The Lure of White Oak Lake (26 page)

“Morgan, please,” Jaclyn whispered in abandon as she gripped her shoulders.

Jaclyn’s desperate plea sent a jolt of arousal through Morgan so sharply she almost came just hearing those words. “Stay with me a little longer,” she whispered breathlessly.

Jaclyn released a whimper as her forehead rested against Morgan’s. She wanted to give Jaclyn the release she craved, but she also wanted to keep her suspended in that deliciously torturous moment. “Don’t tease me, please don’t tease me anymore,” Jaclyn begged.

Air rushed out of Morgan’s lungs as she concentrated on the one place Jaclyn needed her most. Jaclyn shuddered almost immediately, releasing a groan that made Morgan’s toes curl. She lay there in wonder as Jaclyn collapsed on top of her, grateful for the experience she was allowed to share with someone she undeniably loved. The words bubbled up inside of her and passed Morgan’s lips before she could ponder the significance of her admission. “I’m so in love with you.” Breathing heavily, Jaclyn rose up and looked at her. “It’s not a rush of adrenaline or emotion out of control, I promise. I just thought you should know because I’ve been feeling it for a while.”

“I’ve been too afraid to admit what I was feeling.” Jaclyn looked as though she might cry. “I didn’t want you to think I was trying to make you stay if you didn’t want to.”

Morgan smiled as she touched Jaclyn’s lips. “I want to.”

“We can make this work, we have been already. If you’ll—”

Morgan pressed her fingers against Jaclyn’s mouth. “If you feel it, if you love me, I need to hear you say it.”

“With all my heart,” Jaclyn said when Morgan moved her hand away. “I love you. I want to fall asleep next to you every night and wake up with you every morning for the rest of my life.”

Morgan cocked her head to the side. “Are you asking me to move in with you?”

“It’s cost-effective,” Jaclyn said with a kiss. “I really just want you close.”

“As they say, ‘home is where the heart is.’” Morgan grinned. “We pick the strangest places to make our milestones. We just confessed our feelings for each other in a storeroom on top of beer. Our first date was in a field with fire ants. I’m kind of afraid to wonder how we’ll spend our first anniversary.”

“Wherever it is, we’ll be happy, and we’ll laugh. I promise that I’ll do whatever it takes to keep that smile on your face.”

Morgan pulled Jaclyn down for a kiss. “You don’t have to try.”

W
hen Bailey came into work, Morgan and Jaclyn went up to the house hand in hand. Austin regarded them with a look of disgust when they walked into the den. “What’s wrong with you?” Jaclyn asked.

“Y’all are gross.”

Morgan was confused. “Because we’re holding hands?”

“No, because no dude wants to know that his parents do it in a storeroom. I couldn’t even eat the bag of Skittles I went to get.”

Morgan paled when she realized that he’d overheard them, but Jaclyn grinned through her embarrassment. “Sorry, son…I didn’t think you’d come in. I guess now is not a good time to talk about Morgan moving in with us.”

Austin beamed. “For real?”

“You okay with that?” Morgan asked seriously.

Austin played it cool as he stood. “Fine with me, just as long as you soundproof your room,” he said as he took off running toward the stairs. Morgan caught him before he hit the first step, and Jaclyn leapt on his back.

“Sore, I’m very sore. Oh! Not kissing, stop it!”

~~~

“Okay, chop-chop, we need to move fast, the sky’s getting darker. It’s going to open up on us at any minute,” Jaclyn ordered as Morgan stuffed her bathroom things into a box. “Those two boxes by the door marked ‘clothes,’ is that all you have?”

“A lot of my stuff didn’t fit when I left Atlanta, so I gave it to Goodwill. I could sure use them now, though.”

“Unlucky for me, she didn’t give away her shoes.” Austin grunted as he hefted another box down the hall.

“I packed up all the perishable food and put it in my car.” Jaclyn stroked the side of Morgan’s face as she packed. “I’m so happy.”

Morgan took the time to kiss her, which set Austin off again. “You said we had to hurry, and now y’all are making fish faces.”

“I’m hurrying.” Morgan rolled her eyes. “Would you get the box next to the couch? Be careful, my laptop’s in it.”

Jaclyn and Austin shifted into high gear and loaded all of Morgan’s boxes into her car and Morgan’s Jeep. Morgan tucked the bathroom box under her arm and switched off lights as she walked through the cabin. At the front door, she paused for a second. “Dad, if you can hear me, thank you for the cabin. I’ll always take good care of it.” She smiled, though her heart broke a little bit. “And thank you for bringing me here.”

