“I don’t know aboutthat,” she says, looking over at me. “I mean, probably not. It’s just … youknow. Maybe,” she says. I lift an eyebrow and she bites her lip, then looksaway from me. “I don’t know, maybe. I have to go … okay, bye.”
“Everything goodwith the bakery?” I ask.
“Yeah, she wascalling to be annoying,” Alexa says with a smile. “This is the first time shecan harass me about a guy, so she wants all the details, like immediately.”
“You’ll only tellher the good details, right?”
Her head tilts tothe side. “There’s nothingbutgooddetails when it comes to you.”
“Give it time,” Isay. “As soon as you see my home, you might be running off to call her andgossip about me.”
“Youarea hoarder!” she says, playfullyslapping me on the arm.
“It’s not that bad.I’m actually like an anti-hoarder.”
She lifts aneyebrow. “What exactly is that?”
“Well, you know howyour place is very girly with matching colors and artwork and stuff?”
“Yeah…”
I shrug. “My placeis pretty empty. I have basic black furniture and that’s about it. I’m notreally into decorating.”
“But does adecorated house bother you?” she asks.
“Not at all.”
“Good,” she sayswith a smile. “Because I love decorating.”
Alexa’s phone beepsand she checks her messages and then groans. “This girl …” she mutters, beforetyping out a reply.
“Can I ask what’sgoing on, or is it private girl stuff?”
She sighs. “It’sLivi … she wants to invite you over to her house tonight so we can grill andhang out by the pool.”
“That sounds fun,”I say.
“Yeah but… it’slike her sneaky way of getting to know you. She’s dating my cousin and they’llboth be overly protective of me, especially since I like you so much.” Shestops herself, her eyes going wide. “I mean, I don’t like you like in a creepyway…”
I laugh and takeone hand off the steering wheel to grab her hand. “I like you so much too,” Isay.
She holds my handin both of hers. “Would you want to go? They have a pretty great house with apool and everything.”
“It sounds fun. Butonly if you want to.”
She shrugs oneshoulder. “They’ll totally grill you and try you size you up as a person to seeif you’re worthy of dating me.”
“I’m up to thechallenge.”
She grins andsqueezes my hand. “Cool.”
Chapter 25
People are alwaysimpressed when they see Mason’s house for the first time. It’s in a gated,lake-front community, which is impressive as it is. But then you see the twostory home that’s practically a mansion (I say practically becauserealmansions are bigger) and your jawdrops. Here in Texas, it fits the phrase, everything’s bigger in Texas.
I’m still not surewhy my cousin bought such a huge house for himself, but I love it. Now, he andLivi share it and I have no doubt that in the near future they’ll be gettingmarried and filling the spare rooms with kids. For now, it’s a fun party place,and since Mason is my cousin, I have my own set of keys and garage door openerand can come and go as I please.
Gabe’s expressionis no different than anyone else’s when we pull into Mason’s long driveway.“Nice place,” he says, eyes wide and mouth slightly open as he peers up at thestone bricked home, and all of its sloping angles and perfectly manicuredlandscaping.
