Laugh Like You've Never Cried (Summer Lake 5) (11 page)

“Hi, Megan. We met the other night, if you remember. With Michael? I'm Emma.”

“Hello.” At least she hadn't stuttered! But she didn't know what else to say.

Emma smiled warmly. “You seem to have guessed that I really came here to see you. I'm no good at pretending.”

Megan nodded warily, still unsure where this might be going.

Emma looked a bit shamefaced now. She hung her head and smiled. “I'm sorry. I wanted to make friends with you, but I didn't want to come knocking at your door. So I thought I could set up a not-so-chance, chance encounter here at the library.”

Megan smiled, relieved. Emma didn't seem to be much better at this than she was. “Thank you. That's very kind of you.”

“Well, Missy said you don't like groups of people, so I wanted to come say hi by myself. I thought it might be easier if you met us one by one first. Though I think, at least I hope, you'll love everyone when you get to know to them. I hope you'll hang out with us all soon.”

Megan stared at her. “I...I...I....” Oh, for goodness sake! Why couldn't she make herself stop that?! She took a deep breath. “Why?”

Emma smiled. “Lots of reasons. You don't know many people here yet, and we're a friendly bunch. You can have as much space as you want and you might not like us, but we want you to know you've got friends here if you want us.” Her smile became more conspiratorial now. “And Michael is totally  besotted with you. So first of all, if you're going to go out with him, you're going to need some girlfriends around to keep you sane. Secondly, we all love him to pieces, and we'd love to welcome his girlfriend as one of the gang.”

His
girlfriend?
She knew she was smiling the big stupid smile that seemed to plaster itself across her face quite often since she'd met Michael. “Thank you,” was all she could think to say.

“I know you're going to be closing up here soon and I'm by myself tonight. Jack, my husband, is down in San Diego with Pete. I wondered if you wanted to come and have some dinner with me at the Boathouse?”

Megan thought about it. She needed to get home and feed Ollie, let him out for a walk, but she did want to get to know Emma. She seemed nice.

“It's okay if you don't want to. I don't mean to pressure you or anything.”

Megan made her decision and took a deep breath. “No, it's not that. It's just that I have to take care of Ollie.”

“That's your dog, right?”

She nodded. “But I could meet you in a little while?”

Emma nodded.

She decided to jump all in. “Or you if you want, you could come with me while I feed him and take him for a walk, and then we can go?” Maybe that was too much?

But no, Emma was grinning. “I'd love to! Oh, this will be fun. I love dogs. If ever you need anyone to watch him for you, I'd be more than happy to.”

Megan smiled, relieved. “Thank you. If you just give me ten minutes here, I'll get closed up and we can go.”

Ollie went crazy when she opened the front door. In his usual ritual he barked and pawed and wagged around her legs when she got home. Then he repeated the process with Emma, who laughed and petted him. He rolled onto his back in the hallway and refused to budge until she rubbed his belly.

“Oh, isn't he a sweetheart?”

“He is. I was worried at first that he didn't seem too friendly with people, but he's been great with Michael and Missy, and now you.” She smiled. “Michael says Ollie’s a good judge of character.”

Emma smiled back. “I'd have to agree. I told you we're not that bad.”

“Oh, I didn't mean there's anything wrong with you. It's just me. I don't do very well with people.”

Emma laughed. “Maybe you're just like Ollie? You're choosy about the people you let in. I mean, you're doing great with all of us. Missy told me you're lovely, and I agree. Michael definitely thinks you're wonderful.” She rubbed Ollie's belly some more.

“What makes you say that?”

Emma grinned up at her. “You should have seen him on Friday night. When Jack and I got there, he'd just seen you go upstairs to start your meeting. He wanted to follow you. Ben wouldn't let him. He kept watching the stairs all night for you to come down. He'd only gone to the bathroom when Ben brought you over. You should have seen his face when he came back and saw you sitting in his chair. He looked like a kid on Christmas morning!”

Megan knew she had that big silly smile going again. She loved thinking that Michael had noticed her and liked her, when she was invisible to everyone else.

