Chapter 5 #2
He read for a while that evening, until it was fully dark out, and he was down to the last few chapters.
Morgan slowed then, and not just because he was coming to the end of the book.
That was bad enough, in part because it was one of those endings that lifted your heart up only to bring it smashing back down to earth a page later, but also because, for the first time since he’d come here, he was aware of how absolutely beautiful Ty was.
He'd noticed the man was handsome before, of course. It was impossible to miss that Ty was attractive, despite his wild hair and lumpy sweaters and pale-to-flushed-to-pale-again skin. But right here, sitting relaxed in his kitchen in the lamplight as he listened to Morgan read, he was … gorgeous.
And for the first time, Morgan’s body got the memo.
His blood seemed to flash a few degrees higher as his groin tightened, and he had to clear his throat to stave off the urge to actually say something about it.
Horny was fine, horny happened, but Ty was his host. More than that, he’d been thrust into the role of a caregiver, and the last thing Morgan wanted to do was impose on him even further.
When Ty looked over at him, though, eyes soft and with a little smile on his face, it was hard to hold back. “The mountains sound so nice.”
“They are,” Morgan said, and moved by the impulse to make plans, to lay some sort of claim on Ty’s time beyond his inevitable return to the lighthouse, he added, “We should go visit some.”
Ty’s ease vanished. “I can’t,” he said, his back stiffening and his open expression going blank. It was like a spell had broken, which was maybe why Morgan let his mouth run away from him.
“But we could be there and back in under a day. It’s a really easy trip, we wouldn’t be away from the water for more than a few hours.” And then— “We could go as soon as I can drive again, I left my car in a lot on—”
Ty pushed his chair back from the table and stood up. “I have to go.”
Morgan stared at him blankly. “Go where?”
“Outside.” He seemed jittery, almost jerky as he walked over to the front door and pulled it open.
“Ty, wait—” Morgan tried to follow, but his balance was still a little off, and he had to sit down again almost as fast as he got up. By then Ty was gone, the door swinging shut behind him.
Fuck that. Morgan stood up again, more slowly this time, and checked himself before following Ty out the front door.
This was a silly thing for Ty to run away over; if he didn’t want to go, he could just tell Morgan instead of running outside.
Morgan would tell him as much as soon as he saw him again, which …
Wait. He peered around in the last vestiges of twilight, staring across the rocky front stoop of the cabin down to where Ty’s boat was firmly lashed in place.
There was the boat, so where had Ty gone?
There were no trails to this cabin; the only way to get here was by boat.
Or swimming if you were a dumbass like Morgan, but the water was cold, and it was dark, and now was the worst time to be in the water.
“Ty?” Morgan called out into the darkness. Maybe he had gone around behind the house. “Ty?” He walked around the back of the cabin, but there was no one there. “Ty!” He ran back to the front, his heart on the verge of pounding right out of his chest. Where was he? Why would he—how could he—
Great job, you drove the guy out of his own home.
Logically, Morgan knew that wasn’t exactly right. He hadn’t forced Ty out of the house; he’d only been offering to do something nice for him, something that it seemed like Ty might enjoy. What was so wrong with that? But …
You know he’s a recluse. Look around you. What makes you think this guy wants anything to do with the outside world? He’s been taking care of you, humoring you, and you just rammed into his personal bubble full speed and popped it.
“Ty!” Morgan cupped his good hand around his mouth in an effort to project, but there was nothing. Not a stir, not a sound other than the wash of the waves and the distant cries of seagulls. Ty was gone.
Feeling numb, Morgan went back inside the cabin.
He cleared the table and washed his plate from dinner, then the cups they’d used for tea.
The water from the tap was cold, coming straight down from a cistern.
He kept glancing out the window over the sink as he washed, going as slow as he could, but Ty didn’t come back.
Getting ready for bed was getting easier and easier as his shoulder healed, but it still wasn’t simple.
Morgan hissed as he gingerly pulled off the sling, then the sweater he had on beneath it.
He used the bucket of water that had been set aside for his sponge baths and cleaned himself up as best he could, grimacing at the feel of his own hair.
He needed a real bath or better yet a shower.
He’d been here for seven days now, after all.
Seven days. A full week. It had been good, better than he had any right to hope, good enough that he didn’t want it to end, and then he had fucked it up.
