Page 27 of Love, Morgan

“So what’s the problem, then?” Harlow asked as the three of them laughed.

“There is no problem. I’m just too busy for that nonsense. She’s a celebrity, I’ve no interest in becoming… whatever the word is for people who are in love with celebrities they don’t know, and, in less than two weeks, I’ll be out of here and we’ll never see each other again.”

“She’s afraid,” Alicia said in that annoying, know-it-all tone she had. She’d gotten too big for her boots since she and Ripley had gotten back together. As if she had a leg to stand on when it came to relationships.

“No, I’m not,” I insisted, my hair falling in my face with how ferociously I shook my head against the pillow.

“You clearly are,” Ripley agreed. She’d gotten too big for her boots too. I wasn’t going to stand for this nonsense. Nor was I going to ever mention, or think about, the fact that, when under duress in front of Iona, I’d switched to that annoying Alicia way of speaking, just like Ripley did. I wasn’t even in love with the woman and she’d invaded my brain.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said. “Morgan Franklin does not get scared, especially not over pretty girls, so get your facts straight.”

“It does sound a little bit like you’re scared,” Harlow ventured, clearly amused.

“And what exactly do you think I’m afraid of?” I asked on instinct. But, the minute it was out, I regretted it.

Alicia was oddly insightful when she was examining anyone other than herself. Harlow too, plus she had that eagerness to ship people that I’d appreciated when we were trying to get Ripley and Alicia back together, but that was inconvenient at best now. And Ripley… well, she knew entirely too much, knew me entirely too well, and was probably more than capable of naming exactly what I was scared of.

I didn’t want to hear any of it.

Luckily, Harlow laughed and said, “A hot woman? Iona’s not really my type, but she’s definitely got a magnetic presence on screen, and she’s undoubtedly hot.”

I rolled my eyes, relaxing. I still didn’t want to have this conversation, but I could work with this. It was a million miles better than anything Ripley or Alicia could have said. “I am not afraid of hot women.Iam a hot woman. Why would I be afraid of that?”

“I think it’s a little different when it’s someone you have a crush on. I doubt you—actually, no, I take that back.”

“What were you going to say?” Ripley asked the question we both wanted an answer to.

Harlow laughed again. “Well, I was going to say, I doubt you spend all day staring in the mirror, thinking about how good you look, but, it’s Morgan. If she told me that’s all she does, I wouldn’t be surprised at all.”

“Because you acknowledge that I’m hot,” I said, grinning. “And you’re right.”

“That’s not what I said. I simply know you well enough to know you absolutely would check yourself out in the mirror.”

“Of course I would,” I replied, but the bravado in my voice was a little wooden, automatic.

Harlow knew me too, now. She kind of had before, when Ripley and Alicia had first been married. It was hard to be best friends with someone and not spend time with their spouse and their spouse’s best friend, so we’d all hung out. A lot. But then they’d broken up, and we’d spent no time together in eight years. A lot happened in eight years.

Now, they were back, and we were all older, wiser, and closer. And that meant Alicia and Harlow knew me. Not quite as well as Ripley, but there were still two new people in my inner circle—well, new and old, but still new to this version of me. What if they knew too? What if they weren’t just joking about me being scared? What if they knew? Being scared wasn’t my thing. Being in love wasn’t my thing.

And I wasn’t in love. I didn’t know Iona nearly well enough for that. But, what if, for years to come, they taunted me about being too afraid to take my chance with her? Was that better or worse than trying and failing?

Better, obviously. I didn’t fail at stuff. I didn’t give up. I succeeded. And there was no world in which I was succeeding at anything romantic with Iona. We’d had some awkward encounters, I’d screamed, apologized, we were both moving on, and that was the end of it. Jokes from friends be damned.

Chapter 10

Iona

Ichewed lightly on my lip as I took my daily walk past Morgan’s bungalow. It had been days since I’d seen her properly. If she didn’t seem like the type to face down everything without fear, I’d be convinced she was avoiding me.

Perhaps she still was. There were other reasons to avoid me than the fact that she was afraid of me.

It was only the sandals by the front door, the polka dot scarf fluttering over the back of one of the chairs, and the fact that I had seen her from afar once that convinced me she was still here. I really hoped I wasn’t ruining her vacation.

“Ms. Franklin spotting again?” Thalia asked in a hushed voice as she appeared at my side.

I jumped. “What? No. Of course not. Why would I be?”

She laughed.

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