“No hints?” Victoria lay back and seemed to want to keep up their conversation.

  “I thought I just dropped a big one.” She turned off the overhead light and pointed to the nightstand. “The remote for the TV is in there, and I’m not leaving, so I’m only a yell away if you need anything. Get some rest, and we’ll get you set up to be more mobile tomorrow.”

  “Thanks, Mason.”

  “You’re welcome, and don’t be shy about asking for help. You aren’t a bother, and you’re light as a feather.” She had to admit strawberry-blond hair was even sexier when fanned out over a pillow.

  “I’ll remember that.”

  “I won’t let you forget.”

  She stared a moment longer before forcing herself to walk away. The truth was, she wanted Victoria there in her bed, needing her, and she’d never wanted anything remotely close to that. She shook her head at the thought as she went back to the office to get lost in work.

  “Fuck me.” She had to say it because there was no way in hell anything in her life was distracting enough to blow Victoria out of her head, no matter how hard she tried.

  Chapter Nine

  Mason had left the door open and Victoria lay with her eyes closed and listened to what she was doing. The quiet made it easy to hear the tapping of keys and the shuffle of papers, which meant Mason was working. She hadn’t called anyone, and she hadn’t come back to the bedroom for anything, either, but the smell of Mason’s cologne still lingered on her clothes, reminding her of the beach.

  She thought about what Josette had said, but she didn’t have much experience with women, much less trying to entice someone like Mason Liner. She’d dated in college, but then Sophie had sucked the life out of her by being Sophie, and any chance she’d had at improving her dating skills had dried up. Performer Sophie and mother Sophie were two distinctly different people, but both sides of her mother’s personality were incredibly demanding.

  “Hey,” she said when Josette answered her phone. The noise of the bar and the music blaring meant the place was packed, but she needed a sounding board.

  “Hold on. Hey, Doug, I’m taking a break,” Josette yelled at someone. It took a moment, but most of the noise bled away. “You coming by tonight? The band playing needs all the help it can get. There’s not enough alcohol in the world—you know what I mean.”

  “No, not tonight.” She told her what happened and everything Mason had done for her. “She was really sweet.”

  “Why in the hell are you talking to me, then? You need to pull out all the stops to get her back in there.” Josette was so emphatic it made her laugh. “And don’t play dumb. You know what I’m talking about, my friend. No one within a thousand miles of Nashville will ever call Mason Liner sweet. Hot, bitchy, or total badass, maybe, but not sweet.”

  Victoria heard a loud tapping noise as if Josette was beating her fingernail against the phone.

  “You need to channel your best womanly wiles and capitalize. Do not disappoint me.”

  “My best womanly wiles? What is this, a Jane Austen novel? I’m not sure what to do with that.” She was paying attention to Josette but also listening for any sound coming from Mason. She didn’t need the embarrassment of Mason finding her talking about how to get her interested. “You’re the expert wiler, not me.”

  “Do you like her?”

  “Yes.” There should’ve been more hesitation, and she’d mentally unpack later the fact that there wasn’t, but it was the truth. She’d remained relatively unscathed and sane in life by isolating herself from as much pain as possible. Safety came from not inviting potential heartbreakers into it, and while Mason was sweet, there was some bad-boy behavior when it came to women, if the rumors were true.

  “I’m glad you’re finally being honest with yourself. I saw how you looked at her, and I’ll be pissed if you let this opportunity pass you by. And it is an opportunity, honey. You weren’t the only one with the lovesick expression.” Josette sounded compassionate instead of her usual sarcastic but funny self.

  “This is kind of scary.” That was a total lie. This was plenty scary, and she hated the sensation of being terrified.

  “Think of it as the first time you played piano with more than one other person in the room. You took the chance and loved it. This won’t be any different, so make up some excuse and get her back in there. I expect a full report in the morning.” Josette hung up, not leaving room for any more second-guessing.

