Page 25 of Twice Shy

Alone again…

Ollie gave a nervous laugh. “You keep getting stuck with me. Sorry.”

“I don’t mind.” Morgan was fiddling with his broom handle, gaze averted even though his eyes were already hidden behind his sunglasses. Ollie couldn’t get a read on him. “I mean— Anyway, we should get this done before people start showing up. Just keep your line about four feet away from mine all the way around. We’re going to do a loop along the foreshore and then up and back.”

“Okay.” He squinted out over the water. “The tide’s not gonna come in and wash this all away before we’re done is it?”

“Uh, no.” Morgan smiled, another of those weird reluctant smiles that looked like it was being dragged out against his will. “Tide’s on its way out.”

“Right, sure. I knew that. You can tell because the waves are going backwards.” Morgan stared and Ollie grinned. “JK.”

“What?”

“Joke.”

“Ah—sorry, I don’t speak internet.”

“Right,” Ollie said, setting Luis back on his feet. “Because you’re so ancient, right?”

“Something like that.” But he was smiling again, even as he started dragging his broom handle through the sand, so Ollie counted it as a win.

Unfortunately, Luis wasn’t as into walking slowly along a beach dragging a broom handle as Ollie had hoped and kept making a break for the open ocean. Luckily, his little legs couldn’t take him far, but it meant Ollie had to keep stopping and retrieving him. Naturally, Luis thought the game of ‘run toward the sea so Ollie chases me down the beach’ was hilarious and should never stop.

Ollie was trudging back from the foreshore for the umpteenth time, with a squirming and giggling Luis tucked under his arm, when Morgan came walking down to meet them. “Hey,” he said, and pushed his sunglasses up so Ollie could see his eyes. Not that Morgan was looking at Ollie. He held out a sturdy-looking piece of driftwood to Luis. “This is for you,” he said seriously. Ollie set Luis back on his feet so he could take the stick. Morgan glanced at him, a question in his eyes—Can I?—and Ollie nodded, not sure what he had in mind but grateful for anything that might distract Luis from trying to swim to Ireland.

Morgan held out his hand and Luis took it, leading him back up the beach. The pair of them made quite a sight, Morgan’s tall frame and broad shoulders strolling along next to Luis on his stubby little legs, arm up over his head to reach Morgan’s fingers. Ollie resisted the temptation to press a hand to his heart, not sure whether he was grateful or weirdly envious. And envious of who? Morgan, who was so much better with kids than Ollie, or Luis who got to hold Morgan’s hand?

With a sigh, he followed them and by the time he got back to his abandoned broom handle, Morgan had Luis drawing on the sand with his own stick while Morgan carried on with their job. Ollie snatched up his own broom handle and caught up, amazed at the way Luis was babbling at Morgan.

“That’s great,” Morgan was saying. “Great lines, Luis. Looks like an octopus. Or a starfish, maybe? Hey, come over this way, we’re going up here now…”

Like putty in his hands.

“I can see I’m gonna have to ask you for tips,” Ollie said, following as Morgan turned the corner and started heading up toward the dunes. It was quieter at this end of the beach, and Ollie and the boys had picnicked here a couple of times when they’d first moved to New Milton.

“You don’t need tips,” Morgan said. “Just, sometimes a new face is enough to distract them.”

“Nah, you’re a natural, Mr. Morgan. I can tell. You like kids and they like you.”

“Yeah, I do like kids.” A pause, “And it’s Joel.”

The wind whisked away his last words and Ollie wasn’t sure he’d heard right. “Excuse me?”

“My name.” Morgan straightened, pausing and leaning on his broom handle. He still wore his sunglasses on the top of his head and squinted in the sunshine. “You don’t have to call me Mr. Morgan. It’s Joel.”

“Oh.” Ollie stopped too, smiling. “Okay. I wasn’t sure what the rules were...you know, around the kids. If I had to be formal or whatever. But, uh, sure—I’m Oliver. Ollie. Which you obviously know.”

“I do.” If Ollie hadn’t known better, he’d have called Morgan’s—Joel’s—expression ‘shy’. “Is Snow an Irish name?”

“No, why?”

“Just your…coloring. The hair.” And was that a flush on those handsome cheeks? Was Joelflirtingwith him? Ollie’s smile broadened into a grin as he touched his overgrown mop, which was blowing about like crazy in the wind. Christ, he needed a haircut. “My grandmother, on my mom’s side, was a Flannigan. Snow’s an English name, I think. Morgan’s Irish, right?”

“Yeah, but about two thirds of my family is German, so...” He reached down and absently tousled Luis’s hair. “I’m guessing Palmer was your brother-in-law’s name?”

“Right. Ellis Palmer. Rory looks a lot like him. Luis has my sister’s smile, though.” He hoped it didn’t sound maudlin and smiled at Luis who was currently sitting in the sand at Joel’s feet trying to untie his shoelaces. “Isn’t that right, gorgeous?”

“Boot,” Luis said, looking up with his big brown eyes. “Boot.”

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