“We’re on The World.”
Of course they were on the world. What the hell was he talking about? “Excuse me?”
“The World. It’s Marti’s pirate ship. It’s actually a very big sailing ship. She let us use it. She said you could stay as long as you like. Jenna is on her way with your luggage. We found the hotel receipt in your purse. She’ll bring your things, and you can stay here as long as you’re in town.”
“That isn’t necessary. The hotel is fine.”
“No. It’s not fine. There are too many people there. You said you prefer to be somewhere a little more isolated. This is the best we could do. And after what you’ve done for us, the best is what you’ll have.”
“Really, I can stay at the hotel. I can put up blocks to keep everyone out. It’s no trouble. I’m used to doing it.”
“It must be tiring to constantly keep your guard up.”
She wanted to lie and say it didn’t bother her, but he knew it did.
“It’s like being up all night. By morning, you’re a little punchy.”
“You won’t have that problem here. Captain Finn is the only one on the ship right now. He’s a really nice guy. I think you two will hit it off. He’ll be happy to take you back and forth to the dock whenever you want.”
“Wait. Back to the dock?”
“Yeah, it’s about a half mile away. We’re anchored in the bay.” He laughed at her astonished face. “Sam did what you asked. He got you to a quiet and isolated place, so you could rest.”
“Wow. You can’t get much more isolated than this.” No one had ever taken care of her like Sam and Jack. Her mother had tried, but her father had ruined all of her attempts to provide a safe and loving home for her daughter. She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know how to tell him what it meant that they had taken care of her. She’d been alone for a long time. Too long maybe.
“I’d almost forgotten how nice it feels to have someone take care of you. No one’s done anything nice for me like this, well, since I can remember.”
“You saved my son. You made sure Sam’s wife, Elizabeth, and their unborn child weren’t hurt or killed by that boy. I’d even go so far as to say you saved that boy, too. Drugged out of his mind, he might have done something stupid and pointed that gun at a cop. They’d have shot him dead. Watching over you while you slept was so little compared to what you did for all of us. I think you’ve been alone far too long. You have us now.”
Overwhelmed, she swallowed back the lump in her throat. He meant it. Every word, he meant it to his soul. Part of their group. Part of the family. “Thank you, Jack. It’s nice to know I have some new friends.”
“You have that and more in all of us. You’re part of our family. If you need something, we’ll all be there for you.”
Too much to take in, she couldn’t speak.
She held back the tears. Jack couldn’t fathom what it had taken for her to raise and educate herself and live all these years mostly alone, no family or friends to count on.
“Now, tell me what you’re avoiding telling me about Tyler.”
Jack sighed. He didn’t want to upset her. She’d opened her eyes about an hour ago and just stared into the distance. He’d waited for her to fully come back. He didn’t want to see her wilt before his eyes again.
“He’s having a rough couple of days. You showed up out of the blue. That kind of threw him for a loop.”
She smiled. He’d been really frustrated by her return. On the one hand, he’d wanted her to come, and on the other, he wanted her to stay away. After what happened, she wondered which part was winning.
“So, Tyler wants me to leave. Is that what you’re trying not to tell me?”
“No. At least, he hasn’t said he wants you to leave. He calls me every hour wanting to know if you’re awake. He wants to see you, but his emotions are all over the place. We thought it best if he stayed away from you for a while. He needs to sort out his life before he sees you. I finally stopped answering the phone. He and Maria broke things off last night.”
“Oh.”
“Oh. That’s it.”
“What do you want me to say? His intentions are good. He wants a wife and a family. Who could blame him with such great examples as you’ve all shown him? No wonder he wants that, too.” She smiled. “It’s what we all want.”
That made Jack smile. His parents had a great marriage. At one time, he thought he’d never find that for himself. Then he met Jenna. He knew almost immediately she belonged to him and vice versa. It had been a difficult road getting to the marriage vows, but well worth it. Sam and Elizabeth had gone through some difficult times when they first met. Actually, Sam fell in love with her while she was lying unconscious in the hospital after saving his life.
“Thanks. We’re all happy. Tyler hasn’t been happy in a long time. There have been women, but you don’t want to hear about that,” he said and looked away.
“It’s okay. I know there have been other women, and he’s been happy for a little while. He hasn’t found the woman. That’s what he thinks doesn’t exist for him.”
“We all think you’re that woman for him.”
“You do, huh. Well, I don’t know about that.”
“You can’t see that in your future?”
She tilted her head. “I think it’s some kind of cosmic balance. You know, too much information can sometimes be a dangerous thing. I prefer to let life happen. For the last several years, I’ve concentrated on helping Tyler and Sam with their cases and preventing what almost happened last night.”
“And I’m so glad you did.” He leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. Someone came in behind him.
“Jack Turner, I turn my back on you for one minute and you’ve already got a beautiful woman in bed, and you’re kissing her.”
Jack jumped up from the bed and took two large steps away from Morgan and stammered a bunch of nonsense. “I wasn’t . . . I didn’t . . . I was just . . .”
“Isn’t he fun?” Jenna teased. She smiled at her husband and set down Morgan’s luggage and a few things from Elizabeth.
