No Other Love (A Walker Island Romance, Book 2) (7 page)

“Some things are supposed to change,” Brian told her, his voice as serious as she'd ever heard it. “But some things never, ever will.”

CHAPTER TEN

The next morning, Morgan drove out to the Walker plot, determined that this time she wasn’t going to let herself get distracted or pulled into any other “adventures” with Brian. They would simply finish clearing and fertilizing the areas where they would be growing new plants. That was it. In fact, the moment they were done, Morgan was going to go home, lock herself inside and not come out.

Especially not for sentimental trips around town where she would spend half the time thinking that a gorgeous, off-limits man was about to kiss her, only to be disappointed when he didn’t.

When Brian had shown her the tree with the love heart carved in it, Morgan had stood there, desperate for the feel of his lips on hers again...but all he'd done was bring her back home, leaving her at the door, not even coming inside to say hi to her family. Certainly not giving her the kind of good-bye kiss that he used to.

She should have been happy about that. Should have been glad that he wasn't forcing her into a situation where she'd have to push him away to make sure they didn't end up hurting each other again when she left. But she didn’t feel happy or glad about it at all.

Why did everything have to be so complicated?

Pulling a few weeds might have helped to deal with the sheer frustration of being around Brian and not knowing
what
to feel, but they’d done a good job clearing nearly all of them away the previous day. Another thing that was obviously good but that she could have done without right then.

And when Brian finally did arrive, walking over to her with Natalie and Tad beside him, the way he said, “Hi, Morgan,” sounded far too smug to her ears. Almost as if he knew just how badly he'd twisted her into knots by coming close...but not
nearly
close enough. Only Brian would have fought for her in such a sneaky, brilliant way, by making her want and need and desire him until she was nearly bursting with it!

“Hi, everyone,” she said in as chipper and easy a voice as she could manage. It wouldn't do, not a bit, for Brian to think that she'd spent every single second since yesterday thinking about him. “Looks like we're ready to fertilize today.”

“Mr. Russell had us study up on the science of fertilization,” Natalie told her.

Tad nodded. “It's actually really cool how it all works.”

Of course Brian had been able to turn the work her interns were doing into a really interesting science lesson. Darn him, why did he have to be so perfect? And gorgeous? And...

Enough already
. She needed to keep her focus on the important job at hand, not on how much she wanted the one man she could never be with.

Morgan set off for the other side of the garden—as far as she could from Brian and all the temptation he presented—and when Natalie came with her, they poured the fertilizer onto areas that weren’t already thick with useful plants, then raked it into the soil. With Natalie talking a mile a minute, Morgan was glad that she couldn't keep stewing over Brian and everything that had—and
hadn’t
—happened yesterday. Although, Morgan noticed that Natalie occasionally paused in her monologue to look over to where Tad was working with an increasing flush growing on her cheeks.

Had Natalie finally started to notice Tad? Watching the two teenagers shoot each other looks when they each thought the other wasn't looking, Morgan was hit with a longing to go back to that time in high school when she and Brian had been so close. But even then, things hadn't been simple. Not when they had always been pulled between staying and going.

“Have you decided what the composition is going to be yet for your various pieces of the makeup line?” Natalie asked, breaking her out of her musings. “Because if you haven't settled on the exact ingredients, I was kind of hoping to help with the testing.”

“You mean pulling weeds and raking in fertilizer all day wasn’t all that you were hoping to get out of this internship?” Morgan teased. “I've done quite a bit of work already with some highly regarded scientists to work out the mineral components of my new line, but I'd love to involve you from this point forward in any way that I can. And once you have a better sense of where you'll be going to college next year, I'd be happy to talk with my colleagues near your campus to see if any of them have something interesting for you to work on.”

“How can I ever thank you enough?”

Morgan grinned. “Keep raking.”

The sun rose higher in the sky, the day turning out to be quite hot for the normally moderate island weather. It was hard work raking in the fertilizer, and Morgan barely found enough time to photograph the progress to tweet to her followers. She supposed some people probably thought she was crazy to do all this as preparation for her makeup line when she could have been sitting in a studio somewhere with a cool drink and assistants doing the heavy lifting. But as she watched Brian working, his muscles moving strong and powerful beneath his shirt as he raked the soil, she had to admit that there were some compensations. Really
good
ones, even if they were only temporary.

Plus, it was so nice to be outside enjoying nature rather than hanging around on a set. Working in the garden, Morgan loved knowing that her efforts were not only going toward growing something beautiful but that she was also helping Tad and Natalie build up their transcripts, too.

It was lunchtime by the time they’d fertilized the whole plot. Which was very impressive, given that there were only four of them working on it. Yes, Morgan was hot and sweaty by the time it was done, but it was totally worth it.

Of course, Brian had come prepared with a large cooler of ice water and a couple of baskets full of picnic lunches. And Tad was clearly ready for lunch, because he descended on the first of the baskets like a whirlwind, shoveling a sandwich into his mouth before anyone else had a chance to even look through what was there.

“Tad,” Brian suggested, “why don’t you and Natalie take this lunch break to consider the best approach for the planting stage?”

“That’s a great idea,” Natalie immediately agreed, looking a little flushed for more reasons than just the heat.

Tad, of course, jumped at the opportunity to go off with Natalie even quicker than he’d homed in on the picnic basket.

As soon as the two teenagers were gone, Brian pulled out a blanket and spread it on the ground in one of the shady spots on the plot. Despite vowing to leave for home as soon as they were done fertilizing, Morgan couldn’t resist sitting down and helping herself to the picnic basket’s contents. Especially when it turned out that Brian had packed her favorite spicy chicken wings.

“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?”