“Someone’s PMSing.” Ally bubbles with a laugh as she pulls me to the side just under the weeping willow.
“Did you send me a rose today?” Ally circles her arm around my waist as the smile melts from her face.
“Uh…” Did someone send her a rose today?
“That’s okay.” She shakes her head. “I didn’t think it was you. It was silly.”
“Since when are roses silly?” I’m not opposed to pretending I sent it. “And why wouldn’t I send you one?” I’ll send her a dozen to make up for it.
“Because it was black.” Her eyes sharpen on mine.
“Black?” What the fuck?
My phone rings, and I pluck it from my pocket. It’s Paige.
I glance up at Ally as the color drains from my face.
“Is it her?” Her brows knit together with worry.
I nod and pick up.
“Morgan?” Paige sounds a hell of a lot happier than she did a few days ago. I’m not too sure what to read into her all-too-chipper mood, but I’ll bite.
“It’s me. How’s it going? Everything okay with the baby?” My heart thumps wildly. My ears pick up on the sonic boom going off in my chest.
The world spins unnaturally. The ground gyrates beneath my feet as Ally puts her head on my shoulder.
“Camden is doing great. He’s doing real great. He doesn’t need a respirator or anything. They want to keep him at the hospital a couple more days to keep an eye on him, that’s all.” The line goes quiet, and I forget to breathe, let alone ask the pertinent questions. “I got your results.”
“Great. I’m ready.” Am I? Am I ever going to be ready to be someone’s father? His dad? God knows mine wasn’t. I hope it’s not a hereditary trait.
“It’s Clint’s baby. I’m not sure whether to say I’m sorry or not, but Camden’s not your son.”
A wave of relief pushes through me so fast and hard, for a second I start to black out. Then, more pronounced than ever, I realize that I do want to be a father, I want to be a dad to a perfect tiny being that happens to be the product of me and the woman I love. I glance down at Ally, who’s getting ready to bite right through her lip, and I shake my head.
“Congratulate Clint for me, will you? I’m sure he’s beautiful.”
We hang up and I swing Ally around in a circle. The whole world comes to life; the air is sweeter, lighter, and every possibility is open once again for Ally and me. I plant a heated kiss over her lips that helps melt me back into my own skin. Morgan Jordan is free to move to the Eastern Seaboard any fucking time he likes. Now if only I can get the baseball world to comply.
Ally pulls back and I set her feet on God’s green earth. I’m just happy to be here, be anywhere with Ally.
“One day it’ll happen for you”—she runs her finger over my eyebrow—“and it’ll be the right time with the right girl.” She glances down a moment. A look of sorrow sweeps across her face as if she’s jealous of this other girl.
“Would you want to be that girl?” My cheeks fire up with heat, testifying to the fact I’m one hundred percent whipped.
Ally opens her mouth to respond just as Kendall, Lauren, and their respective not so better halves crop up to join us.
“Why so secret?” Kendall arches a brow like we might have big news to dispense. Leave it to Kendall to make something out of nothing and leave me looking like a douche.
“No secrets.” Ally shrugs as I pull her in and drop a kiss on her head. It’s great like this with her friends—having Kendall as a part of my life again. Even Cruise is starting to grow on me. Deep down, he’s a pretty cool guy. Kendall’s lucky to have him.
“Oh, come on.” Lauren pushes her shoulder into Ally. “We saw all that, hugging—the celebratory spin.”
“Morgan’s leaving next week.” Ally sounds a bit too animated, like she’s glad to be rid of me even though I know she’s covering for the phone call. I hope. “In fact”—she takes a step back and faces me—“I want to apologize to you, right here in front of everyone.” She takes up my hand and looks me in the eye.
I’m not so sure I want to hear the big apology. I’m positive she’s got nothing to be sorry for, and, if she does, it’s certainly not to me.
