That “much” was said with a hint of a smile. Suddenly, Mason was tempted to put a hitch in Doc’s Sam Elliott swagger.
“You can’t give her what she needs,” Mason said through gritted teeth.
Doc choked on his beer. Unfortunately, he didn’t expire from it. “Are you questioning my ability to please a woman in bed?”
“No, you tool. I’m saying she deserves someone who’ll share more than his body with her. She deserves someone who’ll give her a piece of his heart. And we all know you gave yours away years ago.”
For a moment, Doc said nothing. Then he shrugged. “From what I gather, she’s not after a piece of my heart. She’s after my d—”
“Not,” Mason cut in, that single syllable heavy with barely controlled violence. “Another. Word.”
Doc took a slow sip of his beer. After he swallowed—again,slowly—he said, “Why the hell do you care, man? You don’t want her. So why not let someone else step up to the plate?”
“’Cause she’sAlex!” Mason realized he was shouting when the people around them stopped their conversations to turn and stare. Clearing his throat, he added more calmly, “She’s smart and sweet and…and…all things good. She needs someone who’ll appreciate the gift she’s offering.”
“To hear her tell it, she doesn’t see it as a gift. She sees it as a burden.”
Mason didn’t want to know the answer to his next question, but he heard himself asking anyway, “Did she proposition you?”
“Sure enough.”
Once again, Mason was considering visiting violence upon the head of one of his closest friends. Red edged around his vision.
What the fuck was wrong with him?
Oh, right. Alex. Alex is what’s wrong with me!
He would lose his mind if she kept going around offering up her virginity to every Tom, Dick, and Harry.
“But she didn’t mean it,” Doc added. “She’s not really interested in an old warhorse like me.”
Mason grimaced. “He says with false humility while the blond at the end of the bar tries to eat him alive with her eyes.”
Doc’s lips twitched, and he tipped his beer toward the blond in a little salute. Mason thought she might’ve orgasmed on the spot. Her lips fell open and her eyes went half-lidded.
Then Doc returned to the subject. “It’s not like that between me and Alex.”
“Coulda fooled me. I saw the way she ran to you in the parking lot.”
“That’s because I’ve become her touchstone when things are tough. I’ve been helping her work through some of her feelings from that night on Garden Key, some of the fears and worries she’s had.”
Mason felt something inside him shrivel up. He thought maybe it was his heart. “She has fears and worries? I–I didn’t know.”
“No shit, man. You’ve been doing your best to avoid her since then.”
He had. Because she was so fucking tempting. Because he couldn’t trust himself around her. But he should have known she’d need someone to confide in. Someone who could offer her a shoulder to lean on, to cry on.
That shoulder should’ve been his.Heshould’ve become her touchstone.
He’d been there, after all. On Garden Key. He’d seen and heard and suffered all the same things she had. Which meant he was in the unique position to commiserate, to comfort.
He tried to swallow down the guilt and self-recrimination, but they both stayed stuck in his throat. When the bartender came over to ask after his drink order, he waved the man away. He was too busy thinking to drink.
Thinking about Alex and all the ways he’d let her down. Wondering if there was something he could do to make it up to her.
“You need to talk to her.” Doc cut into his thoughts.
“Not very good at that,” Mason admitted miserably. “You’re probably better when it comes to—”
