No Other Love (A Walker Island Romance, Book 2) Page 5

  Morgan was on the verge of telling her sisters that there was no me and Brian, but that would have been a lie. And she just couldn't lie to them.

  “He wants us to get back together.” Both of her sisters’ eyebrows flew up as she added, “He gave me flowers this morning, the same ones he gave me back in high school at our prom. And yesterday when we went for a drink together—”

  “Hold on,” Rachel said. “You went for a drink with him?”

  “Just to catch up. It shouldn't have meant anything. It wasn't supposed to mean anything. But he ended up saying that while he understands why I had to leave seven years ago, now that I'm back and we're both adults instead of kids, he wants us to try again.”

  “Wow, that’s—”

  “But I’m not back,” Morgan continued, cutting Emily off. “At least, not for long. He was saying how he’s going to fight for me this time and how he’s never stopped regretting letting me go because he's still in love with me, but that’s just nuts, right? I mean, if he left this island he would be miserable, and I'm all settled in New York.”

  Emily refilled all of their glasses then said, “You’re the only one who can decide what you need to do, Morgan. You need to think about what there is for you there and what there is for you here.”

  “It’s obviously a shock, Brian just coming out with all of his feelings like that,” Rachel added, “but at least now you know what's in his heart. The question is, what are you feeling...and what's in your heart for him?”

  “When I saw him again yesterday, I tried to ignore the sparks that immediately shot off between us, but when he hugged me, I never wanted to leave his arms. Which is crazy, because we all know it would never work. Yes, we're adults now, but, if anything, that only means we're more set in stone with our careers and lives on opposite coasts.”

  She could tell Emily wanted to say something more, but just then Morgan's phone dinged with an email from Juliet saying the studio wanted to lock her into a single location for the shooting of her show. Thinking about how Brian had said his favorite segment had been when she’d gone on the road—and how she’d felt exactly the same way—Morgan stood up and said, “Sorry, I need to deal with something my assistant just alerted me to.”

  * * *

  After Morgan left the room, Michael walked in and said, “Don't do it,” to Rachel and Emily.

  “Do what?” Emily asked, but it was clear from the flush in her cheeks that she knew exactly what he was talking about.

  “Interfere with Morgan and Brian. Or am I wrong and that's not what both of you are thinking of doing?”

  Rachel cracked first. “I was just thinking that it might be nice if…well...what if…”

  “What if we could get Morgan to stay?” Emily finished for her.

  “I know how much you both love her and why you want her to stay. I do, too.” Even more than they wanted her to stay on the island, though, he knew that they wanted their sister to find love again. Still, that didn't change his advice. “But even if you think you’d be helping her, and him, too, by meddling, we all know that if they're going to work things out—or not—they need to do it all by themselves.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  The garden behind the historical society wasn’t large, certainly not as large as the Walker plot, but it had always been one of Morgan’s favorite places. Though it had been planted only twenty years before, it seemed much older, squeezing a grand old mansion’s flower garden into a space half the size. She’d come to the patio that overlooked the flowers and small trees as a kid to get her schoolwork done whenever it didn’t seem likely to happen in a house full of sisters, and now she worked there again, going through her email.

  So far she'd composed a reply to the network about why she thought it would be far better if they filmed her makeover show on the road versus bringing her subjects into the New York studio every time. She'd also read through Juliet’s research on potential supply chains and had sent a couple of messages to celebrities she’d worked with to feel out the likelihood of them coming on her show.

  “I thought I’d find you here,” Brian said.

  She looked up with surprise—and pleasure she couldn't even begin to suppress—as he came up onto the porch to sit down next to her. He’d cleaned up after working in the garden that morning, but there was still a wonderfully earthy, outdoors feel to him. She couldn’t imagine certain people working in an office, and Brian was definitely one of them.

  “Some things don’t change,” Morgan agreed, putting away her laptop as she accepted that she wasn’t going to get any work done with Brian here. Not when being this close to him completely scrambled her brain...and the rest of her, too. “Especially on Walker Island.”

  “Some things have definitely changed. Lots of things, actually.”

  Morgan should have just let it go, but she suddenly couldn't stop herself from challenging him. “Name three.”

  “I can do better than that.” Brian stood up, holding out a hand to her. “Let me show you what’s different. Unless of course...” He didn't finish, just let his challenge linger between them.

  Morgan knew the last thing she needed to do right then was go on a field trip around the island with Brian. After everything he'd said, after he'd held her in his arms, and after the flowers he'd given her, saying yes to this would probably only give him the wrong idea. But how could she run from the challenge in his eyes? And how could she possibly pretend that she didn't love to spend time with him?

  Besides, she would like to see the changes to the island. Morgan had been back a few times since she’d left, a day here and there for Grams’ birthday or one of Charlotte’s recitals, but it had always been a super quick visit. In and out, with no time to do more than toast a bride or carve a Thanksgiving turkey.

  “Okay,” Morgan said as she stood up. “Although the way I remember things growing up, the boats in the harbor getting a fresh coat of paint was a big deal.”

