Eva huffed out an aggravated sound and wrote something in her planner vigorously enough to make the fuzzy tassel on the end of her pen bob sporadically.
Mason merely stared at me in awe as he shook his head. “Wow, your curiosity has no filter whatsoever, does it?”
I scowled back because he was purposely avoiding my question. Glancing at my cousin, I said, “E.?”
“It’s nothing,” she muttered, suddenly very interested in turning the page and checking future dates.
With a roll of my eyes, I whirled to face Mason with a pointed look.
“What?” he asked, pulling back with an overly innocent expression. He cast a questioning glance at Eva before focusing on me. “She said it was nothing.”
I opened my mouth, but Eva must’ve had a change of heart.
“Nothing?” she repeated in an offended voice. Slamming her planner shut, she narrowed her eyes. “Okay, fine.” She finally gave me her attention. “One night at a party about, oh, a year ago, I’d had a little too much to drink and I ended up throwing myself at him.” Her gaze pierced Mason with hateful shards. “And he turned me down. Flat.”
I frowned, confused. Umm…wasn’t that kind of what a guy was supposed to do when a drunk girl came onto him?
“And she proceeded to call me a pretentious bastard for it,” Mason added, glaring right back at Eva.
“Well, you are,” she hissed.
“…who had no right to act so self-righteous because I’m nothing but a high-priced whore with a pretty face, who’ll end up an overweight, broke, balding no one by the time I’m forty.” His jaw tightened. “Isn’t that how you worded it?”
I gasped and pinned my cousin with an incredulous glance. “You called him a whore?”
She shrugged. “He is a whore.”
“So that’s what I get for trying to be a gentleman and not take advantage of the stumbling, slurring drunk girl.” Looking pissed and a trifle hurt, Mason reached across the table and picked up my cup as if he needed it to console himself. But after taking a deep drink through the straw, he winced and pulled back. “What is this?”
I wrinkled my nose at him and pushed my hair out of my face. My drink didn’t taste that bad. “It’s a diet cola.”
Okay, maybe it did taste that bad.
He set it back in front of me, looking deceived. “So…you eat chili cheese fries loaded with grease, calories, and carbs. Then get a diet cola?” He gave an amused laugh. “You’re such a girl.”
I tossed my hair again and leveled him with a fake scowl. “Maybe I just ordered a nasty-tasting drink because I knew you’d try to steal it. This could’ve been the only way to protect what’s mine.”
“A,” he said with a smile. “That won’t work on me. I’ll always steal whatever food or beverage you have. And B.” He fluttered his lashes. The feminine move should’ve looked ridiculous on him. Which, okay, it kind of did. But it also looked drop-dead sexy and somehow masculine. “I’m flattered you took the time to think of me at all.”
“Oh, gag me,” Eva howled. “If you two are done eye-humping each other, I’d like to go throw up now.”
I sent her a glower, promising a good strangulation later. I even opened my mouth to tell her in no uncertain terms that Mason and I were not flirting.
But he ignored her and said to me, “Are you watching Sarah tonight?”
I gave him some major brownie points for being able to totally blow off Eva’s rude comment. But the tightening around his mouth told me her words hadn’t left him unaffected.
Following his example, I decided to ignore her too. “Yep. I think I’m going to give her a mani-pedi and paint her fingernails and toenails some wicked awesome color.”
He nodded approvingly as he rewrapped his sandwich and slid his lunch back into his messenger bag. “She’ll get a kick out of that. I’ll see you at the house, then.” He knocked on the table in front of me as he stood. “And don’t forget that book you promised to lend me.”
“Right.” I sucked in a sharp breath, tickled he’d remembered. “Yeah, okay. I won’t.”
“Good.” With a warm, congenial smile for me, he stole one more of my fries. “And for the record, I like deluded.” Then he strolled away without once glancing at Eva.
My cheeks flamed. I loved knowing he liked me just the way I was, na?ve tendencies or not.
I didn’t notice how Eva had spun to me with an expectant arch in her eyebrows until she demanded, “What book?”
I played with my fries without eating any. “Harry Potter. He said he’s never read the series before. Can you believe that? So I offered to loan him mine.”
“Really? Harry Potter?”
She sounded so skeptical, I sighed. “No, we were talking about a Kama Sutra book. Yes! Harry Potter. Why is that so hard to believe?”
Eva shrugged. “I just can’t see Mason Lowe reading Harry Potter. I can’t see him reading anything.” Then she made a face, letting me know she’d thought up an allowance. “Except maybe Kama Sutra.”