  Twenty minutes went by, and she couldn’t think of any good excuse to lure Mason back in, and lure was really too strong a word. She heard Mason on the phone, but the conversation sounded like she was rattling off a to-do list to whoever was on the other end. It was time to admit she’d been wrong about Mason and any hidden motives, because she clearly didn’t have any that concerned her or her mother.

  Or if she did, she’d hidden them well, and Victoria could almost forgive whatever the hell they might be for the chance of being in Mason’s arms again. It had been so long since she’d felt the security she’d sensed when Mason picked her up and carried her back to the house and took care of her. Granted, she thought of herself as a strong capable woman, but it was nice to put all that down for a little while and have someone else hold her.

  “Hey, you awake?” Mason spoke softly from the doorway, and Victoria turned her head and held her hand up to say hey.

  “I am, but I have a dilemma.” It was no made-up excuse, either.

  “Need a lift somewhere?”

  “To the bathroom, actually.” She sat up and pulled the covers back. “If you get me in there, I’ll be in your debt.”

  “In my debt? Hmm, that could be dangerous, but I promise it won’t cost you too much.” Mason picked her up again and carried her to the en suite bathroom. She stopped at the appropriate spot but didn’t put her down right away.

  “What’s your price?” Victoria studied the slight laugh lines around Mason’s incredible eyes and wondered what exactly in the hell was happening to her. There was no way she was regressing to a teenager with a crush. She hadn’t even had that chance when she was actually a teenager. But, Jesus, she was so attractive.

  “That you agree to go on a picnic with me tomorrow.” Mason put her down but didn’t let her go. “And I promise not to peek, so go ahead and sit. You can call me back when you’re done.”

  “Okay.” This wasn’t what Josette probably had in mind when she ordered wiles, but it felt more real, if not embarrassing. She had to laugh at the image of giving Josette a report.

  Did she get your pants off?

  Why yes, and then I peed.

  “You’re being awful quiet in there. You’re not embarrassed, are you?” Mason said from the other room.

  Her new friend was either a good mind reader or she liked keeping her off balance. “I’m not usually a noisy bathroom goer, and yes. Needing help in this particular arena isn’t exactly sexy. I mean—” Shit, she shouldn’t have said that. “I mean, you shouldn’t have to add this to your list of things to do…I’m ready.” She smiled at the way Mason kept her eyes closed when she called her back in and held her steady while she washed her hands. “Are you finished working for tonight?”

  “I’m trying to clear my desk so I can spend the day with you tomorrow, but I’m done for tonight.” Mason sat on the bed when she put her back down. “And you’re in no way a chore. I’m not glad this happened to you, but I am glad we’re getting to spend more time together. Aren’t you? Do you want some time alone? It’s totally fine if that’s what you want.”

  “No, that’s not it at all.”

  “Do you need anything else?”

  “Would you stay and talk to me?” That sounded needy, but she was proud of herself for asking. “You don’t have to.”

  “Hold on a minute.” Mason stood and took off her boots before moving to the other side of the bed. That she’d skipped the chair made Victoria happier than it should have. “Tell me when you’re tired, so I don’t overstay my welcome.” Mason sat and hesitated. “Is this okay? I can sit over there if you need the space.”

  “Never mind about that.” She leaned over and turned off the lamp, leaving only the bathroom light to cut through the darkness. “Lie back and get comfortable.”

  “Are you warm enough?”

  Warm wasn’t a problem. “I’m fine. If you don’t mind me being a little nosy, can I ask if you like what you do?”

  “I love my job.” Mason rolled to her side and propped her head on her hand. “It’s like a new landscape every day, but it’s the same at its core.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The bands are different, but no matter what they play, it’s all about the music. The country genre is changing, but what I want, in my capacity anyway, is to help it retain some of what people have always loved about it. I’m expanding what we record, but country is our bread and butter.”

  She enjoyed Mason’s passion even if she didn’t really have any experience with her job. “People must love having you on their side, huh? You seem like a great champion.”

