He was so handsome, so sexy. It would have been so easy for me to fall in love with him at first sight, if for no other reason than his notorious reputation. Of course, I didn’t really know how much of that was real and how much was media fabrication. I’d been curious to learn more about him and find out, but thus far I’d just been too chicken to really speak much to him.

Still, he was always so sweet to me, and especially to Toby. I’d read somewhere that you could tell a lot about a man by the way he treated his children, and from what I could see, Mason was a wonderful father and probably a great man.

But there was still that nagging voice in the back of my mind that would not let me get close to him.

I’d tried to shut it down and let myself open up, but ever since my last serious relationship with Bobby Dyer went south, I found myself not able to really trust any man, especially a man with as many rumors swirling around about him as Mason Savage had.

But damn, he was a fine looking man.

“How’s my little slugger?” Mason asked hoisting Toby up into his arms. Toby wrapped his little arms around Mason’s thick neck and hugged him tightly, laying his head on his father’s shoulder. The beam of pride and love in Mason’s eyes for his son was inspiring.

I hoped that one day I had someone in my life who loved me even half as much.

After putting the last toy chest in its place in the corner, I let out a sigh and took a slight stretch as I rose to my full height of five feet eight inches. Mason towered over me. He must have been six feet two or three and well built. He was usually wearing a nice sport coat over a casual shirt with rugged looking jeans. The way he dressed basically summed up the ambiguity of the man. From what I’d been able to glean about him, he was a rugged man who loved the outdoors and extreme sports, but was also sensitive when he needed to be. He was serious about business, but took life with a grain of salt. I rarely saw anything but happiness and cheer coming from him.

Except he did seem a bit nervous around me. I wasn’t sure why. Perhaps he just wasn’t good at relating to women he wasn’t actively pursuing romantic trysts with. It seemed every other week there was a new article about him and a new mystery woman, or I’d see pictures of him online out and about in the club scene.

From what I saw from him every day when he dropped off and picked up his son, was a loyal and devoted father and family man, whose wife had died tragically a few years ago.

“I’m great daddy!” Toby cheered.

I joined in. The glee of the child was infectious.

“Today Toby led the class in our daily spelling bee!” I said rubbing Toby on the back of the head. He grinned ear to ear, basically eating it all up with a spoon. He was a smart, sweet child; a truly great kid.

“That’s excellent, champ!” Mason said.

Every day I led the kids in a spelling bee of the new letters they were learning, showing them how often they were used and getting them used to seeing them in real words and sentences. We were almost through the alphabet and then I planned on starting to teach them how to read complete sentences. I loved doing it, watching them grow and develop, but I did wish that more parents would put forth the effort to work with their kids outside of class just a little bit. If they did, then I could move their children much farther along and when they started kindergarten the following year they would have been way ahead of the national average.

But I felt privileged that I got to have at least some impact.

“See you tomorrow, Toby,” I said. And then a little quieter. “Bye Mason.”

Mason stood there looking at me for a moment, his gaze dropping and then back up again. He opened his mouth and started to say something, but it sounded like his voice stuck in his throat. He gave a cough and then looked at me for a few more seconds. I had the feeling he wanted to say something else, but instead he just smiled and nodded.

“Goodbye, Libby,” Mason said quietly as he carried Toby out the door.

I watched the doorway for a few moments taken aback a bit and wondering exactly what Mason had been trying to say. Was he going to say anything? Or did he have something else on his mind entirely. It wouldn’t have surprised me if he did. I’d done some reading on him lately and with all of the ventures that he was working on at any one given time, it wouldn’t have shocked me if he couldn’t remember his own name half the time.

Tags: Mia Ford Accidental Hook-Up Romance
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