The Right Thing

by McDonald, Donna

  Forgiveness was completely out of the question. How could she ever trust him after what he’d done?

  Maybe he was genuinely sorry, but she had no idea how to get over her broken heart.

  Chapter 11

  Saturday evening Morgan heard the door open about nine and knew his father was home at last. He was in the process of cleaning the kitchen within an inch of its life and was currently working on the oven.

  “I haven’t used that appliance enough in five years to merit all the work you’re putting into cleaning it,” Gerald said, smiling gently. “Never knew you were a cleaner, Morgan. You got that from your mother.”

  “What do you mean?” Morgan asked, pulling his head out of the oven to meet his father’s gaze.

  “I could always tell when your mother was upset because she would scrub the kitchen. I was the only man I knew who dreaded coming home to a spotless house. It meant I had screwed up royally,” Gerald said, dropping down into a chair at the table. “A perfectly clean kitchen still gives me the willies.”

  Morgan considered that and laughed. “Sorry. I wasn’t trying to upset you more than I already have, Dad. I just needed something to do.”

  “Did you apologize to Thea?” Gerald asked.

  “Yes, but she wasn’t really in a receptive mood,” Morgan said, going back to his cleaning. “I guess I had no right to think she would be.”

  A satisfying afternoon with Lydia had mellowed his disappointment and had Gerald moving back to wanting to help his son again. So he studied his son now with a critical eye and realized that he liked what he saw. True repentance, Gerald knew, was the first step to change for even the most prideful of men.

  “Thea needs you,” Gerald said firmly, laughing when Morgan hit his head on the oven when he tried to pull it out too quickly.

  “Ouch. . .yeah, I know she does,” Morgan said, agreeing and rubbing the bump on his head.

  If he kept this up, he would be more injured when he left Sedona than when he’d arrived.

  “That pasta special we ran made her some real profits. If she’d just let me work off my sins, I might save the restaurant from going under before I have to go back to Vegas,” Morgan said, frowning.

  Gerald laughed at Morgan, the sound coming up from his belly and rumbling through his chest. He certainly hadn’t expected to be laughing at the end of this day, but here it was. Humor and hope wrapped up in a six-foot frowning man that he was finally proud of for something.

  Morgan wanted to help Thea’s business and was willing to fight his way through her anger to do so. Gerald considered his son’s need to take care of the woman a very good sign.

  “Thea needs a lot more from you than your damn pasta sauce recipe. I thought you were smarter than that,” Gerald teased, his face creased with amusement.

  Morgan closed the oven door on a surface that gleamed. He tossed the cleaning materials in the sink and looked at his father.

  “I need her too,” Morgan said. “And I want Thea to think I’m a good man. I don’t think I’ve made a mistake this big in my entire life.”

  “Thea is mad and rightly so, but I don’t think the situation is hopeless. You need to meet her Aunt Lydia,” Gerald said. “Think you’re up to making dinner tomorrow night.”

  After this morning, Morgan was a little surprised that his father was offering to let him meet another important woman in his life, but it was good all the same.

  “Sure. I’ll cook. I want to try a new recipe anyway, in case Thea changes her mind,” Morgan said.

  “If Lydia likes you, maybe she might have some tips to share about getting around her niece,” Gerald said, standing. “That woman seems to know everything. Goodnight, Morgan.”

  “Goodnight, Dad. Sleep well,” Morgan said softly, watching his still agile father walk slowly but steadily out.

  *** *** ***

  “This is excellent chicken fettuccine, Morgan. I order this all the time at the best Italian restaurant in town, and it’s not nearly this good,” Lydia said, savoring her next bite. “You have a cooking talent.”

  “Thanks,” Morgan said. “It really only extends to pasta. I’m hoping I can convince Thea to let me try this out on her customers.”

  “Yes. I heard you stepped in it pretty deep and sank all the way to your eyeballs,” Lydia told him.

  Morgan looked at his father. “Garden metaphor?” he asked.

  Gerald nodded and smiled.

  Morgan looked back at Thea’s aunt. “Did you like the fettuccine well enough to tell me what I can do to make this right with Thea?”

  “Why don’t you tell me the story? Thea doesn’t really talk much about her private life. She just sort of announces she’s mad and goes on,” Lydia said, causing Morgan to sigh.

  The reluctance to talk about Thea was a good sign, Lydia thought. It meant he didn’t want to cause Thea any more problems.

  “I had a wrong idea and accused Thea of doing something she didn’t do. We had a fight. I have since apologized, but she doesn’t want to hear it,” Morgan told her.

  Lydia laughed. “Thea holds a grudge, but she isn’t petty. Seems like an apology ought to have done the trick to clear up a simple misunderstanding.”

  Morgan stood and took his dishes to the sink. “I guess it wasn’t that simple. I investigated her without her knowing about it, and then accused her of committing a crime. I even threatened to have her arrested when she argued about it.”

  Lydia picked up her wine and sipped, fighting not to laugh. She could only imagine how furious her niece must have gotten. If she hadn’t seen the remorse on Morgan’s face, she doubted she’d be laughing about it herself.

  “I can’t see Althea taking that well. She’s led an exemplary life. What was Thea’s response to what you said?” Lydia asked.

  Though Amy had already shared what she’d seen, Lydia was very interested to hear the playback from Morgan’s point of view.

  “Thea told me I was awful, punched me twice, and gave me a bloody nose. And that wasn’t the worst part,” Morgan said ruefully. “The worst was when she said she wished I had never touched her.”

  The laughter couldn’t be held in any longer. “Oh, Morgan, you must have really pushed all her buttons. I don’t think Thea ever raised her hand to Angus Carmichael no matter what he said or did.”

  Morgan thought about that for a minute, and then asked the question he wanted to know. “What did her husband do after she threw the beer at his head? How did he make up to her?”

  “Oh, that was when he insulted her in front of customers at the restaurant. Nothing worked that time,” Lydia said, knowing Morgan would be surprised and disappointed. “Angus had to wait her out. He slept in the guest room and was very polite for the better part of a month. Eventually, Thea had a change of heart.”

  “I don’t think Thea is going to change her mind about me willingly,” Morgan said. “Also, I need her back now. I only have a few months left in Sedona.”

  “There’s not much you can do sometimes except wait it out. Keep showing up and sticking around. My guess is there will come a point where Thea will need you. After all, you’re the man Thea gave up her wididity to, so it may not take as long as you think,” Lydia said, poking a grinning Gerald in the arm. “No smart remarks from you, old man.”

  “I haven’t said a word all evening. You and Morgan have talked about Thea the whole time,” Gerald said, laughing.

  Morgan looked between them. “Sorry, Dad. I didn’t mean to exclude you.”

  Then he looked at Lydia. “What do you mean Thea gave me her wididity?”

  Gerald grinned harder when Lydia widened her eyes and didn’t answer. He looked at Morgan, amusement lighting his eyes.

  “Look it up son, and use that argument on Thea next time you have words. Don’t say I never gave you any good advice, because this is gold,” Gerald said.

  Lydia smacked Gerald on his shoulder making him call out and laugh harder.

  “Damn, woman! I didn’t say a
nything 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 we
ren’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.