Page 27 of Untroubled Heart

“Every other time I’ve met Tristan, he’s been so nice. Something about you seems to bring out a different side to him.”

“The completely arrogant side? He also implied I’m a spoiled brat.”

“Who said you’re a spoiled brat?” A woman with strawberry blonde hair joins us just before we reach the bar.

“Ugh, Mason’s friend Tristan.” Beth scoffs. “Callie, this is Tenley. Tenley, Callie.”

“Hey, Callie.” Tenley smiles. “And what are you talking about? Tristan’s a sweetheart. And those tattoos.” Tenley fans her face as she blows out a breath.

“Oh, so that’s all for me? I’ll try not to take that personally. Anyway, fuck him, girls rule.”

I hold my glass up to Tenley, who’s holding a champagne in her hand. “Girls rule.”

She clinks it to mine, and I spend the rest of the night glued to their sides. Maevyn and Claire find us not long after, bringing Beth and Mason’s sisters-in-law, Isabelle and Lex, with them.

I’m glad I always keep a few bags of expressed milk in my freezer for emergencies, because I definitely didn’t plan to drink as much as I did tonight.

Navie stayed asleep the whole way home, where Westley transferred her from her car seat to her cot, later helping me stumble to my bed.

He made sure the baby monitor was turned up, and a glass of water was on my bedside before locking the door behind him, but once I slipped under the sheets, I couldn’t fall asleep.

I was thankful for the distraction of strong and determined women, considering the night started with finding out about my dad’s betrayal.

Reaching for my phone on the nightstand, I pull up the text thread with my mum.

ME:

Muuuuuum. Fucck him. U were always to good for hin. I love youuuuou.

I squint from the brightness of my phone and drag my finger against the screen to adjust it. At the same time, a notification from Two Hearts Homes pops up. I sigh when my phone flicks over to their social media page instead. I hate when it does that.

My finger hovers over the navigation bar, meaning to click out so I can try to sleep off whatever chance of a hangover I’m destined for before Navie wakes up, when I see the new collection of photos just posted. Behind-the-scenes photos of Beth on site at Smoke and Barrel, working over a table covered in sample materials, another laughing with Isabelle.

Beth’s personal page is tagged, so I click it, knowing full well it’s my gateway to seeing something of Mason. In my inebriated state, I’ve decided that though he’s my boss, I’m still allowed to appreciate his hotness.

Sure enough, the first photo in Beth’s feed is the two of them. They’re both wearing the clothes they had on tonight, so they must have got ready together. That’s so cute—he gets ready with his sister.

Some of the photos are in black and white, which only serve to amplify Beth’s striking good looks. She was in a black pantsuit tonight, a single button of her blazer fastened in the middle with a black lace bralette underneath, the only pop of colour coming from her smoky taupe lipstick and the red bottoms of her heels. There’s a photo of Mason midway through buttoning up his shirt, and fuck. Me.

My limbs turn to jelly as the next photo in the carousel is of him looking directly into the mirror as Beth snaps a photo from behind him. His shirt is still open, revealing his pecs and the beginning of what looks like abs, and a long chain resting against his muscled chest.

His personal page is tagged, so I click over to that. I shouldn’t. Drunk-me says I absolutely should. There’s a pinned photo at the top that not only has me gasping for air, but squeezing my thighs together. A close-up of his face, the lock of hair that always falls in front of his blue eye, and his chain held between his teeth.

I swipe against the photo, wanting to see more, and my phone slips from my hand, dropping straight onto my face.

“Ow.” I groan as I pick it up again and then stare, horrified, at the illuminated red heart at the bottom of the post.

A string of garbled and pained syllables is all I can offer as I quickly unlike the post. Shit. Okay, it’ll be fine. I’m sure he gets so many notifications in a day that he won’t even notice. Probably doesn’t even read the handles of who’s interacting. I really wish I were more creative with mine than @itscallie.

My panic starts to fade away as I notice the 131 thousand likes already on the post. Yep, he totally won’t notice one like from little ol’ me. I guess it won’t hurt to snoop a little longer. A lovely delusion I get to live in for all of ten seconds until another notification drops down on my screen.

@i.heart.mason started following you.

Chapter twelve

My chair creaks as I lean back, trying to spy on Callie where she sits, laughing with Tara from the marketing team. It’s gotten worse. Over the last week, no matter how hard I try to convince myself I can forget about Callie, can push her behind a line where she’s nothing more than my assistant, my brain just keeps noticing all these little things about her that intrigue me.

“Mason?”