Placing one quick kiss to her lips, he turned and then he was gone.
Chapter 8
“Morgan asked you what!” Kylie asked, staring at Lena disbelievingly.
Lena waited until the waitress had placed her order of French fries on the table and walked away before directing her attention back to Kylie. “I know it sounds crazy but he asked me to marry him and have his baby.”
Kylie continued to stare at her, saying nothing, and then she shook her head, smiling as she plucked a fry off Lena’s plate. “So you’re it.”
Lena lifted a confused brow. “I’m what?”
“Morgan’s perfect woman.”
Lena frowned. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Kylie scooted in her chair closer to the table so her voice wouldn’t carry. At least she scooted as close as her huge stomach would allow. “Everyone in the Steele family knows about Morgan’s obsession with finding the perfect woman. Evidently, you’ve made quite an impression on him.”
“Or he’s realized there’s no such thing as a perfect woman, like there’s no perfect man. But that doesn’t explain why he wants that person to be me.”
Kylie rolled her eyes. “Aw, come on, Lena. Morgan has shown interest in you since that night the two of you met at that charity ball. He asked you out several times but you turned him down.”
Lena munched on her fry thinking that yes, he had asked her out, but she really hadn’t taken him seriously at first. But when he’d asked a few more times she thought it would be a smart move to break things down to him as to why she wouldn’t go out with him. Now he was asking her not only to marry him but also to have his baby.
“So, are you going to do it?”
Kylie’s question interrupted her thoughts. She knew of all people, she had to be totally honest with her best friend. “Would I sound like an awful person if I said I was really thinking about the idea? Gosh, Kylie, he’s the first man to take Mom into consideration. He actually said he would be proud to have her for his child’s grandmother.”
“Wow, that’s deep, isn’t it?”
“Yes, for me it is.” Another thing that was deep was the kiss they’d shared. Even now if she were to touch her lips with her fingertips, she was convinced she would still be able to feel the warmth of Morgan’s lips there. “But there are other things to consider,” she finally said, sighing.
“Like what?”
“Although our union will be a marriage of purpose, as he put it, he still wants us to project a semblance of realness. In other words, he has no qualms about us sharing a bed.”
“But you do?”
“Yes. No. Hell, I don’t know.” The last couple of guys she’d dated—way back when—took that time to cross her mind. They hadn’t done anything to light a fire within her, at least not to the degree Morgan had with just a mere kiss. “Trust me, it wouldn’t bother me one bit to sleep with Morgan,” she finally said. “But what if we start something that neither of us can finish?”
“Meaning?”
“What if things don’t work out and he decides I’m not the woman he wants to live with or the right woman for the mother of his child?”
Kylie shrugged. “Knowing Morgan I’m sure he’s thought this thing through before approaching you with it. If I were you, the only thing I’d worry about is what decision I’ll be giving him in five days.”
She hadn’t dreamed today, Lena thought, slipping beneath the covers later that night. She lay on her back and stared up at the ceiling as memories flooded her. It was hard to believe Morgan had actually asked her to marry him and have his baby.
After Morgan had left her office she had hung back, unable to leave as she’d planned to do. Instead she had sat at her desk trying to rationalize what had happened moments earlier, replaying in her mind his every word, every stroke of his tongue in her mouth.
In the end when she’d realized she hadn’t been hallucinating, she had called Kylie and asked to meet her at the nearest Burger King after she closed her florist shop that day.
After their talk she had left to pick up her mother from day care, barely remembering what their conversation had been about on the ride home. The only thing she remembered was the one single question that was still floating around in her head.
Why, of all the women he knew, he wanted to marry her?
From the day she had agreed to sell his house and help him locate another one, things had been strictly business between them. Even when he’d had dinner with her and her mother on Sunday he hadn’t shown any obvious signs that he was attracted to her.