“I bet you’re starving. Elizabeth packed up dinner and some treats. You can’t beat her cooking.” She took out several covered dishes, a cardboard bakery box, and a plastic bag filled with cookies. “How are you feeling? It looks like I came just in time.”
“Really, honey, I was just talking to her and thanking her for helping us last night.”
Jenna smiled at her flustered husband and winked at Morgan. “Jack. I only meant it looks like Morgan just woke up.” She turned her attention to Morgan. “You’d probably like to get cleaned up. Jack and I can take this food into the galley. On second thought, do you need some help?”
“Um, I think I’ll be okay. By the way”—she looked down at herself under the sheets—“what happened to my clothes?”
“Sam probably undressed you after you got here from the hospital. Personally, I think it’s his secret pleasure, he’s seen all of us naked.”
“He has?” She thought that odd, and wondered why he’d seen them all naked. Some kind of weird fetish?
“He saw me naked after my ex-husband beat me. He took the photographs for evidence. With Elizabeth, well, that’s self-explanatory. Then, there’s Marti. She saved Emma from drowning when she got pulled overboard. Sam had to get her out of her wet clothes and dress her. She was too cold to do it herself. Cameron wasn’t happy about it, but he got over it. I’m sure Sam will give Tyler a good ribbing over this. It’s all in good fun, I assure you.”
She thought about being undressed by a man. It embarrassed her. She hadn’t let many men close to her. There’d been one guy, a long time ago. She’d given herself to him, only to discover he couldn’t deal with her ability. She irritated him every time she knew what he was thinking before he said it. If she didn’t seem surprised when he brought her flowers, he got upset because he couldn’t surprise her. She didn’t always know something, but when she did, he didn’
t like it. She tried for weeks to hide the things she knew. In the end, she couldn’t hide and lie to please someone else. It took too much energy to cover up her gift.
So, Sam had seen her naked. There were worse things. Besides, he’d gotten her stitched up at the hospital. She hadn’t actually seen the wounds, yet, but she could feel the pull of the stitches on her skin.
“I guess there’s nothing to be done about it now. I could cast a spell on him, or some kind of curse I suppose.” Jack and Jenna went completely still. They slowly looked at each other and then her. She gave them a wicked grin. “You guys are fun.” She mimicked Jenna’s earlier comment about Jack. “Gotcha.”
Jack and Jenna were still laughing when they left her alone to get cleaned up.
A phone rang down the hall as she came out of the bathroom refreshed and fully clothed. It had taken some doing to get her pants to ride low enough on her hips, so that the waistband didn’t rub the wound on her back. She had to pull them down, and then be careful not to trip over the long hem.
Should she go home, or stay and try to help Tyler and Sam with the case? She’d play it by ear for a while and see how things went and how Tyler reacted.
A knock sounded on the door and Jack called to her.
“Are you awake? There’s someone on the phone who wants to know.”
Tyler. She’d put him out of his misery. She opened the door and spoke loud enough for Tyler to overhear. “Yeah, I’m awake.”
Jack went along with the torture. “Wow, you look great. Jenna’s got the food set out. Elizabeth and Sam just arrived. All the kids are with sitters, so it’s grown-up night. We can eat and talk. Sam brought a bottle of wine. We’d all like to get to know you better.”
Jack held the phone up so Tyler could hear them talking. “That sounds great. I’m starving. Do you think you could put the medicine on my back? I saw it on the counter in the bathroom. I got it on my arm, but I can’t see my back very well.”
“Sure. What’d you think of the stitches? Sam said there were dozens.”
“Just a few, dozen that is. They’re fine.”
“Fine.”
“Okay, they hurt like hell.” She thought she’d put Tyler out of his misery, at least for a minute. “Is that call for me? I can’t imagine who’d be calling,” she said sarcastically.
“Oh, yeah. Do you feel like taking a call?” Jack dragged things out while leaning against the doorframe.
“Who is it?”
Jack almost burst out laughing. She had a good sense of humor. She wasn’t going to give in easily to Tyler. He liked that about her. Tyler wouldn’t be happy with a woman he could walk all over.
“It’s Tyler. He seems to think Sam and I kidnapped you and are holding you for ransom.”
“Looks like you guys get to keep me. I don’t know anyone who’d pay to get me back.” She made a grab for the phone.
Jack pulled the phone away before she seized it. “If someone really did take you, we’d get you back. Count on it. Count on us. We owe you. And more than that, we hope you’ll count us as your friends and family.”
“Oh, Jack. You don’t know what that means to me.”
“He means it,” Jenna said as she came down the short hallway. “We all do. Come and eat. Sam and Elizabeth are waiting. Elizabeth and I want to pick your brain. Since you can read minds, we’d like to know what men are really thinking.”
Without missing a beat, Morgan answered in her saddest voice, “Nothing. It’s completely empty up there.”
“Slander,” Jack said and handed Morgan the phone.
Jenna laughed so hard, Jack had to take her by the arm and escort her back down the hall.
“Hello,” she said to Tyler over the phone.
“Having fun,” he said irritably.
“As a matter of fact. What do you want? Dinner’s ready,” she said, and realized she’d slept almost an entire day.
