Hidden Gifts (A Castle Mountain Lodge Romance) (19 page)

~ ~

“Well, he didn’t sleep with Taryn,” Astrid said and sat back in her chair.

Morgan had been filling her roommate in on all the details of the last few weeks, including her growing feelings for Bo. To be fair, Astrid had mostly figured those out on her own. She had some sort of sixth sense for that type of thing anyway, so there was no point in trying to deny it. By the time Morgan had gotten to the part of the story where she’d met the half-naked girl at Bo’s condo, she was so tired, she almost didn’t hear what Astrid had said.
 

“What?” It was Jeff who asked, his mouth hanging open in disbelief. “He took Taryn home?” He shook his head.
 

“Why do you seem so shocked?” Astrid asked. “She’s a total cutie.”
 

Jeff sat back and folded his arms over his chest. Sometime over the past hour, he’d sobered up enough to be part of the conversation. “Yeah, Taryn’s a hottie for sure. But I’m confused about his taking anyone home at all.”

“Really?” Astrid cocked her head and laughed. “Because the Bo I know—“

“He’s changed,” Jeff interrupted. “I’ve known Bo a long time and I’ve never seen him as settled as I have in the last few weeks. It’s different, I’m telling you.”

“Wait,” Morgan jumped in. Her head was spinning from exhaustion and everything she’d heard. She focused on Astrid. “What did you mean, he didn’t sleep with her?”
 

“Taryn? I don’t know what happened, but she was busy bitching about it to anyone who’d listen,” Astrid said. “It’s no secret that she’s been trying to get him for the last few years, but he’s had no time for her. Apparently, he’s the one who suggested they go back to his place, but
…
”

“What?” Morgan needed to hear it.
 

“When they got there, he freaked out and ran off.”

“Freaked out?”

“I knew he wouldn’t sleep with her,” Jeff said. “He was drunk and totally out of his head.”

“There’s a lot of that going around, I see,” Astrid said, giving him a pointed look.

Confusion and unanswered questions swirled through Morgan’s head and she rested it in her hands on the table. “I don’t know what to think anymore. I just don’t know what to do.”
 

“I think that’s obvious,” Astrid said.
 

Morgan looked up to see her friends exchanging knowing looks. “What?” she demanded. “What’s so obvious?”

“You need to talk to him.”

“I can’t.” Morgan shook her head. “No, he has too much to worry about right now. Ella needs to come first.”

“And she will,” Jeff said. He put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “But I know him. Bo needs you, too.”

“I don’t—“

“Go,” Astrid said. “You need to talk to him. Tell him how you feel.”

Morgan shook her head. “I want to, but
…
”

Astrid’s eyes locked on hers. “Whatever it is holding you back,” she said, “let it go. Or you’ll regret it forever.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

For a moment, Bo considered waking Ella up when he carried her from the back seat of the car and put her in the bed. He wanted to talk to her. He wanted to tell her how sorry he was for letting her go with Clara Kersey. He wanted to hug her and have her hug him back. Or at the least, feel her little hand clasped around his fingers.
 

He settled for watching her sleep after he tucked her into the big hotel room bed. He sat on the end of the mattress and watched her eyelids flutter and her chest rise and fall with each deep breath. She was home now, and that’s all that mattered.
 

Except it wasn’t home. The unwelcome thought hit him as he looked around the room. A little girl’s room should be full of color. Pinks, purples, yellows and greens. Not beige. Pictures of rainbows, horses, bunnies—or whatever it was that little girls liked—should be everywhere. Not professionally-done, mass-produced landscapes adorning the walls. Bo shook his head. A hotel room was no place for a child. It was a temporary solution, but the time for temporary was over.
 

A knock on the door caught his attention and he slipped out of Ella’s room, pulling the door shut behind him. He could think of only one person who would be coming to see him, and his heart raced faster at the thought of seeing Morgan again. Even though he’d just left her, it had been too long. Besides, he had a lot he needed to say to her, too. No one should have to be so patient, and put up with so much from one man. He’d been self absorbed and a jerk, and he had a lot of explaining to do. He just hoped it wasn’t too late.

