Morgan cleared his throat. “I’ve got some you can use,” he assured Ty. “And stuff for tomorrow.” There was no washer or dryer on Parrish Island—Phil had apparently cleaned everything he owned by hand while Morgan preferred to use the laundromat in town once a week. He handed over a set of pajamas for Ty, then let him have the bathroom first.
Wait. Morgan was getting too far ahead of himself.We just got each other off once. That doesn’t mean we’ll ever do it again.He wanted to, hereallywanted to, but he had to remember that neither of them was being honest with the other right now. Ty was hiding something from him, and Morgan wasn’t going to stay on Parrish Island forever the way Ty seemed determined to. If the mere prospect of taking half a day to go to the mountains intimidated the man, he’d never be able to handle flying all the way to Minnesota to meet Morgan’s sister and her family.
It was okay. They could do this, they could have this time together and nothing more, and it would be fine. They could befriends with benefits, easy and simple, and when Morgan left, he’d be able to do it with a fond farewell.
Sure.
Right.
When he and Ty went to sleep that night, they were on opposite sides of the bed, a solid two feet of space between them. When Morgan woke up the next morning, he was in bed with what he swore was an octopus.
No wonder he never offered to share back at his place, Morgan reflected with a smile as he glanced down at Ty, who was still sleeping.He’d have cuddled up to me in no time.
It was nice, actually, being held so close and so tight, like he was a necessary component of Ty sleeping in longer than Morgan had ever known him to before. The possessive, lizard-brain part of Morgan liked it way more than he probably should. Ty was finally warm and just a little bit clammy from sweating overnight, and he smelled like salt and sea water and had the calming effect of a weighted blanket.
Feeling daring, Morgan pressed a kiss to the top of Ty’s head before trying to escape his clutches. It didn’t work; without waking up, Ty ratcheted him in even tighter until the pressure started to become a little uncomfortable. Morgan stared at the ceiling with a stupid grin on his face for a minute before giving in to the inevitable and waking Ty up.
Ty made a strange sort of clicking noise in the back of this throat. It was adorable.
“I know,” Morgan commiserated, “but we’ve got to get up now if we’re going to make it to town by ten. I’ve got PT, and you haven’t gone fishing.”
“Click-pop-pop.”
“I don’t know what that means, but we’ve still got to get going.”
Ty finally raised his head. There was a red mark on his cheek from where he’d pressed it against Morgan’s chest. “Mmm.”
“Yeah?”
“Okay.”
For all that the morning started off so well, their conversation didn’t continue much beyond that. Ty was quiet, not quite making eye contact with Morgan as they dressed—separately again—and ate breakfast. Morgan tried several times to elicit more than single-word responses from Ty, but nothing worked.
Shit. Did he regret it? Was he going to catapult them from awkward friends to awkward exes? Was the fact that this was Morgan’s last physical therapy session bothering him because then he’d have no reason to stick around? Morgan would be happy for him to stay; all Ty had to do was indicate that he wanted to. But no. The first thing that got a full sentence out of him came as they got into the boat and prepared to head into town.
“It’s foggy today.”
True, but that hardly seemed revelatory. It was foggy here most mornings. “The sun will burn it off,” Morgan said as he got into his life jacket. He could put it on himself now, a win as far as he was concerned. Ty never wore one, which seemed a little hypocritical given how insistent he’d been on Morgan sporting one every time they set foot in a boat, but then hehadbeen the one to fish Morgan out of the water last time. He had good reason to be a little skeptical of Morgan’s swimming ability.
“Mmm, perhaps.”
Ty livened up on the trip to town, enough that by the time they got to the physical therapy clinic, he was able to joke around when the PT said to Morgan his recovery was, “Going so well! This is your last in-person visit, but you need to make sure you keep this up when you head back out to that island,” she admonished him.
“Oh, I’ve got Ty for that,” Morgan assured her. “He’ll help me out.”
“Good,” his PT said, then looked over at Ty. “You stay on him, okay?”
And Ty, perfectly deadpan, replied, “I’ll make sure to do that.” Then he looked straight at Morgan and winked, filling Morgan with a relief so profound he almost burst into giggles.
They were talking about this, then. They were acknowledging it. Whatever mood had taken Ty this morning, it wasn’t a serious one. Not the kind of thing that heralded an ending, at least he hoped not.
They got lunch at the diner before heading back, and Donna was full of opinions on the state of the world and didn’t hesitate to share them.
“Damn yacht club,” she said under her breath after she brought their drinks over in the uncommonly crowded dining area.
“Yacht club?” Morgan asked, looking at Ty for clarification.
“Mmm.” Ty hummed noncommittally. “They come down from Seattle several times a year. This is one of their regular stops.”