“When I first laid eyes on you”—she shakes her head a little, her eyes already pooling with tears—“I judged you. I saw how vexingly gorgeous you were, and thought this is a guy who can and does take home anybody he wants. Then I saw all those tattoos and I decided you were wild—untamed. I judged who you were based on what you looked like and how much money you had in your wallet.” She sniffs hard, cutting a quick glance to the ground. “Morgan, you’re the kindest soul on the planet, and I think you know how much I care about you, so it’s really important for me to say I’m sorry. I hope you don’t mind, I wanted to say it out loud, in front of my closest friends—I wanted to share how much I love you—how much you mean to me.” She looks up at me from under her lashes, her face pink from her admission.
I pull her in and rip a wet kiss right off her lips. “I think you’re pretty amazing too.”
Lauren and Kendall break out in a choir of aww.
Ally tightens her grip around my waist and we indulge in a deeper, more meaningful kiss. A part of me wishes this were our wedding.
Then I would never have to worry about leaving.
Ally would be mine forever.
I hope she will be one day.
12
RUBY SKY
Ally
In the morning, long before the first rays of sunlight spray over the northern hemisphere, Morgan buries a heated kiss in my neck and rouses with a groan.
“Are you looking for a repeat?” I murmur. Last night’s sex was spectacular. Correction, it wasn’t sex. Last night was all about celebrating our love.
He grazes over my thigh with his long, hard answer, and I twist in his arms and meet him with a kiss.
“A repeat would be impossible.” He plants a scalding kiss directly into my ear, and my body tingles as I let out a breath.
I’m savoring, memorizing all this for the fallout of his departure. I hate that he’s leaving, and I hate that neither of us has brought it up. Maybe it’s not that big a deal to him? Maybe I’ve read way too much into what’s happened between us this summer.
“Why, pray tell, is a repeat impossible?” I was sort of hoping for a rather spectacular minute-by-minute replay, especially the part where he launched me into the outer realm of pleasure with an orgasm that had a life of its own—a shooting star that went on like a blaze of glory. Morgan is a god, creating a whole new universe, with me as his clay. This was divine, glorious, and right. It can’t end. Not like this, not now, not ever.
“Because”—he draws me close until our stomachs sear one another—“every time we’re together it’s something new, something better.” He presses a quick kiss over my lips before reaching to the nightstand for a condom. “And, right now, I want to make everything new.” He touches his mouth to mine with a sweet roaming kiss. “Everything better.”
Morgan lands over me and hikes my hands up over my head just as the first ray of dawn pierces through the slit in the blinds.
“This is turning out to be a good morning.” He whispers it low, seductively.
“I think this is a great way to start every morning.” There. I broached the topic, popped the balloon of our discontent, and now the ball is in his court.
“Me too,” he whispers with a measure of grief in his voice as he lowers a kiss to my lips. Morgan cups my breasts fully in his hands and covers me with his mouth until I’m aching for him in every way.
Morgan holds up the condom, a loose grin playing on his lips. I take it from him and open it, pull it over him, never losing our gaze.
I wrap my legs around his back and guide him in until he gives. Morgan thrusts in all the way
until it feels as if he could burst from my throat. I hold him there like that by the small of his back. This was it, the big countdown. Every moment had reduced itself to a limited-time offer. Morgan dips into me, crashing his lips over mine.
It’s sweet like this, filled with angst, the pleasure and pain both physical and emotional. Tears pool in my eyes, and I don’t fight them. There’s a hole forming in my heart because I know it’s going to hurt like hell not to reach over and feel him right there next to me.
Morgan glides his hands down my body, slow and heated as if he were tracing out my curves for a final time, rubbing his thumb over me until I’m choking for air.
“Let’s do this together,” he whispers.
“Let’s.” I want to do everything with Morgan, but I’m too afraid to say it—too afraid I’m the only one who wants anything other than this together.
