Page 18 of Shelter for Morgan

"Garlic powder."

"Nice. No vampires."

He shook his head. "Paprika."

"Mmm... Smoky."

He swallowed hard.

"Cayenne Powder."

"The Porsche of spices..."

They laughed at that together.

"And brown sugar."

She froze, her motions stilled.

He turned to look at her and wondered if he'd forgotten something.

She looked at him, a direct, piercing gaze.

And holy hell, he was about to lick his lips in reaction, or was it preparation?

Her eyelids lowered a little and she offered him a half smile before breaking out into song. "Pour some sugar on mehhhhh!"

Then, as if she hadn't stunned him, she went right back to rubbing the spice into their dinner.

"Sorry," she laughed, "I couldn't help myself."

He managed a little smile as if she hadn't just tested his own resolve. "That was an inspired performance."

"Oh?" she leaned over and nudged him with her elbow. "I have other options. Like..." She bounced a little in place as she continued with the next chop. "Sugar... uh uh uh uh uh uh... Oh, honey, honey..."

As she continued to bop along to the song, Rhett came to a surprisingly easy realization.

He'd been lamenting losing his quiet earlier, but now that he was standing elbow to elbow with Morgan at his kitchen counter, listening to her sing an oldie song while her hands were massaging their dinner, he knew that this... This was better.

This crazy new situation was something he'd never wanted until it was right there beside him.

CHAPTER FOUR

MORGAN

The first weekend at Palmer's apartment had been interesting. He'd been gone for a whole day at the station and while she was used to living alone, she found being alone in his apartment a strange experience.

He'd told her to feel free to go anywhere and look into anything.

He'd even said to call him if she needed anything, but she knew what it was like to live with a first responder. Her brother had said she could call him at any time, but she knew that Jacob needed to keep his wits about him on the clock.

The same thing was true of Palmer.

Rhett as the others called him.

So, she'd kept to herself, focusing on her lesson prep.

She'd received electronic copies of all of the filed lesson plans from the teacher she was replacing. It was a good set of plans. Like the kinds of plans they'd studied in her degree program. She knew she was lucky in her assignment.

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