Lydia smacked Gerald on his shoulder making him call out and laugh harder.
“Damn, woman! I didn’t say anything embarrassing,” Gerald informed her.
“You were thinking it,” Lydia told him, her face turning red. “Excuse me, I think I’ll go hide in the bathroom for a moment.”
Gerald laughed hard as Lydia walked out of the kitchen. “We’ve been together a year, but I swear I will never get used to her passionate reaction to teasing. You’d think the woman had never had sex before. She still blushes like a sixteen-year-old.”
“Thea does that too,” Morgan said, remembering. “It’s. . .” He drifted off thinking about Thea blushing and how much he liked it, how much he liked her.
“I know exactly what you mean,” Gerald said, happy and encouraged to see the dazed look on Morgan’s face.
“You’re right, Dad,” Morgan said finally, meeting his father’s eyes. “Thea’s making me a better man whether I want to be one or not. It’s a damn painful process though.”
“Well,” Gerald said, nodding in understanding, “fortunately there are some upsides. But you’re not going to get those being out of her life or her bed.”
“You are definitely a very wise man,” Morgan said, grinning at last.
“Well, I’ve been telling you that for years,” Gerald said, laughing.
When Lydia came back into the kitchen, the two men looked at her with the most wicked smiles she ever saw. She immediately turned beet red again. Gerald Reed was going to get a piece of her mind the moment they were alone.
Both men burst out laughing, but Lydia saw that only Morgan had the grace to look ashamed.
Gerald Reed was as unrepentant as ever.
*** *** ***
Later, after his father had gone to bed, Morgan did look up “wididity” to see what Lydia had been talking about. If either of them had told him what the term meant over dinner, his face would have flushed a darker red than Lydia’s because he was so damn proud of that night with Thea.
He should have trusted the truth of their passion, he now realized. It was really the only truth that mattered.
Morgan went to bed smiling, remembering that first time with Thea again. The more nervous she’d gotten, the more determined he had become to have her.
And he was still determined to have her.
He just hoped Lydia was right about Thea eventually coming to realize that she needed him.
Chapter 12
Lydia stared at her stubborn niece and shook her head. It was going to take a while for Thea to get over feeling wronged. Morgan’s wait might be a lot longer than Lydia would had originally predicted.
“I’m not suggesting you crawl back into bed with the man. I’m just suggesting you let him cook pasta for you a couple times a week. You could use the customers, Thea.”
“I don’t want Morgan Reed hanging around. I certainly don’t want him in my kitchen. I don’t trust him,” Thea said, keeping her back to her aunt as she refilled the condiments on each table. “No telling what he’d get into if he had free rein of the restaurant.”
Lydia laughed. “The only thing that man wants into right now is you. I saw Morgan last night and could tell he was truly remorseful about hurting you. And I ate his pasta for dinner. It was better than the food at Anthony’s.”
“I don’t care,” Thea said. “After Delilah is gone, I’m going to sell this place and go back to teaching. I’m tired and ready for a change.”
When Lydia didn’t reply, Thea turned to look at her. “What?”
“Nothing. You have a right to be tired of this place. You certainly have a right to make a change. I don’t blame you at all,” Lydia said quietly. “Break it to Amy gently. She loves this place.”
Thea turned back to her task. “Amy will be finishing school this fall. She’ll get a teaching job.”
“Probably,” Lydia said, sliding off her bar stool and walking to stand closer to Thea. “She’d rather work here.”
“Have you been talking to Morgan about this?” Thea demanded.
“No,” Lydia denied. “Amy talks about this place the way you used to talk about the research you were doing. She gets all animated and excited over who came by for lunch.”
Thea sighed and bowed her head. “I guess I knew that on some level. I just thought she was being enthusiastic as part of the job. But I can’t base my business decisions on one person wanting to work here.”
“No, of course not,” Lydia agreed. “I’m sure Pete could get a job anywhere. And like you said, Amy will go into teaching next spring.”
Thea sighed heavily at the thought of Amy longing for a real job here. It pained her. She couldn’t worry about Pete, too.
“So what did Morgan want to talk about?” Thea asked, wanting a mental distraction more than she wanted to know.
“Morgan asked me what Angus did to win you back after you threw a beer at him. In fact, you were pretty much all he talked about all evening,” Lydia said, not missing the slight trembling in Thea’s hands. “I didn’t have anything helpful for him because I know how you are when you’re mad. I told him he just had to hope you’d eventually come around.”
Thea ignored the commentary on Morgan’s regret. “Morgan told me the same thing about Amy. That’s why I asked what he said.”
“Well, you can tell it’s truth by the way Amy talks about this place. If you could afford it, I would tell you to hire her to manage it. You could train her in two or three years and let her run this place while you do other things. I know it’s not successful enough for you to do such a thing now. Since you’re intending to sell the restaurant, I guess you don’t really care what happens to it,” Lydia said with an elegant shrug.
Thea did the last table. “It’s not that I don’t care. I’m—I’m just tired of the work of it. There is nothing in my life but this place and work. One thing I definitely realized with the brief time I spent with Morgan was that I want to have some fun in my life. Since I turned fifty, death feels like it’s lurking around every corner.”
“Amen, sister,” Lydia said softly. “I’ve been living with that a long time.”
“Yeah, but you ended up with Gerald, Aunt Lydia. I ended up with a fraud investigator who turned out to be a big fraud himself,” Thea said bitterly.
Ah, thought Lydia, now we get down to it at last.
“Was Morgan truly a fraud or just stupid like most men get when they think they know something completely and utterly wrong?”
Thea thought about it for a few seconds, and then laughed. “
Stupid
wouldn’t have been my word choice, but I know you don’t like to swear much.”