Morgan thrusts into me, unrestrained, uninhibited by the loud crack of the headboard knocking into the wall like a shotgun blast. He moves me with him every step of the way until I feel like I’m going to burst. I bury a kiss in his left dimple as he pants in my ear, alive with his lust for me.
“Shit, Ally.” He glides his lips over my mouth, my cheek, right up over my ear. “I’m gonna come.” He chokes out the words and quivers over me just as I explode into a million blissful pieces. I let out a cry that shrills through the virginal morning like the serrated edge of a knife.
A hard thump lands against the wall, and I clap my hand over my mouth in mortification.
“I think that was Cruise,” I whisper. “I bet he’s congratulating you,” I pant just shy of a laugh.
“I think he was congratulating you.” Morgan collapses over me before rolling off to the side. He hikes up on his elbow and gives a sad, slow smile. “Ally”—he says my name in a heated whisper—“why couldn’t this summer last forever?” It comes out barely audible, almost as a private thought that has somehow escaped his vocal cords.
“I don’t know.” I lay my head over his chest and listen to the wild drumming of his heart. My own heart cries out Don’t go with every morbid thump. But I’m not sure he hears it.
And if he did, would he listen?
“Ruby Christie is four years old today.” I say it out loud as Morgan drives us down miles of country back roads that lead to the Christies’ spacious home. As soon as Tess heard Morgan was joining me, she opted to drive out on her own and give us some alone time on the way over. I’m glad she did.
The bright-red bicycle in the back of the truck is already assembled thanks to Morgan and his toolbox know-how. That boy knows his way around all of the pertinent equipment, that much I know is true.
“Did it go by fast? Ruby turning four?” Morgan’s dimples dig in, content, and it melts me just to look at him.
“Lightning quick. It really does feel like it was just yesterday I was lying in that hospital bed—that tiny baby wrapped in my arms.” I leave out the part that it was the most painful day of my life—that Tess held me while I sobbed for weeks, months, to get over the initial trauma of losing my precious baby. It was like losing my mother all over again. “I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t like the Christies.” I say it so low, I’m not sure he heard me. The thought of someone not being kind to her, or denying me the right to be a part of her life, would have been too much to bear.
“I can’t imagine how tough that was.” He shakes his head, still staring out at the road. “But I’m glad you like them and that they’re so generous with Ruby. You think she’ll be okay with me showing up?”
“Are you kidding?” I bubble with laughter at the thought of Ruby meeting Morgan. “She’ll probably want to marry you.” True story, but no sooner do the words stream from my lips than my face turns beet red from saying something so stupid to begin with.
“Sounds like she’s a girl who knows what she wants—just like her mom.” He gives a quick wink.
I’m just about to turn up the volume on my sarcastic superpowers when my phone buzzes in my hand.
It’s a text.
See you in hell.
I stare at it an inordinate amount of time. The number is blocked just like the last time.
“You okay?” He dips his gaze over me a moment before returning his focus to the road.
“Just Tess.” The truth is I don’t want to lose any part of this precious day by entertaining the lunacy that is Molly or Blair or whoever feels the need to try and scare the hell out of me. Rory and the insanity that existed between us those final few days comes back to life. He swore he’d never forgive me if I told the police. My heart gives a few tempered thumps. So many damned possibilities to entertain.
Even that black rose lying over the seat of my car had me rattled. The doors were all locked, the windows rolled up. How the hell did it get inside?
I power down my phone and bury it at the bottom of my purse. No use in giving the lunatic in question any more airplay in my mind. Instead, I sink into my seat and gaze out the window at the evergreens and the kaleidoscope of sugar maples that speed by in a dizzying blur.
This is Ruby’s birthday—Morgan’s last Sunday on the East Coast for quite some time. I’ll deal with Molly or Blair, or whoever the hell it is, once he leaves. I won’t let anyone get away with this bullshit.
I glance over at the handsome prince by my side, his dark hair, the face of a fallen angel. The only person I’m letting get away, apparently, is Morgan.
