the sight of her would have knocked me off my feet.
Normal? There was nothing normal about this, about how I felt, just seeing her smile. I loved that smile. And quite possibly the girl who held that smile, too.
Chapter 16
Brad
Yesterday was the first night that I’d ever had where I didn’t pay a fortune to take a woman out, all to see if we were compatible in bed.
With Sonia, that wasn’t the end goal. The end goal wasn’t an orgasm; it was simply her. And, though I knew it was a bad idea through and through, I wanted another date with her, outside of work.
I had dropped her off with a lightness in my step and a cheesy smile no alpha male should be sporting. I pulled into my driveway, thinking of ways to ask her out but not ask her out because, if I told her it was a date date, she would flat-out tell me no.
As soon as I walked inside, Mason looked up from the stack of papers on the kitchen table. The girls were fast asleep, but Mason was always up, going over the financials and reports. Mason had a fascination with numbers, always wanting to double- and triple-check and reconcile what our accountants had turned in.
I walked straight into the kitchen, noting his hair was in disarray and him tip-tapping his fingers against his laptop.
His head lifted when I approached. “Hey.”
“Hey.” I pulled open the fridge. “Want a glass of milk?”
He curiously eyed me. “Yeah, sure. Can you warm mine up?”
And, suddenly, we were ten all over again, having a stressful day and couldn’t sleep and our mother was warming us a cup of milk to calm us.
After the microwave dinged, I strolled over and placed his NYC mug in front of him. When I sat across from him, he shut his computer.
“So … did you settle things with Sonia?” He eyed me as though there was only one way to answer this question.
“Yes.” I nodded, tipping back my glass of milk.
“Thank God.” Mason reached for his mug and took a sip as though he were drinking wine.
“It’s settled. I like her.”
Now, this was comical. The way he flinched and his facial features dropped into a definite frown and the way his eyes turned cold, dead, flat.
The mug dropped on our kitchen table with a thud. “What?”
My confident stare didn’t waver. “You asked if things were settled, and they are. I like her. I’ve settled that much.”
Past that point, I didn’t know what to do next, besides wanting to see her again. I’d never been in a relationship longer than a month. That had been in high school, and the girl had been psycho. Since then, I’d basically sworn off relationships. Too complicated.
Mason threw up both hands and pushed himself up to a standing position. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”
And here was the beginning of the Mason show.
I loved my brothers. Both of them equally, but Mason tended to fly off the handle. Still, I needed him to be on my side for this one because, if he wasn’t, my older brother, Charles, wouldn’t be either.
Plus, I needed advice. Desperately. And, since Charles wasn’t here, the default was Mason.
“This is not happening. Didn’t we discuss this?” Mason paced the room, trying to keep his temper at bay and failing miserably.
We had discussed it. I’d tried to keep things purely platonic, but I couldn’t.
“I like her. More than I’ve ever liked anyone.” And I wanted more, whatever that more entailed.
“Oh,” he sighed, exasperated. “And that means a shit-ton, right? Brad, when it comes to women, you have an attention span of a four-year-old boy. Oh, look! Shiny new toy!” His condescending smile surfaced.
Now, he was starting to piss me off. My jaw clenched. Yes, I had a reputation, but you’d think, of all people, my brother would give me the benefit of the doubt. He’d see things were different this time. That I was different.
“I sound like a broken record.” He gripped the kitchen table and leaned in. “It’s the chase. That’s all it’ll ever be for you. That’s why you’re so good at your job. You like to win and conquer. But, once it’s over, it’s done. It’s the same for women.”
Mason stalked to the fridge and grabbed a beer instead. Long forgotten was the milk that I had warmed up in the microwave for him.
“It’s different this time. She’s not just a game for me, Mason.”
I had a hard time