No Other Love (A Walker Island Romance, Book 2) Read online

  “They look good together, don’t they?” Brian said, nodding across to where Tad and Natalie were having their own picnic. Amazingly, Natalie had put down her pen and paper for the moment as she laughed at something Tad said.

  “They do, but we both know that's not enough.”

  “Are you really telling me that you wouldn’t be happy for them if they fell for each other?”

  “She’ll be leaving the island after graduation to follow her dreams. You know how clever she is.”

  “I do,” Brian agreed, “but I don’t see how all that automatically negates whatever they might end up feeling for one another.”

  Morgan looked at Tad and Natalie. They were both smiling, both happy, with that glow of first love that she remembered so well from high school. Morgan had often gone home after being with Brian feeling like she was floating.

  “You know as well as I do that if anything does start with them, it can’t last, because they’re destined for two very different lives. A year from now when she's gone, they'll both be so busy with their new, exciting post-high-school lives that they probably won’t even remember each other.”

  “You know that's not true,” he said in a soft voice that resonated all the way through her. “I never forgot you, Morgan. Not for one second of the past seven years.”

  He didn't push her to say it back as they ate the rest of their picnic in silence, but he didn't need to. Not when they both knew that she hadn't forgotten him either.

  And she was very much afraid that she never would.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Doing makeup for one of Ava and Paige's dance studio shows was always so much fun for Morgan. Unlike a red carpet event, no one was shouting at anyone else, no one was storming around, and there was certainly no one phoning their agent to ask whether they were contractually obligated to wear a particular dress or brand of makeup.

  It helped, of course, that Morgan had gotten a really good nap in before she headed down to the dance studio. Especially considering how sore she was from all the outdoor work she'd been doing on the garden plot. Sore was okay. Sore and exhausted wasn't. Not when she felt the bulk of her energy was spent trying to figure out how to stop noticing how sweet and gorgeous and sexy Brian was. At least for a few hours while she was here, she'd have a little breathing room to get her head back on straight.

  “Do you know all the stars?” one of the girls she was making up asked her. “And do their makeup all the time?”

  “I do know quite a few people in Hollywood, but I usually do their makeup only for big events and while they're filming.”

  “Are they all as pretty and thin as in the magazines?” another of the girls asked.

  Morgan knew dangerous ground when she heard it. To most people, her business might be about making people look better, but for her it had always been more about showing people the sides of themselves that they kept hidden. It certainly wasn’t about pushing girls to live up to the impossible.

  “No one looks like that without the aid of photo enhancement,” she assured the dancer. “Not even the biggest movie stars in the world.”

  “Really?” Both girls looked like they wanted to believe her but weren't sure they could.

  “Yes, I promise you it's true. I've always loved to play up people's best features, but I wouldn't ever want to change who they really are.”

  “Is that what you're doing for us? Playing up our best features?”

  “You're both absolutely beautiful,” she told them, “so anything I do will be like the cherry on top of the sundae. Yummy, but not at all necessary.”

  She set to work on natural looks, and in a short space of time, she had the girls staring at themselves with delight.

  “I wish I could look like this all the time.”

  “I'll show you how. Like I said, I simply highlighted your natural beauty.” Five minutes later, the girls thanked her profusely and another couple of dancers came to sit before her.

  Morgan glanced over to where Paige was helping the girls warm up before the performance. When they were teenagers, Paige had played the black swan in Swan Lake, and Morgan had done her makeup. It was the only time Morgan could remember her talented sister agreeing to dance a major role, but apart from that one night, Paige had remained the only one of her sisters that Morgan hadn’t been able to give a makeover.

  One day, she vowed, she was going to get her hands on her sister, and then Paige wouldn’t be able to hide her natural star quality any longer. But for today, Morgan had to keep her focus on reining in the kind of chaos that could only happen just before a performance. There were the girls warming up, the ones Morgan was just finishing making up, and several just starting to get into their costumes.

  And, she realized as she heard a familiar low voice, Brian was now there, too.

  Her breath went and her heart immediately started beating harder as she saw how incredibly handsome he was in his suit and open-collared shirt.

  “Mr. Russell, you came!” The four girls she'd just finished making up clustered around him, obviously thrilled that he had shown up.

  “I can't wait to see your show. I've heard great things about it from Ava and Paige. Thank you for inviting me.”

  They each told him about their specific roles, and after the girls walked away, Morgan said, “It's really sweet of you to come to support your students.”

  “I figure that if I go to all the football games, I should come to the dance recitals, too. It’s a big deal to them,” Brian said. “Their chance to be in the spotlight. I want to encourage them.” Just the way he’d always encouraged her. “You've done a great job with their makeup, Morgan. They look beautiful, but still their own age.”

  Funny how after years of compliments from big stars and powerful people at TV networks, a few kind words from Brian felt so amazingly good. “I know just how hard the teenage years can be, so I wanted to show them how beautiful they already are so that they can really learn to love themselves.”

  “Love.” His eyes were dark, intense, as he looked into hers. “That's what it all comes down to, isn't it?”

