Around the World in 80 Men Series: Books 11-20 (58 page)

“I'm not believing it
this time. He's fine. Tanner is fine. He's going to come back and
he's fine.” Morgan took a deep breath and walked back over to
the dock where she'd been sitting in the first place. Denial was the
only thing on her mind. There was no way he was dead, he'd come back.
She knew it.

*****

“Miss? You have to get
up.”

Morgan opened her eyes and
tried to adjust to her surroundings. It was getting dark, that much
she knew,
but why am I on the ground? Why am I all wet?
It
took a few moments, but everything caught up to her and she sat up
quickly, remembering the morning's events.

“Come now,” the man
told her, then helped her get to her feet.

“The boat. Triton? Is it
here?” She put her hands to the man's chest and asked, the
tears already beginning to burn her eyes again.

“Triton? It's just come
in. We are unloading now. What's wrong?” He could see her look
of worry turn to that of shock.

“Triton! It's here!
Tanner? Tanner!” Morgan spun around, trying to find the boat,
but it was too dark to make out any names.

“Let's just get you
somewhere warm,” he told her.

“Won't you listen to me?
I need to find Tanner!”

“Morgan!?” The
voice she heard made all of the tears fall like a cascading
waterfall. It was the voice she'd been waiting to hear all day.

“Tanner! Oh my God!
Tanner! You're okay! You're alive! Holy shit!” Morgan ran to
him and wrapped her arms around him harder than she'd ever hugged
anyone in her life.

“Yeah, I'm alive!”
Tanner jokingly replied. “Why wouldn't I be? Better question,
what in the hell are you doing here!?”

“They...they told me your
boat went down and you were dead! Then they found out it wasn't your
boat....but...then your boat came back and....and you weren't
there...” Morgan was still sobbing, just happy to see her
friend was alive. Tanner understood, even though she didn't finish
her thoughts. Of course, he had to find out exactly what had
happened, but it was clear the poor girl had gone through a lot that
day, so he wouldn't pressure her for answers. “I love you,
Tanner! I love you, I love you, I love you!”

Chapter Two

Morgan wondered if it were even
possible to run out of tears, but she wouldn't find the answer to
that question, at least not on that day. She sat in Tanner's tub
soaking, allowing her tears to flow freely as she had done for the
past twenty four hours. The only difference from then to earlier was
that they were tears of gratitude, and also tears of mental
exhaustion. Tanner was alive and well, and the whole story had
finally been brought together for both of them after they arrived
back at his house. He had spent nearly an hour on the phone, and
pieced together the day's events.

Lady Godiva had met up with
Triton before the storm hit, and the young Captain of Triton was
having engine trouble. Tanner boarded when he found out, and offered
to help. That much Morgan knew, but the young man that David
identified should have been on Triton, which led everyone to believe
that she had gone down as well.

Howard Meeks was the young man
in question, and Tanner already knew from watching the scene play out
on the day they left, that Howard had been fired from the Triton, and
picked up within minutes by Sydney's Song. That was one piece of
information that no one on land knew.

The fishing community had gone
through as much pain as Morgan had, thinking their loved ones were
missing, then finding out that they were alive. Then others believed
the opposite, and had to learn the terrible news.

Morgan had sat in the tub for
so long that she hadn't even realized that she was shivering. It was
only when Tanner came in to check on her that he pointed it out.

“Ya plan to stay in here
all night? By the looks of ya, you'll freeze to death in no time.”
His smile was warm and sincere, but Morgan couldn't hear anymore
about death at the moment.

“Don't even joke about
that, there's been enough talk of....that... to last a life... just
don't, please.” She wiped her eyes and stood, and had a towel
wrapped around her by the sweet Aussie.

“I'm sorry, I wasn't even
thinking about that. Come on, let's get you in some warm clothes.”
Morgan's emotions were so raw that she cried at the thought of
correcting him when he had just lost men that he knew. He may not
have worked with them directly, but he still knew most of them and
she squeezed her eyes shut tightly at the thought of sounding
uncaring. He could read her perfectly, and he stopped to hug her in
the hallway to reassure the poor girl that everything would be
alright.

“You've had a hard time
of it, stop worrying yourself, alright?” He brought her head
up to look into her bloodshot eyes, and gave her his famous wink.
For the first time since the ordeal, Morgan actually smiled. “That's
my girl, now get dressed and meet me in the kitchen.” He
kissed her hand before letting her go, then she watched as he took
the stairs quickly and was out of her sight.

Pink sweats, pink hoodie, pink
socks, she didn't care if she looked like an Easter egg, she was
getting warm. When her more than casual winter wear was on, Morgan
went downstairs to meet him. The smell of coffee was enough to make
her nearly run to the kitchen. “Coffee? I looked everywhere,
even David looked, but all we found was tea.” She filled a cup
and sat down at the table with him. Tanner raised a brow, and
smiled.

“David? The two of you
were getting cozy while I was lost at sea? I'll have to have a word
with my mate.” She threw a small dish towel his way and
ignored his further threats as the coffee warmed her insides.

“Yes...,” between
sips, she continued, “your sixty year old mate is super sexy
and you wouldn't believe what we did when...,”

“Enough, or I'll take
your coffee away ya little minx.” Just like that, the two were
back to their joking selves and Morgan finally found it easy to smile
once again. “So, were ya going to tell me why you were here?”

Morgan looked down at her
coffee and smiled. She hadn't thought that far ahead. All she'd known
was that she'd had a key and it seemed like a good place to go. “I'm
sure I would have, eventually. Thank you, for the room though.”

“No need to thank me.
It's yours. I
did
say you're welcome here any time. I didn't
think you'd come back so soon though. I knew you couldn't resist me.”
There was the wink again and Morgan smiled.

