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She gently removed Mason’s hand from her face and stared at him. “You are good and kind and worth it. I couldn’t have picked a better friend.”

And that was the thing. She had picked him, forced it on him, even. Like she knew that was the only way past his defenses, so she could stake a claim.

It awoke something in him. It made him think that maybe there was something left inside him that cared.

She came back to him, went up on tiptoe, and kissed his cheek. “I’ll call you.” She fell back to her feet. “Or, you know, you could call me sometime. Because you like me. Right?” She was teasing.

Of course he liked her. You couldn’t not like her.

He grumbled, “Get out.”

She only smiled brighter.

So did Mason. “Catch you later.”

“Pick a later time,” he groused, sounding like a disgruntled old man.

“See, baby, he’s inviting us back.” Lyric gave him a wicked grin over her shoulder as she walked out the door.

Mason waited until she was a little ways away before he stood in the doorway and said, “I know whatit’s like to be lonely like you’ve been for a long time. She changed everything for me, because I let her in. Let someone in, Hawk, because it doesn’t have to be like this. You can be happy despite all the shit you’ve done in the name of duty and honor and for the greater good.” Mason knew what he was talking about there because of the nature of his job. He got Hawk on a level most people didn’t. “Think about it, then do something about it, because I can tell you for certain, it’s worth facing that pain, learning to let go, and finally livingyourlife.”

Hawk didn’t say anything. He didn’t know what to say.

“Thanks for making my angel smile.” Mason’s eyes narrowed. “Now, knock it off. That’s my job.” Mason closed the door without letting him reply.

Hawk decided poking at his cousin by flirting with his girlfriend was too fun to stop now.

And if it crossed his mind that he hadn’t played like this and taken joy in it like this in forever, well, he ignored it and his instinctive need to squash the fun took over.

He liked riling his cousin and making Lyric smile.

It was better than the brooding hell he usually suffered through every day.

He wanted to go back to sleep but headed for his kitchen and the coffee maker, knowing the only thing he’d be doing was thinking about Mason’s words and whether or not a man like him could ever be the kind of man a woman needed and deserved him to be.

If Mason could do it, maybe he could, too.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Mason missed Lyric with every breath he took, every beat of his heart. She’d skipped her February trip to Nashville to write with her partner Faith so they could finalize the renovation plans for their house and start construction. So she’d moved the trip to the end of March. The house was coming along. Only a few more weeks until it was done.

“How long has she been gone?” his therapist asked.

Mason stared at the computer on his desk in the unfinished office in their house. “Six days. She’ll be back later tonight.” He couldn’t wait.

“And how are things between you two?”

His problems had never been their relationship. That part of his life was easy. “She worries about me when I wake up in a cold sweat from a nightmare.”

“You said those are getting better.”

“They are.” It seemed when he’d decided to change the nature of his job, his brain had finally had a chance to start processing all the trauma and bad shit he’d done and seen on the job. Like taking a vacation, only to relax and end up sick. “Lyric and I are great. I couldn’t ask for a better partner.”

That’s exactly what she was to him.

When he’d expressed to his therapist and her thathe felt like he was using her to try to get over his mental damage, she’d put him in his place.

“If you hold me and comfort me when I wake up from a nightmare about the hit-and-run or Tim trying to beat the shit out of me, am I using you? Would you tell me to suck it up and get over it?” His disgruntled angel had socked him in the belly, then kissed him stupid. “I love you. I’m here for you, the way you are for me. So get over yourself, and let me ease the hurt and hold you through the pain, and tell me all the things you hold inside you so you can get them out. I will still be by your side no matter what.”