Just for Fun (28 page)

He could tell she was kidding, but he wanted to hear her say she’d be there. “Tell me you get this. This isn’t a business arrangement. This is a relationship.”

She pulled back and looked up at him. She didn’t say anything at first but finally she nodded. “Okay. I’m in your life and you’re in mine.”

Something about hearing that from her, something about that reality setting in, turned him on faster than tuna casserole.

“The other reality of my life,” he said as he started walking her backward down the hall, “is that we should try to spend all of our alone time naked because there won’t be a lot of alone time.”

Laughing, she started unbuttoning her blouse. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

They made good use of the forty-five minutes before Doug’s dad and brother-in-law came back to the house. But Morgan stayed to watch TV again and then for bedtime.

Doug called in sick to work for the first time in over two years.

Not that anybody at work believed he was sick. She’d heard his responses and seen his eye rolls and grin while talking to Sam. But he still took the night off.

They made love that night again and then in the morning before she helped with breakfast for his dad and two of his nieces. While Doug helped his dad get dressed, she occupied the girls by French-braiding their hair. Apparently no one else ever had the time or the talent and she instantly had two new best friends. When she walked to the corner bus stop with a girl on each side, holding her hand, talking a mile a minute and making her promise she would do their hair again. She even promised to paint their nails.

She was a hero.

And she had a
relationship.

Morgan had been rolling that around in her head all day. It still amazed her the guy she’d intentionally tried not to have a relationship with was the one she’d fallen for.

But it also made her smile. Big and stupid.

Like she was now.

She was standing on his porch with another casserole dish and grinning like an idiot.

“Lasagna,” she said when Doug answered the door.

He held the screen door open for her. “Wow, I could get used to this.”

So could she. It was a far cry from the hotels and restaurants she was used to but she could imagine doing this on a regular basis. Even better if she was making the lasagna in Dooley’s kitchen instead of just bringing it over.

Which was a big jump forward.

She needed to try to resist those kinds of thoughts. For so many reasons. She’d known him for two weeks. His life was incredibly complicated. California was still on her horizon. And probably fifteen other things she couldn’t come up with at the moment.

“Hey, Morgan.”

Kevin came out of the recliner next to Doug Senior as she came into the room.

“Hey, Kevin. Is it
Castle
night?”

He grinned. “Nah, Senior needs some cash so he invited me over to play cards.”

“You lose?”

“More often than seems possible without someone cheating,” Kevin admitted, angling a glance at Senior.

The older man just smiled and shrugged.

Morgan laughed and followed Doug into the kitchen.

They managed to get the lasagna into the oven to heat and the dishes on the table, but every time they passed each other one of them had to touch. She was up against the fridge with Doug’s hand over her breast when they heard the doorbell ring.

He paused, but he stayed pressed against her. “Who the hell is that?”

A minute later the noise level in the front of the house increased ten-fold.

“Fuck.” Doug pushed himself back from her, his hand slipping from her shirt.

Before she could respond, the kitchen was filled with people. Three big guys led the way, each carrying plates and sacks. Three women followed, laughing and chatting. Everyone was talking at once and without direction from Doug they moved all the dishes they’d just set on the table and laid container after container of food out on every available surface. The toaster and coffee pot were shoved to the side as a crock pot was slid onto the counter, the aroma of garlic hit her from a basket of bread, a huge bowl of what appeared to be a Caesar salad was uncovered, and brownies and an apple crisp were set on top of the stove.

Morgan turned wide eyes to Doug. “What’s going on?”

“Kevin made a couple of phone calls,” he said, looking perturbed.

“Hi, Sugar, I’m Mac,” the big man with the shaved head said, nudging her and Doug out of the way.

Doug scowled at him. “Hey, nobody calls her Sugar but me.”

Mac laughed, clearly unconcerned as he stowed a pitcher of iced tea and a case of beer in the fridge.

Doug sighed. “I guess you get to meet my friends tonight.”

“It’s lasagna night,” Mac said, as if that explained everything. “If the girl can make tuna casserole amazing, we had to see what her lasagna was like.”

“Who told you about the tuna casserole?” Morgan asked, grinning. She’d been proud of that tuna. To know it had gotten rave reviews made her happy.

“Senior told Kevin who told us,” Mac explained.

