Page 31 of Mason's Run

Mason shook his head and grinned. “Nope, I didn’t watch much TV growing up.”

“Oh my god…you are going to lose your shit over David Boreanaz.”

“Boreanaz? Isn’t he the guy onBones?” he asked.

I sighed and may have muttered something about his misspent youth as we pulled onto the street for the store.

“Okay, here’s an easy one,” Mason said. “Pop Quiz, hotshot. Hottest pickup line in an eighties movie. Go!”

“Um… Got it! ‘Come with me if you vant to live!’” I said, in what was probably the worst impression of Arnold Schwarzenegger ever.

“Oh god, that’s sad…” Mason said, shaking his head as he dropped it into his hands.

“Well, what doyouthink is the hottest pickup line?” I demanded.

“No question… ‘You never close your eyes anymore when I kiss your liiips’,” Mason warbled.

I laughed. Ofcourse, he was a Top Gun fan. We were still playing twenty questions when we pulled onto Market Street.

Twin Peeks was located in an area of Akron known as Highland Square, which was a wonderfully eclectic area. It was home to all kinds of great restaurants, quirky stores, and one-of-a-kind artisans.

The twins had been fortunate enough to get a community block grant to partially fund the purchase and renovation of a building that had once been a hardware store. The area typically had a lot of foot traffic, but now there was even more than normal. A line of people wrapped around the store front and down the block past the library. The line was as long as it had been yesterday, if not longer.

From the variety of rainbow-hued clothing, skin and hair it was easy to guess who they were here for.

As we pulled in around the corner from the library, Mason looked around curiously.

“What’s the line for?” he asked.

I glanced back at him for a second, not sure if he was putting me on or not.

“You know what it’s for,” I said, turning the steering wheel as we rounded the block.

He shook his head, then his eyes went wide, his already-pale face went even more pale, and a squeak escaped his lips.

“…Me? They’re here forme?” he asked. I could see the pulse in his neck start to beat frantically.

I nodded and saw him reach almost automatically for his phone.

“Hey,” I said, grabbing his hand with mine. “You can do this. You don’t need an app to get through this,” I said, jerking my chin towards his phone. He seemed frozen for a moment, his hands gone ice cold under my touch, his eyes wide. I could see his pulse racing in his neck.

I drove around the block for a minute to give us time to talk. We parked in a side alley, the edge of the parking lot just out of sight of the line. Mason was breathing fast, his eyes shut, his lips pressed together.Shit, he was going to have another panic attack.

“Mason,” I said softly, but continued a little sharper when he didn’t respond, not quite my drill sergeant voice, but close.“Mason!”

He jumped and looked at me, his eyes so wide you could see the whites all the way around, his perfect pink lips flushed and slightly parted. Part of me wanted so badly to cover his mouth with my own and kiss away his fears. God, what waswrongwith me?

“Look at me,” I said, snapping my fingers in his face to get his attention.

“Haven’t you ever done one of these before?” I asked, incredulous. I’d been going to cons my whole life, and my brothers had said Mason was super famous. How could he have never done something like this?

He sat still, then shook his head before he began speaking.

“I… No… never. We… we kept putting them off,” he shook his head setting his phone on his lap then running his hand through his hair. I loved how it curled as his anxious fingers wrapped and unwrapped it, the thick blue-black strands stretched and pulled between his anxious fingers.

“I’m… I’m kind of agoraphobic,” he admitted. “Lizzie, she’s my manager, she said I had to start doing them,” he managed. “She said the new publisher was going to drop us…me if I didn’t start holding signings and meet-and-greets. I’ve always managed to beg off before, said I was sick, but she told me they’d given us an ultimatum, and that if I didn’t start attending, they’d drop us. I thought I was going to be able to do this one trip to St. Louis a few weeks ago, but… I didn’t make it.”

“What happened?” I asked, my voice low and soft.