It wasn’t just him, though. What kind of person goes running off into the night like that? Morgan fumed as he lay down in the bed. What if he gets hurt? I can’t go after him; I can barely make the boat work right now. Why didn’t he take the boat?
Where is Ty? Why did he leave me alone?
Sleep came in snatches brought on by pure fatigue, Morgan’s mind fighting him every step of the way.
Even with painkillers he couldn’t get comfortable; the bed might as well be a bed of nails for all the tossing and turning he did.
He couldn’t stop thinking about Ty, about where he’d gone and how the hell he was getting by, whether or not he was hurt, when he was coming back, if he even could come back …
The door opened with a creak, and Morgan was immediately up.
He wavered on his feet for a second, tired and worried and hurt, before stepping through the open bedroom door.
It was dark in the main room, with just a hint of dawn light coming in through the windows, but he could see Ty well enough.
The other man smelled strongly of salt water, but he didn’t seem uncomfortable. So he didn’t fall in, then.
“Morgan …”
Was that an apology he detected in Ty’s tone? Fuck that. Morgan held up his good hand. “My own fault,” he said stiffly. “I should have left you alone.”
“Mmm, it’s all right.”
“Clearly it isn’t, if you felt better being outside someplace I had no hope of reaching you for the entire night,” Morgan snapped, and uh-oh, his temper was on the verge of getting the better of him.
He hadn’t let loose and shouted at someone since his breakup with Bentley, and he wasn’t going to start now, no matter how much fear and anger raged in his heart.
“Can you take me back to the lighthouse?” he asked instead. “Today, I mean. This morning.”
Ty took a step toward him. “You don’t have to go.”
“I think I need to go.” He needed to go someplace he didn’t feel like an imposition for a while. A week was a long time, even for staying with family, and Ty wasn’t family. At least Uncle Phil had legally left him the lighthouse. “Please,” he added, and Ty bowed his head.
“All right,” he said in a voice so soft that Morgan could barely hear it, and that just intensified the hurt and the anger.
Who was Ty to act so hurt? Who was he to make it look like Morgan was being unreasonable, when he was just trying to make things better for both of them?
He wasn’t the one who’d run out of here and vanished into nothingness when confronted with a situation he didn’t like; that was all Ty.
“Good.” Morgan walked back into the bedroom and pulled the duffel bag over onto the bed.
His shoulder still ached, but the pain wasn’t sharp now.
He could even use the arm a bit to help stuff his things into the bag—damn, they’d gotten everywhere.
Books, clothes, meds … He zipped it up, then almost threw it over his shoulder before deciding better of it and holding it by his side instead.
He walked back into the living room and found Ty still standing there, like he was frozen.
Even in the dim light, Morgan could tell his skin had gone flushed again.
Not my business. “Let’s go.”
Thankfully, Ty didn’t fight him on it, just opened the door and led the way down the rocky path to the boat.
He offered a hand to Morgan to help him get in, but Morgan ignored it.
Sure, he almost fell on his face as the boat swayed at just the wrong moment as he stepped down, but it wasn’t like his dignity had a leg to stand on after the week he’d spent with this guy.
He sat down, and a moment later, Ty loosened the ropes tying them to the little makeshift dock, then fired up the motor, opened the throttle, and put them out to sea.
It was a short trip, less than ten minutes all told, but Morgan was bitterly cold by the end of it.
His hands were freezing, and his ears had that uncomfortable sensation of being windblown, like his whole head had been emptied out by the chilly gusts.
That plus his sleeplessness meant he was brewing up a hell of a headache, and by the time the boat stopped, it was all he could do to keep his stomach where it was supposed to be.
“Morgan.” A gentle hand found his elbow. “Mmm, let me help you up.”
He wanted to say no, but there was no way in hell he was getting up the hill to the lighthouse on his own.
Instead, Morgan carefully avoided eye contact as Ty took both him and the duffel bag out of the boat and onto the gravel path.
The walk cleared his head a bit, and by the time they got to the front stoop of the lighthouse, he was able to remember where he’d put the keys.
“Thank you,” he said after he opened the front door.
“You’re welcome,” Ty said quickly. “But—you still don’t seem well. I can help you.”
Morgan shook his head. “You’ve helped enough. I won’t bother you anymore.”
“Morgan …” He waited, but Ty didn’t seem to have anything to add. No explanation, no apology of his own, nothing.
Well, that made this next part a little easier, then. “Bye, Ty.”
Then he closed the door behind him, shutting Ty out.