“A protein-heavy diet?” Mason asked.
Chase chuckled.
“Oh my God, Mason,” Emery moaned.
“Hey!” Mason snapped. “Kid sisters aren’t allowed to get that joke.”
“Well, kid sisters have been on high-protein diets the past few years, too. Just saying.”
“Emery!” Chase exclaimed, gasping.
“What? Oh, sorry. Should I pretend that I’m not a grown woman in a relationship with a man I’m about to marry? Please. And neither of you get to complain about TMI considering I wanted to burn my eyes out after that time I caught you two when I was little.”
Emery glanced between them as though she was checking to make sure it was okay for her to go there.
Mason raised his hands before him. “Fair point.”
“I mean, if I really wanted to get even, Jasper and I could just fuck on the table right here so you guys can catch us.”
The mischievous look in her eyes let Chase know she was trying to get to Mason, and his cringe suggested it was working just fine.
“Okay, okay. Forget I said anything. I don’t need to go down this path unless they’ve found a way to erase mental images.”
“You’d think by now he’d realize I’m a grown woman,” Emery told Chase.
“La, la, la. I can’t hear you,” Mason sang as he pressed one hand to his ear as he stirred the eggs in the frying pan with a spatula.
“You can totally hear me.”
He whistled loudly and glanced around as though he couldn’t, which made Chase laugh.
Nothing had changed between the two of them.
She rolled her eyes and turned back to Chase. “Anyway, Tessa said we should check out this one place she googled for the cake. After that, we’ll hit up Party City and look for a few things that we can use. Just decorative items for tables and the little photo album table that Tessa wanted to do. I think it sounds cute. And Macy’s is having this blow-out sale. It’s just today and tomorrow, so I figured we’d go by there after we finish with the other stuff.”
“Sounds perfect to me.”
“You ladies gonna go shopping without me?” Mason asked, glancing over his shoulder.
“Did you want to come with us?” Emery asked.
The twisted expression on her face assured Chase that, while Mason may have changed some over the years, he hadn’t transformed into a guy who loved shopping. Mason got bored and aggravated even when they went Christmas shopping. He would have much rather spent his afternoons shooting cans off of fences or fishing. Shopping had always been Chase and Emery’s favorite thing to share during their free time—and something Mason would dodge whenever possible, which played out well since it gave Emery and Chase the bonding time they’d needed. During those times, Emery was free to gossip about boys without Mason wanting to beat the crap out of anyone who either wasn’t interested in return or who was too interested.
But Chase suspected Mason just wanted a chance to spend more time with him, and he was fine with that.
He had his doubts about if what they were doing was smart—the husbands-with-benefits thing. But Mason seemed to understand that even though they cared about each other, their lives weren’t set up to easily allow them to be together, which was something he hadn’t been willing to admit in college.
“It’s my day off,” Mason replied, “and I could use a little time away from this place.”
Emery looked at Chase, who shrugged.
“Okay. If you insist,” she said. “It’ll be a fun little day. And you can help me pick out some new clothes. I know how you love to do that.”
Mason smiled. “You don’t have to turn it into a form of punishment. I’ve been good to you.”
“If you hadn’t broken that tractor Jasper had to spend the week fixing, I’d agree with that.” She glared at him.
“I didn’t break it. It just broke on my watch. It certainly doesn’t warrant death by fashion. Although, I don’t know who you’ll be punishing more—me or yourself?”