  Before she could even attempt to think of a response, Paige rushed over. “Hi, Brian, glad you could make it. We're having a bit of an emergency with one of the props and could really use your help.” She turned to Morgan and added, “We're also having trouble getting everyone into their costumes backstage. Help!”

  * * *

  By the time Morgan and Brian both made it into the audience to take their seats, only two remained in the very back corner. Ava and Paige always did a great job with their dance classes and the show really was good. Still, it was nearly impossible for Brian to keep his attention on the stage when Morgan was sitting so close beside him.

  She was shifting in her seat as if she were trying to stretch her muscles, and guessing she had to be sore from the intense gardening work they'd done the past two days, he didn't think before reaching out to massage the muscles of her back. So many times in their past when they’d had long study sessions together hunched over their books, Morgan's muscles had cramped with tension. All these years later, he still remembered where to find all her tender spots.

  “You haven’t been stretching, have you?” he whispered, low enough that the music from the stage covered it. “Can I help?”

  He was surprised—and totally thrilled—when she nodded and leaned into him. As he worked his fingers into her tight muscles, he could feel her resistance melting away. Intent on making her feel better, he swept aside her long blond hair, his hands drifting from her shoulders to the small of her back.

  This close, it was impossible to ignore how attracted he was to her, and how much he longed to be even closer. So much closer. But they were in the middle of a room full of people. He needed to control himself.

  “Don’t stop,” Morgan breathed, and even in the near darkness of the dance school’s theater, it was easy to see the effect his touch had on her. Her eyes were half-closed, her limbs loose and
relaxed, her lips parted as her soft breaths came slightly faster.

  Seeing her like that—and knowing it was because of him—switched on a bright, hot light deep inside of him. He’d been trying to be so careful. Trying not to rush things, but now…

  Brian slid his hands from her shoulders up to the nape of her neck, and when she turned toward him, he did what he'd wanted to do for seven long years and kissed her. Finally kissed her with all the hunger, all the pent-up need that he couldn't possibly hold back anymore.

  Brian expected Morgan to pull back, but instead she kissed him back with the same intensity. Her fingers twined with his as they made out in the darkness, pulling each other so close that she was nearly on his lap and he was barely a breath from dragging her there.

  The lights for intermission came up so suddenly that they both jumped in shock. And as the light spilled over them so that he could see clearly into her eyes again, Morgan pulled away.

  “Oh God, we shouldn't have—” She put her fingers over her lips. “Your students might have seen—” She shook her head as she stood up to flee.

  Morgan's sister Emily was looking up at them, her expression impossible to read. But even though he worked with Emily at the high school, right then he didn’t care what she was thinking. Morgan was the only one who mattered.

  And she was slipping away.

  Literally, given that when he went to follow her, several of his students’ parents stopped him to chat about their kids’ progress in his science class. By the time he was able to make his escape without being completely rude, he found that Morgan had taken Michael's seat in the front row next to Emily. Michael headed to the back of the theater to take Morgan's old seat next to Brian just as the lights began flashing to let the audience know they should return to their seats.

  Michael was a few years older, but because Brian had dated Morgan for so many years in high school, he felt he knew the other man pretty well. Plus, he'd seen Michael with Emily enough times to recognize unrequited love when he saw it.

  “Are you planning on starting things up with Morgan again?” Michael asked point-blank.

  Brian appreciated the direct approach. “I'd like to, yes.”

  “Morgan is like a sister to me, and her father won’t have this talk with you, because he isn’t that kind of guy, but I will.” Michael pinned Brian with a hard gaze. “Don't hurt her.”

  “Hurting Morgan is the last thing I ever want to do.”

  Michael studied him in silence for a few moments before he finally nodded and turned his attention back to the two Walker women who were leaning in close and whispering to one another. Probably about the two of them.

  “It’s hard, isn’t it?” Brian asked. “Wanting something that you know you might never be able to have, but not being able to stop wanting it despite that.”

  Michael didn’t deny it or try to say that he didn’t know what Brian was talking about. Instead, as he stared down at the back of Emily's head, Michael agreed, “Yes, it’s hard.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  After the performance, Morgan went straight home without speaking to Brian again. Grams, Paige and Emily came in a bit later, while Rachel and Charlotte had gone back to their own house.

  Despite having run a major island performance tonight, Ava didn't seem to be tired at all as she bustled about, putting together a plate of homemade cookies for everyone. Emily made a pot of tea, while Paige looked over the digital pictures of the performance.

  Morgan sat at the kitchen table and booted up her laptop to deal with her overflowing email inbox. Unfortunately, after a few minutes she realized she wasn't going to make much of a dent in her email, not when she couldn't stop thinking about Brian…and the kisses they'd shared tonight.

  Kisses that she'd wanted to go on forever and forever.

  Kisses that were even sweeter than they'd been in her memory.

  “Morgan?” Emily waved her arms in the air. “Earth to Morgan.”

  She looked up from her computer screen. “Hmm?”

  “I asked if you want tea.”

