Page 7 of Developing Hearts (Pine Point Fixer-Uppers #5)

Chapter seven

Mason

It took the better part of the day for them and the crew to finally clear everything out of David’s condo.

Mason had to stop part way through to help Eliza with some calls and conversations.

Well, maybe he didn’t have to, but he volunteered as soon as she asked for someone else to join her.

They needed to get water and power turned off, chat with the condo board, make sure that Westshore Hardware and Supply was ready when they started calling in orders, and a whole bevy of other fiddly things like that.

It was easier than seeing a hundred different unfinished projects floating past him.

Although, as he settled into the office chair in his hotel room, he couldn’t pretend he hadn’t noticed them.

They weren’t his business. It wasn’t any of their jobs to judge or question their clients, and Mason had no intention of saying anything to David, but all those half-done projects, when David was clearly capable of some beautiful work…

they needled Mason, a constant pricking at the back of his brain.

I would want to flay my skin off if I had that much stuff around me, begging for attention .

Of course, David kept it mostly tucked away in closets and rooms and boxes, so maybe that wasn’t an issue. Mason sincerely doubted if he’d be able to compartmentalize them all that well.

He closed his eyes and took a few breaths to center himself.

Then he pulled over his laptop and opened up half a dozen windows.

First, he plugged everything into this project’s spreadsheet and double-checked it.

Then he opened up his journal. He’d been writing in the same file, transferring it from system to system over the years, since he was fifteen.

Not like he did it perfectly every single day, but especially since they’d been on the road so much, it helped him keep his head on straight.

One thing he didn’t do was let himself read the previous entries.

That wasn’t the point. He was supposed to be getting the thoughts out there into the document, not keep reliving everything that happened before.

If it was a good memory, then he’d trust himself to actually remember it.

And if it was a bad one, then he would just as soon avoid the reminder.

Mason didn’t need to write down everything that had happened.

He just took a few minutes to jot down what was on the top of his head.

That included all the unfinished projects, and the stuff he felt like they hadn’t done very well.

But inevitably, thinking about the job led to thinking about David, and thinking about David led to writing down how sexy he was.

Even when Mason was exasperated by the lack of follow-through all those projects demonstrated, he found his eyes raking over David, taking in every inch of him.

It was hardly the first time they’d run into some eye candy on the job.

Pine Point Fixer-Uppers dealt with a lot of guys with bodies hardened up and bulked out by construction, landscaping, all that kind of stuff.

Difficult work that took lots of muscles and led to plenty of those guys lifting up the hems of their shirts to towel the sweat off their foreheads.

Mason wasn’t blind…but none of them looked like David.

He journaled about the shawl, which brought to mind soft caresses over David’s bare chest and shoulders.

He noted the soft flow of his hair and the way his slacks hugged around his thighs.

And he noted down how he wished someone like that would actually notice him.

He knew this was the kind of journal entry he would never want to read, so before he closed the file, he highlighted the entire thing and changed the text to white so it disappeared into the background of the page.

Then he opened up the program they used for the collage.

He had admin access, so he dove into the back-end to make certain everything was in order.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t trust the tech department that HomescapesTV had update his original site, but he wasn’t going to leave it to chance.

He did a quick check over everything there, predictably finding nothing.

Then he entered a new file into system for tomorrow: David’s Condo - Episode Eight.

A knock at the door took Mason by surprise, but he closed the window, then his laptop, and headed over. Jake and Bunny were on the other side, and they stepped in without him saying anything.

“Excuse me, what if I was busy, you two?”

“We have to talk.” Jake plopped down into the arm chair in the corner. “Because Bunny and I both have a suspicion we’d like to confirm.”

“Or deny.” Bunny sat on the edge of the bed and crossed her ankles. “Tell us if we’re off-base, but…well, the way you were acting this morning, we just have to wonder about things.”

Mason crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m so glad the two of you are speaking so clearly. Really helping me get the picture.”

“You have the hots for David, right?” Jake grinned, then cackled before keeping on. “Okay, I know your face. That’s a definite yes, even though you wish it wasn’t.”

“And it’s funny to you that I think someone’s cute?”

Jake immediately stopped smiling, so fast that Mason felt a wave of worry.

“Not funny.” Jake shook his head. “I was laughing because I’m happy. It seems like you’ve been pretty chaste and shut down, you know?”

Mason wanted to pull up some offense, but instead, he just sat down in the office chair with a sigh. “I’m still going to be just as chaste as before. But you really think I’ve been shut down?”

“Not shut down like, you’re horribly depressed or anything.” Bunny leaned forward. “But Jake and I both know that the channel fizzling out hit you harder than the rest of us.”

Mason suppressed a cringe. “I don’t know—”

“Drunk three-way call last year.” As soon as Bunny said it, the memory came back, but Mason didn’t get a chance to explain or dodge around it.

She kept right on talking. “No one’s judging you for it.

You’re the one who ended up with the shit gig of managing the channel without us, going through and sending us money. You feel however you want about that.”

Mason bit back his anxieties. These were his friends.

His oldest friends. And, unlike some of the others, Jake and Bunny had at least tried to stay in contact.

He’d heard from them at least once a month the past few year, usually more.

It was not their fault at all that he felt weird.

“I’m sorry. And yeah, I have eyes.” He smiled a little, and when he did, it felt good, so he let himself smile a little bit more.

“I mean, the guy’s gorgeous. And, I don’t know, it’s like Eliza said.

It’s kismet that someone who was involved in the projects for the channel is suddenly here.

I guess I’m a little swept up in the whole thing.

” And in his art. The finished stuff, and the finished living room, really had been striking.

Mason didn’t bring that up, though. He could feel the rant brewing just underneath, and as much as managing the crew was his job, keeping the peace was also his job. No throwing red meat to the lions.

“Well, I think you have great taste.” Jake leaned back, somehow almost toppling the arm chair with the movement.

He caught himself, pinwheeling his arms, but kept on going as though nothing had happened.

“Not that I’m at all unhappy with Quinn.

Just last night, we were on a video call, and… yeah, I’m happy.”

He grinned and Mason properly smiled at that. “I’m glad you’re happy.” He was. He absolutely was. I just wish I got to be happy too. “I figure I’ll appreciate the…decor on this job while it lasts.”

Bunny tutted her tongue. “Mason, really? Is there some drug that only my gay friends take that’s addling your brains?”

Mason and Jake looked at each other and, in unison, replied, “Poppers.”

She flipped them double birds before responding.

“Well, the poppers seem to have made it so I’m the only one on this production with working brain cells.

Every single person here was appreciating the decor, and every single person seems to be pairing off.

” She threw her arms wide. “I’m not what you’d call superstitious, but if anyone was ever going to shoot their shot talking to a guy, there’s some kind of weird magic going on with this show. ”

Mason tried not to let anything show on his face.

The elephant in the room was so damned obvious to him: everyone else got to ask out the cute guys because everyone else was also cute.

Like Mason said, he wasn’t blind. Jake didn’t have a paunchy belly.

Aras didn’t have flabby arms. Ozzy didn’t have stretch marks or chubby cheeks.

“I think one of us should try to keep it professional.” He gestured lackadaisically toward Bunny. “Can’t let the token straight be the only one with a good head on her shoulders.”

Bunny clapped her hands to her cheeks in mock horror. “If that wasn’t entirely true, by god, I’d be offended.”

It was better to change the subject. He couldn’t hide his actual memories like he could a journal entry, but he at least didn’t have to linger on uncomfortable topics.