She winces."Shit.That may be my fault.I dropped my phone and spilled my coffee all over myself.I must have accidentally FaceTimed you, like a butt-dial kind of thing.I dropped the phone into the couch cushions when the coffee burned me, and I must not have heard it ringing."
"Are you okay?"I ask."Is it a bad burn?"
She does something to her phone that makes the view flip around to point away from her, and suddenly, I'm looking at a big, angry red splotch of skin on her upper thigh.
Creamy skin.
A curve of toned muscle.
Good lord, that's a sexy leg.
Focus, asshole.
"Yeah, that's a pretty decent burn there, Morgan.Run cool—notcold—water on it for a few minutes.If you have aloe vera or petroleum jelly, slather that on there nice and thick."
"Thanks, doc.Never been scalded before.What would I do without you?"She grins."Sarcasm, obviously.I'll be fine.I do appreciate your concern, though."
Awkward silence.
"I, um…" I meet her eyes, trying not to see that her robe is slipping open, showing me a glimpse of the inner curves of her breasts."I'm sorry you got burned."
She shrugs."My own clumsy fault.Phone slipped out of my hand, knocked my coffee out of my other hand, and there you go, boiled Morgan thigh."
"It's not blistering or anything?"
She shows me the burn again, which isn't entirely helpful, especially when she wobbles the angle and accidentally shows me little more than she'd intended to—the pink gusset of her underwear.My brain short-circuits.
"Um.I.You."I shake my head like a wet dog.“Sorry, not awake yet."I'm a shitty liar, and she can tell.
The knowing half-smirk is all the proof I need that she knows exactly why my poor idiot caveman brain is wobbling in circles like a drunk circus bear on a broken unicycle.
"Uh-huh."She carries the phone out of the bathroom, through her bedroom—rumpled bedsheets and a thick down comforter, bedside table with a phone cord—down the stairs and into her kitchen, where she pours herself a cup of coffee.
I rub my forehead with a knuckle."Morgan, I…"
The screen wobbles and blurs, and then she's seated on a couch, tugging her robe closed again and grinning at me."Cat got your tongue?"
"Yeah," I mutter."Two of 'em."
"I don't normally answer the phone topless, just so you know.But then, I don't normally FaceTime people, either, so…"
"Me either.It was ringing funny, but I didn't know what that meant."
"You didn't notice the fact that your front-facing camera was on?"
"Um…no?I mean, yeah, I did, but I guess I didn't realize what that signified.I'm kind of a Luddite, okay?The chief had to basically force me to start writing and filing my reports on a computer a few years ago because I prefer to do most things the old-fashioned way."
Morgan laughs."I like to think I'm pretty tech savvy, but then my daughter will do something, and I’ll realize, oh, no, no-no, I’m definitely not.She basically runs my Instagram for me."
"Never been on the Instagram."
She cackles, head dropping forward as she laughs…and then snort-laughs."Oh god, please don't tell anyone I snorted."
"What's so damned funny, Morgan?"
"TheInstagram."
"Why is that funny?"
