“What’s up?” Joe asked without having to take his eyes off the road to read her expression. He knew her well enough that he could feel her tension radiating from her.
“Are you going to tell me what’s wrong or make me keep imagining the worst-case scenario over here?” she finally blurted, a little less serenely than she had practiced in her mind.
“Oh. Shit.” Joe reached over and found her hand, still without looking. He surrounded it in warm reassurance, with a gentle squeeze. “I didn’t mean to give off bad vibes. I had an amazing time tonight. Thank you for arranging that. I really…needed it.”
“You’re welcome.” Morgan lifted his hand to her mouth and kissed his knuckles. “I did too. I hadn’t realized how wound up we’ve been and how…off. What really happened in Middletown? Are you okay?”
Joe hesitated, as if debating whether or not to come clean. What the hell?
“We don’t keep secrets from each other, remember?” Morgan tried not to raise her voice, but it climbed in pitch if not in volume. He was scaring her, though she was sure he didn’t mean to. “Don’t ruin my just-fucked peace, please.”
He laughed at that. “Sorry. But what I say might do that anyway if I tell you the truth.”
Shit, it was worse than she thought. “You’re seeing someone?”
Joe swerved to the shoulder and slammed on the brakes. He stared at her then, his mouth hanging open. “Like who? Who would I want beside you?”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged, feeling kind of dumb for voicing her darkest fears.
“Cupcake, what could make you think I’d so much as look at anyone else? You’re the sweetest woman in the entire world, and the only one I want. You put up with all my shit. The late hours on the crew, the late hours with the crew, you know. All of it.” Joe unfastened her seatbelt and hauled her into his arms. He kissed her until she could hardly breathe and definitely couldn’t argue with his desire. “Maybe I didn’t fuck you well enough back at the cabin.”
Morgan melted, settling into his fierce embrace. “No, you did. It’s just… I don’t know. Things have felt a little weird for a while. If it’s not that, then what’s bugging you?”
“Can we talk about this at home?” he asked with one lingering kiss on her nose.
She nodded and he pulled back onto the street. It took only a minute to park in their usual spot at the rear of her bakery. When she went to open her door, he said, “Stay. I’ll come and get you.”
“I only had two glasses of wine,” she grumbled when he scooped her into his arms.
Morgan held on to their dinner and her purse. She wanted to make sure Joe ate before they finally caved to exhaustion and went to bed. But that might not be for a while yet. It was best that they finish this discussion before the kids were there. They never argued in front of Nathan and Klea, not if they could help it, and never about anything serious.
Then again, they didn’t fight much, period.
Joe kicked the door shut, then took her straight to their room before setting her down and taking off her socks and shoes. Then he did the same for himself.
He climbed into bed and dragged her down beside him. Only when they settled in together, in their space, wrapped in each other’s arms did he whisper, “I hate being away from my uncle Tom and Eli. And all the rest of the Hot Rods and Hot Rides, to be honest.”
“Oh.” Morgan craned her neck to look at him directly. “That’s it?”
“Uh, yeah.” He shrugged. “I mean, isn’t that enough? I can’t see how I can be in two places at once. So no matter what I do, I’m screwed. Ripped in half. And I don’t know how to fix it.”
“Joe, I’m sorry you were feeling like that. Why didn’t you just tell me?” Morgan rubbed his chest, easing the muscles that had begun to tighten again. It wasn’t good for him to be so stressed all the time. Especially not about something he couldn’t really change. “We’ll make more of an effort to go see them. It’s not too far for a long weekend. I’m sure Mike will be flexible with your schedule, and I think Rosie is doing great now that I promoted her to manager. Especially in the summer, we could get out of here every once in a while—”
Joe wasn’t as excited as she suddenly felt by the picture she was painting.
So she waited for him to open up to her. “Truth is, cupcake, this place isn’t big enough for the four of us anymore. It hasn’t been for a while, but we’ve been making do because it’s convenient to the shop and…”
“Sentimental,” Morgan supplied softly with a nod. “But you’re right. The kids are getting older. They’re going to need their own space soon. Privacy as they go through their teenage years.”
“So what would you think about moving?” Joe asked.
Morgan’s heart spasmed, but it was just a reflexive reaction. She took a second to think about it, then nodded. “I already told you, you’re right. We should. I’m going to miss this place. It’s filled with so many happy memories, but as long as we’re all together, we’ll make more in a new place. Maybe I could even have a ginormous kitchen where I could test my recipes and you could have a workshop like you’ve always wanted. You know, I think there are some lots available out by Dave and Kayla where you could build whatever we like from the ground up.”
“We could, yeah. But… As I’m getting older I’m starting to realize that I shouldn’t take my family for granted.”
“The crew—”
“Not only them.” Joe rubbed his eyes, accenting the fine lines that had appeared around them lately. To her, it only made him more attractive, this man he’d grown into as they’d evolved together.
“Just say it, Joe.” She put her arms around him and held him tight. “What do you really want? If money or life or anything else holding us back weren’t a factor, what would you wish for? Tell me, and we’ll work toward it together like we’ve always done.”
“Damn, I love you.” He crushed her in his arms before tipping his head down. Instinctively, or maybe through the muscle memory they’d developed over the past fourteen years, they met in a perfect kiss. And when she was breathless, he pulled back long enough to murmur, “I was thinking about a place farther out to start over.”
“Like Groveport? Or maybe the Pinebrook area?” Morgan wouldn’t love having to make that kind of commute every day, but it was doable if that’s what he had in mind. After all, he’d moved in and supported her as they made her dreams a reality. Now maybe it was her turn to support his.
“No. I mean, what about moving to Middletown?” The instant he said it, he froze, as if he couldn’t believe he’d proposed it out loud.
“Oh.” Morgan blinked, trying not to react too harshly or too hastily. Holy shit. This was what he’d been wrestling with. She considered what he was really telling her. That it hurt him to be separated from his uncle Tom, who was getting older, and his cousin, Eli. What right did she have to insist they live apart just so she could enjoy her usual existence without too many disruptions?
But their jobs, their businesses, their family, their friends… No, that wasn’t a strong enough word to describe the crew. Their lovers. Their lifelong companions.