking out and leaving.” I swallowed. “I’m just really, really sorry. Can we go back?”

He was quiet for a minute as the music and the voices washed around us, like white noise. I couldn’t have said who a single person was in this park right now. Just Andrew Mason. That was all.

“There’s no going back,” he said finally. He turned and looked at me, his dark eyes finding mine. “There’s only forward.”

My heart skipped a beat in hope. “Okay.”

He shook his head. “You have to be sure. Are you? Is that what you really want?”

“Yes.”

“Tessa. You said it’s hard, and you were right. This shit is hard. I’m fucked up, deeply and permanently. You have an idea of how much.”

“Fuck that,” I said, my voice rough. “You put every other man I’ve met to shame. You’re a thousand times the man they are. And in case you haven’t figured it out, I’m completely in love with you.” I took a breath. “So, yes, it’s hard, but I can do it. We can do it. We’ll just have to make our own script, right?”

He was watching my face, his gaze traveling the line of my jaw, the curve of my cheek, then meeting my eyes. “That’s the idea,” he said softly.

I held his gaze with mine. “Then I’m in.”

A smile touched the corner of his mouth, and my heart skipped another beat.

“Okay then,” Andrew said. “We may as well scandalize the neighborhood.”

He leaned over, cupped the back of my head in one hand, and kissed me.

Right there where everyone could see.

I kissed him back, leaning in. He tasted like Andrew and summer and a little like warm beer. It was the best flavor in the world.

We kissed like that for a long time, until a kid laughed and a few of the adults whistled.

Then we kept going.

And eventually, we ditched our drinks and he took me home.

Thirty-Four

Andrew