Mac responded a few minutes later. Of course! I’d be glad to chat about that any time. I could probably meet you for a quick one tomorrow. I’ll hit you up after lunch to see how your day is going.
Thanks, Mac. Look forward to it.
Same!
The guy was frantically busy but had offered to make time to help him. People were like that here, even the ones he hadn’t grown up with. A guy could get comfortable in a place like this, which was something he never would’ve thought about Gansett until he lived through the tragic loss of his brother and saw how the community had rallied around him in his time of need.
That experience had forever changed his impression of the place where he’d been raised. However, he’d been through enough loss to know that a tragedy often brought out the best in people, and while he’d been deeply moved by the response of the Gansett community, could he be happy on the island long term? Should he give up his own career as a master electrician to keep Billy’s business running? He’d worked long and hard to get his master electrician license, but he was still working for someone else’s company. At one time, he’d planned to start his own but hadn’t yet gotten around to it.
If he ran the gym, he’d be self-employed and make as much as he had in his own job. Did he want to give up on all that time and effort he’d put into his specialty to become a gym owner? During one sleepless night, he’d made a mental list of the pros and cons, and the gym had come out on top financially. If only he felt the same passion for running a gym that he did for being an electrician.
He glanced at the clock to find it inching closer to five. Time to wrap it up for the day and go get ready for his night out with Sierra. He’d made a reservation at Stephanie’s Bistro, which was known for great food, as well as entertainment by Julia Lawry.
It’d been such a gift to have her sing at the service. She’d been recommended to him by numerous people and hadn’t hesitated to accept his invitation to sing for Billy, who’d been a friend to her and her partner, Deacon Taylor.
He hoped Sierra would enjoy the evening he’d planned for them.
Back at the apartment, he showered and changed into black jeans and a black button-down shirt, rolling up the sleeves to reveal his tattooed forearms. His sister, Amanda, had teased him about his all-black uniform, a memory that made him chuckle as he checked his appearance in the mirror behind the bedroom door.
He’d teased Billy about having a full-length mirror behind his door like a teenage girl would have. Billy had put him in a headlock and said he liked to be able to see how he looked before he left the house and to shut the fuck up about it.
Tears stung his eyes at the memories of his late siblings that came out of nowhere to remind him how very alone in the world he was now that Billy was gone, too. Losing Amanda had been hard enough. But also losing Billy was just cruel.
Morgan pulled himself together, put the sadness to the side and tried to get into the right frame of mind to enjoy a nice evening with Sierra. God knew he needed the reprieve from the difficulties he’d faced every day since his brother went missing. He ran some gel through his dark hair that had more silver strands than it’d had before Billy died and arranged it to his liking.
Satisfied that he looked as good as he ever did, he sniffed a couple of Billy’s bottles of cologne, chose the least offensive scent and slapped on Billy’s prized TAG Heuer watch, feeling a bit guilty to be wearing something that’d been so important to his brother. But life was for the living, and the watch was of no use to Billy anymore. Morgan figured he might as well wear it in his honor.
If he decided to stay on the island, he’d need to get his own place as well as his own vehicle, he thought as he drove Billy’s truck the short distance to pick up Sierra. It was one thing to take over Billy’s successful business. It was another thing altogether to fully inhabit his late brother’s life.
Chapter 13
In the summer, they could’ve walked across town to the restaurant. But with a frigid breeze blowing in from the ocean, it was too cold to walk. Morgan pulled into a parking spot outside Sierra’s building as a light went on outside the door upstairs.
Sierra was down the stairs and in the truck before he could get out to hold the door for her, although she probably wouldn’t want him to bother. How he knew that, he couldn’t say. Call it a hunch.
“Brrr, it’s freezing.”
“Hey.” Great opening, Morgan. Absolutely brilliant.
“Hey yourself. How was your day?”
“Not terrible, which is an improvement over the past few months.”
“Glad to hear it was an okay day.”
“How about you?”
“Two clients and one cancellation due to the birth of quadruplet grandsons, which meant I could cut out early. So all in all, a good day.”
“Quadruplets, huh?”
“Yeah, Adam and Abby McCarthy.”
“Mac’s younger brother, right?”
“Yes, one of them. He has three brothers.”
“I remember that. He was in my class, and his brother Grant was a year behind us. I didn’t know the younger two. Everything all right with the babies and their mom?”