After another half hour, we come up on the house, and we struggle to find a parking spot on the street.
The Christies’ home is decorated both inside and out with a kitten theme, giant, small, fluffy, hairless—pictures of cats in every incarnation are plastered to the walls.
A small crowd of children and parents stream throughout the property.
“This is amazing!” I beam over at Janice as soon as we walk through the door.
“Well, thank you!” Her eyes enlarge as she glances back at Morgan. “I’ve been up since midnight stuffing goody bags, and I dreamt of cats trying to claw my eyes out all week long.” Janice perks up as she steps toward Morgan. Her eyes elongate over him like a pair of oval mirrors as she nods with approval.
“Janice, this is Morgan. Morgan, Janice.” I don’t take my eyes off her. Janice has many talents but concealing how she feels isn’t one of them.
They exchange hellos and he shakes her hand like the gentleman he is. She engages him in polite small talk, and I swim just taking it in. I can’t imagine what it would have been like if I ever brought Rutger here. Rutger would have commented on the lack of a waitstaff, balked at the ceiling fan instead of a chandelier.
But Morgan is sweet, humble, and well-versed in all the areas in which Rutger is severely lacking. It’s apparent I dodged a bullet with that one. Thank God for Kendall and her mother’s wedding or I might have missed out on the best summer of my life.
Janice claps her hands together and straightens her back.
“Well, it looks like you’ve got your head screwed on straight. I’m really impressed, especially about your upcoming baseball career. I’ll have to tell my husband to keep an eye out for you. Baseball is his passion.”
Something warms in me as she gushes over Morgan. She gives a quick wink in my direction before disappearing back into the kitchen.
“Mama!” A tiny voice squeals as Ruby runs over. Her hair is up in two perfectly curled pigtails. She has on raspberry-colored lip gloss, and her cheeks sparkle with glitter.
“Well, look who it is! It’s the birthday princess!” I press my lips to her cheek and spin her around in a circle. Ruby is light as a feather and smells of clean linen and fresh summer rain. “Ruby, I’d like you to meet someone.” I hike her up over my hip. “This is my friend Morgan. I thought I’d bring him to help celebrate your big day.”
“You have a boyfriend?” Her face twists up like she??
?s trying to hold back a laugh.
God. Who knew Ruby would put two and two together?
“I eat cookies with boys at school,” she says to him in lieu of hello.
He nods. “I’ll eat a cookie with you anytime.” His eyes pierce through a brilliant glacier blue, and my stomach pinches at the sight.
“Cookies!” She springs out of my arms and races toward the yard, where there’s a sprawling display of confections to choose from.
“Told you she’d fall in love with you.”
“Like mother, like daughter.” Morgan’s killer dimples implode as he offers a sweet smile.
I bite down over my lower lip. I swear I might bawl like a baby any minute.
“Like mother, like daughter.” I say it quiet, unsure if either Ruby or me falling for Morgan is a good idea.
Morgan pulls me close and wraps his arms around my waist.
“Hey, you two!” Tess bobs by and places a giant red gift bag on the table. “Cool it, will you? This is a family show.”
Tess looks immaculate in street clothes. I can’t remember the last time I saw her in jeans and a simple white T-shirt.
I give a brief hug and we follow her outside to the heart of the party.
“So,” she starts, “I have an announcement.”
“You have a job lined up for me in the fall?” I’m only half teasing.
“Nope.” She pinches her eyes closed a moment. “Morgan, don’t let her dance. I can’t stand the thought of not being there to protect her.”
“What do you mean, protect me?” For a moment I think Tess knows something about my not-so-nice rose-gifting stalker. “And where are you going?”
“I’m leaving.” She shrugs with a playful grin on her face. “I got a job at that gown club in New York, so I took it.” She turns to Morgan. “Technically that’s high-end dancing, but in reality it translates to less dancing, more dollars, and lots of fancy dresses.”