Page 9 of Developing Hearts (Pine Point Fixer-Uppers #5)

Chapter nine

Mason

Mason mostly stayed quiet, just watching as David clicked through to make his design collage.

He also didn’t want to be chattering while David might have been trying to process the news.

They’d called him a few times while he was at work, but him walking into that door was the first time they’d actually been able to get hold of him.

He hated delivering news like that, but it had to be done.

The good side was, unless something drastically changed once they started diving into it, the problems sounded solvable.

At the very least, Jake was a hell of a lot calmer once they actually broke into the floor and took a look at the extent of things.

They hadn’t yet gotten around to the other side of things, but he and Eliza had already discussed if there was anything that Homescapes could or would do to help David out.

She’d called the higher ups at the company and spoken with them, and they were willing to offer the advice of their in-house counsel.

Not to represent him in any sort of action, but to at least talk with David and let him know what recourse he might have.

That flooring job was a hack-fest that could have killed him.

Mason was pleasantly surprised by that, but he shouldn’t have been.

Homescapes had treated them all very well this entire time, and seemed like they had genuinely good people in charge, as far as Mason could tell.

After about half an hour, David was through and the system was processing. “What now?”

“Well, we wait. It shouldn’t take too long.” Mason pulled out his phone and opened up his notes. “In the meantime, anything you’re thinking about? Something you have in mind that you can mention now?

David raised his fingers to his lips, rubbing them, and Mason tried not to smile.

He also tried really hard not to think about what Jake and Bunny had said the night before.

They didn’t know what they were talking about.

They didn’t live Mason’s life. Still, it was hard to ignore.

David was apparently listening to him, borrowing that little technique for calming himself down.

He was also touching his lips, which drew attention to his lips, which made Mason think about touching his lips.

“I had one thing I was thinking about, but it’s not…I don’t know. It’s not quite related to the condo, I guess is the thing.”

Mason shrugged. “I’m all ears. If it’s something I can help with, I’m game to at least hear it out.”

David nodded slowly, took another drink…

then another drink. Then he finally spoke up.

“Could I draw you? Like, while we’re waiting?

I found a sketchbook and I figured I would try to catalog the whole experience of getting the house redone.

You and the crew are a part of that, but you know, you’re the one who’s here right now.

” He nodded to the crew in the back. “The one who’s here who agreed to be on camera, obviously. ”

It was Mason’s turn to get a burst of panic through his chest. “You want to draw me?”

“I don’t feel like I’ve captured you.” David put a book on the table and flicked through a few pages.

“My main job at work today was making sure my chair didn’t float away, so I was drawing from memory.

” He landed on a landscape drawing from up high.

“I spend a good amount of time up on the rooftop deck area, so I could get the view of Puget Sound right, but I was never the best with remembering faces.”

He flipped another page…and there was Mason.

Good or not at remembering faces, David had captured him well enough that even Mason could recognize himself, although it was certainly an idealized version.

It was rough, to be certain, but Mason saw the sweep of his hair, fading away into nothing at the edges, and the point of his right ear—the left was round on top—and faint pencil lines that suggested his goatee.

It was a new look he was trying out, with a nod from Eliza that it wouldn’t ruin the entire filming process, but it was apparently important enough to stick in David’s mind.

“You make me look good. I think I’m pretty well-captured here. Recognizable. You even put a good filter on me so you don’t notice all the flaws.”

“But it’s missing something.” David shook his head.

“You’re absolutely within your rights to say no, but I usually do better with something to work from.

” He gestured vaguely up above him. “I’m going to draw them too, but I feel like they’ll be easy.

” He flipped over to a drawing that was clearly Ozzy and Evander, apparently caught in a private moment, their mouths hovering near each other as if about to kiss.

“See, this was all from memory and it feels right. There’s that spark in here where I don’t feel like I need to keep going and trying over and over.

But that one I showed you was my third attempt, and I still don’t feel like it’s good enough. ”

“Well, maybe you need a little prettier subject matter.” Mason couldn’t hold his anxiety in anymore, and it spilled out of his mouth as self-deprecation, as per usual. He patted his midsection. “Not exactly working with the best materials, are you?”

David’s eyes sharpened. “It’s go nothing to do with that.”

The edge to his voice caught Mason aback. It was such a stark change. He sounded…not angry. Not exactly, anyway.

He sounded protective. But who was he protecting?

Knocking sounded at the door and Mason’s heart jumped up. Why am I so nervous? We weren’t doing anything . A peek through the little window in the meeting room door revealed Evander and Ozzy, which flared annoyance through Mason’s chest.

He sighed, swallowing that back, and looked at the sketchbook one more time.

David had flipped to another drawing that was clearly Mason, surrounded by boxes and drawn in rougher lines.

Lively, not as ethereal as the first one.

It was frantic and fast, the pencil smudged in places that didn’t seem intentional.

He really was trying to capture something, and apparently wasn’t happy with the results.

Who am I to stand in the way of an artistic pursuit?

“You want to draw me, feel free. But we’ve got less than two weeks left.

” He walked over to the door, not quite able to make eye contact while saying all this. “So you better get to work.”

Mason opened the door and tried not to feel too weird about it. But that single moment kept playing over and over in his mind, even as they all started talking about the state of the condo.

David got protective when Mason started commenting about himself. So there was really only one person he could have been trying to defend.