  Brian laughed as he drew her to her feet, and for a moment they were close enough that she could smell the wonderfully clean, masculine scent of him.

  He slung her heavy bag over his shoulder, then led the way out of the historical society into town. He gestured to the left, where a small boutique now sat. “Do you remember what used to be there?”

  “The old candy store.” Morgan could remember saving up her money to buy plenty of sweet stuff as a kid, although she had to admit that these days, the current contents of the windows were probably more to her taste.

  “That’s right,” Brian said. “Mrs. Kiriakis sold her store about a year after you left.”

  He led the way down a winding lane where Morgan couldn’t remember anything much being there when she’d left. Just a few old, empty workshops. Today, though, they were open to the outside world as studios for working artists. What had been a dull, ordinary spot had sprung to life with a sculptor working on a bust, a couple of painters discussing a half-finished canvas, and a sketch artist doing quick but excellent drawings of passersby.

  “Do you mind if I draw the two of you?” the man asked as they came closer. “It will only take a few minutes.” Agreeing that they could spare the time, she and Brian stood together, hand in hand, while the artist sketched with charcoal and pastels, looking them over with a critical eye.

  “You really do look good together,” he said when he was done and showed them the picture. He’d caught their connection so perfectly, and Morgan was more pleased than she wanted to admit when he gave them the drawing.

  “Come on,” Brian said after she very carefully tucked the beautiful drawing in between two folders in her bag so that it wouldn't wrinkle or smear. “There are a couple more places I’d like to show you.”

  He took her up in the direction of an old lookout point where they’d once gone on a date, just enjoying being with one another as they'd stared out over the ocean. A small building had been built on the site with a sign beside it that said Walker Island Ornithological Station.

/>   “Bird watchers have taken our spot?”

  She didn't realize what she'd said—our spot—until she saw the warmth, and the yearning, in Brian's eyes. But he didn't draw out the moment, just simply said, “Come inside.”

  The interior of the small building was similar to the whale-watching stations around the island where the marine biologists congregated. However, where those had pictures of whales mixed in with sonar equipment, this one was filled with pictures of coastal birds, along with plenty of telescopes. A middle-aged man and woman were staring out over the island and down toward the sea through two side-by-side telescopes.

  “I’m telling you, Harold, I know an osprey when I see one. I do have a PhD in ornithology, you know.”

  “So do I, and there aren’t any that make their home on the island, Lisa.”

  “Until now.”

  Brian cleared his throat, and they both looked up with smiles. “Hello, Brian,” the woman said.

  “Hi, Lisa. I hope you don’t mind me coming round like this. Harold, Lisa, I’d like you to meet Morgan Walker. Morgan, this is Dr. Bernstein and Dr. Bernstein.”

  “You’re married?” Morgan asked.

  “Was it the arguing that gave it away?” Lisa joked right before Harold looked at her with his heart in his eyes.

  “Yes, we are, and I'm the luckiest man in the world.”

  Brian was grinning as he said, “Harold and Lisa have been running a research project looking into the island’s birds for the last couple of years.”

  A couple of years? It was weird thinking that this building had been sitting on one of Morgan’s favorite spots on the island for a couple of years, and she hadn’t known about it.

  “I thought most of the research teams from the universities came here for the whales?”

  “Certainly that’s the main focus of research on the island,” Harold agreed. “But there are whole new avenues of research when it comes to a microclimate like the one on the island. Species can be introduced and change things around them very quickly.”

  “Like ospreys,” Lisa said with a little smirk on her pretty face.

  “That was not an osprey.”

  Brian nodded to the door as the couple continued their argument from where they'd been interrupted, and Morgan took the hint.

  “I encourage students to come up here to get a taste of research,” Brian said. “And they usually come away with a lot of new knowledge...at least when those two aren’t sparring.”

  “Don’t they scare off the birds?” Morgan teased.

  “You’d think so, wouldn’t you? But you can see how much they love each other, underneath it all. And the bird observatory has been a really good addition to the island.” He brushed a lock of hair away from her eyes before saying, “There’s one more thing I want to show you.”

  Morgan nodded, although actually it felt a little strange to see these changes in the one place that she'd always believed would never change.

  Brian led the way back down the hill to the old oak tree at the heart of town, and she looked around, wondering what could possibly be different here. “This all looks the same. What did you want to show me that’s so different?”

  Brian drew her over to the tree. There in the bark was a heart, not carved with any initials, but simply with the words You and Me. It had been the lyrics of the song playing back at their prom when he'd pulled her into his arms and kissed her with all the love in his heart.

  “Some things are supposed to change,” Brian told her, his voice as serious as she'd ever heard it. “But some things never, ever will.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  The next morning, Morgan drove out to the Walker plot, determined that this time she wasn’t going to let herself get distracted or pulled into any other “adventures” with Brian. They would simply finish clearing and fertilizing the areas where they would be growing new plants. That was it. In fact, the moment they were done, Morgan was going to go home, lock herself inside and not come out.

  Especially not for sentimental trips around town where she would spend half the time thinking that a gorgeous, off-limits man was about to kiss her, only to be disappointed when he didn’t.

