“Yeah, but she likes this year’s model better, or so she says.”
Of course, she does.Still, shewashis mother. “Well, fine, maybe she can have an upgrade too.”
His big sister sighed. “Morgan. You’re too nice, you know that? No wonder Bentley is going crazy. I’ll email you some options, but this is your warning notice, mister. No Porsches!” There was a clatter on the other end of the call. “Shit, Nicki’s climbing the bookshelf again, we’ll talk soon!” She was gone before he could ask exactly what she meant with the reference to his ex.
He better not be fucking with her again.It was almost enough to make Morgan want to get back to the lighthouse now. He couldn’t even load his email on his phone from where he was, the connection was so bad, but with his hot spot at the lighthouse he could—
No. He wasn’t going to go there. If Katie had an issue with Bentley that she thought Morgan could help with, she would tell him. Otherwise, he was going to maintain his damn discipline and not fall back into the bad habit of doomscrolling, and that included in his email. His family could reach him, and his attorney could reach him. That was all the outside world got from him.
Besides, he was having an actual good time now. Yesterday was the first time he’d felt well enough to go out in the boat, which had felt like a sure sign that Ty was going to suggest he go back to the lighthouse. Instead, Ty had helped him into one of his thick, cozy, cable-knit sweaters “to keep you warm.” It felt like wearing a hug. Then he took him out on the water farenough that they ended up floating right over the top of a thick bed of kelp, and he handed him a fishing pole.
“There’s a whole school of greenlings down at the bottom of this,” he said. “Let’s see if you can catch any of them.”
Morgan stared blankly at him. “I don’t know how to fish.”
“You’ve fished before.”
“Yeah, the last time I was here, but it’s been almost twenty years since then,” he protested. “I don’t even remember how to bait a hook.”
Ty just hummed and smiled. “Mmm, better practice, then. They have small mouths, so use a number four.” He’d already prepared his hook and flung it out into the water with the effortless ease of a seasoned fisherman.
A number-four hook? What the … Morgan looked into the tackle box and hunted around until he found a compartment with handy labels, one of which read #4. The only bait available was tiny clams and worms, so he went with a clam. Then he looked down. “How do I get the hook through the kelp?”
“Throw it out ahead of it, then let the current carry it down,” Ty said. “Put a sinker on it, though,” he added with a glance at Morgan’s line.
Sinker, sinker …Eventually, Morgan had something on his hands that got a nod of approval from Ty, and using one hand, he awkwardly cast the line out into the water.
It went about ten feet.
“Shit.”
“Let me help you,” Ty said, and reeled it back in. He stabilized Morgan’s hand as he let the rod fall back and away, then helped hold it steady as he flung it forward again. “Good.”
Probably not, but Morgan would take it.
Fishing had never captivated him, but after almost a week pent up in a tiny, two-room cabin that let in little light, it was a contender for becoming his favorite thing ever. They spent afew hours in the boat and managed to catch three fish—two by Ty and, to his surprise, the biggest of the lot by Morgan—and Ty graciously handled the gutting and scaling himself before putting them in the cooler and taking them back in.
Morgan had been tired enough after it all that he’d fallen fast asleep without getting a chance to read to Ty … or maybe he’d done it deliberately and just didn’t want to admit it. They were down to the last few chapters ofWolf Dictionary, and he had a strange feeling that once it was over, this interlude would be too.
He didn’t want it to end, though, was the thing. Ty was more than a good person, he was good company. He’d helped break Morgan out of the funk that had been consuming him for months, and he’d nursed him through the worst of his injuries without a hint of complaint at being relegated to his own floor. He was quiet at the right times, talkative when Morgan needed to talk, and damn funny when he wanted to be. Morgan didn’t want the closeness they were developing to stop when his independence restarted, but …
Put it out of your mind for now.When Ty put the dirty plates in the sink and pulled his chair in a bit closer, Morgan smiled at him. “Ready for a little more?”
“Yes, please.”
Morgan opened up the book. “Springtime. Early morning, blue sky. In the high mountains there is still quite a bit of snow left in deep drifts.”
He read for a while that evening, until it was fully dark out, and he was down to the last few chapters. Morgan slowed then, and not just because he was coming to the end of the book. That was bad enough, in part because it was one of those endings that lifted your heart up only to bring it smashing back down to earth a page later, but also because, for the first time since he’d come here, he was aware of how absolutely beautiful Ty was.
He'd noticed the man was handsome before, of course. It was impossible to miss that Ty was attractive, despite his wild hair and lumpy sweaters and pale-to-flushed-to-pale-again skin. But right here, sitting relaxed in his kitchen in the lamplight as he listened to Morgan read, he was … gorgeous.
And for the first time, Morgan’s body got the memo. His blood seemed to flash a few degrees higher as his groin tightened, and he had to clear his throat to stave off the urge to actually say something about it. Horny was fine, horny happened, but Ty was his host. More than that, he’d been thrust into the role of a caregiver, and the last thing Morgan wanted to do was impose on him even further.
When Ty looked over at him, though, eyes soft and with a little smile on his face, it was hard to hold back. “The mountains sound so nice.”
“They are,” Morgan said, and moved by the impulse to make plans, to lay some sort of claim on Ty’s time beyond his inevitable return to the lighthouse, he added, “We should go visit some.”
Ty’s ease vanished. “I can’t,” he said, his back stiffening and his open expression going blank. It was like a spell had broken, which was maybe why Morgan let his mouth run away from him.
