“Only you could make it look semi-hot.”
“Ridiculous.” He shakes his head, storming past me and dropping down onto my sofa.
I continue to laugh as the corners puff out at the shoulders.
“If you don’t stop, I’ll take it off, and then all hell will break loose. Do you want that?” he asks, completely serious.
“Are you threatening me with sex?” I laugh harder.
“I never implied sex, Nina.” His face gets even more serious, and he rearranges himself again. “Jesus Christ.”
“Your clothes won’t be long then you can go home.” I sit down on the opposite sofa—feeling like it’s the safest thing to do—and try not to look at him, remaining focused on the TV.
After ten minutes, I feel his eyes on me and when I turn to face him, he jumps straight in. “I think we should have an evening a week where we have dinner together. For Ellis.”
Shit. Okay, I wasn’t expecting that. The evening has been good. Ellis loved having Mason here, but do I really want to tie us to one night a week, putting us both in a position to be around each other. We rarely last five minutes without disagreeing on something.
“You could come to the penthouse, or I could come here,” he suggests.
“I wouldn’t come to the penthouse.”
“Why?”
Because it would tear me apart to go back to the only place that ever felt like home. “Too much happened at the penthouse. I don’t think I’d be comfortable there.”
“That’s ridiculous, you pretty much lived there for five months.”
“Like you lived at Lowerwick for seventeen years but now can’t go back, not even for your sister.”
His face turns hard and he starts fiddling with the remote control. “Forget it.”
“I’m just saying, it’s how I feel.”
“I know, that’s fine and I understand.” He brushes it off, and I try to bite my tongue, but I know I need to get it off my chest.
“Have you spoken to Scarlet recently?”
“Nina—”
“We can talk about the house, and Scar if you want.”
“You aren’t turning this around on me. I asked you to do one night a wee k, for our son. This doesn’t need to become a screaming match because I don’t go to the estate.”
“I’m not screaming, Mason, I’m willing to compromise if you will.”
“What do you mean?”
“You say it’s for Ellis, having an evening where we eat together. And I agree, he seemed to love tonight.”
“Right…” He studies me, unsure of where I’m going with this.
“I take Ellis to the estate every other week, sometimes more. But what if we do one week here, one week at the penthouse, and one week at the estate? With Scar.”
His jaw locks and he stares down at the coffee table.
“I’d be willing to face the penthouse if you are willing to face Lowerwick.”
“It’s not the same thing. I lost everything at that house,” he mutters, not looking at me.
