Cabin fever, p.19
Cabin Fever, page 19
“I should probably lie down before I fall down.” Morgan pushed herself up, not quite putting weight on her wrapped foot.
“Come on, I’ll help you to bed.”
“I can sleep on the couch,” Morgan said. She was clearly still uncomfortable about the way they’d woken up that morning.
“Oh no. We’re not having this argument again.” Shelby made sure there was the proper amount of steel in her voice. “You need a good night’s sleep on a mattress and I’m not taking no for an answer.”
She could see Morgan swallow hard and knew she’d made her point. She moved around the table, positioning herself beside Morgan, who backed away awkwardly.
“Okay, but you don’t have to help me down the hall or anything.”
The way she avoided putting weight on her injured foot and the overall unsteadiness of her posture took all the strength out of the argument. Part of Shelby wanted to let her try to walk down the hall without assistance, but then she’d just have to pick her up off the floor when she fell. It was just bravado anyway. Morgan didn’t like to need help from anyone and Shelby was fine playing along by being insistent.
Shelby made a show of rolling her eyes and grabbing Morgan’s arm to wrap around her shoulders. As she expected, Morgan didn’t protest too much. She slipped her arm around Morgan’s waist to steady her as they moved together. What really caught her notice was the way Morgan’s breath hitched when Shelby’s thumb grazed across her side. She did her best to hide her smile, but she couldn’t stop the thought that maybe she could convince Morgan to give them a chance after all.
Chapter Seventeen
Thursday morning Morgan took a shower for the first time since her accident. She still couldn’t put much weight on her left foot and it throbbed and ached being unwrapped for this long, but she didn’t care about that. All she cared about was the simple, intoxicating joy of cleaning her body. It wasn’t just washing off the multiple layers of dried sweat, grime, and woodsmoke. It was the down-to-the-bones warmth only a steaming hot shower could provide. No amount of layered blankets could match it.
As she shampooed her hair for the second time, Morgan’s only wish was that she could scrub her brain as easily as she scrubbed her body. She could dislodge bits of bark and pine needles from her hair, but thoughts of Shelby were stuck much more stubbornly. The way she held Morgan with such strength and gentleness as they walked down the hall to the bedroom last night. There had been a moment, when Morgan turned on her pillow to say good night, that she got lost in Shelby’s sapphire eyes. Maybe it was her imagination how long they stared into each other’s eyes, but Morgan had to clench her hands into fists to keep from reaching across the mattress.
Even though she’d managed to avoid that disaster, she’d lain awake long into the night, listening to an owl hooting in the distance and thinking about those eyes. The color reminded her of waves on a moonlit beach. Morgan had fallen asleep to a fantasy of the two of them on a sundrenched, deserted beach. Both of them in bikinis, their skin warm from an afternoon lying in the sun, reading books that they chose rather than what some stranger had on his shelves. Walking back to their room as the sun set across a lazily lapping ocean.
Fantasy Shelby was sleepy from a lazy afternoon, her long lashes drooping not quite low enough to shield her sparkling eyes, blue as the water behind them. She laid her head on Morgan’s shoulder while her thumb rubbed up and down her side. They took a shower together to wash off the sunscreen.
Morgan’s injured foot took a little too much weight, sending a sharp stab of pain zinging up her leg. The pain was enough to snap her out of the dream just in time to realize her hand had been drifting down her abdomen, just thinking about last night’s fantasy. She slammed the palm against the shower wall, trying to steady both her body and her raging hormones. The last thing she needed was to get caught masturbating in the shower.
After catching her breath and washing the last of the soap from her body, Morgan carefully stepped out of the shower and sat on the toilet to dry off. She was particularly careful drying her ankle, which still looked terrible. The swelling had gone down a little, but not much, and she wondered if there was maybe something broken in there despite Shelby’s assurances. She’d sprained her ankle before, but it had never taken this long to improve. There wasn’t much she could do about it, though, so she just wrapped it again and hoped another day of ice and elevation would help.
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t keep her treacherous mind from returning to her fantasy. Eventually, she just let it happen. What was the harm, after all, of a few lustful thoughts while she brushed her hair. She decided, however, to keep her thoughts less risqué now that the sounds of the shower couldn’t cover any efforts to relieve the ache between her thighs.
Instead of returning to the fantasy shower, she wondered what it would be like to spend a long weekend with Shelby. Would they read the same books on the beach like they were here? If they did, they could talk about them on the long flight home from their beach paradise. What would that be like? Morgan had only ever spent time like that with her family. She hadn’t spent a long, lazy weekend with any previous girlfriends, just for the pleasure of sharing space with them.
