Page 44 of Fierce-Baker

“Yeah, use that excuse.”

“I was unloading shit from my car, she was walking. She noticed me too. I’m not going to be rude.”

“Nooooo,” Mason said. “Never you.”

“Hey, I’m a nice guy. Even your mother thinks so.”

“Now you want to agree with my mother.”

Baker picked his coffee up to wash down some of the cookie that he didn’t really want.

The way his boss was staring at him said the guy wasn’t leaving until he got some more.

“She pulled into the development with a flat tire the next day. I’m not sure how she got home, but she said it’d just happened not that far away and she didn’t want to pull over to the side of the road.”

“I don’t blame her if she could get somewhere safely. Especially with a kid in the car.”

“Micah wasn’t with her. He was at his grandparents’ for the night.”

Mason rubbed his hands together. “And now we get to the good part.”

“Since when did you become such a chick about these things?”

“Since my mother spends most of her free time in my business looking for candidates for her hobby. Maybe it’s fun to watch. Or better when I know what is going on over here.”

“Not much going on. Not really.”

“Which means it’s something. You fixed her tire, because you would have.”

“I put her spare on. She got a new one the next day. She made me dinner as a thank you and we talked. We’ve chatted a few times since.”

“I’m positive it’s more than that, but I won’t ask details.”

“Like you are now?”

Mason wiggled his eyebrows. “I’ve caught you seeking her out there a few times this week. I’m not the only one noticing it.”

He sighed. “Who else has? The last thing we need is rumors.”

“The minute my mother latches onto you the rumors start. Don’t go there. You know how it is. Does Tasha know what is going on?”

“She does now. We both do.”

“And you’ve come to some kind of an understanding?”

“That’s all you’re getting,” he said. “And keep it from your mother. I’m not sure of Tasha’s background and I sure the hell didn’t tell her mine.”

No one here knew about Alexa. There was no reason to tell them. It was in his past and not a place he was going again.

Yet he was following Tasha around like a lovesick fool, just as he’d done once before.

13

ONLY HUMAN

“Micah sleeping?” Baker asked when he walked around the backyard to Tasha’s place later that night.

“He is. He goes down fast and stays that way. He’s got so much energy that he wears himself out.”