Page 62 of No Strings

Davis blows out a lung full of cigarette smoke.

“Can I try?” Morgan asks.

“Ah, no.” I say on reflex.

“You can’t keep telling me what I can and cannot do.”

“I can.” I turn to face her.

She mirrors my moves and faces me. “Not.”

“For fuck sake, would you two just fuck already?” Beau plucks the smoke from Davis’s hand and gives it to her. I look to Davis, he just shrugs.

I watch to see how she goes. Which isn’t well. Because as soon as her lungs fill with the nicotine, she is coughing everywhere.

I can’t help but point out the obvious. “Almost like you should have listened.”

Once she can take a breath without a cough or wheeze, she straightens and opens her mouth, but Davis is quicker. “Let’s get to the shop.”

Morgan doesn’t take her glare off of mebut nods and agrees. I watch their retreating forms, when Beau comes to stand next to me.

“What happened to the no bickering?”

“I don’t know, it’s our natural default I guess,” I clap his back, “Come on, let’s get to work.”

Chapter Eighteen

MORGAN

Davis and I are here way too early. We still open up though.

Davis does what he is doing, and I make my way to the small office. I open the station’s laptop, maybe I can update the website and make it more user friendly.

I’m busy, editing the website and looking for photos, when I hear the tell-tale signs of Molly.

“Look! I lost another tooth.” She smiles her toothless smile at me.

“You’re going to send the tooth fairy broke.” I chuckle.

She grins, pushes a chair next to mine, climbs up, and watches me scroll through photos.

“Oh, that’s my Mum.” She points to the woman standing next to Brent. She was beautiful.

I bop her nose. “You look so much like her.”

She sits up straight at my words. Proud to look like her Mumma.

I’ve gone so far back that I find baby photos ofMolly. But then I find a photo of her Mum, Shelly, holding Molly as a baby. Maybe a few months old.

A lump forms in my throat. I try to clear it, and beg the tears to stay a bay.

But that fails when I see a photo of Molly as a tiny newborn, tucked on her Mum’s chest. Shelly has one hand holding her close, while her other one is holding Molly’s tiny hand. The way she looks at her, with nothing but unconditional love, causes the wound I once thought was healed to crack completely open. Since being here, the scab has been picked at, but this has just ripped that off.

Once again try to clear my throat, but it won’t shift. Tears fall freely without permission. I stand up to leave. The chair is on wheels, so it rolls back and hits something behind me.

“Morgan?” Molly’s sweet, concerned voice tries to reach me. I look down at her, she reaches her hand out to me, but I step back. Hurt and confusion is immediate in her features, and I hate myself.

“Sorry, Molly. I, uh, forgot I had to do something. Can you watch Esky for me?” I go to reach for her to comfort her, but I can’t seem to close the distance.