The Naughty List Bundle - Kylie Adams [139]
Morgan watched him go, thinking that marriage had made Sawyer more philosophical than usual. Then he thought of Misty at the office, with Nate and Jesse and Howard all sucking up to her. He saw red.
Howard and Jesse were old enough to be her grandfathers, and she was right when she said Nate wasn’t much more than a kid.
It was a sad day when he got jealous over the likes of them, but Morgan admitted the truth—he was jealous. Viciously jealous. He didn’t want anyone looking at her, because he knew good and well that any red-blooded male, regardless of his age, would be thinking the same erotic things he thought.
Jealousy was new to him. He’d been dating women since before he was Casey’s age, and never once experienced so much as a twinge. If a woman wasn’t interested, he moved on. If she was, they set up ground rules and had some fun. The twist with Misty was that she was interested, but she’d rather deny them both because she’d been burned and she didn’t want to get involved. Morgan had thought that the promise of an uninvolved relationship might suit her, but so far she’d turned that down, too.
Was Sawyer right? Was Misty only trying to protect herself from being hurt again? He knew having a record wasn’t something she’d ever be able to accept, so he’d set things in motion on that front. He didn’t believe she was guilty, but he had a hunch who was. He’d hired a few men to check into it, and now it was only a matter of waiting to see if he was right.
Maybe once that was taken care of, she’d stop holding back on him. If he could only get her to see how good things would be between them…. What? He’d get her to marry him?
Morgan thought about that, then nodded. Life with Misty would be one hell of a wild ride. He grinned with the thought. She was spicy and enticing and sweet and stubborn, and he wanted her so bad he couldn’t sleep at night.
Morgan stood and picked up his hat, then snatched his keys from the peg on the wall. It was well past time he got a few things clear with her. Tonight, when he took her to his house, he’d stake a claim. He’d show her that they were a perfect match and when she got used to that, he’d reel her in for the permanent stuff.
In the meantime, he’d shore up his cause by showing her how gentle and understanding he could be. He’d even make a point of not frowning and maybe, just maybe, she’d stop fighting him so hard and then he could quit feeling so desperate, because he sure as certain didn’t like the feeling one damn bit.
9
MORGAN’S better intentions were put on hold when he found a woman with a car full of kids and a flat tire waiting on the side of the road. She’d been on her way home from grocery shopping when the tire blew. Unfortunately, her spare wasn’t in much better shape. Morgan called in to Misty, told her why he’d be late and asked her to postpone his morning meeting with the town trustees.
She’d sounded a little frazzled when he called, but he didn’t have time to linger and find out why. He bundled the woman, her children and her flat, as well as her worthless spare, into the Bronco and drove to her house. The kids, ranging in age from one year to twelve, had screamed and yelled and generally enjoyed the excitement of being in the sheriff’s car. Morgan wondered if he ought to make that a regular part of the Blackberry Festival. He and his deputy could take turns giving the kids a ride around the town square.
His thoughts wandered from that as the woman tried to thank him in her driveway, obviously embarrassed that her children were loud and that he’d had his day interrupted. Personally, Morgan thought the kids were pretty cute, three of them girls, the youngest two boys, and he told her so even as he juggled a bag of groceries and a tiny three-year-old. The mother had positively beamed at him then.
All in all, they’d acted like children, which they were, so he saw no reason for her to be uncomfortable about a little noise.
After Morgan helped her get her groceries inside,