  When Brian had shown her the tree with the love heart carved in it, Morgan had stood there, desperate for the feel of his lips on hers again...but all he'd done was bring her back home, leaving her at the door, not even coming inside to say hi to her family. Certainly not giving her the kind of good-bye kiss that he used to.

  She should have been happy about that. Should have been glad that he wasn't forcing her into a situation where she'd have to push him away to make sure they didn't end up hurting each other again when she left. But she didn’t feel happy or glad about it at all.

  Why did everything have to be so complicated?

  Pulling a few weeds might have helped to deal with the sheer frustration of being around Brian and not knowing what to feel, but they’d done a good job clearing nearly all of them away the previous day. Another thing that was obviously good but that she could have done without right then.

  And when Brian finally did arrive, walking over to her with Natalie and Tad beside him, the way he said, “Hi, Morgan,” sounded far too smug to her ears. Almost as if he knew just how badly he'd twisted her into knots by coming close...but not nearly close enough. Only Brian would have fought for her in such a sneaky, brilliant way, by making her want and need and desire him until she was nearly bursting with it!

  “Hi, everyone,” she said in as chipper and easy a voice as she could manage. It wouldn't do, not a bit, for Brian to think that she'd spent every single second since yesterday thinking about him. “Looks like we're ready to fertilize today.”

  “Mr. Russell had us study up on the science of fertilization,” Natalie told her.

  Tad nodded. “It's actually really cool how it all works.”

  Of course Brian had been able to turn the work her interns were doing into a really interesting science lesson. Darn him, why did he have to be so perfect? And gorgeous? And...

  Enough already. She needed to keep her focus on the important job at hand, not on how much she wanted the one man she could never be with.

  Morgan set off for the other side of the garden—as far as she could from Brian and all the temptation he presented—and when Natalie came with her, they poured the fertilizer onto areas that weren’t already thick with useful plants, then raked it into the soil. With Natalie talking a mile a minute, Morgan was glad that she couldn't keep stewing over Brian and everything that had—and hadn’t—happened yesterday. Although, Morgan noticed that Natalie occasionally paused in her monologue to look over to where Tad was working with an increasing flush growing on her cheeks.

  Had Natalie finally started to notice Tad? Watching the two teenagers shoot each other looks when they each thought the other wasn't looking, Morgan was hit with a longing to go back to that time in high school when she and Brian had been so close. But even then, things hadn't been simple. Not when they had always been pulled between staying and going.

  “Have you decided what the composition is going to be yet for your various pieces of the makeup line?” Natalie asked, breaking her out of her musings. “Because if you haven't settled on the exact ingredients, I was kind of hoping to help with the testing.”

  “You mean pulling weeds and raking in fertilizer all day wasn’t all that you were hoping to get out of this internship?” Morgan teased. “I've done quite a bit of work already with some highly regarded scientists to work out the mineral components of my new line, but I'd love to involve you from this point forward in any way that I can. And once you have a better sense of where you'll be going to college next year, I'd be happy to talk with my colleagues near your campus to see if any of them have something interesting for you to work on.”

  “How can I ever thank you enough?”

  Morgan grinned. “Keep raking.”

  The sun rose higher in the sky, the day turning out to be quite hot for the normally
moderate island weather. It was hard work raking in the fertilizer, and Morgan barely found enough time to photograph the progress to tweet to her followers. She supposed some people probably thought she was crazy to do all this as preparation for her makeup line when she could have been sitting in a studio somewhere with a cool drink and assistants doing the heavy lifting. But as she watched Brian working, his muscles moving strong and powerful beneath his shirt as he raked the soil, she had to admit that there were some compensations. Really good ones, even if they were only temporary.

  Plus, it was so nice to be outside enjoying nature rather than hanging around on a set. Working in the garden, Morgan loved knowing that her efforts were not only going toward growing something beautiful but that she was also helping Tad and Natalie build up their transcripts, too.

  It was lunchtime by the time they’d fertilized the whole plot. Which was very impressive, given that there were only four of them working on it. Yes, Morgan was hot and sweaty by the time it was done, but it was totally worth it.

  Of course, Brian had come prepared with a large cooler of ice water and a couple of baskets full of picnic lunches. And Tad was clearly ready for lunch, because he descended on the first of the baskets like a whirlwind, shoveling a sandwich into his mouth before anyone else had a chance to even look through what was there.

  “Tad,” Brian suggested, “why don’t you and Natalie take this lunch break to consider the best approach for the planting stage?”

  “That’s a great idea,” Natalie immediately agreed, looking a little flushed for more reasons than just the heat.

  Tad, of course, jumped at the opportunity to go off with Natalie even quicker than he’d homed in on the picnic basket.

  As soon as the two teenagers were gone, Brian pulled out a blanket and spread it on the ground in one of the shady spots on the plot. Despite vowing to leave for home as soon as they were done fertilizing, Morgan couldn’t resist sitting down and helping herself to the picnic basket’s contents. Especially when it turned out that Brian had packed her favorite spicy chicken wings.