“I’d like to know where you are for starters.” At the end of his rope, anger and frustration filled his voice.
“I’m with friends.” That simple statement of truth meant so much to her. “Why? Do you want to come stand outside chanting, ‘Kill the witch,’ or perhaps you’d like to burn me at the stake?”
“I’d never do that to my best friend.” Tears filled her eyes at his quiet statement. “Still, after everything we’ve been through, I didn’t deserve the public humiliation. You told Maria we didn’t belong together, and she’s better off without me.”
“You’re wrong. I told her she made a mistake thinking that being with you would make her or her father happy. I told you that being with her would only make you unhappy because you wouldn’t have the one thing you really want. If you want to blame me because you both decided to break it off last night, fine, it’s all my fault. Feel better?”
“Do you always have to be right?”
He said it without any anger, but his voice held a trace of reluctant acceptance of the truth she’d given him. She wanted to believe he accepted her and her gift, but he’d second-guessed her for so long, she didn’t quite believe his change of heart.
“I am this time, and you know it. I was trying to help out a friend. My dinner is getting cold. If I have anything on the Psychic Slayer case, I’ll let Sam know, and he can tell you. Don’t think I can’t take a hint. I’ll stay out of your life.”
“Wait. I want to talk to you.”
“About what?”
For the life of him, he couldn’t put one complete thought together that would make any sense to her. His thoughts and feelings swirled around his head, never combining into a cohesive sentence that would tell her how he really felt. She’d completely thrown him for a loop telling him she’d stay out of his life. She’d been out of his life for over a month, and he was beginning to think he couldn’t tell which way was up anymore without her.
He didn’t know how to begin to tell her everything she meant to him.
Morgan had taken him off guard and thrown the ball in his court. He’d been expecting a basketball and she’d thrown him a curveball. She hated to do it, but he needed a wakeup call. He’d been living on impulse for the last few years and he needed to take some time to really think about what he wanted for his future. Alone now, disconnected from her, and he didn’t have a girlfriend mucking up the mix.
“We’ve known each other for five years and you can’t think of a single thing to say to me. Not even, ‘How are you feeling after being shot and knifed?’ How about, ‘Gee Morgan, you must have been really scared you might not have gotten Matt and Sam out of the way in time?’ Or, ‘You must have been so frightened standing toe-to-toe with a man holding a gun in your face.’ You might thank me for all the cases I’ve helped you solve.”
“I want to know about all those things. But the question is, will you answer this time?”
“I had my reasons, and you had yours for keeping things simple.”
“You never shared anything with me.”
“If you really wanted to know me, all you had to do is look. The way I looked at you. You and I were connected, but you were too afraid to use that connection and the strange bond we shared to really see me. You didn’t understand it or me, so you pushed me away.”
“Morgan, I’m sorry.”
“I am too.” She hung up, something she’d never think to do to anyone, especially Tyler. He needed it though. Maybe someday soon she’d make things right with him.
She walked into the dining area near the galley and handed Jack back his phone. They overheard the conversation and sat in tense silence.
“He deserved it.” She shrugged. Her stomach grumbled as the amazing food aromas hit her.
“You’ll get no argument from us,” Sam agreed for everyone.
That said, they went on with their meal and conversation. Reticent about her at first, it seemed they waited for her to predict gloom and doom. When they realized she wasn’t going to start forecasting the future and talking about the flow of energy and how it relate
d to the alignment of the stars, they relaxed. From there, it was like she’d been a part of the group all along. Sitting with friends, talking about their lives, and enjoying the wonderful food—definitely one of the best nights of her life.
Chapter Twenty
* * *
TYLER STARED AT the woman across the restaurant. Pretty, she sort of looked like Morgan. Shorter hair, a rounder face, but the family resemblance remained strong. He remembered Sam saying Morgan came to see her sister sometimes and something pulled at him to see her today.
Jillian, married with a daughter, three, and a son, almost two. A graduate from the University of California–Berkeley, she held a master’s degree in education and taught at a local junior college.
An aunt in West Virginia raised her until she’d come west to attend college. She’d never returned. Instead, she’d taken the job at the college and married.
He’d followed her and her family from their well-kept three-bedroom ranch-style house in a nice track, close to an elementary school. He imagined they picked it because of its proximity to the school and low-crime neighborhood.
Unlike Morgan, she’d had every privilege and advantage. She’d grown up in a secure home with her aunt. She’d gone to one of the best universities in the country, gotten a great job right out of college, found the perfect guy, and proceeded to have two-point-five kids. He bet they had a family dog or cat. He hadn’t seen one, but he imagined a family pet.
As they sat at their table across the cozy family-style restaurant, he knew they were one of those families people envied. They had it all, and here he sat spying on them, hoping Morgan would show up for a visit.
“I wouldn’t want to disappoint you,” Morgan said from behind him. She leaned over the back of his booth, and with her head next to his, said, “She’s beautiful, isn’t she?”
Surprised to see her, he’d also been expecting her to show up. After avoiding him for almost four days, and Sam enjoying every minute of harassing him about it, finally seeing her again made him happier than he wanted to admit.
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