He swung the door to the condo open, his smile melting off his face when he saw it wasn’t Morgan at all.

“Hello, Bo,” Carmen said. “I brought you some dinner.” She held up the tray she was holding as if he hadn’t been able to see it.
 

“Um, thanks.” He stepped to the side to make room for her to enter. “I don’t want to sound rude, but, why are you here?”

Carmen walked through the condo and placed the tray on the kitchen island before she turned to face him. “I want to help.”

Bo didn’t say anything. There had to be a catch.
 

“There’s no catch,” she said, reading his mind. “I really do want to help. I heard about Ella and I really am glad you got her back.”

Bo searched her face for any indication that she was trying to trick him. “Thank you,” he said cautiously. “I’m glad, too.”
 

“Have you thought about what you’re going to do now?”
 

That was it. Carmen had come to kick him out of the suite. Of course, it couldn’t last forever and it was his own damn fault that he hadn’t thought of a plan. He refused to look away from her. He forced his face into a hard line. If she were going to force him and his daughter out onto the street, he sure as hell wasn’t going to go quietly.

“Don’t look so angry,” she said. “I’m not kicking you out. I told you—I want to help.”
 

It took him a minute to let her words sink in. “You’re not kicking me out?”

“No.” She shook her head. “But you do know that you can’t stay here forever. I will have to rent it out soon.”

He nodded and then with the final bit of bravado draining from him, Bo sank to the couch. “I don’t know where to go,” he admitted. He watched as Carmen’s face split into a smile.
 

“But I do,” she said.

~ ~

By the time he walked Carmen to the door half an hour later, Bo's head was spinning as he tried to absorb everything she'd told him.
 

“Think about it,” she said, not for the first time. “The cabin's just sitting there.”

Bo reached around her for the door handle. “And management agreed to let me stay there?”

“Rent it,” Carmen clarified. “And of course provide the labor to fix it up.” Carmen moved to leave. “Look,” she said, “I know it's a lot to take in right now when you have so much going on. But it's a real option. At least for now.”

It
was
an option. Bo hadn't even considered the small caretaker cabin. No one ever gave it any thought. Built almost one hundred years ago, it was a two-bedroom log house that the family that used to maintain the grounds for the Lodge had lived in. Over the years, it had seen occasional upkeep, but mostly it had fallen into disrepair.

“Thank you, Carmen,” he said. “I mean it. You didn't have to do this.”

She shrugged and gave him a small smile. “No, I didn't. But I see how you are with her. And I think you're both so good for each other. What you both need is a family.”

“She's an amazing girl.” While he spoke, Bo stared out into the darkness beyond his door. “Ella has totally changed my life.”

“She has,” Carmen said, “but who said I was talking about Ella?”

Bo snapped his head around so he could look her in the eyes but Carmen didn't offer an explanation; she simply shrugged again and laughed. “Good night, Bo.”

Long after she'd left, Bo stood with the door open, letting the fresh mountain air soothe him. Morgan. She’d totally filled his thoughts. At least when he wasn't thinking about Ella and how to be a good dad. But there was so much more to think about. Hell, there was a lot more to think about and Bo couldn’t remember there ever being a time when he’d been more excited to experience more. A lot more. A life with Ella in it would be more. So much more. And so would a life with Morgan. No matter what Jeff said, what anyone said, Bo wouldn't screw it up because it was everything he never knew he wanted. And he wanted Morgan. If it wasn't too late.

He sighed, and took another look down the dimly lit pathway that led to the Lodge and farther, to the staff quarters where Morgan was. The pull to go to her was strong. Maybe if he could just explain everything, she’d understand and give him another chance? But that wasn’t an option, not with his little girl asleep inside.
 

Bo turned and closed the door behind him. He’d have to wait until morning before he could see her. Until then he was pretty sure he would spend a restless night thinking of all the things he was going to say to her, the things she’d say back and all the ways he’d like to make up when they were done talking.
 

Those thoughts finally helped Bo drift off to sleep. He dreamed of Morgan holding him close, the taste of her on his lips, and the sound of his name on her lips.
 

