She thought of the ivory marble bathtub in her mother’s bathroom, deep enough that EvaMarie had been able to swim in it when she was little. It didn’t have jets in it like the latest and greatest, but it was a gorgeous piece that would probably be scrapped, if the latest and greatest was what Mason was looking to put in.
Unable to handle any more of memory lane, she turned back toward the door to the hallway.
“And your room?” Mason asked from far too close behind her.
“Still on... On the other side of the floor.” She held her breath, waiting on him to insist on seeing her room. Between them was Chris’s room—please, no more. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could hold herself together.
In an attempt to distract them both, she went on. “The third floor has been empty for years. There’re two baths up there. A couple of the bigger rooms have fireplaces. Oh, and the library, of course.”
His pause was significant enough to catch her eye.
Did he remember the one time that she’d snuck him in to show him her favorite place in the house? Long ago, she could have spent entire days in the library, only emerging when her mother made her come to the table. Maybe Mason did remember, because he turned away, back to the stairs.
“Another day, perhaps,” she murmured.
As they hurried down the stairs, he didn’t look back until he reached the side entrance, his hand wrapped around the Swarovski crystal handle.
“If there are any problems, I’ll have my lawyer contact you.”
She let her head incline just a touch, feeling a deep crack in her tightly held veneer. “I’m sure.”
“It was good to see you again.” His sly grin told her why it had been—because it had served his purpose.
She wished she could say the same.
“The signing date is set. The property is almost ours.” Mason grinned at his brother, then turned back to the lawyer. “You’ve been great. We really appreciate it.”
James Covey grinned back, looking almost as young as them, though Mason knew he was a contemporary of their father. “It’s been my pleasure. I’m thrilled to be able to help y’all like this.”
His smile dimmed a little, and Mason knew what he was thinking...what they were all thinking. That they wished their father hadn’t had to die for this to happen. Kane’s hand landed with heavy pressure on Mason’s shoulder, and they shared a look.
It wasn’t all a bed of roses, but they would honor their father’s memory by establishing the best stables money could buy and talent could attain, using everything he’d ever taught them.
It was what he would have wanted.
“So are we going to be running into the Hyatts every time we turn around in this town?” Kane asked as they exited the lawyer’s stylish brownstone in the upscale part of downtown that had been renovated several years back. Slowly they made their way down the steps.
Kane had been gone for a week and a half, starting the process of training their new ranch manager to take over their Tennessee stables. They weren’t leaving behind their original property, though it wouldn’t be their main residence any longer.
“I don’t think so,” Mason said.
“Good, because that would be awkward.”
Mason rather thought he would enjoy rubbing their newfound success in Daulton Hyatt’s face, but he preferred not to confirm his own suspicions that he was a bad person. “I’m not even sure what’s going on out there,” he said. “When I went to tour the stables, no one was there except the guy we’re taking on, um, Jim. I haven’t seen the Hyatts...or EvaMarie...around town.”
“Well, don’t look now.”
Mason looked in the same direction as his brother, spotting EvaMarie immediately as she strolled up the wide sidewalk headed their way. The smart, sophisticated dress and heeled boots she wore were a definite step up from the sweatpants he’d seen her in, yet he almost got the feeling that she’d put on armor against him.
He wasn’t that bad, was he? Okay, maybe he was...
She paused at the bottom of the steep concrete stairs, her dark hair falling away from her shoulders as she looked up at them. “The landlady told me where to find you.”
“Um, why were you looking?” Mason asked, ignoring Kane’s chuckle under the cover of his palm. He also tried to ignore the way his body perked up with just the sound of her husky voice.
EvaMarie ignored his question and nodded toward the office behind them. “He’s good.”
“I know.” So there’s no getting out of the deal.
EvaMarie was obviously not daunted by Mason’s refusal to relent. She extended her hand in his brother’s direction. “You must be Kane?”
His traitor brother went to the bottom of the stairs to shake her hand and properly introduce himself, then he glanced at Mason over his shoulder. “Gotta go. I’ll see you back at the town house tonight.”
What a wimp! Though Mason knew Kane wasn’t running; he was simply leaving Mason to deal with the awkward situation of his own creation. The odds of EvaMarie simply happening by here were quite small, even though the town was only moderately sized with a large population of stable owners in the area.
Sure enough, she waited only long enough for Kane to disappear around the corner before turning back to him. “Could I speak with you, please? There’s a café nearby.”
A tingling sense told him he was about to be asked for a favor. Not that the Hyatts deserved one. After all, Daulton had shown no mercy when he’d had Mason’s father fired from his job and blacklisted at the other stables in the area. He hadn’t cared at all that his father was the sole support of two children. He’d only wanted revenge on Mason for daring to touch his daughter.
Mason would do well to remember that, regardless of how sexy EvaMarie might look all grown up.
The café just down the street was locally owned, with a cool literary ambience that was obviously popular from the crowd gathered inside. Bookshelves lined a couple of walls, containing old books interspersed with teapots and mugs. Tables and ladder-back chairs shared the space with oversize, high-backed chairs covered in leather. He glanced at EvaMarie, only to see her gaze sweeping over the crowd in a kind of anxious scan.
Though he refused to admit it, seeing her do that gave him a little pang. It seemed as though things hadn’t changed too much after all. She still couldn’t stand to be seen with him in public.
Struggling to stuff down his fifteen-year-old resentments, Mason was a touch short when he snapped, “Grab a table. I’ll order the coffee.”
“Oh.” She glanced his way, her smile tentative. “Could I just get an apple cider please?”
Apparently she hadn’t chosen the place for the coffee. As he took his place in line, he couldn’t help but think how strange this was. EvaMarie wasn’t someone he’d had a typical relationship with—though she’d been the only woman he’d had more than just sex with. That was a first—and definitely a last.
But they’d never been on a real date, just his graduation party with his high-school friends. Never really out in public. Mostly they had gone on trail rides together, holed up in the old barn loft and talked, sneaking stolen moments here and there when no one was looking.
Once