~~~

“Just look at that,” Clarice said with a grin as she, Betsy, and Ida stood at the window in her living room watching the activity at Morgan’s place. “Look at what we did.”

“You know,” Ida began, “Shawna Richard is single, and I know she’s lonely. She could be our next project.”

Clarice grunted. “I don’t know if I’d want to saddle her up with anyone. She’d probably talk the poor soul to death.”

Betsy listened to the two as she watched Jaclyn get into her car. Her smile lit up the gloom as thunder sounded overhead. Augie, your baby is happy, now you can rest, she thought as she watched them pull away from the cabin.

“Well, if you can mix up a potion to make two people fall in love, maybe you can mix one up that will make Shawna button her lip.” Ida chuckled. “It wouldn’t be hard, just use some glue and make her drink the potion.”

Betsy turned from the window. “Reid Tauzin has been a widower for some time now. He’s a very quiet man, maybe he needs a woman who likes to chat it up.”

“Hot damn! Clarice, brew up a potion, we have a project,” Ida said excitedly.

Later, as they gathered around Clarice’s table with joined hands, Clarice uttered the new incantation. “May the diarrhea of Shawna’s mouth cease, so poor Reid can have some peace. May he look at Shawna with new eyes and find appealing the thunder in her thighs.”

“Clarice,” Betsy said indignantly.

But Clarice went on undaunted. “May Shawna see the value in that quiet man and joyfully take his hand.”

“Amen or whatever,” Ida said. “Clarice, light us up, old girl.”

A
tent had been erected in the parking lot of The Lure. Beneath it were two long tables, one with food and one where Betsy and Ida were adding place settings. A smaller tent was set up beside it, and someone had run an extension cord into the store that powered a large TV. Most of the men gathered around it and talked sports.

Morgan added to the table the sweet potato casserole that Jaclyn had taught her to make earlier that day. Her mouth watered as she looked at the spread that seemed to go for miles. Everyone who lived on their end of Lake Shore Drive had contributed something, even Chet, but not everyone partook of the special drink marked “not for kids.” Morgan knew little about moonshine, but she’d heard that it could make a person go blind, and she was unwilling to test it. Skip did, though, and hid his cup when someone called out a hello to Rene.

Morgan had heard Skip talk about his wife, but until then, she’d never laid an eye on her. From the way Skip talked, she expected to see something akin to a feminine version of The Hulk. But the petite redhead with a pretty smile and soft voice stunned her.

“You gotta be kidding me,” she said as she elbowed Jaclyn. “That’s Skip’s other half?”

Jaclyn looked Rene’s way and waved a hello. “That’s the tiny terror. She’s the breadwinner in that household, and she’s rather shy, so no one sees her much. Piss her off, and she will go badger on you in a heartbeat. She’s whipped Skip’s ass a time or two.”

There was another face in the crowd that Morgan didn’t recognize. She looked to be Austin’s age, but not much taller than Rene. Her hair was long and deep brown, and she flipped it back often as she and Austin sat talking away from the others. “Who is she?” Morgan nodded slightly in the girl’s direction.

Jaclyn turned to hide her smile. “That’s Rene’s niece, Arianna, and she has blossomed into quite the butterfly. Last summer when she visited, Austin hid from her because he said she looked more like a dude than he did.”

“She doesn’t look like a dude now.”

“Austin doesn’t think so, either. Look at his expression, he’s all doe-eyed.”

Morgan grinned as she watched Austin listen with rapt attention to everything Arianna was saying. He laughed every so often and ran a hand through his hair as much as she flicked at hers. “That’s downright cute.”

Maddie and her crew pulled up. Caleb and Dawn shot out of the SUV like rockets, ignoring everyone on their way to Austin, the big cousin. Maddie and Heath said their hellos as they added their dishes to the food table. Maddie walked over and hugged Jaclyn, then threw her arms around Morgan’s neck as Heath waved and joined the men.

Maddie kept a hold on Morgan’s arm. “I hope you enjoy this family gathering because Christmas is going to be different, and my sister should’ve already warned you about that.”

“I was going to give her some of Chet’s moonshine before I prepped her. Besides, let’s just enjoy this holiday before we start dreading the next,” Jaclyn said and turned when Betsy called for her. “Don’t scare her away, Madeline.”