“Convenient how you all just happened to have things on hand that went with lasagna,” Doug said, his hand still on Morgan’s lower back.

He didn’t seem surprised to see all of his friends. A little annoyed, yes, but resigned too.

“Now that’s a funny story,” Mac said, popping the top to one of the beers.

“I bet it’s not,” Doug said.

Mac grinned. “Maybe not
funny
, but clever.”

“I bet it’s not that either,” Doug said. “What I think is Kevin told you I’ve been seeing Morgan for dinner every night and you nosy fuckers all got together and planned to have stuff ready tonight that would go with whatever we were having.” He gestured to all the food. “Garlic bread, salad and brownies… All good with lots of main dishes.”

Mac shook his head and looked smug. “Well, you’d be wrong,” he said. “Kevin texted us all what you were having and we stopped at Giovanni’s, bought everything, dumped it into our own bowls and showed up.”

Morgan giggled as Doug scowled at him, crossed to the crock pot and lifted the lid. “More lasagna?”

“There’s a lot of us,” Mac said with a shrug.

A pretty, petite blonde with long spiral curls came up beside Mac and slid her arm around his waist. “You weren’t supposed to tell him we’ve just been waiting to pounce.”

“I don’t think he’s shocked,” Mac said, putting his hand possessively on his wife’s butt and pulling her up against him.

For just a moment, Morgan had to swallow hard past the lump that formed at their display of affection.

Doug sighed. “Morgan, this is Sara. Mac’s wife.”

Morgan extended her hand to the woman who’d convinced Doug to read romance novels because they had the word clit in them. Seeing her with her husband made Morgan feel a lot better about how much Doug cared about her. It was obvious Sara and Mac belonged together.

“Nice to meet you,” she said as Sara took her hand.

“Oh, you too.” Sara said it with enthusiasm. “You have no idea.”

Morgan raised an eyebrow. “About what?”

“Dooley dating a woman who wears shoes like that?” Sara pointed to Morgan’s feet. “It is truly a pleasure.”

Morgan glanced at her shoes as Doug said, “Shut up, Sara.”

“I’m
complimenting
her,” Sara told him. “I
love
those shoes. I
love
that you’re dating someone who knows about shoes. I
love
that I have someone to go shopping with who might know as much as I do, if not more, about fashion.”

“Sara,” Doug said through gritted teeth. “Back off.”

“Hey, I shop.” Another blonde joined them.

Sara rolled her eyes. “I know.”

The other woman laughed. “Geez, I see I’m about to get dumped.”

“You always make us stop at Home Depot, for God’s sake,” Sara said. “Dani, I love you, but no woman should know that much about caulk.”

A good-looking guy Morgan recognized from the bar the night she’d found Doug came up behind Dani and wrapped his arms around her. “She knows a lot about a lot of c words.”

Morgan felt Doug cough slightly, then said, “Morgan, this is Danika and Sam Bradford.”

“Hi.” She wasn’t sure if she should be grinning, considering how irritated Doug seemed, but she couldn’t help it.

“Hi.” Danika was smiling as she said, “So you’re the one Sara’s going to cheat on me with.”

Morgan glanced at Sara who nodded eagerly. Morgan laughed. “Sorry.”

Danika laughed. “Don’t be. If I can avoid a shoe store or two I’ll be forever in your debt.”

“Why are you avoiding shoe stores?” A beautiful brunette and another good-looking guy joined them.

“I’m avoiding going to shoe stores
with Sara
,” Danika clarified.

“Ah, how can I get in on that?” the other woman asked.

“Hey,” Sara protested.

The brunette sighed. “Sara, the only place you spend more time is Bath & Body Works. I can hit six stores in the time it takes you to sample all the new scents.”

“That’s because you don’t appreciate finding just the right scent for all occasions,” Sara said.

“I think she smells great on every occasion.”

Sara rolled her eyes. “Oh, Ben, you’re biased. You even think she smells good with baby puke down the front of her.”

He laughed. “Well, less so then.”

The other woman elbowed him, but he kissed the top of her head and she smiled.

“This is Jessica and Ben Torres,” Doug finally interrupted. “You’ve now met all of the people who meddle in my life.”

Everyone laughed.

