Page 9 of Delivery After Dark (Gansett Island #28)

A s things began to wind down at the Beachcomber and the crowd thinned to the usual suspects, Sierra was thinking about heading home but didn’t feel right about leaving Morgan there by himself.

Duke and McKenzie had left to get Jax home to bed, and Jace was visiting with customers at the other end of the bar.

Morgan had been nursing a third beer for more than an hour and had eaten the chowder and burger Jace had brought him.

“On the house,” Jace had said again.

Sierra had noticed tears in Morgan’s eyes after Jace said that and at several times during the outpouring of support from everyone who’d come by to see him.

Her heart ached for him, which was weird since she barely knew the man. But she understood the pain of losing someone irreplaceable and how the hard part had only just begun.

“So, um, what’re you doing tomorrow?”

“Opening the gym and going through the stuff in Billy’s office. I swear he lived there more than he did in his place upstairs.”

“You’ve been staying there? At his place?”

“Yeah. I figured, why pay for something when that’s available?”

“Is it hard to be there?”

“It’s not terrible. I’d only been there a couple of times, so it’s not full of memories.”

“Oh, well, that’s good, I guess.”

“I feel him more at the gym than I do there. The gym was his real home.”

“Definitely. He was in his element.”

“I enjoyed watching him do his thing there. He was like the mayor of Gansett, greeting everyone with an inside joke or a comment that made them laugh.”

“He used to call me Touchy because I’m a massage therapist. At first, I thought he meant that I was prickly, which I can be at times, but he just laughed and made a massaging motion with his hands to let me know that’s where the name came from.”

“That sounds like him. Our grandfather had nicknames for everyone. Billy got that from him.”

“What did he call you guys?”

“Billy Bluster and Morgan the Menace.”

“Menace, huh?”

“I was always getting into stuff when I was really little, so he gave me that name, and it stuck. Billy called me Menace, and I called him Bluster. It’s weird to think how those names kind of end with me. No one else in the world knows about them now.”

“I know about them. I’ll keep them safe for you.”

He glanced over at her. “That’s very kind of you. Thank you.”

“Of course.”

“Would you want to…”

She held her breath, waiting to hear what he might say.

A long moment passed in which he didn’t finish the thought.

“Would I want to what?”

“I was going to ask if you wanted to get dinner sometime, but then I thought maybe that wouldn’t be fair since I have no idea which end is up right now or whether I’m coming or going.”

“I’d love to have dinner with you sometime, and it’s okay if you’re not sure of anything. Neither am I, and I didn’t just suffer a devastating loss.”

“So you’re saying it’s not just me who’s a total mess?”

She laughed. “Not at all.”

“That makes me feel a little better.”

“Whatever I can do to help.”

When he smiled, it changed his entire countenance, giving her a hint of what he might be like when he wasn’t caught in the depths of grief.

The man was a handsome devil all the time, but that smile…

“I should get going,” she said. She put two twenties on the bar to pay for her drinks and the cup of chowder she’d had for dinner, as well as a tip for Jace. “I’ve got an early morning at the studio.”

“I’ll walk you home since I’m heading that way.”

“How do you know where I live?”

“I asked Duke. He said you live over the store.”

“Oh. Okay.” She wanted to ask why he’d felt the need to ask Duke where she lived, but she couldn’t seem to say the words.

“I was curious about you,” he said, saving her the trouble.

“Oh. You were?”

“Uh-huh.”

About what? Was he going to finish that thought, or was that all he was going to say? He’d spun her into knots with a couple of tiny little sentences that packed a big wallop.

“Let me just say thanks to Jace before we go.” He walked over to where Jace was and leaned across the bar to shake the bartender’s hand.

Sierra followed him since he was headed toward the exit.

“Thanks for everything,” Morgan said. “Appreciate it.”

“Wish there was more we could do for you.”

“This was what I needed today. I won’t forget it.”

“We’re here if there’s anything we can do. Cindy would want me to include her, too.”

“I didn’t get to tell her that the meatballs she made were the best I’ve ever had.”

Jace smiled. “I’ll let her know. She’ll love hearing that.”

“See you at the gym.”

“I’ll be there after work tomorrow.”

Morgan gave him a thumbs-up and then gestured for Sierra to move toward the door ahead of him.

She caught the curious look Jace directed her way but didn’t get the chance to shrug or do anything other than be swept up by Morgan.

And would that be such a bad thing? To be swept up by a guy like him?

