Page 43 of Love, Morgan

“As if there’s any other possibility when watching you?” I wasn’t totally sure what I was doing, being this forward with her, but we only had a few days left here, and it felt like a whole other world, one where I got to be around her and flirt with her, and it didn’t matter that in just a few days, we’d be back off to our regular lives where she existed only through a screen to me.

Her shoulders folded in on her the way they did when she didn’t quite understand her own fame or the way I spoke to her. And, sure, she wasn’tHollywood actorfamous, but she wasn’t a nobody either, and it blew my mind that she seemed to think she was.

She took a breath, righting herself but still not looking directly at me. “You didn’t stay for the meet and greet after?”

“Who says I didn’t?”

I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t just answered her question. She was right, I hadn’t stayed. I couldn’t. Ripley had pushed me to, but I’d been too… nervous, I guess. An emotion I generally tried not to give in to, but it had been Iona, and she’d just spent the whole night on stage, being brilliant, and interacting with the audience, and I didn’t even know how to deal with that. Nor did I want the others to see me try. So I’d told them it was late and we had to get back for work tomorrow. As if I couldn’t do whatever I wanted with work.

Iona stepped a little closer to me. “I’d remember if you had.”

It felt like she’d sparked a live wire in my brain. A shower of bright, alluring, dangerous electricity spread everywhere, but I had no idea what to do with it. I’d been flirting with her, but I hadn’t expected her to flirt back.

“Of course you would,” I said, my voice unsteady. “I’m very memorable.”

“Exactly,” she replied, pushing her sunglasses up onto her head. “So I know you didn’t stay.”

I didn’t know what to do with this. How could something be exactly what I’d wanted for over a year now and still be something I was entirely unprepared for?

I shouldn’t have been. I’d dreamed it and imagined it more than enough. And it wasn’t even the flash of her confident self. She was that on The Pretty Gift all the time. I wanted all the sides of her. But I still didn’t know what to do.

I stepped back, breaking the intensity of her gaze. “It was late, Harlow was pregnant, I had work to do the next day… We just didn’t have the time.”

“Oh.” She turned away, putting her sunglasses back on and setting off down the walkway again, and suddenly I hated the excuse. Something about her was shutting off, disappearing, and my words had done that. I should have just told her the truth, but…

“So, shall we start with the person next to you or me?” she called back to me, all business again.

Every part of me sagged. I did care who was pretending to be her and sending badly wrapped mangoes with her name on them, but, if I was honest with myself, the whole investigation was just an excuse to spend time with her. Well, here we were, spending time together, and I’d gone and blown it.

No. I would not accept defeat. I could fix this.

I moved to catch up with her. “The person on the other side of you. I think it would be great for your ego if you’d landed yourself in a fan sandwich.”

She wrinkled her nose. “A fan sandwich? What on earth is that?”

“It’s you surrounded by a fan on either side. Maybe squeezing in on you until you’re trapped in a great big fan hug.”

She laughed and the knot in my stomach loosened slightly. “No, thank you. I’ll hug fans at events sometimes, but I don’t really want a random stranger tracking me down and squishing me on my vacation.”

“Ah. You don’t want me to hug you. Got it. Your loss, though. I’m a great hugger.”

“I didn’t say that,” she muttered, and the worried part of me felt soothed. “You’re not a random stranger.”

“I am pretty random, though,” I said, unable to suppress my grin.

“I’ll give you that,” she replied with a laugh, leading us to the door of the bungalow next to hers.

I knocked, loud and urgent. “Have you seen anyone in here?” I asked her.

“No. Nothing. Though, that’s perhaps not that unusual. I didn’t see you for several days either…”

There was a question in her tone, something a little hurt at the way I had avoided seeing her much. She wanted to know what had been going on, where I’d been, why I’d been avoiding her.

I’d asked myself the same thing more than once. I wasn’t ready to tell her, though. Maybe I wasn’t ready to tell myself either.

“I was sleeping, mostly. Awake at weird hours when other people were sleeping.” I nodded to the bungalow in front of us. “Seems unlikely you’ve got vampires on either side of you, though.”

“They might be doing something else in bed…” She looked away pointedly. “This is a very popular spot for honeymooners.”

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