The Lure of White Oak Lake (14 page)

Morgan looked surprised. “Aw, you’re kidding. What’s he got?”

“Probably a sinus infection, he’s prone to those this time of year. I can’t seem to get him to take his allergy medicine regularly. I guess I’m going to have to stuff the pill down his throat each morning before he walks out the door.” Jaclyn looked at the brackets. “What are these for?”

“This is what we’ll attach the posts and wire to for the papier-mâché. Hopefully, it’ll look like a Viking ship when we’re done.”

“Would you rather me run the soup down to you later? It’s probably best that you’re not around Austin while he’s running a fever just in case it isn’t what I think it is.”

“No, no,” Morgan said, sounding preoccupied. “You take care of him. I have plenty to eat here. Is there anything you need me to pick up—sinus medicine or juice?”

“No, I have everything he needs, but thanks.” Morgan continued to work and didn’t seem very interested in conversation. “Well, I’ll get back to the house now and tend my patient.”

“Okay, tell him I hope he feels better.” Morgan looked up after Jaclyn walked away, feeling like a total jerk. She’d awoken that morning with Jaclyn strongly on her mind and desires she didn’t want to face. The lame plan to distance herself from Jaclyn, she realized, wouldn’t work because she didn’t have the resolve to execute it. She watched Jaclyn walk down the street it was too late for that approach because all she really wanted to do was chase her. Morgan pulled her cell phone from her pocket and called the voice of reason.

“I know you’re not ringing my phone at nine o’clock on a Sunday morning,” Celeste said sleepily.

Morgan looked at her watch. “Sorry, I guess I didn’t think about you sleeping in today. I need advice. You wanna call me back when you get up?”

“No, wait a minute. Keesha, you love me?”

Morgan heard Celeste’s partner groan and say “no.”

“Get up and make me coffee, baby. I need to give Morgan advice.”

“She called the wrong damn number,” Keesha grumbled and made Morgan laugh.

“You are the best girlfriend in the whole world,” Celeste cooed, and Morgan assumed Keesha had gotten up.

“I’m sorry that I woke you both.”

“Liar,” Celeste said. “You’re just jealous because you never knew how to sleep late. Now what’s up?”

“There’s this woman—”

“Aw, damn! You’ve only been there a week, fool.”

“I know,” Morgan said with sigh as she sank down and dropped her screwdriver. “I went to sleep last night thinking that the reason I’m attracted to her is because she and her son are the only thing that makes being here tolerable.”

“She straight?”

“No.”

“Leave it to you to find the only other lesbian in the netherworld. She hot?”

“Very pretty, yes.”

“And a kid? You always run the other direction when my nieces come over.”

Morgan smiled. “I haven’t seen him climb the walls and break stuff like they do.”

“Okay, let’s use our logic,” Celeste said, sounding like she did when she spoke to her nieces. “You’re probably a little lonely, a little horny, and this woman is looking really good right now. If I were in your shoes, I’d probably be reaching out to anyone I could get my hands on. That’s really what she is—a beacon in a storm.”

There was great plausibility in what Celeste had to say. To Morgan’s ear, it sounded so simple, but her heart wanted to argue otherwise. “What if my feelings are genuine, though? I think she might kind of like me, too.”

Celeste was kind but firm. “You’re going through one of the roughest spots in your life. Morgan, you don’t know your head from a hole in the ground right now. She’s probably a great woman, but you stand the chance of really breaking her heart if you pursue this. And she has a kid that could get hurt, too. Here’s my advice, but I have to tell you I don’t think I could do this. Tell her what you’re feeling and where you’re at. If she has half a brain, she’ll back away.”

Morgan’s brows rose as she looked at the house on the hill. “Freak her out and make her run away?”

“Just be honest. If what you have to say doesn’t cause her to be concerned, that should tell you something. She’s either stupid or one of those who doesn’t bother to care to look before she leaps. And I know you, that’ll turn you off in a heartbeat.”

“It’s good advice,” Morgan agreed as her heart sank a little.

“I wish you would’ve stayed here where I could keep an eye on your ass. I was telling Keesha the other day that we should’ve just chained you to something and walked you like a dog.”

“You say the sweetest things.”

“That’s why Keesha loves me. I don’t smell any damn coffee brewing,” Celeste yelled. “Out? Oh, my God,” she groaned.

