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“Good. She sounds like a twatmuffin,” Tasha declares, then chugs down half her wine cooler.
“Accurate description,” I agree.
Shelby nudges me with her elbow. “So? What did he say when you talked to him?”
I just look at her and shove a cookie into my mouth.
Shelby sighs. “You didn’t talk to him, did you?”
I shake my head and chew.
“Because why?”
I swallow. “Because he had Cecelia tell me that he didn’t want me representing him anymore, and then when I saw him in person and tried to ask him about it, he told me he wanted to ‘take a break.’ So I threw a cup of coffee on him—”
“As one does,” Shelby agrees.
“And then I stormed off and have refused to take his texts and calls ever since.” Shelby and Tasha are both staring at me reprovingly now. “What?” I protest.
“Maybe he has some kind of reasonable explanation,” Tasha suggests. “Honestly, from the very first time I talked to him in the cab, I could tell he was into you.”
“What cab? You were in a cab with him?” Shelby demands of Tasha. “You came to town and didn’t say hi to me?
“No, this was a FaceTime thing. Mason grabbed the phone from me when I was talking to her. It’s a long story involving Mason forcing me to listen to ‘Macarena’ twenty-seven times in a row.” I stifle a snicker at the memory. Our feud was kind of fun. I’m a little sad that I can’t make him dress up in a ballerina costume for another charity event. It would be tutu cute.
“Oh, come on. A man does not do that to a woman unless he’s trying to get a rise out of her. It’s like pulling a girl’s pigtails.” Shelby looks at the screen. “Wow. He’s in a mood tonight. He’s in time-out for fighting again.”
“Look, guys, I knew Mason’s reputation from the very beginning,” I tell them. “Being with Mason was hot, it was incredible, it was intense. He was all, ‘I’m not with anyone else, baby.’ without being any more specific than that, and ... I really made a fool of myself. I let my guard down, and he stomped all over my heart. I don’t see how I could trust him again.”
“I think that what you should do is at least let him try to explain what the hell is going on. If his explanation is just ‘I was having a bad week’ then you know that he was just a fuckboy and it’s time to move on.”
“Language,” I gasp dramatically.
“English, mostly,” Tasha says. “Although my grandmother taught me some Russian. My great-great-grandparents came here fleeing the pogroms. Want to hear me swear in Russian?”
“Only if you can tell Mason to go fuck himself,” Shelby says. “But also, Rowan needs to go talk to him and see what happened, because we are all here for the drama and we need to see how this series ends.”
“?????? ???,” Tasha says, with a perfect accent. We stare at her. “What?” she shrugs. “My grandmother taught me the good stuff.”
My cell phone rings, and I glance over at the charging cradle on my end table. It’s Mason’s father.
“I need to take this, and no, it’s not Mason,” I tell Shelby and Tasha. “Please continue booing the Rovers for me.”
I snatch up another wine cooler, grab the cell phone, and answer, hurrying to my bedroom. I mean, I did tell him he could call anytime, but if he’s calling me at night, I’m worried.
I shut the door quickly. “Mr. Raker. Is everything all right?” I ask, concerned.
“Well, yes and no. Do you have a couple of minutes?”
I settle down on my bed and take a swig from the wine cooler. “Of course. What’s going on?”
I hear a long sigh. “I’ve been doing some digging to help Mason out. I’m sure you know that strange things have been happening with him lately, things that seem designed to provoke him and make him look bad. Ultimately aimed to cost him his spot on the team.”
“Yes, I have noticed that.” I feel a twinge of remorse. Mason and I may not be together, but I still care about him. I can’t just leave him hanging. I did say I’d work on finding out what Lexi was up to, and I intend to, unless Mr. Raker has beaten me to it.
And apparently he has.
“It all goes back to his coach, Paul Hartley. Turns out the Rovers have been planning to relieve him of his duties after this season. He and Ralph Talman have clashed on the vision for the team and Ralph has had enough with Hartley’s inability to take orders. He found out and called Talman on it.”
