Mase

Dean Finlay opened the door to the mansion he shared with Kiro in Beverly Hills. “He’s already passed out for the night. I’ve had a room prepared for you,” he said when I walked inside. “He’ll be a mean bastard in the morning. It’s his new routine.”

I wasn’t scared of the old man’s temper. “I’ll handle him. This shit has to stop. He’s so damn selfish,” I said, angry that he was making life hell not only for Harlow but also for Dean, his best friend. Other than Harlow, Dean was the only person who loved the man.

“You don’t know what she was to him. Unless you lived through it with them, you can’t understand, Mase. He was a different man because of her. The accident, it created someone none of us recognized. It shattered his soul. When that happens to you, you never come back from that.”

I was tired of hearing how losing Emily gave him the right to be a world-class asshole. “You know this because you’ve had that kind of love? ’Cause you sure as hell don’t act like him.”

Dean sighed heavily and shook his head. “Never been in love like that. After seeing how it changed Kiro when he lost her, I never let anyone get close enough to me. I wasn’t going to ever know that pain. Don’t want it.”

I wasn’t sure which was worse, loving and losing or not ever knowing that kind of love at all. Life without Reese seemed empty, devoid, pointless. Would I become like my father if I lost her? I wanted to believe I wouldn’t, but I wasn’t sure a man without a soul could be anything else. If that was true, then could I forgive the man? Could I understand him and not hate him for what he was doing to my sister? Had she already made this connection? She had not only Grant but Lila Kate, too. I didn’t want to think of her losing either of them.

“Don’t judge him when you haven’t been there,” Dean said, with a slap on my back. “Now, go get some rest. You’re gonna need it. He won’t be thrilled to see you.”

He was right. Kiro was going to be pissed that I was here to deal with him. He didn’t want dealing with. He wanted to wallow in his pain. But when I faced him tomorrow, I knew I was going to see him differently. I had to remind myself that this would be me if I lost Reese. A world without her in it was incomprehensible.

I’d set my alarm to wake me up at nine so I could be dressed and ready to face my father. I would need coffee before I did this. Yesterday, Harlow had kept finding reasons to keep me in Rosemary Beach. Finally, I had told her I loved her but I had to go. Getting home to Reese was important, and I had to get to Kiro before I could go home to Reese.

Heading to the kitchen, I heard two voices. I recognized Dean but not the female he was with; she had an accent. Stepping into the bright room, I saw an older lady working over the stove while Dean sat at the table, drinking coffee and leafing through an issue of Rolling Stone magazine. He glanced up and smiled at me.

“Good morning, sunshine. You got up before him. Thank fuck,” he said.

“Coffee?” I asked.

The lady wiped her hands on her apron and started to hurry over to the coffee pot.

“I got it,” I told her. “Just point me to the cups.”

She gave me a nervous smile, then glanced over at Dean.

“Marlana is new,” he said. “Marlana, this is Kiro’s son. You don’t have to wait on him. He’s nothing like his father.”

She glanced up at me, still looking nervous, then reached into the cabinet and got me a cup before hurrying back to her skillet on the stove. Poor woman had to deal with my crazy-ass father. No wonder she was a nervous mess.

I poured my coffee and walked over to the table to sit across from Dean.

“You want a newspaper? I think there’s one over by the front door. Marlana normally gets it and puts it there. Don’t know why we have one, since neither of us reads it.”

“I get it,” Marlana said, turning around and hurrying out of the room. I didn’t need the paper, but she was fast.

Dean shrugged. “She’s very eager to please. If Kiro doesn’t scare her off first.”

“My plan is to make sure his head is on right before I leave here.”

“Plans don’t always pan out. Remember, that man lives and breathes for that woman. He’s really losing her this time.”

My chest ached. All I could think of was losing Reese.

“Makes you regret falling in love, eh?” Dean said, looking back down at the magazine in his hand.

He was wrong. I’d never regret Reese. I would never regret those feelings. She had opened up my world in a way I had never imagined. She had changed my life. She had given me true happiness. I shook my head. “No, it doesn’t.”

Dean looked back up at me.

“Before Reese, I didn’t know that the world could be full of dreams. That you could wake up every day excited to breathe. That one smile from her could make me feel like a fucking king. Loving her is worth . . . it’s worth it all. Living in fear of love isn’t living.”

He frowned and put his magazine down, then continued sipping his coffee. He didn’t look like he believed me. In reality, he was as sad as Kiro. He didn’t know true, raw emotion. He didn’t know that one woman could make you feel everything.

I could tell he was thinking of saying something, but he changed his mind.

“Kiro won’t crawl out of bed for another two hours. I suggest you let him get up on his own. If you wake him, you’re just going to have a more difficult time.”

“Fine. I’ll eat and then call Reese.”

Dean set his cup down. “Marlana is making pancakes and sausage. Or she was, until she ran off to get your paper. At least look at the damn thing. The woman is too old to be running around so much.”

That was all he said before he walked out of the kitchen with a swagger that was similar to my father’s. I decided a long time ago that only rock stars knew how to walk that way.

Marlana came shuffling in and put the paper in front of me. “Breakfast ready soon,” she assured me, then went back to the stove.

I opened the paper, not giving a shit what it had to say, but, like Dean said, she’d gone and gotten it for me. I didn’t want to hurt her feelings.

Reese

I had called and gotten Maryann to pick me up an hour early yesterday so I wouldn’t be there when Captain returned. The more I thought about it, the more I wished I hadn’t told him about my dyslexia. What was it about him that made me blurt stuff out?

Mase had called me when he landed in Los Angeles. We talked during his ride to his father’s house in Beverly Hills. I could tell he was tense and nervous about what he was going to find when he got there, and I felt guilty about not being there with him.

To make up for leaving work early yesterday, I had come in early this morning. I had slept better than the night before because I was so tired from lack of sleep. If all went well today, Mase would be coming home.

Piper would also be back today, and I wanted to make sure everything was neat and ready for her. I checked on the horses and swept the floors of the dust that had blown in overnight. Then I headed back to my office.

The rest of the morning went quickly. I kept waiting for a call from Mase, but I focused on getting all my work done in case anything new came up today.

Right after Piper left for lunch, the door opened, and in walked a little boy who couldn’t have been more than ten. At first, I thought he was a student of Piper’s whose parents had gotten the time wrong. Until Captain walked in behind the kid.

What?

“Glad you’re here. Henry and I made the drive out yesterday to find you’d already gone home. Early.”