Why was it so easy to imagine it with Shelby when it hadn’t been with any of the women she’d actually dated? Maybe because of that unnamable something in Shelby’s eyes last night. The hint that, had Morgan reached out, she would have instantly reached back. Somehow Morgan felt like Shelby would want more than one night. Was that even possible for them? Wouldn’t a bitterness seep into their relationship? Hell, it had seeped in already and they weren’t even friends. Morgan was self-aware enough to know she would be the one to ruin a potential relationship with her professional jealousy. They’d barely even had a conversation about work because Morgan knew she would react poorly. How could they date and not talk about their work?
“Why are you even thinking about this?” Morgan said to her reflection in the foggy mirror. “Shelby doesn’t want anything to happen and neither do you. You’re just going stir-crazy and you’re horny because you’re bored. Don’t do something stupid.”
She stared into her own eyes for a long time after she said the words, trying to determine if they’d sunk in. After a few minutes, she realized she wasn’t looking at herself anymore. She was picturing Shelby in a bikini again. Thoroughly annoyed with herself, Morgan wrapped her towel tightly around herself and retreated to the bedroom to get dressed.
The process of putting on clothes with an ankle that ached was enough to drive all the lust out of Morgan’s body. She was sweating and grinding her teeth by the time she got to the kitchen, but Shelby didn’t give her a hard time. In fact, there was a tightness to her eyes and lips that made it clear she hadn’t slept well. Morgan fretted that Shelby had felt the moment between them and it had made her uncomfortable, disturbing her sleep. She chastised herself even more. When Shelby didn’t sleep well, she wasn’t the bubbly, bitingly funny roommate Morgan had come to enjoy so much. Morgan should control herself better.
While Shelby showered and got dressed, Morgan made breakfast. She wasn’t half the cook Shelby was with her full range of motion, and hopping around on one foot meant the oatmeal was watery and the coffee was scorched. When Morgan playfully alluded to her poor performance, Shelby finally perked up with a little teasing.
“You’re lucky I’m not a coffee connoisseur,” Shelby said. “But I appreciate you cooking for me in your state, no matter what the results.”
Morgan sat back with her coffee and adjusted the bag of melting snow icing her ankle. Now was as good a time as any to find out if she and Shelby could even make a friendship work. She would only know if she could talk about work with Shelby by trying.
“Are you a big coffee drinker usually?” Morgan asked.
“Oh yeah. I drink coffee all day. Basically until I switch to wine.”
“I was never much of a coffee drinker in the lab, but now I’m either in the car driving all over town or staring at a computer screen all day. Coffee’s the only thing that keeps me awake.”
“Oh yeah, you learn really quick where the gas stations with the best bathrooms are in this job,” Shelby said.
“I’ve got that covered in Northern Virginia, but my sales area goes all the way out to West Virginia and down to North Carolina.” Morgan fortified herself with another sip of coffee. “How big is your area? Are you on the road a lot?”
If she thought she could slip in the question subtly to open the conversation, she was sadly mistaken. Shelby gave her a long, searching look before quirking up one corner of her mouth. “Are you sure this conversation is a good idea?”
The answer was most certainly no. Not only because Morgan wasn’t sure she could talk to Shelby about work without getting jealous, but also because that teasing, flirty glint was back in Shelby’s eyes, making Morgan’s heart rate pick up.
“If we’re going to be friends, we have to be able to talk about work, right?” Morgan asked.
“Are we going to be friends?” It should be illegal to put that much innuendo into a single word.
“I want to try,” Morgan said a little breathlessly.
Shelby’s smile seemed to spread wider than the prospect of making a new friend warranted. Maybe she understood what Morgan was doing. Maybe she liked to tease. Either way, that smile made a shiver of anticipation spread from the tips of her swollen toes all the way to Morgan’s scalp.
“We have larger territories than you for sure. I cover Pennsylvania down to South Carolina and a little sliver of Tennessee, but I don’t go there much,” Shelby said.
“Wow, that’s a huge territory. How do you manage all that?”
“It’s a lot of miles, but not many customers, so we’re spread pretty thin.”
“What do you mean not many customers? You’re killing it out there. I’ve lost at least three contracts to you in the last quarter alone.”
Shelby’s laugh was hollow, bordering on bitter. “I’m barely keeping my head above water. And don’t worry, you’ll have those customers back in a year or two at the most.”
Morgan leaned forward, all thought of jealousy evaporating in her confusion. “What do you mean? Why would I get them back?”
“Oh, come on, you know why.” When Morgan didn’t respond, Shelby said, “Because your instrument is so much better than ours. It’s not a ticking time bomb like Telnet, but it can’t hold a candle to yours when it comes to ease of use. I can get people to buy mine, but anyone who’s worked with the Pulsar will be disappointed and probably a little mad they switched. They’ll ditch us the minute their contract runs out.”
“What?” Morgan’s mind was spinning and she felt like she couldn’t get her bearings.
“Don’t act so surprised. You know your instrument is better than mine.”
“Well, yeah, but I didn’t know you knew that.”
