The Naughty List Bundle - Kylie Adams [111]
Misty gave him a pointed look. “Us, meaning you most likely. Somehow I don’t see the others getting into as much mischief as you likely did.”
Morgan shrugged. “True. I’ve always been a bit of a hell-raiser—something Mom claims I inherited from my father’s side of the family, though I’ve seen her riled a few times so I’m not buying it. As to the others, Sawyer’s always been serious and a bona fide overachiever. There aren’t too many men I know who could have cared for a baby and finished up med school without missing a beat. Even with our help, he had his hands full, but he never complained.”
Misty sighed. “Sawyer is the exception. Most men would run from that kind of responsibility.”
For some reason that observation irritated Morgan beyond all reason. “You haven’t known enough good men to make that judgment.”
Her laugh was a little sad. “That’s true enough, I suppose.” Then she smiled at him, a real smile that affected him like a stroke in just the right place. “I think it’s wonderful that you’re all so close. My father isn’t that way at all. If it wasn’t for Honey…”
“I know. She’s told me a lot about him, and about how close you both are because of it.” Morgan wished she’d open up a little with him, but her smile was gone and she now had that closed look on her face that he recognized all too well. He said carefully, “Being that you are so close, aren’t you just a bit pleased by the idea of having her nearby?”
She ignored his question to ask one of her own. “So what about Gabe? I gather he wasn’t found under a rock?”
“Sometimes I wonder. But my mother is still married to Brett Kasper, and he’s Gabe’s father.”
She studied him closely. “You all look different, but I never realized…. I mean, well, you and Sawyer do have similar looks, except that you’re an imposing hulk and he’s not.”
“Gee thanks.”
She waved that away. “You have the same dark hair, and there’s something about the shape of your jaws. Stubborn, you know?”
“I’ve heard that, yes.”
“But now Gabe, with that blond hair and those incredible electric blue eyes—”
“Malone,” he said in warning.
“And Jordan has brown hair and green eyes and his voice is so—” she shivered “—seductive.”
“You’re pushing me again, Malone.”
Misty started laughing, and Morgan realized she’d been deliberately baiting him. He smiled with her. “Do I need to start worrying about my brothers’ virtue again?”
“Ha! None of you have any virtue left, and you know it.”
“Not true. Virtue and chastity are not the same thing at all.”
She chuckled again, shaking her head in feigned disbelief. Whether she realized it yet or not, she liked him, and she’d like being with him. Morgan spoke his thoughts aloud without even thinking about it. “Hearing you laugh is much nicer than hearing you cry.”
Just like that, she stiffened up on him. Color darkened her cheeks, and her eyes narrowed. “If you hadn’t been sneaking around this morning, you wouldn’t have been subjected to hearing me cry.”
Embarrassing her hadn’t been his intent. He lowered his voice to a soothing growl. “I wasn’t complaining, Malone, except that I don’t like seeing you unhappy.”
She sat forward, her brows lifted in mock surprise. “Oh, I see. That’s why you announced to everyone that I’m pregnant, because you thought it would somehow make me happy?”
“No. But I knew going off on your own wouldn’t make you happy, either. If anything, it would’ve made you more miserable.”
“I am not miserable.”
He raised his hands in surrender. “I stand corrected. And before you run away in a huff, do you want me to tell you the happy ending to my mother’s story?”
“With your idea of happy, I’m not at all sure.”
In a persuasive tone, he suggested, “Try trusting me just a little, Malone.”
“No, never.”
She was determined not to give an inch, and it frustrated him beyond measure. “You’re awfully fond of that particular saying.”
“Only when I’m around you.”
He gave a drawn-out sigh at her stubbornness, then