“You deserve all of this and more, man,” Sam said, grabbing an olive out of the salad and tossing it into his mouth.

“Definitely,” Mac agreed. “We’ve been keeping score, you know. Just waiting for this day.”

“Dammit,” Doug muttered.

“What day?” Morgan asked him under the noise of the continued conversation and joking.

“The day when they get to have input into a relationship of mine.”

For some reason her heart tripped at that. “You’ve had other relationships, haven’t you?” she asked, wondering why this seemed so significant.

Something flickered in his eyes as he seemed to be considering something. Then he turned, caging her in against the countertop, blocking her off from the roomful of people. “But I’ve never been in love before,” he said for her ears only. “And they know that.”

Morgan stared up at him. Everything seemed to spin for a moment, until she took a few deep breaths, and it all settled. On Doug. On the fact she felt
more
steady than she ever had before.

She cleared her throat. “You’re in love with me?”

“Completely.”

“I, um, wasn’t expecting that.”

He gave a low chuckle. “Me either.”

That made her smile. “By the way, I’m in love with you too.”

His smile was quick and bright. “That’s the best thing I’ve heard in a long time.”

She became aware the kitchen was completely quiet. She peeked around Doug’s shoulder. “Even if it means a lot of torture and teasing from your friends?”

His head dropped and he sighed. “Yeah. Even then.”

Chapter Nine

It was worth putting up with Ben, Sam and Mac to have Jessica, Dani and Sara at dinner, Dooley decided. They managed to pull information from Morgan that Dooley hadn’t even thought of.

They found out her birthday was May sixteenth, she hated blueberries and she had been to Tease.

“You’ve been to Tease?” Sam asked.

She nodded. “Sure.”

“The sex shop? With the vibrators and lingerie and stuff?”

She nodded again. “Yes. Over on Fifth.”

“On a dare? Or for a bachelorette party gift?” Mac asked.

Morgan shrugged. “No. For me. They have the best stuff in town. Everyone knows that.”

“So,” Sam said, sitting forward in his chair and leaning an elbow on the table, “you’re telling us you’ve gone in there, by yourself, to buy stuff. Like you stop by the grocery store for milk.”

“I don’t go in there every week or anything,” she said.

“You’ve been like once? Or twice?” Sam clarified.

Morgan swallowed her bite of lasagna, wiped her mouth and gave Sam a smile. “Let’s put it this way, I have a VIP punch card. For every nine purchases, I get twenty dollars off.”

The guys just stared at her.

Dooley barely resisted laughing. God he loved her. He had no doubt Morgan had been to Tease and bought herself some toys—which he fully intended to have her bring over next time—but he knew she was messing with Sam about the punch card.

It was fantastic. She’d pegged his friends within an hour of knowing them.

Dani laughed. “Close your mouth, Sam, you’re drooling on the table.”

“But she goes to Tease, to shop, for stuff…”

“I know.” Dani patted his arm. “It’s truly amazing a woman figured sex out without your help,” she said dryly.

“I would have totally gone to Tease if I’d known about it,” Sara said, finishing off her wine.

“Thank God you didn’t know about it. And I mean that on behalf of all the men of Omaha and the surrounding area,” Mac said, putting his arm over the back of her chair. “Once you figured that stuff out you were downright dangerous.”

She leaned close. “You seem to handle me just fine.”

“La, la, la,” Sam said loudly, shoving his chair back and carrying his plate to the sink. “I’m not hearing this.”

Sara rolled her eyes. “Morgan’s right. They have great stuff. Their lingerie is gorgeous. Not like some of the cheap stuff you can find. You ever been in there, Jess?” she asked her sister.

Jessica had just taken a bite of garlic bread, and started coughing. Ben thumped her on the back as he grinned at Sara. “We have a VIP punch card too.”

Dooley was grinning and shaking his head as he stood and started clearing dishes. He loved these idiots. A lot. And they didn’t seem to faze Morgan, which was a huge mark in her favor. If she was going to be in his life, she would have to put up with this bunch.

As he loaded the dishwasher he thought about how he’d told her he loved her. He hadn’t meant to say that at all, but certainly not the way he had. Still, the moment had seemed right. The gang had never before insisted on spending time with any of the women he dated. It was almost as if they sensed this was different.