He lurched awake in bed and scanned the room.

Morgan.
 

Chapter Twenty-Four

Before she could think twice about what she was about to do, or even think it through again, Morgan jogged down the path towards Bo’s condo and straight up to the door. Astrid and Jeff had convinced her to go after what she wanted, and even with all his idiosyncrasies and his issues that he still had to deal with, Bo was undoubtedly what she wanted. She could sit back and let this great man and his beautiful daughter pass her by, or she could go and fight for what she wanted. And she intended to fight.
 

Morgan barely took a breath before she banged her fist on the front door. She couldn’t give herself time to chicken out or rethink what she was doing. When he didn’t answer, she raised her fist again and banged three times, hard. “Bo!”

Part of her told her to walk away, to make him come to her. But Morgan had had enough of playing it safe, of waiting for things to happen. It was time to make things happen.
 

“Bo!” She knocked her fist against the door again but before she could call for him a third time the door swung open.
 

Morgan had been so fired up about storming over to Bo’s condo and confronting him that she hadn’t given much thought to what she’d actually say when he answered the door. Especially if he answered the door wearing nothing but pajama bottoms, with his hair tousled from sleep and looking hotter than hell.
 

“Morgan.” He half whispered, half spoke her name as if he wasn’t sure it was her standing on his doorstep in the middle of the night or an apparition. “What are you
…
why are you
…
”

His confusion was enough for Morgan to regain her senses and put thoughts of running her hands down Bo’s naked chest out of her mind. She shook her head and remembered why she’d come. “I need answers, Bo.” She pushed past him with a gentle shove and walked into the living room. She didn’t have to look to know that he’d follow.
 

“Morgan, I—“

“No.” She held up her hand to ward off his protests. She hoped he didn’t notice the way it shook, just a little, from her nerves. “I have something to say, and I need to say it.” She took a deep breath. “I wasn’t even going to come here tonight. I know you have a lot going on with Ella and probably the last thing on your mind right now is having a relationship with me. Hell, from what I understand, having a relationship is never the first thing on your mind.”

“Morgan, that’s—“

“Let me finish.” She shook her head and wouldn’t look in his eyes. “I know the rumors, Bo. Everyone knows that you’re a player. Didn’t you tell me yourself that you don’t ‘do relationships’?. I get it. I do.” She turned away and paced the length of the room. “And you know what? I didn’t want a relationship, either,” she said into the picture window. “I came here to get away from all that. But then you were
…
well, you were
…
”

“What?” Bo had moved across the room so he stood right behind her. He was so close that she could feel his breath on her neck. Her entire body tightened in response to his proximity. “I was all what, Morgan?”
 

She held her breath but didn’t dare turn around.
 

“Say it,” he challenged her.

“You were perfect,” she said. And then she did turn around. “You were so damned perfect.”
 

Bo frowned and looked away. “I’m far from perfect, Morgan. I’ve done nothing but screw everything up my whole life. Look at Ella. Look at what happened there. You can’t call that perfect.”
 

“You’re perfect for me,” she said. “Everything that makes you who you are makes you perfect for who I am. I didn’t want to fall in love with you.” Morgan laughed. “I didn’t even want to like you. That first day I met you, I didn’t think I’d ever met someone so pompous and full of themselves as you. But then seeing you with Ella
…
the way you tried so hard
…
the way you changed everything for her. Your total willingness to change everything for one little girl, I—“

“Wait.” Bo looked up and straight into her eyes, holding her gaze. “What did you say?”

“Ella—“

“Not Ella,” he said. “What you said about me. Loving me.”
 

Morgan swallowed hard. She hadn’t meant to lay her feelings out so openly. She’d been caught up in the moment and until the second the words came out of her mouth, she didn’t even realize herself that she felt that way. But she did. And because she’d already said it, she might as well own it.
 

She looked him square in the eyes and with only a slight waver in her voice said, “I just told you I’ve fallen in love with you. I didn’t mean to, and Lord knows I can think of a thousand reasons why I shouldn’t have, but I did and—“