“Of course it’s windy, Lena. It’s March,” her mother said, waving off her excuse with her hand.
“And there’s a cap in my jacket you can borrow,” Morgan tacked on.
Lena sighed. Both her mother and Morgan were looking at her expectantly, as if waiting for her to come up with another excuse. She smiled over at her mother but inwardly narrowed her eyes at Morgan. Why was he going along with Odessa on this? Just wait until they got outside. There was a lot she had to say to him.
“Fine,” she said, standing. “Let me change into something more appropriate for walking.”
Ten minutes later she returned to find Morgan had helped her mother clear the table. She found them in the kitchen, again sharing another joke. “I’m ready.” At the sound of her voice they both turned and smiled, and from the sparkle in her mother’s eyes Lena could tell she was in high spirits.
“Here’s the cap I was telling you about,” Morgan said, moving away from her mother to come stand in front of her. Instinctively, she reached out to take it from him, but instead of handing it to her he placed it on her head. He stepped back and then tipped his head to the side as if to admire his handiwork. “It will work. Looks good on you.”
Lena decided she needed to see for herself. She walked a couple of steps out of the kitchen to look into the huge mirror that hung on the dining room wall. He was right. It work would and it looked good…if blue, black and silver were your colors and you supported the Carolina Panthers.
She turned around and saw that Morgan had followed her out of the kitchen and was leaning against the door fame. His muscular shoulders came close to filling the doorway. “You do know I’m not a Carolina native and that I was born and raised in New York. Buffalo in fact,” she said, meeting his gaze, and a warm oozy feeling flowed through her bloodstream. That seemed to happen each and every time she looked into his eyes.
He smiled. “Is that a cute way of telling me that you prefer rooting for the Buffalo Bills?”
“Not necessarily. Lucky for you I quickly converted when the Panthers came to town.”
“We native Carolinians do appreciate that,” he said in a voice that was warm and engaging. He straightened his stance. “Are you ready for our walk?”
“Yes.” Ready but not looking forward to it, she thought further.
Instead of jogging or fast walking, they eased into a nice leisurely walk. Neither said anything for a long while, but Morgan was prepared for Lena to have a lot to say. He knew she hadn’t liked the way her mother, with his help, had orchestrated this stroll.
Although it was windy, the sun was peeking through the clouds, making it a beautiful day the week before the first day of spring. Not that it mattered in Charlotte. Spring came when spring came. Last year it snowed on the first day of spring. Occasionally, they were visited by the snowstorm the locals called the Beast from the East. Last one had hit a couple of years ago, snowing everyone in the mountains, and surrounding areas, in for a few days.
Deciding they had walked long enough without conversation he decided to start one. “Nice day, isn’t it?”
He watched Lena snatch her head around as if she’d forgotten he was there. It was his opinion that she looked downright cute, dressed in a green jogging suit and well-worn sneakers and wearing his cap. “Yes.” She then resumed looking straight ahead, up the road, with her mouth shut.
His lips crinkled at the corners. If she thought he was going to let her get away with one-word responses, she had another thought coming. “Tell me in twenty-five words, but not less than ten, just what do you think is nice about it?”
She turned her head slightly, and he knew it was taking a lot of her willpower to keep her features expressionless. He could just imagine what she was thinking. When she didn’t say anything he decided to coax her on. “Come on, Lena, you can do it. You’re a Realtor so you have to be full of nice, descriptive words. Try it. I double-dare you.”
Lena couldn’t help the smile that spread across her features. For some strange reason she found Morgan’s antics endearing. “Okay, let me tell you what’s so nice about it…from a Realtor’s viewpoint.”
Smiling, he tilted his head downward to hers. “I’m listening.”
“Well, there’s the scent of spring in the air,” she said, dimpling, then breathing in deeply. “That’s always nice. Not to mention the brisk breeze that’s not too cold. One of the reasons I bought a home in this area was for that lake over there,” she said, pointing to the huge body of water that ran through the subdivision.