  “Yes, please.”

  When Grams sat down opposite her, Morgan said, “The performance tonight was great.”

  “It was,” her grandmother agreed. “Paige is so good with the students.”

  Paige smiled at the compliment, but said, “I just give them the tools to work it out for themselves and maybe point them in the right direction a couple of times when they get stuck.”

  “You always make it sound easier than it is,” Morgan said, smiling at her soft-spoken sister. “But, seriously, my hat's off to both of you. I really had a great time watching the performance tonight.”

  “I’m glad to hear it,” Ava said. “Although I did wonder why you switched seats partway through.”

  Morgan had been hoping that no one but Emily would notice and try to give her advice. After all, she’d been ignoring well-meaning advice from her big sister all her life. But Grams was a different matter.

  Ava held her own counsel much of the time and usually let them figure things out for themselves...which meant that when she did offer advice, it was impossible to ignore. In fact, Morgan sometimes felt like she’d been able to leave the island only because Grams hadn’t spoken out against it. Morgan suspected that Ava had even talked to her father, letting him know just how much Morgan needed to be set free to find her own way.

  “It was nothing, Grams,” she said, but every syllable she spoke was clearly a big fat lie. One that she hadn't been trying to tell herself for just three days, but for seven years.

  “Now, Morgan,” Ava said, “it’s obviously something, especially since I can see that you're upset. What is it, dear? What had you running down to sit with your sister halfway through the show like that?”

  Morgan knew there was no point in trying to pretend anymore when her grandmother and two sisters already seemed to know what she was trying not to tell them. “It’s Brian.” She lifted her hand to her lips without thinking. “He kissed me. Or I kissed him.” She shook her head, as confused by it all as she'd ever been. “I honestly don't know how it happened, just that it did.” And that she hadn't wanted it to stop. Not ever. “I'm so confused.”

  “Trust me,” Grams said with a small smile, “if there’s one thing I’ve learned from helping to raise you girls, it’s that things are often simpler than you think.”

  “But it isn't simple!” she protested. “I shouldn't have kissed him. Not like that.”

  Emily and Paige gave each other a look, obviously trying to assess what being kissed like that meant exactly. But Grams didn't seem at all shocked by the idea that one of her granddaughters had been getting hot and heavy in the back of her dance studio with a former boyfriend.

  “Now, what is so wrong about you kissing Brian? Don’t you like the boy?”

  “He’s not a boy anymore, Grams.” And that was part of what was making it harder. He’d said it himself back at the bar. They weren’t kids anymore. They were adults with real responsibilities...and hearts that could be too easily broken again. She couldn’t just dismiss all this as being some childish infatuation, or just a fun fling while she was in town on business, however much she might wish to. “What's wrong is that it can’t work. All of you know that I love being back on the island, but that doesn't mean I can stay.”

  “You always say this, that you can't stay,” Emily said from over by the stove. “Why not?”

  “Because this isn’t where my life is.”

  “But it could be.” Emily sat down at the table with them. “It was while you were growing up. What’s so wrong about life on the island that you had to leave the first chance that you got?”

  Back in the theater, when Emily had been the protective older sister, Morgan had thought that perhaps she might understand. Yet it was obvious that when it came to the island, Emily would never understand how she felt.

  “You’ve never gotten it, have you?” Morgan asked her sister. “Why I left? Why I needed to lea
ve?”

  “Needed?” Emily retorted. “What was out there that you couldn’t find here? What could possibly be in New York City that was worth leaving all of this behind?”

  “My career. Endless possibilities and choices. The chance to make my dreams come true. Do you think I could have gotten any of that if I hadn’t left the island?”

  “Honestly, since you never tried to make your dreams come true here, I don't know what would have been possible. But haven't you ever wondered about all the things that you might have had if you’d stayed?”

  “Like what?”

  “Brian, for a start. He loves you, Morgan. He's always loved you. And if you ask me, now that I've seen you two together again, I think you still love him, too.”

  Morgan swallowed hard. She should have guessed that Emily would be building up to this...and that she wouldn't pull her punches. Not when her older sister cared so much about all of them and not when Emily was always so sure about what would make each of them happy.

  “Everything I am today,” Morgan said in what she hoped was a measured voice, “I am because I left the island.”

  But instead of calming down, Emily almost looked angry now. “Do you really think that going away made you someone different? Do you really believe that your life came from leaving all this behind? There are things you can’t leave behind, Morgan, even though you seem to be pretty determined to try. If you ask me, you are who you are because of the island.”

  “That’s enough, girls.” Ava reached out to take both their hands. “Finding happiness isn’t about where you live your life. Look at me. Who would have thought that I would find love on an island a ferry ride away from my original home in Seattle? It isn’t the place that matters. It isn’t even what you do. It’s whether everything in your life adds up to make you happy. We each have our own path. One that will change from time to time. One that will likely be full of twists and turns. One that might not look like the right path to anyone else.” Here, she looked at each of them again. “But that doesn’t mean it isn’t right for you. So long as you're happy, that's the only thing that matters.”