Emma was smiling back at her. “He'd probably hate me for telling you, but you should have seen his face after you told him he couldn't walk you home. When he came back inside he looked like someone had stolen all his Christmas presents.”

So the disappointment on his face when she'd told him there was someone waiting at home for her had been real. Wow! She didn't know what to say, but it didn't seem to matter.

Emma carried on chatting away. “I've known Michael since we were eight and I've never seen him like this before. It's so sweet. I'm so glad he's come home. It seems we're all making our way back here and starting the next stage of our lives. I never dreamed Michael would come back and find his lady here too, but I'm so glad he has.”

His lady? Starting the next stage of their lives? She'd only met him a couple of days ago! She looked at Emma. “I hardly know him.”

Emma smiled, a very knowing smile. “Trust me. I can see these things a mile off. Don't worry though. I'm not going to go on about it. You'll catch up when you're ready. In the meantime,” she stopped rubbing Ollie's belly and stood up, “shall we get this guy fed and walked so we can go and get some dinner ourselves? I'm starving.”

Megan laughed out loud at Emma's impression of her agent, Carla. She was putting on a deep, booming Italian accent as she said, “But, bella, the book has had great success, you write the screenplay, you shall have success also.”

The book she was talking about was
Geraldine's Way
, a best-selling novel that neither of them had enjoyed despite its commercial success. She and Emma had bonded quickly once they'd started talking books. She hadn't known that Emma wrote screenplays. She was more impressed by the fact that Emma was working on her own novel, and was almost done with it.

They were sitting at one of the high-top tables in the bar. They'd had a wonderful dinner and the time had flown. She was glad she had come out—and made a new friend.

Ben came over and leaned in to peck Emma on the cheek. “Hey, Mouse. You should have called. I would have joined you.”

Emma smiled at him. “Sorry, Ben, but this is girls' night.”

Ben smiled at Megan. “I'm glad to see you out. I should have known that you two would connect over your books.”

He was such a good guy, and so handsome. As Megan smiled back at him, she wondered why he didn't have a lady of his own.

He looked back at Emma. “You might be about to lose your new friend though. Michael just called and he's on his way over.”

Megan felt herself blush as her body heated up. He was on his way here?

Ben grinned at her. “He's just supposed to be just dropping off some of my tools, but I think he'll be sticking around once he sees you.”

She didn't know what to say—again!

Emma grinned at her. “I'll make myself scarce, but this was wonderful. Let's do it again soon, shall we?”

“I'd love to.” It was true. Megan had really enjoyed this evening with Emma. So much so that she didn't want it to end just yet, even if Michael was coming. “Do you have to leave so soon though?”

“I don't have to, no. I just thought...”

Megan smiled. “I doubt he'll be here long. He'll need to get home for Ethan. Don't go.”

Emma smiled and nodded. Then her face fell as she looked over Megan's shoulder. Megan turned to see Michael coming through the bar with his arm around a very pretty woman. He was flirting with her and she was laughing. Emma's face was a picture. She looked horrified as she looked from Michael to Megan and back again. Megan smiled, she felt totally calm.

“Hey, Morgan!” It was Ben that broke the awkward silence around the table as they all watched Michael joking and waggling his eyebrows at the woman who was obviously completely taken with him.

Michael looked over at them and his face broke into a huge grin when he spotted Megan. He said a quick word to the woman and left her staring after him as he made his way over to them. His eyes didn't leave Megan's the whole way. When he reached the table, he lifted her off her stool and up into the air. She wrapped her arms around his neck as he twirled her around. He didn't seem to care who was watching as he set her down and planted a kiss on her lips. “Meggie! What are you up to?”

“She's having dinner with me,” said Emma, frowning at him. “More to the point, what are
you
up to?” She glared over at the woman who was still watching Michael hopefully from her perch at the bar.

Megan watched realization dawn on his face. He looked horrified as he looked down at her and drew her closer to him, wrapping his arms around her. “Meggie, I wasn't....Don't think I....”

Megan shook her head and looked at Emma. “I can tell you what he's up to.”

Emma and Ben stared at her and Michael's eyes bored into her, he still looked horrified. She had to laugh. “Good grief, you all claim you've known him all your lives. I've only known him a couple of days. Am I the only one who can see that Doctor Morgan here has to flirt with every woman he meets? It's what he does. It's who he is.”

