Chapter 22

Mason

Following the directions Leah gives—because she won’t let me look at her map—we end up in front of an arcade and sports complex.

“Come on.” She lets herself out before I have the chance to open the car door for her.

“You want to play arcade games?”

“Nope.” She yanks the big glass door open and holds it for me. “We’re going to the batting cages.”

My heart slams to a stop. She’s in a dress and heels. I’m in a stuffy suit. “We’re not dressed for this.”

“We’ve got clothes on, don’t we? That’s good enough.”

She marches up to the counter. “We’d like an hour in two of your batting cages, please.”

Be still my lonely heart . “You’re swinging too?”

“Hells yes, I am. And five bucks says I’m totally gonna smoke you.”

Happiness rips out of me. I think I’ve laughed more with Leah than I have in the past decade. “You’re on, Princess.”

We head to the batting cages and Leah takes off her heels. Dear god, she’s seriously going to do this.

We pick out our bats and get in our cages. The feel of the bat in my grip, its weight and shape, is both comforting and foreign. It’s been a long time since I’ve done this.

Leah blows me a kiss and twirls her bat around looking like she’s a goddam professional athlete.

The balls fly.

I swing and hit mine. She misses hers.

“Ohhh, fancy Big Tech Daddy knows how to hit it!”

“You have no idea.” I toss my bat in the air, letting it spin once before I catch it effortlessly.

The balls fly again. I swing and hit. She swings and misses.

“You can have a couple freebies,” I say, winking.

“I don’t need them. I’m just—ah!”

She dodges the next ball. “Holy crap, these things come quick!” Before I can tell her to get out of the cage and say this is a bad idea, she points her bat at me. “Stay over there, Mr. Finch. Worry about yourself. I’m not the kind of woman who lets a pair of balls scare her off.”

God love her.

Leah gets all serious as she grips her bat and chants, “See the ball, hit the ball. See the ball, hit the ball.”

They fly again and we both swing. She hits, I miss. “I get triple points for that.”

“Why?”

“Pretty privilege, obviously.”

In that case, she should be up by one million points.

We both swing again, and I miss. Leah hits hers but wasn’t holding the bat properly. “OUCH! SHIT!” She drops the bat and shakes her arm.

“Hold it at the base and extend your arm when you swing.” The balls fly again, and I hit a grand slam. “Out of the park, baby!”

Leah picks her bat up and tries again. “Full swing. Bat at the base. See the ball, hit the ball.” Bouncing on the balls of her feet, she hits the next five and tips the sixth. “This is so fun!”

Her joy consumes me. Being here with a bat in my hand and my girl next to me makes this the greatest moment I’ve had in forever. I didn’t realize how much I’ve been missing in my life until Leah came into it.

We have a blast taking turns trash talking, teasing, and hyping each other up. The hour blows by, and we finally hang our bats back up. Leah’s out of breath as she gathers her heels and puts them back on. “That was way fun!”

“You did amazing.” I kneel and put her foot on my knee so I can fasten the strap. “Total main character energy.”

Leah’s jaw drops and eyes widen. Clutching her chest, she leans in and says with all seriousness, “That’s the single greatest compliment of my fucking life.” Then she squeals and wraps her arms around my neck and kisses me.

With little effort, I lift her off the bench and keep kissing her even as I press her against the exit door. She runs her hands through my hair, devouring my mouth and my dick’s been hard for the past hour, which means it’s a throbbing, painful rod in my pants.

“Easy, Princess. There are kids around here.”

“Right.” She flicks me between my eyebrows. “Down boy.”

“Hey!”

She flicks me again. “Granny panties. Think about granny panties.”

“Are you in them? Because that’ll still turn me on.”

“You’re a mess.” Giggling, she straightens her dress and snatches her purse. “Ready to go?”

No. “Yup.”

After freshening up in the bathrooms, we head out and I swear I’m walking on clouds. This head rush is amazing. On the way to the restaurant, we take turns story-telling our favorite memories and what’s more important: queso dip or guacamole.

“Queso is the obvious choice.”

“Ugh,” she pouts. “I knew there’d be a flaw in you somewhere.”

“Guac looks like orc snot.”

“Mmmm so yummy.” She taps her fingers to the beat of the song playing on the radio. “So, who is dinner with? You never told me.”

“My friends.” Who I can’t wait for her to meet, or I’d have canceled dinner already and taken Leah back to the hotel for some real fun. I pull up and let the valet take my car. Escorting Leah inside is a motherfucking privilege. Several pairs of eyes turn to us as we step inside, and I love it. She’s stunning.

And she’s mine.

“Good evening, Mr. Finch. Right this way.”

Leah makes a “Ohhh fancy” face at me and lets me escort her towards the stairs that bring us to the private seating area. It’s much quieter up here than it is on the first floor, which is what Landon prefers.

“Mase,” he says, standing up once he sees Leah with me.

“Landon, this is Leah. Leah, this mongrel here is Landon.”

“Hi.” She reaches out to shake his hand, but of course, he kisses it instead. Show-off .

“Great, now she probably needs a rabies shot. Keep your mouth to yourself.”

Landon clutches his heart. “You cut deep, man. Real deep.”

“Hi Leah.” Kerrington also stands to greet her.

“This is Kerrington. Don’t let his calmness fool you. He’s even worse than Landon.”

“If by worse you mean better looking, then yeah.” He also kisses Leah’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“And last, by design, is Gage.” I look around. “Who must be running late.”

