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end of the hastily
arranged group of tables, he was talking to a group their friends
and saying his goodbyes, oblivious to her stolen glances. Cassie
wanted to be at his side, but she was trying to keep a little
distance. She didn’t want to monopolize his last couple of days
with whomever he wanted to spend them with, which is why she’d
invited Ashley and her boyfriend, Spence, to give her someone else
to talk to.
    Mason wasn’t hers, no matter how badly
she wanted him to be. The past few months had been hell, so close
to the man she wanted, but he’d kept Casanova at bay. And she
feared she’d chase him away if she opened up and told him what she
really felt. Having him as her friend was better than not having
him at all—even if it was killing her.
    Her stare drifted over him. Tonight he
wore casual clothes—a t-shirt and a great pair of hip-hugging
jeans, both tight enough to show off some of his hard-packed
muscles. They weren’t as sexy as the BDUs she often saw him in, but
then, she’d take him in a sack if she could have him all to
herself.
    He had become her best friend since
that night on her couch. Now he was about to leave her because he
had a job to do. Logically, she understood. Her heart—well that was
another matter. In the last three months her feelings had grown and
she was struggling to hold the truth back.
    “ He was going one way or
another. If he volunteered, it gave him a few options he could
control,” Cassie said absently while watching him.
    “ Ah,” Ashley responded.
“Still stinks he has to go for so long.”
    Cassie nodded. “It feels like a
lifetime.”
    The crowd was thick around the table.
She’d set up his party in the spot they all liked to hangout, a
country western club with an adjacent rock club on one side. Cassie
had thought it a fitting tribute to come out, eat, sing, dance, and
be merry in order to give Mason the sendoff he deserved. His
friends had come out to wish him well and dozens had shown up, all
of them vying for a moment of his attention.
    They all loved Mason.
    Including her.
    Not that she’d told him. Mason had
become too important to her to jeopardize their relationship, no
matter how much she wanted him. Her fear of rejection was keeping
her from the one man she wanted most, and it pissed her off she
couldn’t get past it. Now that he was leaving, she couldn’t add one
more thing for him to worry about when he was overseas. Mason
needed to focus. He needed to return to her—in one piece. When he
did, maybe she’d finally get the nerve to tell him how she felt.
She had a year to build up the courage.
    “ So how are you going to handle him
leaving?” Ashley asked, her voice low, the meaning quite
clear.
    Cassie turned to stare, a little
shocked at the underlying tone. “I’ll miss him. Just like everyone
else.”
    “ You’ve had eyes for him
for I don’t know how long. Even before Dave left.”
    Dave felt like a world away, even
though it had only been three months since his sudden departure
from their lives. Having him brought up now was an unwelcome
reminder. She brushed the past away and turned to look at the man
Dave had brought into her life. Mason was worth the pain of being
cheated on. She couldn’t imagine him not in her life
now.
    Yet Cassie was thrown off guard, not
realizing anyone had noticed her attraction to Mason. Was she so
transparent? “No. We’re just friends. The best of friends. He
treats me like a little sister.” So many nights since that first,
with him sleeping on her couch after a couple of movies and
popcorn. She’d been tempted to sneak out to the living room and
climb onto the couch beside him, or invite him into her bed, but
she’d worried he’d reject her advances and ruin the friendship
they’d built.
    Ashley chuckled, her lips
hitching into a wide smile. “I’ve never seen a man look at
his little sister like he looks at you,” Ashley said, turning to glance at
Mason. “Like right now.”
    Cassie