“Well, some men drive you to drastic behavior, but make up your own mind about the situation. The world is full of gray areas, Thea. Gerald Reed is technically cheating on Delilah with me,” Lydia said matter-of-factly. “I still don’t know how I let him talk his way into my bed. Honestly, I didn’t even know I was missing anything until he showed me. Now here I am at sixty-eight sleeping with my best friend’s man because he’s good in bed and I don’t want to let him go. It’s shameful.”
“If Gerald is anything like his son, I totally understand, and so would any lonely woman,” Thea said, sighing. “Part of the reason I don’t want Morgan around here is that I don’t trust myself. He didn’t just wake me up again. He inspired me. I just gave everything up, and then I gave more than I even knew I could at my age.”
Lydia laughed. “Well no wonder you’re keeping your distance. Still, Morgan told me about the bloody nose, so I know you’re not a coward. I can’t believe you’d just let the restaurant just go under because you’re worried about having no control over your urges. Selling a successful restaurant would be a lot better than selling a failing one, honey.”
“True,” Thea said thoughtfully. “I supposed I could deal with my rampaging hormones for a couple of months. I’d have to pay him though. I don’t want to feel like I owe him anything.”
Lydia shrugged again and bit her lip as she considered what to say next.
“Althea, you’re one of the bravest, smartest, and best women I know. If we weren’t related, you’d still be one of my favorite people. Life doesn’t hand opportunities out every day in packages like the Reed men. I can understand you staying away from Morgan physically, but let the man make you pasta. You might be doing him a favor too. Gerald said that other job of his is not good for him.”
“It’s not my job to save Morgan Reed from himself,” Thea denied, unwilling to think about Morgan’s life or what it did or did not do for him. “I don’t think it’s Morgan’s purpose to save me either. But I can see that he might be able to improve the restaurant.”
“Morgan will be gone in a few months, Thea. Fate put a time limit on this gift to you, so you’re going to have to make a quicker decision than usual about the right thing to do,” Lydia joked.
Thea set the condiment fill station she carried on a nearby table. She walked to the older woman and put her arms around her for a hug.
“I can’t believe you actually like the man after meeting him once. You’re usually more skeptical than me. That must have been some pasta.”
“Chicken fettuccine,” Lydia repeated. “It was better than Anthony’s, but I also liked the way Morgan looked when he said your name.”
“Well, don’t get your hopes up. I may let Morgan stuff my ravioli, but that’s all he’s stuffing, so don’t start weaving your romantic dreams around me,” Thea joked, feeling Lydia laugh against her. “God, you feel good to me, Aunt Lydia. You never come by anymore since Gerald starting visiting you so regularly.”
“He needs to talk everyday now,” Lydia said softly, easing from Thea’s arms. “Gerald is preparing himself to let Delilah go. Her passing won’t be easy on any of us. Thinking about dying sends me to yoga class faithfully. I know my time is coming. And I’m not ready yet.”
“I love you,” Thea said, her throat tight. “Don’t even joke about it being your time. I can’t bear the thought of losing anyone else. Losing Delilah is almost as bad as losing Mom.”
Lydia thought of her sister. A heart attack had taken her swiftly. It seemed a kinder end than the one her friend Delilah was having to meet.
“I will do my best to live forever just for you,” Lydia joked, hugging Thea again.
She knew it wasn’t a promise she could keep for many more years, but sometimes you just had to pretend for the sake of those who loved you.
“Thank you. I would appreciate that,” Thea said, letting her go and picking up the fill station again. “Now I have go think about whether or not to let Morgan Reed help me. Have a good time at yoga.”
“See you soon,” Lydia said, watching Thea disappear through the swinging doors to the kitchen.
*** *** ***
Morgan stopped by at two and found a completely empty restaurant. Thea was behind the bar again, but this time she wasn’t working. She was just standing and leaning on the bar, being perfectly still for the first time since he’d seen her.
In front of her was a highball glass with ice and about two fingers of something he suspected she didn’t sell.
“Are you adding more variety to your drink offerings?” Morgan asked, sliding onto the bar stool directly in front of her.
“No. This is emergency rations,” Thea said, too bummed about the meager five customers that had come in at lunch to work up a full mad at Morgan.
She couldn’t let the restaurant go down until Delilah was gone and the nursing home was paid off. This meant she had no choice but to swallow her pride and let Morgan work there. She hated it, but she was going to have to do it. However, it was easier to think about it when she wasn’t completely sober.
“Angus kept emergency rations around just for us. We have a secret hiding place under the bar. I poured it thinking it might inspire me. He was always the one with the creative ideas in lean times. He credited it to the Scotch.”
Morgan laughed, but he also noticed the slump of her shoulders and the weariness in her face. She didn’t quite look her age yet, but she looked older than he had ever seen her look. Thea looked like she just wanted to walk out the door and never look back. It was killing him to see her so defeated.
“Want something to drink?” Thea asked.
“Depends. Will there be any arsenic in it?” he asked in return.
“Not today,” Thea said, sighing as she looked at him. “Retribution seems like a waste of energy right now. What do you want?”
Morgan waited a couple heartbeats while he thought about how to answer. He wanted to say,
You—I want you
. But looking at her face, it didn’t seem wise to push the truth at the moment.
“To drink,” Thea clarified, when she saw his hesitation.
“Tea,” Morgan replied, “unless you’re sharing your rations.”
Thea got a short glass, some ice, and reached below the bar. A few seconds later she pushed a duplicate of her drink over to him.
“You can have tea, too,” she added.
“What are we drinking to?” Morgan asked, picking up the glass and taking a sniff. It was scotch, he thought. Really good scotch.
“Depends on whether or not you still want a job cooking here,” Thea replied, getting the words out as far as she could manage.
Morgan didn’t hesitate. “Yes. I want the job,” he said.