It was Michael who laughed first. Emma and Ben joined in as he leaned down to plant a kiss on her lips. “See, I knew you had my number, little one.”

She smiled up at him. “And you've got mine too, mister.”

She loved the way he smiled at her, the way his eyes were thanking her for understanding him. “I do, and I was about to use it, to see if you were home. I just dropped Ethan off with Scot while I brought this guy his tools back.” He nodded at Ben. “Now I've got an hour before I can pick him up. I was going to call and see if you wanted to have a quickie with me.”

Megan felt her cheeks flush.

He winked at her. “A quick drink, Meggie! What did you think I meant?”

She shook her head at him as Emma laughed. “I think you two have definitely got each other's number. I'm going to leave you to it.” She looked at Megan. “If that's okay with you?”

Megan nodded. “Thanks for tonight. This was fun.”

Emma gave her a hug. “It was. Thanks for coming out with me. I'll call you about Saturday.” She reached up and hugged Michael. “And you behave yourself. That's my friend you're going out with.”

Michael laughed and hugged her back. “No worries, Em. She might be your friend, but she's
my
little Meggie.” He slung an arm around Megan's shoulders and smiled at her. “I'll be taking real good care of her.”

“Come on, Mouse. I'll walk you to your car,” said Ben.

Once they'd gone, Michael sat down opposite her. “So, you're making friends are you?”

Megan nodded. “Emma came by the library and asked me to come for dinner. I hope that's okay?” She could have kicked herself after she said it.

He was looking at her baffled. “Why would it not be okay, Meggie?”

She shook her head. “No reason. Sorry. That was a silly thing to say.”

He reached across and took her hand. “I want to ask if you're going to tell me about it, but I think I know what your answer will be.”

She smiled and nodded, grateful that he wasn't going to push it. “Another time.”

He smiled back, but it wasn't his usual smile. “Maybe. Right?”

“Right. So anyway, about this quickie?” She knew he wouldn't push her, but she wanted his smile to reach all the way to his eyes again.

It worked. He laughed. “Yeah. We could have that quick drink here, or I could take you home and give you a quick preview of what we're going to do tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?”

He nodded, a huge grin on his face. “Yeah, Meggie. Tomorrow. I don't know if she talked him into it, but Ethan asked if he could stay at Mom's tomorrow night. He has to take his art project in on Thursday and she's been helping him work on it. So what do you say? Can I come over tomorrow?”

She nodded, knowing that her smile matched his. She was nervous, but she couldn't wait.

“And what do you reckon, are you going to let me take you home now, for that preview?”

She didn't know what he meant by a 'preview', but she definitely wanted to find out. “Yes.”

He grinned and stood up. “Let's get out of here then.”

He put his arm around her shoulders. As they walked through the bar she noticed the woman he'd come in with giving her a dirty look. She smiled back sweetly. For all she didn't normally trust people, she trusted Michael completely. He liked her, he wanted to be with her. Flirting was just part of his nature. She understood that. She also understood that it meant absolutely nothing.

M
egan pulled up in her driveway and watched in the mirror as Michael's truck pulled in behind her. She didn't understand what he was up to, but she was eager to find out. Since Sunday she'd kept wondering what it would be like, kept hoping that she wouldn't have to wait too long to find out. Her body heated up and her panties got wet whenever she thought about him, thought about what they might do—by Saturday at the latest. She climbed out of her car and he came to take her hand. He kept hold of it as she opened the front door and once they were inside he led her straight up the stairs without a word. Wow!

Ollie followed them silently. That was too weird, though. Whatever they were about to do, she didn't want Ollie watching! Michael grinned at her, obviously thinking the same thing.

“Come on, mate.” He caught Ollie's collar and led him out of the bedroom. “She's all mine for the  next hour.”

Just his words had her breath coming fast and her panties soaking. While he closed the door, she sat down on the edge of the bed. She had to, before her knees gave out. “Michael, I...I...I....” Oh no! Not now.

He sat down beside her and took her face between his hands. “I'll go, if you want me to, Meggie.”