“Take your love to breakfast and be sweet to her.”

“Gonna have to, there ain’t a damn thing to eat in the kitchen except some diet crap she knows I despise. Call me when you need me to think for you again. I can’t have you wandering around the woods with your head up your ass.”

“Oh, Brad and Tonya are pregnant.”

“You’re shitting me.”

“No, she’s three months, and Brad is beside himself.”

“Aw, Auntie Morgan, how sweet. Call me.”

“I will, catch you later.”

“Better, love you, bye.”

~~~

Morgan walked up on the porch with a bag in her hand and knocked on Jaclyn’s back door. A moment later, Jaclyn opened it with a smile.

“You’re mighty brave or really foolish for coming over here,” she said.

“I know you said you had everything you needed, but I got some tea that’s supposed to help with congestion and some stuff you should take to strengthen your immune system. How’s he feeling?” Morgan asked as she handed Jaclyn the bag.

“Pretty funky. He’s asleep right now.”

Morgan steeled her nerves. “Could you come out here for a minute so we can talk?”

Jaclyn nodded and set the bag on the counter. “Is something wrong?”

“Uh…yeah, I’m having some problems.” Morgan stuffed her hands into the pockets of her shorts and backed away from the door when Jaclyn stepped out.

Jaclyn folded her arms and looked at Morgan with concern. “Is it Thor?”

“No,” Morgan said with a nervous smile. “Would you sit down?” Jaclyn took a seat on the porch swing and watched her pace. “I’m trying to be very adult here, and that calls for honesty.” Morgan walked over to the porch railing and leaned against it, looking out at the water. She waved a hand as if trying to find the right words. “I’m struggling with a lot of different emotions.”

“You’re in a vulnerable place.”

“Yes,” Morgan agreed, keeping her back turned. “I have such a good time with you. I feel so relaxed when we’re together. I’m happier than I’ve been in months, maybe longer. You make me feel…I acted like a dick this morning because I was trying to distance myself because I’m attracted to you. If I get too comfortable here, then I have to leave…I don’t know if I can afford to let myself go there.”

“I understand,” Jaclyn said softly. “I know where you’re at, and I appreciate you being honest. We can agree right here just to be friends, or if it makes things easier, we can just not spend as much time together.”

“That’s going to be hard with the regatta.” Morgan pounded softly on the porch railing. “I enjoy being with you too much.”

“I like you too, but I know you’re here temporarily,” Jaclyn admitted with a sigh, “but I’d like to think—hope—we can keep this in its proper perspective. Let’s just be friends, and if that gets too difficult, we’ll have to be honest with each other.”

Morgan slowly turned and looked at Jaclyn. “Thank you for being so understanding. You—”

Austin was standing at the window overlooking the porch with his hair pointing in all different directions. He put his hand to the glass. “Don’t put the decorations on Thor without me, okay?”

Jaclyn watched as Morgan walked across the porch and put her hand on the glass in front of his. “You know I wouldn’t do that. We’re in this together, right?”

Austin smiled wearily. Jaclyn smiled too, but inside, she felt a sense of loss. Morgan was good with her son. And she couldn’t deny that she was as enamored with Morgan as he was, just in a different way. Fate seemed so cruel for dangling the perfect woman in her face and daring her to reach out for her.

“Go back to bed, you look like crap,” Morgan said with a laugh. Austin rolled his eyes and ambled away from the window. “I’m gonna go now. I have a few things to do around the house.”

“Okay,” Jaclyn said as she stood. She and Morgan stared at each other awkwardly before Morgan hugged her quickly.

“Thanks for being my friend,” Morgan said as she retreated.

Jaclyn watched her go. Her cell phone started ringing, Maddie was on the ID. Jaclyn looked across the lake and shot her the finger, knowing that Maddie had her binoculars out again.