“He went down to get champagne and is probably talking to the chef.” Landon slides back into the booth. “We’ve been pre-gaming for an hour.”

“So have we,” I say, letting Leah squeeze in next to Landon before I sit on her other side.

Kerrington cuffs his ears. “Please don’t talk about your pre-game. I’ll lose my appetite.”

I flip him off.

Leah wiggles in her seat. “Don’t let Mason get to you, boys. He’s just mad that I beat him.”

I gawk. “You did not. It was a tie!”

“Nope. I won. You miscounted.”

“Are we talking orgasms or…” Landon leans in and waggles his eyebrows. “Orgasms?”

“Kerrington, come get your boy before I throat punch him for flirting with my future wife.” The words fly out before I can stop them.

Everyone freezes, including Leah, who recovers fastest. “Who says I’d marry you?”

Her tone is playful, but underneath is a hint of something else I can’t pinpoint.

I lean against her ear and say in a low, grumbly tone, “I’d beg.”

Kerrington snarfs his ice water, splashing it all over himself.

Landon leans back and stretches his arms over the top of the booth. “Gage, man, you’re just in time. Mason here was just proposing to Leah.”

“Oh yeah?” Gage holds out two bottles of bubbly. “This is good timing then, huh? Hi Leah, I’m Gage.”

She leans forward to shake his hand and my gaze falls to the swell of her breasts in the low-cut dress. Landon looks, too. And so does Gage. “It’s nice to meet you.”

Gage pops the cork and pours champagne in our flutes.

We all lift our glasses and Landon says, “Here’s to swimming with bow legged women.”

“Christ, Landon, that’s not it,” Gage groans. “Here’s to those who wish us well, and all the rest can go to Hell.”

“Wow,” Kerrington huffs. “You both suck balls.” Raising his glass higher, he clears his throat and toasts, “Cheers to that long straight piece in Tetris.”

“For the love of God, make it stop,” I joke. Raising my glass, and also Leah’s hand, I kiss her knuckles before saying, “Here’s to a long life and a happy one. A quick death and an easy one. A good girl and an honest one, a cold pint and another one.”

“Ayyy!” Kerrington and Gage clank their glasses. Landon chimes his with mine. Then we all take turns hitting Leah’s.

Dinner starts off with a variety of small dishes. Leah plucks an olive from Landon’s plate and pops it in her mouth, smiling like the devil.

He rests his elbow on the table and has this dopey smile on his face. “Tell me about yourself, Leah.”

I stab a crouton and eat it, waiting for her reply.

“Oh, there’s not much to say.”

“Where did you and our boy meet?”

She looks over at me, completely unfazed while my heart’s pounding. I’m pissed my natural reaction is nervousness and decide to do something about it. “She works for a cleaning service.”

“Nice. You like it?” Gage spreads bruschetta onto a toast point.

“Yeah, I do.” Leah pulls a face. “Is that weird?”

“Doing what you like?” Gage frowns. “No. Why. Is it supposed to be weird?”

Leah looks up at me as if she hadn’t expected him to say that. Winking at her, I sip my water.

“This place sucks.” Landon flicks an olive off his plate. “I hate hoity toity food. Why are we here?”

“Because it’s the nicest restaurant in the city.” Ker slathers butter on his roll and shoves the whole thing in his mouth at once.

“You eat like an animal,” Gage states.

Unbothered, Ker swallows and says, “I fuck like one too.”

“Do you guys want to get out of here?” Landon asks. “Leah, doesn’t a burger sound way better than this…” He pokes the food on his plate. “What the fuck even is this?”

“Pate.” I stab another crouton on my plate.

“I’m game to leave if you guys are,” she says happily.

“Oh, thank god.” Gage tosses his napkin on the table.

“Where do you want to go, Princess?” We all turn our attention to Leah. She looks at each of us like a deer caught in the headlights. Then a devilish smile spreads across her lips.

“Dancing.” She looks directly at me. “I think we should go dancing.”

Landon wraps his knuckles on the table and hops out of the booth first. “You heard the lady. She wants to go dancing. And what Leah wants, Leah gets.”

“Ohhh I like that.” She shimmies out of the booth next. “Can we make that a thing?”

“Absolutely.” I’ll live by that rule for the rest of my life if she lets me.

Gage follows Leah and Landon down the steps, leaving Kerrington and me going last.

“What the fuck is going on, Mase?”

“What do you mean?”

“I haven’t seen you this happy in… forever.” Kerrington slaps a stack of cash on the table to pay for the meal we’re not sticking around to eat. “And I know damn well it’s not the money that has that goofy ass smile on your face.” He tilts his head in Leah’s direction. “She do this?”

“Yeah.” My cheeks hurt from grinning so hard.

“I didn’t even know you were dating anyone. Especially with the whole Nicole thing.”

The mention of her name is like ice water poured down my back. “Do me a favor, Ker. Don’t mention her name.”

His pace slows down. “Fuck, Mase.”

“It’s a nonissue, and it’s staying that way.”

“How long have you and Leah been together?”

“Three days.” Or is it four now? Wait… when did we first get together? “Maybe a week and a half?”

Kerrington freezes. “You’re fucking joking .”

My glower tells him I’m not.

“Shit.” He looks over at Leah, who’s talking animatedly with Landon. “You better know what you’re doing, man.”

I don’t. But I’ll figure it out.