Lifelong Affair (10 page)

His
mouth twisted derisively. 'That isn't so much. And I would be gaining so much
more, a beautiful wife, a healthy son.'

Morgan
blushed at the compliment. 'It really does need thinking about, Alex.'

'Take
all the time you need. I won't rush you.' The thinking began that night, to
such an extreme that she hardly slept. She looked at Alex's idea from every
angle, and every time she came up with the same answer. But it was an answer
she didn't want. America was her home, with Sam as her boy-friend, and her
parents not too far away; she didn't need a complicated man like Alex Hammond
in her life. He had the depths of no man she had ever met before!

She
almost turned and ran when she entered the dining-room the next morning to find
only Rita Hammond there. The other woman took great pleasure in telling her that
Alex had already eaten and was in his study doing some last-minute work before
driving her to the airport.

'But
it gives us a chance to talk alone,' Rita Hammond added warningly.

Morgan
instantly stiffened, deciding coffee was all e could stomach this morning if
the other woman was going to start being insulting.

"What
did Alex want to talk to you about last night?

Her
eyes widened at this open attack—talk about straight for the jugular! 'He
didn't tell you?' she prevaricated.

Rita
shot her a vehement look. 'I would hardly be iiin. if that were the case. Alex
has always been i—solitary person. I have no doubt he'll tell me, in
time.'

But
you'd rather not wait?' Morgan derided.

No,'
Rita agreed tautly.

Morgan
drew in a deep breath, sipping her coffee skrwly. 'I can't tell you either, Mrs
Hammond,' she gave the only answer she could in the circumstances. 'If Alex had
wanted you to know he would have told you. I'm afraid you'll just have to wait
until he decides to tell you.'

The
other woman's face became an ugly mask in her anger. 'Don't get clever with me
on the basis of one kiss, Morgan!' she rasped. A little comforting got out of
hand, I refuse to believe it was any more than that!'

'Believe
away,' she shrugged dismissively. 'I can't add to that.'

'You
don't need to,' Rita scorned. 'I have more faith in Alex than to believe he
would become seriously involved with a woman like you.'

'That
will be enough!' Alex spoke coldly from the doorway behind them. 'I will not
have you insulting Morgan any more, Mother,' he added tautly.

'But
---
'

'I'm
ready to leave for the airport now if you are, Morgan,' he cut across his
mother's protest.

She
gave him a grateful smile and stood up. 'I just have to say goodbye to
Courtney.'

'He'll
hardly know anything about it,' the older
woman derided, still pale from
her son's anger with her.

'And
it isn't goodbye,' Alex added softly.

'It
isn't?' his mother demanded sharply, forgetting to be wary of his biting tongue
in her surprise.

He
looked at her with chilling grey eyes. 'Morgan intends returning to us in a few
weeks' time,' he informed her.

'I
didn't know that,' his mother flushed.

'Oh,
Morgan always intended to return, she has Courtney's future to think of.
Doesn't she?' He looked at Morgan challengingly.

Her
gaze was caught and held by his. 'I do,' she acknowledged softly. 'I'm just not
sure what it's going to be yet, she added the last for him alone.

'I
told you, there's no hurry,' he soothed gently.

She
knew that he was just assuring her that he hadn't changed his mind since last
night, and she was grateful for that. She had finally drifted off to sleep
about four o'clock this morning, waking with a start what seemed like minutes
later, sure that she must have dreamt it all, that Alex Hammond hadn't really
asked her to marry him. This man was too perceptive; he had been able to read
her uncertainty so easily. And he had reassured her as easily. There was no
mistake, he meant every word he had said last night.

'What's
going on here?' Rita Hammond cut in sharply. 'Alex, I want to know what's
happening between the two of you?'

His
brows rose arrogantly at the demand. 'Nothing is "happening" at the
moment, Mother,' he told her coldly. 'And even if it were I consider it no
one's business but Morgan's and my own. If there is ever anything I think you
should know about us you can be sure I'll tell you. In the meantime, Morgan and
I have to leave,' and he swept Morgan from the room with his hand firmly on her
arm.

'Whew!'
she breathed a sigh of relief once they were in the hallway, smiling up at
Alex. ' don't know how you dare talk to her like that.'

'Practice,'
he drawled abruptly, with no answering humour in his harsh features. 'Hurry and
see Courtney,' he glanced at the plain gold watch on his wrist. 'We don't have
long to get to the airport.'

It
broke Morgan's heart to say goodbye to the baby, and as if he knew she was
going away he began to cry, his little face all red in his distress.

It
won't be long,' she kissed his checks, feeling like crying herself, ' promise,
baby.'

Don't
make promises you can't keep,' Alex warned as he came into the room.

She
looked up at him, nuzzling against the baby's red curls. 'Oh, I'll keep it this
time. I just don't know if I'll be staying after that.'

'We
really should be going, Morgan,' he prompted gently. ' have to go into the
office after I've taken you to the airport.'

'Sorry,'
she mumbled, and put the baby back in his crib. 'I'm ready.' She set her mouth
bravely, turning and walking out of the room without a second glance.

Her
control lasted until they were actually on their way to the airport, when the
resounding cry of Courtney from upstairs as she left the house couldn't be
denied any longer. Oh, she was going to miss the baby!

'I
know,' Alex's hand came out to clasp hers. 'He's going to miss you too.'

'Will
he?' she choked. 'Will he really?'

Tm
sure he will,' he consoled gently. 'You underestimate his understanding of your
love.'

'Mrs
Ford said something along the same lines,' Morgan admitted.