Maddie tugged on Morgan’s arm. “Take a walk with me. I’ve been wanting to talk to you, but I never can seem to get you alone. You’ve not been in my store since the regatta.”

Morgan looked back at Jaclyn, who was giving them the eye while Betsy was talking to her. “Don’t get me in the doghouse with her, Maddie.”

Maddie looked behind Morgan and stuck out her tongue at Jaclyn. “My sister will tell you that she doesn’t get along with our folks and that’s true, but that’s all she’ll say. When they get here, she’ll be sure to always be around you to make sure my mother doesn’t say something caustic to offend you. They disapprove of what they consider Jaclyn’s lifestyle choice, and they don’t mind making that known.”

“I’ve known some people who’ve dealt with that, it’s not uncommon. Thanks for the warning, though. I’ll be sure to have on my big girl undies when they get here.”

Maddie led Morgan around the backside of The Lure and out onto the dock. “I want to ask a favor of you because I love my sister dearly.”

“Please don’t ask me to go against her wishes on something.”

Maddie stopped and looked Morgan in the eye. “I respect you for that, and despite my teasing, I wouldn’t ask that of you. Jaclyn hasn’t had a happy Christmas in a long time. She decorates and puts up a tree for Austin’s sake, but if she didn’t have him, she’d probably blow us all off and hide in New Orleans until the holidays were over. This time of the year is nothing but stressful to her because our parents make it that way.” Maddie smiled sardonically. “Everyone seems to think that people get depressed during Christmas because they have no one to share it with, and that may be true in some cases. But I think people also get depressed because they’re forced to be with their families. You’ve never known that feeling, have you?”

“My family is very small, but I did want to put my head in the blender when we had to socialize with my sister-in-law’s family.”

“And this is your first holiday without your dad.”

Morgan looked away. “Yes, it is.”

“There’s a silver lining, though. This is your first with Jaclyn.” Morgan smiled and looked back at Maddie. “All I ask is that you and Jaclyn make the most of it and that you don’t take it personally when she gets quiet and kind of snappy because that’s what she does. I know it’s going to be hard for you, too, and I’m just letting you know that you can talk to me and enlist my help if you need it.”

“Thanks for that and the warning.”

Maddie hugged Morgan again. “Now you’re gonna get to see my sister shoot daggers at me with her eyes. It’s a look you should get used to and learn to avoid. Make a chocolate offering and back away slowly in case you ever do.”

~~~

Morgan saw the look when she and Maddie returned and was thankful it wasn’t aimed at her. No wonder Austin is a good kid. If she looked at me like that, I’d piss my pants and run, she thought as she approached warily. Before she could make it to Jaclyn, Clarice wafted up wearing something billowy. Morgan tried not to stare at the odd outfit as she smiled.

“I was talking to my cats this morning, and they say they miss you at the cabin, especially Spooky, who claims you gave him tuna.”

Morgan stared at Clarice blankly and wondered how she knew that. “I’ll make it a point to visit the cabin more often and reconnect with them.”

“Come see me when you do. I’d like to introduce you to the rest.”

“I’ve met four, how many do you have?”

“Four among the living,” Clarice said, “and fifteen that have passed on. I love to watch
Long Island Medium,
and she once told a woman that her cats though gone are still connected with her. I go out once a week to the graves and visit with mine. I’m sure they’d like to meet you, as well.”

Morgan looked around for Jaclyn, Maddie, anyone who would rescue her. “That would be nice,” she said and tried to maintain her smile.

Clarice studied her for a moment. “You seem very tense.”

“I…uh…” Morgan looked for Jaclyn again, hoping to get her attention. “What’re you doing?” she asked when Clarice took both of her hands.

“I’m going to teach you how to purge negative energy.”

“I’m not really negative right now, just hungry and kinda thirsty.”

Clarice ignored her. “Stretch out your arms palms up, and look at the sky. Isn’t it nice?” she said in a dreamy, almost hypnotic voice. “So blue, so clear, feel it surrounding you. Feel the tension, the stress leaving your feet, your legs, your body. It flows through your fingertips.”

Morgan felt like a complete fool as she stood there, arms outstretched. “What are you doing to my girlfriend?” Jaclyn asked as she approached. Morgan looked Jaclyn’s way, imploring her with her eyes to rescue her.

“I’m teaching her to release tension.” Clarice put her finger beneath Morgan’s chin. “Head up, focus on the sky. Jaclyn, you do the same.”