Her face crumpled again. “I can’t talk about this with her. Just you.”
Mase shook his head, as if he was about to argue.
“It’s Heath. He’s here with her,” Aida said with a sob.
Mase’s frown grew. “I know that’s hard, Aida, but I can’t leave Reese alone. She doesn’t know anyone here.”
This was my chance to win Aida over, if only a little. “Yes, you can. I have a drink, and I can sit in one of those lovely chairs and wait. Go with her. She’s upset.”
Mase didn’t seem convinced.
Aida sobbed again. “Please, Mase. I need you to talk me off a ledge.”
“Go,” I repeated.
Finally, Mase sighed and pressed a kiss to my forehead. “I’ll be back quickly,” he whispered.
I nodded, and he followed Aida inside. I watched them until they reached the house, and then I turned to survey the scene. I was at a party full of strangers, and no one else was sitting down yet. Maybe the tables were off limits until we ate.
I made my way to the shadows, where the lights from the trees didn’t reach. I could see the house from here, and when Mase returned, I’d be able to see him.
It wasn’t until I was out of the light and my eyes adjusted to the darkness that I saw I wasn’t alone. I paused. Should I be concerned? Or maybe I should just excuse myself and find another dark spot.
“He leaves you for another woman, and you hide in the dark,” a deep voice said. I could just make out the shape of a man leaning against a bale of hay with a beer in his hand. I studied him quickly to see if I should be worried. The first thing I noticed was his jeans, then his white Oxford shirt, similar to Mase’s blue one. But his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. The only thing I could make out clearly from his features was his green eyes, which burned with an inner light.
“You decided yet?” the man asked, making me self-conscious that I was still staring at him.
“What?” I asked, confused.
A low rumble that sounded like a laugh came from him. He tilted his head, and I realized his hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Although it was dark, I could make out highlights in his hair. Seemed like he spent a lot of time in the sun. “Am I safe to be around? That’s what you’re trying to decide, isn’t it?”
Was he safe to be around?
“That’s debatable, if you ask me,” he said.
“What’s debatable?” I asked.
He took a drink of his beer and studied me a moment before responding to my question. “Whether I’m safe or not.” He laughed again, although it was low and almost hard to hear. “You have an expressive face.”
How could he even see my face out here in the dark?
He shifted his stance and crossed his left ankle over his right one. I glanced at his boots and realized they weren’t like Mase’s boots. They were more like combat boots.
“Why are you out here in the dark?” I asked, not meaning to actually say that out loud.
He held up his beer. “Drinking my beer in peace.”
I nodded. That made sense. Maybe he didn’t like crowds, either.
“Why are you out here in the dark?” he asked.
I glanced back at the house, and there was no sign of Mase yet. “I . . . my boyfriend went to deal with something. His cousin is upset.”
The guy stared at me while he drank his beer. It made me nervous. It was like he could read all my thoughts. “But he knows you aren’t comfortable in a crowd of people you don’t know. A man shouldn’t leave his woman.”
He didn’t understand the situation. Who was he to judge something he didn’t know? “His cousin is upset. I told him to go.”
“Doesn’t change the fact that he shouldn’t have left you.”
I didn’t like this man. I would rather face the crowd than hide out here with him. “Don’t make assumptions about something you know nothing about,” I said angrily, before turning and walking back into the light, just in time to see Mase, his eyes scanning the tables for me. His long strides quickened as he walked down the steps and passed several people who were trying to speak to him. When his gaze finally landed on me, he looked relieved.
I hurried toward him, deciding I wouldn’t mention the guy in the shadows.
Mase
Aida was being dramatic. She’d started dating Heath when she came to visit us last year, but it had meant more to her than to him. She’d broken up with him a year ago because he’d cheated on her with a former friend of hers. I had warned her when she started dating Hawkins’s cousin that Heath Stout was a player. Now, a year later, she was having a dramatic breakdown? She knew he’d be here.
I hated leaving Reese, but I knew Aida wasn’t going to let up until I did. I scanned the crowd for Reese. She wasn’t where she’d said she would be. I heard my name called by several people¸ but I kept my focus as I searched for her. When I turned and saw her walking toward me, I let out a sigh of relief. She was OK.
“I’m sorry about that,” I said, as I slipped my hand back around her waist and pulled her against me. “Aida was being a drama queen.”
“It was fine. I didn’t mind at all. I just walked around and checked things out.”
I glanced back to where she had come from and saw a man walking out of the shadows. He was staring at me with an amused smirk, but I didn’t recognize him. He was dressed in jeans and combat boots and had a more impressive ponytail than I did when I pulled my hair back.
“River, come here, I want you to meet someone,” Arthur Stout bellowed. I turned my head to see Arthur walking up to me as he waved at the man with the ponytail.
River didn’t seem to be in a hurry.
Once he reached us, Arthur slapped him on the back. “Mase, meet River Kipling. He’s been running the Stout and Hawkins Steakhouse in Key West. He added fresh seafood to the menu, and it’s now our most successful franchise location. I’ve brought him here to do the same for the Dallas location. He knows his seafood,” Arthur explained. “River, this is Mase Colt. He’s our main supplier of beef cattle, other than the ones we raise ourselves. Colt ranch is about pure quality. You need to make a visit and see what he’s got going on there.”
“From Key West to Dallas. That’s a big change of scenery,” I said, not liking the way his gaze kept going to Reese or the way she tensed up beside me.
“Some scenery is better than others,” he replied, his eyes fixed on Reese. I didn’t like that shit at all.
“Expect River to come for a visit with me next week. I’ve got a few other people I need to introduce him to. Drink up, and take that pretty girl out on the dance floor,” Arthur said, before he turned to River and led him away. River took one more look at Reese and followed him.
“I don’t like him,” Reese said firmly.
I glanced down at her. “Who?”
“That River guy. He rubs me the wrong way.”
Grinning, I leaned down and kissed her lips. I wanted those lips. I also wanted her up against a wall with her short little skirt pushed up around her waist. The boots could stay on.
“I’m not a fan, either.”
Two hours later, I had forced a smile and spoken to everyone my stepdad would have wanted me to. Reese had been safely tucked at my side the whole time. I’d had to remind myself not to get furious when men’s gazes fell to her legs. She was showing them off tonight, and I had to expect that. But I didn’t have to fucking like it.
Reese had surprised me and chosen the ribs for dinner. I was positive she was the only woman eating ribs. Watching her eat a rib was sexy as hell, and I’d had a hard time focusing on my own plate of food; my eyes kept going to her mouth and the way her tongue kept flicking out to lick the sauce off her lips.