~~~

I like you, too
. That sentence bounced around in Morgan’s brain all afternoon. Did that mean that Jaclyn felt the same way? Morgan wondered. She thought she would’ve been better off if Jaclyn would’ve laughed at her and said, “Honey, you’re not my type.” That would’ve been easier to cope with, though Morgan never wanted to hear those words from a woman who held her interest.

~~~

Jaclyn had been right about the Laundromat. It was pretty funky. Morgan spent the extra money to run bleach through an entire wash cycle before she washed her things. The book she’d brought along could not keep her attention as the steady thump of the washers put her in a trance. Images floated around in her mind—Jaclyn’s smile, Austin going to his first prom, Jaclyn swinging lazily on her porch swing, Austin graduating, and Morgan standing at Jaclyn’s side as he drove away to college. She blinked and looked up at a woman putting her clothes in a dryer. A little boy sat nearby playing with a toy truck.

In the past when Morgan envisioned her future, she’d seen herself with a woman like her, living in the house she always wanted. Ranch style, brick, on a tree-lined block, and it was always very quiet, clean, everything in order. No kids to make noise and disturb anything. That imaginary life had been something she longed for, but now, it didn’t seem so appealing.

Jaclyn’s words filtered through the images and made Morgan’s mind go blank.
I know where you’re at.
Morgan smiled ruefully as she saw herself at the intersection of fucked-up and confused. She dug deeper into her psyche looking for clues, and suddenly, it became crystal clear, or so she thought. With the death of her father and the displacement, she was longing for home, that feeling of security, of warmth, and she’d found it in Jaclyn and Austin. They simply made her feel at home. It was all a mirage for the wandering soul.

Y
ou okay?”

Jaclyn blinked and looked at Austin, who was curled up on the couch in a blanket cocoon. “I’m fine, why?”

“You’ve been sitting there for an hour staring out into space.” Austin pointed to the TV where the movie
Dark Shadows
played. “You love Johnny Depp, and you haven’t looked or laughed at him once. Am I in trouble?”

“Have you done something you’re feeling guilty about?”

Austin shook his head. “I can’t think of anything…okay, I drank some orange juice from the container, but my throat hurt and I didn’t feel like getting a glass.”

“Well, thank you for admitting that. I’ll know not to drink any. If you’re too ill to get a glass, then let me know when you need something. You’re going to the doctor tomorrow.”

“Okay, okay, I was just being lazy.”

Jaclyn smiled. “You’re going anyway. Let me check the soup.” She patted his head on her way to the kitchen, needing something to get her mind off the earlier conversation with Morgan. Unlike Morgan, she had no excuses. She wasn’t in that place where all her emotions were a jumble and she was looking for refuge. She genuinely enjoyed Morgan’s company, looked forward to seeing her walk through the door of the store. So what was her reason for becoming so captivated by a woman she barely knew?

Jaclyn owned the fact that she was a nurturer, and Morgan was someone who needed special care. She empathized with Morgan’s feeling of loss and suffering because she had been in her shoes only a year before. Physical attraction played a big part, as well. Morgan’s mouth was deliciously kissable. Just the sight of her or feeling the warmth of her body when she was near stoked sparks into flames.

She stirred the soup, inhaling deeply the seasonings. The last of Jaclyn’s theories resonated as the most sound. Morgan wasn’t staying in White Oak Lake. Knowing that allowed her to ponder all sorts of romantic notions because she felt safe in doing so. With the other women she dated, she was too busy studying them, sizing up the prospective suitors to see if they would be right for her and more importantly for Austin. There was no pressure with Morgan because in the end she would leave and take any shortcomings with her. Jaclyn frowned as she stared out the window. The only problem was, Morgan didn’t appear to have any fatal flaws.

Jaclyn’s cell phone tore her from her ruminations. “I need your help.”

The tone of Maddie’s voice pulled Jaclyn up short. “What’s wrong?”

“Heath took the kids to see his mom. I’m alone at the store, and I’m stuck…in something.”

“Austin’s sick, is it—”

“I need you to come right now, okay?”

“I’ll be right there.” Jaclyn stepped into the living room. “Hey, buddy, I have to go help Aunt Maddie with something right now.”

Austin sat up. His eyes widened when he saw the expression on her face. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know, but I have to go to the store right away. You just stay where you are and I’ll be back soon.”

“Okay, but call and let me know what’s going on.”

“I will.”

~~~

Jaclyn switched on her emergency flashers and wasted no time. She threw gravel as her tires left the driveway and skidded onto the road. She only glanced at Morgan as they met in the curve, her heart pounding. The tone of Maddie’s voice unnerved her.

~~~

Morgan slowed down as she passed Jaclyn’s house and noticed Austin on the back porch wrapped in a blanket looking toward the lake. She turned the Jeep around and pulled into the driveway. He looked worried when she got out. “What’s going on?”