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Melody’s boyfriend is picking her up at six-thirty She asked Brian to swing by our parents’ place, instead of her apartment, so she could provide moral support while I wait patiently for Mason to arrive

While I pace the floor and chew my nails down to nubs is more like it

I can’t re this nervous

Ever

Not even the first time I went out with Mason, when he was a twenty-four-year-old med school hottie, and I was a nineteen-year-old co at the diner in don Bliss River, who couldn’t believe the hottest guy she’d ever met in real life actually wanted to take her out for ice cream

I had known of Mason since I was little—known he had a rough ho on the basketball teae in Atlanta—but it wasn’t until he started co in for breakfast at the diner every Saturday that I really got to know him To know his unique h out loud one h-ood heart, the one that made him really listen when people told him about their problems

He was the one who convincede one of the family BBQ shacks Mason was positive I couldas a chef at a fancy restaurant a reality

My drea at Donut Time Diner if Mason hadn’t come into my life

As much as he hurt me, he also helped me

I tell ain, out of respect for the ti to do with the way led all over when he touched me, or the wayto do with the way an to sizzle when he fell on top of ht

I gave up waiting for oing to happen forthe oldest, in on the continent—but I’ve never felt half as turned on by being naked with another rass with Mason

He’s just…hot as hell Always has been Fro shot through with lightning and loving every minute of it