  “I try my best, but it’s not without the occasional nightmare scenario you couldn’t dream up if you tried. You aren’t happy with what you’re doing?” Mason reached up and touched her cheek, moving her fingers to her jaw. “Remember, it’s okay to tell me to mind my own business.”

  She shivered under Mason’s gentle touch. It had been ages since someone had simply touched her. “I don’t mind. Managing my mom wasn’t my first career choice. I’ve tried my best, but she would’ve been better off with someone who wasn’t so emotionally vested. Do you know what I mean?” She always hated admitting that, since it made her sound so ungrateful.

  “I do know what you mean, and I have to confess that I don’t like seeing you so unhappy. You deserve to have infinite joy and be in love with what you do. This business is hard enough without the baggage of not loving it.”

  “I have a feeling we’re in the same boat when it comes to career choices. It’s not like I can walk away from Sophie, and you can’t walk away from Sonny.”

  “Forget about who our parents are, Vic,” Mason said. It was a nickname she wasn’t particularly fond of, but this wasn’t the time to complain. “Tell me what it was you really wanted to do?”

  “I wanted to play. Not be a star or sing, just play.” She laughed a little, remembering their first meeting. They’d come a long way from that to her confessing her life goals.

  “What?” Mason smiled and those damn dimples made her warm.

  “I was thinking of the night we met.”

  “Ah, doesn’t that seem a long time ago? I don’t think I’ve ever pissed a woman off so fast in my entire life. You didn’t like me very much, and I couldn’t get enough.”

  “Yeah, right. I have to admit I didn’t care for you at all, at first anyway, but I reserve the right to change my mind.” She took Mason’s hand and pressed it to her cheek. “I was so wrong about you. You’re a good friend, and I’d like to return the favor.”

  “You’re not offering to be my friend so I’ll set you up with Colt Kenny, are you?” Mason tweaked her nose and chuckled.

  “I actually want the complete opposite of Colt Kenny, and I think you can help me with that.” She took Mason’s hand back and locked eyes with her, not sure of the next step. “Would you? Help me out with that, I mean?”

  Mason hesitated, her gaze searching. “Only if you’re sure about what that implies. What I should say is, I want to be sure of what you’re implying. I don’t want to be wrong again.” Mason threaded her fingers through hers and leaned in. “I don’t want to scare you away.”

  “You make me feel all sorts of things, but I’m not scared of you.” She wanted to move ahead twenty steps, but then this would only be a hookup, and that wasn’t what she wanted. “Just as long as you don’t mind talking to me, and being honest.”

  “I’ll talk to you all you want, and being honest is what usually makes you mad at me.” Mason let her go, but only to poke her lip back in from her pout. “Don’t deny it or try to distract me with this cute face.”

  “You’re not interested in me only because of my mother, you listen to me, and you can carry me without breaking a sweat, so I’ll do my best not to get aggravated with you.” She sighed at the way Mason looked at her. That hopeful wanting expression mixed in with the pleasure of being in this particular spot with Mason amplified the loneliness she’d experienced up to now. She was tired of the loneliness.

  “Hey.” Mason shifted and put her arms around her. It was only then that she realized she was crying. Again. Mason didn’t try to make it better by filling the silence with hollow words. She simply held her.

  “You have to believe me when I say I’m not usually this weepy.” She relaxed against Mason and enjoyed the way she ran her hand up and down her back. If this was what it was like to be romanced, she was going to enjoy it.

  “Think of it as a release valve. It’s good to let some of that go sometimes. If not, you might try to hide from it with unnatural stimulants.” Mason kissed her forehead.

  The kiss brought back memories of her grandmother and how she’d kiss Victoria’s forehead whenever she was upset. That’s where the similarities ended, though, considering Mason made her feel so much more in seriously better ways.

  “I’d keep you locked in here with me to keep you from doing that.”

