“No. It’s nice, Mason. I just never have known you to care about getting a nice button-up.”
“There was a time where you didn’t give too many shits, either.”
So much for that honeymoon period of being around each other. Back to awkwardness.
“No, it looks really good,” Chase insisted, trying to diffuse the tension. “You should try it on.”
Mason relaxed. “I think I will.”
He turned and headed off.
Chase could tell he’d hurt Mason, and all he wanted was to get away from Emery to make him feel better.
All those years later, and his instinct was still to soothe him and take away his pain.
He waited for Emery to comment on the situation, but she was too busy checking out the rack of skirts.
Maybe she hadn’t noticed the reemergence of the tension between them. He hoped that was the case.
When Emery finished searching for new articles to add to her stack, she headed to the dressing rooms. Chase waited outside for her to display her different looks when he heard some people talking near him. He turned to see a man chatting with a sales associate. In a button-up shirt with rolled-up sleeves that clung tight to his muscular body, he ran his fingers through his curly brown locks as he flashed a charming smile. He was the kind of guy who would have intimidated him back in Los Angeles. Cool, put-together, suave.
Chase figured the guy was in his mid-twenties. He wished he could have been that young, beautiful, and as easy-going as the guy was as he talked with the sales associate.
“I like these,” Chase heard beside him, and he turned to Emery, who held up a mini-skirt and a light-green blouse.
“Oh, I really like this one. Jasper won’t be able to keep his hands off you.”
Her teeth glistened in the overhanging fluorescent lights as she grinned. “Perfect.”
After she headed back into the dressing room, Chase went into the men’s department to find Mason, who he discovered checking himself out in a floor-length mirror in the dressing room entryway.
The image made Chase’s thoughts return to their wedding, and Chase blushed.
He’d seen Mason in a button-up and tie plenty of times, but they were rare occasions, so the instance that stood out most to him was when they stood together exchanging one of the most beautiful moments of Chase’s life.
Mason turned to him. “How’s it look?”
Even though he looked as amazing as he possibly could have, Chase could see the sincerity in his eyes—as if he didn’t see how beautiful he was, as if someone so gorgeous could live oblivious to the fact that they were the most beautiful creation in the world.
“Amazing… as always,” Chase replied.
Mason’s smile twisted into his dimples, and once again Chase was swept away, enraptured.
“I’m getting it,” Mason added before returning to the dressing room stall. He changed back into the shirt he’d worn to the store before he and Chase walked together to find Emery.
“I have to admit,” Mason said. “Kind of would have just liked pulling you back into that dressing room.”
Chase felt his dick shift in his pants. “Really? What could we have possibly done there?”
“Maybe I would have forced your pants down and had my way with you. Just worried you wouldn’t be able to keep from screaming.”
“I’ve been good at keeping quiet at the house, you have to admit.”
“Too good. You know I love the noises you make. Every damned one of them.”
Chase’s face turned red. “You naughty boy.”
“Mason?”