'I
told you she's a good nurse.'

'There's no need to look so smug!' She pulled her hand
away from his. "I'll admit Mrs Ford has turned out to be very nice. But
she's going to have to leave eventually, then what happens to Courtney?'

Alex
shrugged broad shoulders beneath the charcoal grey suit and silver-grey shirt.
'That's a decision we'll both have to make when the time comes.'

He
made it sound as if it were already taken for granted that they were a couple,
that they were used to making decisions together. And in a way they were going
to be, for even if she didn't marry Alex they would still remain joint
guardians of Courtney until he was eighteen.

Los
Angeles looked the same smoggy, beautiful city Morgan had come to love during
the last two years of living and working here. It felt good to be back, and she
ran into Sam's arms as he met her at the airport, kissing him enthusiastically.

'Bad,
huh?' he sympathised, his arm about her shoulders as they left the airport
together.

'In
parts,' she nodded. 'Can we not talk about it, Sam? Not yet.'

'Okay,
honey.' He held her tightly against his side. 'Whenever you're ready.'

"Fell
me how work's going,' she prompted instead.

'The
usual.' He went on to tell her all the studio gossip. 'I think they're waiting
to see what your reaction is to signing another contract before they decide
what to do with Mary-Beth at the end of the season. There's been a rumour that
you don't want to stay on.' He gave her a sideways glance as they drove to her
apartment.

She
turned to grin at him. 'That's no rumour, Sam, I told Jerry myself weeks ago I
didn't think I would be interested.'

'It's
your decision, sweetheart,' he shrugged.

Sam's
lack of forcefulness, his way of respecting her opinions and wishes, had always
appealed to her in the past, and yet right now she could have done with more
than a little help in this most important decision of her ife. But she couldn't
talk about it with Sam, not at all,

She
made the trip to her parents' house the next day, shocked to see how ill her
father still looked, despite being out of hospital for several days. Glenna's
death had hit him harder than it had any of them.

 
I want to see my grandson,' he growled,
sitting out on the sun-deck of the house, the pallor of illness still with him
as he looked almost frail.

'A
couple of months before you can even think about flying, the doctor said,'
Morgan's mother put in lightly.

'What
do they know?' he muttered.

'Well,
/ know you aren't well enough.' Once again her mother was the one being strongs—and
doing it very well too!

'Tell
me what he looks like again, Morgan,' her

father
pleaded.

Throughout
the day she must have told her father half a dozen times what Courtney looked
like, the little things he did, but she told her father all over again, never
tiring of talking about the baby herself.

'He
should be called Court, not Courtney,' her father roared. 'What sort of name is
that for a boy?'

'Yours,'
she pointed out gently.

'And
of course the Hammonds have to carry it out to the letter,' he scorned.

'Of
course,' she agreed laughingly. 'Alex insisted.'

'I
must say he's always been very polite when we've spoken to him on the
telephone,' her mother gave her a searching look.

'Politeness costs nothing,' her father snapped.
'Especially to a Hammond. Think they own the damned world! Well, I want my
grandson here where he belongs,' he pinpointed Morgan with eyes as green as her
own. 'You should have brought him with you.'

'He's
too young to fly all that way, Dad. Especially being premature.'

'Well,
as soon as he's old enough I want him out here.'

She
avoided his gaze, chewing on her bottom lip. 'That might be a little difficult,
Dad. You sec, Alex is determined Courtney will stay with him.'

'And
who's he, to dictate where my grandson goes?' her father demanded. 'Glenna
should never—should never have
   
'
to Morgan's consternation he began to cry.

It
was a heartrending experience for her to see this strong man cry. In all the
years she could remember she could never recall her father having cried about
anything before, not even when his own father had died a couple of years ago.

She
watched with tears in her own eyes as her mother helped him through the house
to their bedroom, and she was still sitting in the armchair when her mother
returned a few minutes later.

'Losing
Glenna like that has been very hard on him,' her mother explained gently.
'Knowing about Courtney is what's kept him going.'

'I
know.' Morgan dried her cheeks. 'And I will bring him over here, as soon as I
can.'

'And
what will Alex Hammond have to say to that?'

She
turned away. Alex would agree to her bringing Courtney to America on only one
condition, she knew that. 'He—I think he'll be agreeable.'

The
work schedule was such over the next week that Morgan hardly had time to sleep,
let alone dwell on the unconscious decision she had made concerning Alex's
proposal. She continued to see Sam when their work schedules would allow it,
and on the eve of her departure back to England they had dinner together at his
beach-house.

'When
will you be back this time?" he queried casually.

She
smiled, lazing on the warm golden sand in the last of the evening's sunshine.
'Jerry has given me only a couple of days this time—no more than that,'
she successfully mimicked the director's voice. 'Then it's back for the last
two weeks of filming,' she spoke in her own voice.

'And
after that?'

She
chewed on her bottom lip. 'I was hoping you wouldn't ask me that.'

He
looked at her steadily, very bronzed in his dark swimming trunks. 'Why not?'

'Because
I—I don't think I'm coming back after that.'

He
couldn't hide his start of surprise. 'I don't understand," he frowned.
'You don't mean to stay in England indefinitely?'

'I—could.'
She gave an indecisive shrug. 'I'm really not sure yet.'

'Is
there anything I can do to persuade you to stay? Since Joanie died I've been
very lonely,' he told her softly. 'The last few months you've helped fill that
loneliness.'

She
squeezed his hand as it lay on the sand beside her. 'I'm glad of that. You're a
wonderful man, Sam. You deserve to be happy.'