  “No one would come looking for me.” The admission was true, but Mason didn’t need to hear that.

  “Will you believe me if I tell you something?” Mason held her tighter and kissed her forehead again.

  “Okay.” She totally meant the answer. She wanted to believe there was someone who truly cared about what happened to her and what she thought, and just her as a person.

  “If you disappeared one day, I’d totally tear up this town until I found you. I told you you’re not alone any longer, and I meant it.”

  “Thank you. It’s been so long since I’ve felt like someone was on my side and had a shoulder I could literally cry on.” She slowly put her arm around Mason and squeezed her eyes shut, hoping it would stop the tears. The last month had seemed like her tipping point, and she was fighting hard to get some sense of balance where her emotions weren’t so out of control.

  “You want some pajamas or something?” They were both fully clothed, and Mason didn’t sound like she was using the offer as an excuse to flee. “I’ve got some big T-shirts in here if you want to get more comfortable.”

  “Are you trying to seduce me?” The dark cloud she’d imagined following her around for the last couple years blew away when Mason laughed hard enough to shake the bed.

  “I’d be a bit smoother if I was trying that.”

  “I was getting ready to say that if that was your best shot, I might reconsider Colt Kenny.”

  “It’s the hair, isn’t it?” Mason was good at following her mood. “I can’t quite get mine to flop over like that.”

  “It’s that face and that voice. He could be dangerous on tour. You might want to warn him about STDs and getting a reputation.” She moved her hand from Mason’s abdomen to her shoulder. “Enough about Colt. If I asked you for something, would you think about it?”

  “Whatever you need, I’ll do my best.”

  Mason must’ve been some kind of scout and taken that oath of honor seriously. “First, I need you to believe that I’m not totally crazy.”

  Mason seemed to know she was being serious and didn’t laugh. “If you’re talking about any interaction we had when all this started, I think the complete opposite. Stress and panic do crazy shit to people, so forget about it. Unless you’re asking me about something else. Are you asking me about something else?”

  “At the risk of sounding, well, totally crazy, would you tell me? Why you think I’m not crazy, I mean.”

  “I think a lot of things when it comes to you,” Mason said, stilling her hand on the small of her back. “When it comes to that particular subject, though, I think it’s been a tough couple of years when it seemed like the person who should’ve chosen you picked the bottle instead. I could be wrong, but I bet that crossed your mind more than once. It seems logical and something I would’ve questioned if I’d been in your place.”

  “Kind of true, yeah. She was always like that.” It wasn’t that her mother had chosen a bottle over her, but the fact that she’d always been an afterthought in her mother’s mind sliced through her like a hot poker to the gut.

  “I’m not talking about Sophie right now—I’m talking about you. I could be wrong, but all that time you probably felt like you were alone in facing the demons that were dredged up by what you went through. No one, especially me, is going to blame you for how a few meetings went.” Mason moved her hand lower but not onto her butt. “You were protecting Sophie and yourself, and no one blames you for being angry.”

  “I’m so sorry for all that stuff I said. God, I even hit you that second time.” Looking back on her behavior left her mortified.

  “That was then, and this is now. If you want me to dismiss you as some kind of unstable nut job, I can’t do that.”

  “Why? You don’t even really know me.”

  “You don’t really know me that well either. Are you sure I’m the complete opposite to pretty boy Colt?”

  “I want to find out.” She pressed her forehead to Mason’s and smiled when Mason didn’t pull away. The kindness and understanding Mason had shown made a layer of her loneliness peel away.

  “Me too, and I promise you won’t be sorry.”

  “I’m going to hold you to that.” She kissed Mason’s cheek before lying back down. “And I’m glad you’re my friend.” Never had she imagined that Mason would fall into the friend category, and that lifted her spirits. Refreshingly, they’d put their cards on the table with no games or hesitation, and knowing where someone stood always made Victoria feel more secure. Now they just had to see where it led.