Fallen Hearts: Bonus Scene

Parker

“I still can’t believe, after all these months, you never met Delaney,” Pia said, tidying up the kitchen.

“I can get those,” I told her as Pia tossed empty beer bottles into the recycling bin. We’d been pre-gaming a night out. Nothing special—just a short walk to O’Malley’s so Beck didn’t pout that we were leaving him out.

“I got ’em.”

Sitting back on the kitchen stool, I responded to Pia’s observation. “She’s out of town a lot, visiting her boyfriend.”

“True, but still. She wasn’t at the New Year’s party either, was she?”

“Nope.”

“Wait a minute. Didn’t you guys meet once at the Big Easy? I remember you being there together.”

I thought back, but honestly couldn’t remember. “I’m not sure. Hey, speaking of friends, did Mason tell you Cole’s coming in next weekend?”

“I did,” Mason said, walking into the kitchen. “Told him he’s nuts, that there’s nothing up here this time of year but piles of snow and an Irish pub we’ve been to a million times.”

“Hey,” Pia said as Mason kissed the top of her head and looked around for his beer. I motioned with my hand that Pia had dumped and tossed it. She had a thing for tidiness. Leave something lying around, and it was getting tossed.

“No disrespect,” he said. “I wouldn’t be anywhere else in the world, obviously. But Cole loves hobnobbing and drinking good scotch—”

“And using big words that people actually understand,” I added.

“Exactly.” Mason stood behind Pia, wrapping his arms around her.

Engaged. I was happy for them. Surprised Mason was the first of us to go down. Glad he seemed at peace with his decision to go from big, bad Ranger and NYPD cop to small-town innkeeper—something else I had never expected to happen. And that probably never would have if not for Pia.

“I think you guys will get along great,” Pia said in a way that gave me pause. She was looking at me way too expectantly.

“I don’t like that look.”

Mason craned his neck around to see Pia’s face. “Oh no,” he said, confirming my suspicions. “I don’t either. Pia, she has a boyfriend.”

“A really shitty one who makes her anxious and doubts herself and all kinds of bad things that have no business being a part of a loving relationship. But I can’t tell her that.”

“Why not?” I asked.

“For obvious reasons.”

This was why I found dating women almost impossible. We really did live on two different planets. “If it were obvious, I wouldn’t have asked.”

Mason chuckled.

“It’s not like Mason and I were any paradigm of a perfect relationship. Who am I to judge?”

“But we are now,” he argued, almost wounded.

Another reason not to have a long-term girlfriend. I almost missed the surly guy with a chip, or ten, on his shoulder.

“Pia.” I hopped up from the stool. “I won’t argue with you on whether or not you can, or should, give relationship advice to your friend. But I will say, matchmaking is never a good idea.”

“Never?”

“Very rarely,” I amended. “Especially when one of the two parties is attached.”

“But if she found someone better? A handsome someone with arms of steel and abs to match who is a great friend, nice to everyone, charming, adventurous—”

“Okay, that’s enough,” Mason cut in.

“Do go on,” I told her. “I’m enjoying this.”

“I’m sure you are.” Mason unwrapped his arms and tugged Pia off her stool.

“All I’m saying,” Pia finished, “is that you are both awesome. And extroverted. And fun. And Delaney is really, really pretty.”

“She’s also in a relationship. Something I have no interest in.”

“Mason didn’t either.”

Pia seemed so excited by the prospect of her friend and me that I didn’t want to crush her, but I also wanted to set realistic expectations. So I said, in as firm a voice as I could with someone as sweet as Pia, “I am happy to meet your friend. But I have no interest in anything more than friendship, boyfriend or no boyfriend. The last thing we need are more complications in this house. Because,” I added as Mason shot me a “you can stop talking now” look, “it worked out with the two of you, but it won’t with your friend and me, even if she were single. So let’s not complicate things.”

Pia pouted.

Mason laughed.

I almost walked myself back, not wanting to hurt Pia’s feelings, but instead left things as they were so expectations for tonight were crystal clear.

“Besides,” I added for brevity. “I don’t plan on losing our bet. Mason might be okay with coughing up his hard-earned cash to give to the rest of us, but I don’t plan on doing any such thing.”

Case closed.

…..

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