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. “No. 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?
“Are you a student?” Mrs. Garrison asked, fishing a little too deeply for my taste.
Not wanting to upset the woman who owned Dawn, Sarah, and Mason’s home, I nodded. “Yeah. I attend Waterford.”
“With Mason,” she added.
Wow, she certainly liked to bring him up. That was kind of…really creepy.
“Umm…I guess,” I hedged. “We don’t have any classes together, though.”
“I see.”
I had no idea what she really saw. The entire conversation was growing way beyond my scope of understanding, so I shifted closer to my driver’s side door and found my car keys. “Well, it was nice to meet you.” I waved and smiled again.
“You too, Reese. Have a nice night.”
I didn’t realize until I was halfway home that she’d called me Reese, and I’d never told her my name.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Another week passed. Things between Mason and I stayed distant, and yet not. He still refused to sit with me at lunch, but we remained friends of a sort. After our talk on the night of Sarah’s seizure, our relationship morphed into friends-that-flirted status.
On Tuesday, I saw him across the courtyard while I was snacking on cheeseburger sliders and curly fries—both of which I’m sure he would’ve stolen if he’d been close enough—and everything inside me brightened. I straightened and waved. When he returned the wave, I patted the seat next to me and gave him an encouraging thumbs-up. He smiled but shook his head and kept walking.
I slumped back into doldrums land.
A second later, my phone buzzed with a text.
Still need some space to cool off.
Groaning, I typed back: These pesky horny guy urges are beginning to annoy me. See, told you I was going to steal that phrase.