Hot damn.
My grin stretched wide, loving the power I wielded. I could actually make the unbendable Mason Lowe break one of his sacred rules and give a girl a freebie. “Cool,” I admitted. Scooping up my purse from the table, I remembered I’d left my phone on the floor in the hallway.
“My phone,” I told him before I disappeared for a second. When I returned with it, he’d slunk to the table and was sitting in a chair with his elbows resting on the tabletop and his face cradled in his trembling hands.
Tucking my phone away, I said, “I guess I’ll see you around then.”
When I slung my purse strap over my shoulder, he lifted his weary gaze. “Are you seriously going to walk out of here right now after I just confessed my soul to you, cool as a cucumber, without reciprocating at all?”
“What?” I sent him a blank look. Then I rolled my eyes and reached out to ruffle his amazing hair. “Mason Lowe, if you don’t know by now that I’m attracted as hell to you, you’re freaking blind.”
He stared at me a moment before muttering, “There. Was that so hard to admit?”
I stuck out my tongue and started for the door. “Good night, Hotness.”
“’Night, Reese.” I heard his much softer response as I slipped into the warm night.
I stood with my back to the closed door and my hand pressed over my heart for a solid minute. Crap, but that had taken all the willpower I possessed to act blasé and leave with my head up. I still wanted to rush back inside and get myself that hard-and-fast-against-the-wall freebie. I would love to take anything I could get from Mason, just so I could spend more time with him.
Shaken to the core, I finally staggered to my car. Usually, I was more alert when I was alone outside at night. But I was so worried about Sarah and still utterly bowled over by Mason’s admission, I didn’t see the woman until she spoke.
“Nice night, isn’t it?”
I screamed and dropped my purse.
A middle-age female stepped from the shadows in the neighbor’s yard and strolled toward me, the heels of her shoes clicking against the drive. “Sorry about that, darling. Didn’t mean to startle you.”
“It’s okay.” I bent and scrambled for my purse, hoping I hadn’t spilled any of the contents, because there was no way to find them in the dark. “You just”—I gave a nervous laugh—“totally scared the living shit out of me. No biggie.”
She laughed too, but it was husky and amused, not the least bit on edge like mine. She lifted a cigarette to her lips, the red glow from the butt brightening as she inhaled. “You seem a little preoccupied.”
“Oh.” I cursed myself. Not paying attention to my surroundings could land me in a heap of trouble. I needed to be more careful. If Jeremy ever found me—
Well, I didn’t want to think about that scenario.
“Yeah,” I told the woman. “You could say that.” Or she could say preoccupied was a huge understatement. Whatever. “It’s been a…wild night.”
“Hmm.” She took another drag. I couldn’t make out much of her appearance through the dark, but I sensed her watching me as if she had night vision and could dissect every detail.
That’s exactly what it felt like, anyway: a dissection.
“Are you a friend of Mason’s?” she finally asked.
“What?” Rattled by the question, I shook my head. “N
o. I mean…” I flushed and flailed my hand, not sure how to answer. “I guess so.” I didn’t know what we were anymore. “I’m Sarah’s babysitter,” I explained.
“Ah.” Her knowing voice said that answered everything. “The replacement for Ashley.”
Since I remembered Dawn calling Sarah’s former evening sitter Ashley, I nodded. “Right. Are you Mrs. Arnosta’s neighbor?”
Shifting my weight from one foot to the other, I managed a tight smile, though I was sure she couldn’t see it in the dark. I didn’t really want to stand out here all night, talking to her. But she was in no hurry to let me go.
“I’m Patricia Garrison,” she said. “Dawn and Mason’s landlady.”
“Oh.” The way she totally left Sarah out of that equation irritated me. I mean, seriously. Why mention Mason and forget his sister?
Rude much?