Though she barely knew him, she liked everything she’d seen so far, especially his grace during one of the worst times of his life.

He’d thanked everyone who’d come to see him, remembered what they’d brought to the gym for him, had shaken a hundred hands and received pats on the back from people he didn’t even know but who’d known Billy.

He’d impressed her repeatedly during that long day.

When she got home, she’d be texting Duke to find out why he hadn’t told her that Morgan had asked about her. Hello, best-friend code violation.

As they walked through town, Sierra took note of the festive white lights in every storefront window and the garlands wrapped around the streetlights. In the ferry area, they would pass the Christmas tree made of lobster traps that was an annual tradition on the island.

“You’ve gone quiet on me,” Morgan said as they walked through the nearly deserted downtown area toward the ferry landing, where the gym and massage studio were located close to each other across the parking lot from the ferry.

“Have I?”

“Yep. What’re you thinking about?”

“I guess I’m wondering why you were asking about me.”

He glanced at her with a raised eyebrow. “For the same reason I asked you to have dinner with me.”

“Which is?”

“I like you. I appreciate you coming by the gym to check on me, bringing me food and asking what you can do to help.”

“Lots of people have done that.”

“Maybe so, but you stand out in a crowd.”

Not once in her entire life had a man ever said anything to her remotely close to that, and she was floored by how it made her feel to hear such a thing. “Oh, well, thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Surely you must get compliments all the time.”

“Ah, no, not that often,” she said with a laugh that sounded nervous to her. Did it to him as well? She hoped not.

“What’s wrong with the guys around here?”

“Um, well…” None of them was interested in her, but she couldn’t tell him that. It would make him wonder what was wrong with her, which she asked herself all the time as one friend after another fell madly in love with their soul mate while she was left to watch from the sidelines.

“You don’t have to answer that, but perhaps their inaction will turn into my good fortune.”

Now, what in the hell was she supposed to say to that? Was he seriously interested, or was it her imagination? “I, um, I guess I’m confused because I thought you weren’t sure if you were sticking around, and I’m, well, I’m pretty much a lifer around here.”

“I’ve been thinking more about hanging for a while. The island needs the gym, and the people here have been so amazing since everything happened. Whereas I’ve gotten a few texts and cards from my friends back home. Here, it’s been a whole other level, and a lot of the newer people hardly know me.”

“That’s how it is on Gansett. This community is unlike any other I’ve ever been a part of, and that’s why I’m a lifer. I can’t imagine living anywhere else.”

“Can I let you in on a secret?”

“Sure.”

“I used to hate the winter here so bad that I’m afraid I’ll go nuts having to do another one.”

Sierra laughed. “That’s my favorite time of year, even though business is a lot slower. It’s my rest-and-recharge season. I light the fire, make soup in the Crock-Pot and spend entire days in my pajamas. It’s delightful.”

“That sounds very relaxing.”

“It is.”

“Do you ever get bored?”

“Nah, there’s always someone inviting everyone to do something.

People do dinner parties with friends they don’t have time to see in the summer.

There’re birthday parties, nights at the Beachcomber, Christmas parties.

I rarely spend more than a day completely alone before someone pops up to ask me to hang out.

I absolutely love autumn, winter and spring here—much more than summer, when we’re straight-out seven days a week. That gets old real quick.”

“I’ll bet it does.”

“We’re very thankful for the people who come here to vacation and spend their money. They keep us in business. But some of them are a bit extra. We’ve all seen enough of them by Labor Day. Don’t quote me on that, though.”

“Your secret is safe with me.”

As they approached her place, she wished the walk had been longer.

“Can I make a confession?” he asked as he eyed the studio.

“Of course.”

“I’ve never had a massage.”

“What? Never?”

“Nope.”

“Oh my God. You don’t know what you’re missing. You have to come in. I want to be your first.”

He laughed. “I might just take you up on that.”

“You should. It’s the most relaxing thing you can imagine.”

“I’m not so sure that having your hands all over me would be relaxing.”

Sierra nearly swallowed her tongue. What the hell did she say to that?

His low chuckle had her looking up at him to find him watching her with dark eyes filled with amusement and something else not as easily identified. “Sorry. I don’t mean to embarrass you.”

“I think you quite enjoy embarrassing me.”

“When are you going to have dinner with me?”

“When do you want me to have dinner with you?”

“How about tomorrow night? I’ll make a reservation at Stephanie’s. I hear that’s good, and I haven’t been there yet.”