“You're right...I just
can't stay away. Even though I had the house to myself,” she
told him, continuing to smile.

“Oh, that hurts! So ya
wait until I'm out of the house to come here!” He walked over
to her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, then propped his
head on one.

“Wait! Does that mean you
have to go back out?” Morgan suddenly remembered that his trip
was supposed to be one month long, but had obviously been cut short.

Tanner kissed her cheek softly,
then released his grasp and slowly walked to the other side of the
table. Followed by a sigh, he answered her. “Yes and no. Yes, I
do have to go back out, but there's no way in hell I'm leaving when
you're here. It'll wait until this weekend.” Morgan thought it
was sweet that he was willing to stay, just because she was there,
but she also didn't want to burden him.

“I don't want to keep you
from your job, Tanner. I can leave if you...”

“Morgan, there's nothing
I'd rather do than to spend a week with you,” he told her.

“But...I'm on my...uhm.
It won't be any fun for you,” Morgan tried to explain. She'd
already told him, but maybe he forgot. She just had to let him know
that their week together wouldn't be like the other times they'd
spent together.

“Oh for fuck's sake! I
told ya, I don't care. Now, enough of that. Come on, pink Jellybean,
let's go get some pizza.” He wasn't going to let her sulk any
longer. They both needed something to get their minds off of
everything and their favorite restaurant was sure to help. Before
they left, Morgan did change her
Jellybean
attire, but it
wasn't much of a step up. She kept the pink hoodie and socks, but at
least she put on jeans.

“Beer?” Tanner
propped his head on his hand and stared down the blonde girl. She
couldn't even answer because he followed his question with another
statement. “Damn.”

“Yes, beer! Two!”
They both laughed and Morgan asked what his curse word had been in
regards to.

“Even with no make up, a
too big sweat shirt and a ponytail, you are still absolutely
gorgeous.” He definitely meant it to be a compliment, but
Morgan felt as she were not only a burden to the man, but probably
embarrassing him as well. She really wasn't, and the man really did
believe she had incredible natural beauty, but she wasn't buying it.
With the day's events, mixed with the roller coaster of emotions her
period had brought to her, she was in the kind of mood that a
commercial about macaroni and cheese could probably bring her to
tears.

Get over it,
she told
herself.
He's alive, he's being sweet, there's pizza, beer. I have
nothing to be upset about.
After her mental pep-talk, she gave
him a thank you and he pulled her into his side for a hug while they
waited for their beer.

When the time came to place the
order, Morgan had an idea. “How about we get it to go?”
Tanner knew just what she was thinking, and he loved the idea. The
two of them finished their beers, then took the two pizzas out the
door with them. When they got back to his house, they did just as
they'd done the last time she visited and sat on top the roof of his
truck to enjoy their meal together under the stars.

The pizza boxes were empty when
Tanner thought of bringing up the topic of their relationship, more
importantly, his text. “So, ya love me now, right?” His
question nearly took Morgan's breath away as it was the last thing
she expected to hear. His large smile, however, was something that
shouldn't have been there if he were actually serious about
discussing the love text. It was even less acceptable if he was
going to bring up what she told him when she found out he was
actually alive. He watched her dare him to keep smiling about it,
but he took the dare and doubled down on the humor of it all. “Don't
worry, I won't hold ya to what you said on the docks.” She had
propped herself up on one elbow to look down at him, but he pulled
her back down to his side.

“What do you mean you
won't hold me to it? I meant it when I said...,”

“No ya didn't. Not in
that way, anyway.” It was his turn to sit up and look at her.
“Morgan, hearing you say those words were like music to my
ears. But when I found out that you thought I was dead... well... I
know why you said it. I would have felt the same way. But, I think
it would be best if we held off on talk like that until things are
back to normal. You know what I mean?” Morgan didn't like
hearing it, but he was right that she said it in the heat of the
moment.

“Tanner, I may have
blurted out my feelings when I saw you, but it doesn't make it any
less true.” She curled up into his chest and forced him back
to the truck. He put his arm around her waist and kissed her
forehead.

“I checked my phone, you
didn't write back after you got the text.” The silence between
them after his accurate statement was enough to make them both
uncomfortable. Tanner finally broke the awkward moment. “I
didn't expect ya to, I'm just making a point. If you wanted to say
it, you would have right then. So... let's just relax with the love
talk and get back to just being us. Agreed?” Morgan wanted to
argue, to ask why he had said it in the first place if he didn't want
to talk about it. But instead, she just nodded into his warm chest
and let out a long sigh.

“Agreed. But you have to
agree not to get lost at sea anymore.” They both laughed and
Tanner quickly pointed out that he was never lost, but the point was
taken. “I'm crazy about you, Tanner.” For right then,
that was enough for both of them.

Later that night, Tanner's
words came back to her, but it wasn't as easy to accept the second
time around.
Why does everyone feel the need to tell me what to
say or feel? Am I always that wrong?
One last tear rolled down
her cheek as the probable answer came to her.
I guess I am.

*****

Wednesday morning, Morgan was
gathering all of her clothes, picking through some in her room that
she hadn't seen in awhile, and had her bags almost completely packed.
Tanner held out as long as he could, but duty called and he
reluctantly left that morning. Morgan smiled at the fight he put up
to get his other Captain to take the first part of the trip, but in
the end, Tanner was forced to go back out that morning.

Their week together was
wonderful, and all talk of love had been perfectly avoided by both of
them. The near death experience was also avoided, and their days
together were filled with laughter and nonsense, just as they always
had been.

She looked around her room to
make sure nothing was missing, and hauled her bags down the stairs to
wait for her taxi. “Here I go again!” Morgan laughed at
herself as she stood on the front porch waiting, thinking of what she
would do for a full day before meeting her next client.