Shelby threw her head back and laughed. It was a sweet, glorious noise and her neck stretched enticingly. Morgan couldn’t help but enjoy the way Shelby could just let loose like that, even when she was admitting to being with an inferior company. For someone so successful, she didn’t seem to have any competitiveness in her.
“Look, I’m not shy. I know I’m an amazing salesperson.” Shelby grinned bewitchingly. “I could sell anything and I chose to sell instruments that could help fight COVID. But Pulsar wasn’t hiring, so I ended up staying with Ashworth. It isn’t the perfect job, but I love what I do.”
“You moved to instrument sales because of COVID?” A buzzing in Morgan’s brain made it hard to slot all the different words together.
“Yes and no. I was already working for Ashworth, but when COVID started I wanted to help. We brought out our test a few months after Pulsar, so I made the lateral move.”
“So you gave up your client base to start over just because of the pandemic?”
“You aren’t the only one with a conscience. Does it surprise you that I wanted to be part of the solution?”
“No.” Morgan knew she’d answered too quickly by Shelby’s skeptical eyebrow lift, so she pivoted before she called it out. “What did you do before?”
“Pharmaceutical sales. I started right out of college.”
“There’s a lot of money in that,” Morgan said.
“Especially for a pretty blonde with big blue eyes and a Southern accent.” Shelby rolled her eyes and her cheeks flushed a pretty pink. “I was an idiot but I’d also spent the better part of three years starving. I batted my eyelashes and smiled, and every paycheck was bigger than the last.”
Morgan wanted to be angry, but after hearing about Shelby getting kicked out of her home, she had a little more compassion. She guessed the money wasn’t half as addictive as the admiration. It was probably life-saving for Shelby at the time.
“It must’ve been a big step down in pay. It’s pretty incredible you made that move,” Morgan said.
“Don’t go singing my praises just yet. The opioid crisis was what made me realize I had to make a change. I wasn’t half as pushy as some of my colleagues, but the whole industry encouraged overprescribing narcotics. I’d been part of the problem.”
“But you’re part of the solution now and that’s a big deal.”
“Are you shocked that I have a moral compass?” Shelby stood and reached over to grab Morgan’s empty coffee cup. “There’s more to me than just my sex appeal, you know?”
As she headed off into the kitchen to clean up, Morgan couldn’t help being impressed. There certainly was more to Shelby than her sex appeal, and the more Morgan learned about her heart, the more appealing she became.
* * *
Shelby stepped out onto the porch, registering dimly that the cold wasn’t nearly so sharp today as it had been earlier in the week. While she loaded her arms with firewood, she wondered whether the snow would melt enough for them to walk out of there soon. Morgan’s ankle wasn’t in great shape, but in another day or so she’d be able to make a trek to the road. Today marked the sixth day stuck in the middle of nowhere, so whether Morgan was ready or not, they’d have to make a move soon.
As she reached for the doorknob, Shelby froze. She whipped her head around to stare off into the trees, certain she’d heard something in the distance. She held perfectly still, waiting to hear it again. She couldn’t say what she thought it was, but she didn’t hear it again, so it must’ve been snow falling from a tree or an animal making a racket. Or more likely, it was just wishful thinking. Her stir-crazy mind trying to convince her rescue was on the way.
Shelby made quick work of tending the fire, laying new wood crosswise on the glowing coals and leaning in close to blow gently until new flames burst up to consume the new logs. Through the crackle of flames and the heady woodsmoke, she felt eyes on her.
Turning her head, she noticed Morgan wasn’t reading her book anymore. In fact, her attention was focused rather intently on Shelby leaning over the hearth.
“Are you checking out my butt?” Shelby put a teasing lilt into the words and arched her back just a little extra for the perfect angle.
“What? No. Sorry. Lost in my thoughts. Staring into space. I didn’t mean to stare.”
Shelby laughed at the blazing red on Morgan’s cheeks and the flustered way she blurted out her excuses. She couldn’t help but notice, however, that Morgan’s eyes went back to her butt every few seconds, even as she struggled to sit up straighter on the couch.
“Are you saying I don’t have a cute butt?”
Shelby turned, putting on an exaggerated pout and crossing her arms to look sad. It did the trick. Morgan’s mouth dropped open and she made a few noncommittal noises, clearly struggling with whether to agree or disagree. It was absolutely adorable and more than a little sexy to see how hard she struggled to be honorable and chivalrous and all that sweet lesbian stuff.
After a few moments of torture, however, Shelby decided to let her off the hook. She dropped the pout and patted Morgan on the shoulder on her way to the kitchen. While washing the soot and bark off her hands, she noticed the nearly empty bottle of bourbon on the counter. They’d had a couple of drinks for fun since arriving, but most of it had gone to pain relief once their pathetic supply of aspirin had been exhausted. With a shrug she grabbed the bottle and a couple of glasses to take back to the couch.
Shelby handed over a small glass of whiskey but waited to catch Morgan’s eye before releasing it. She whispered, “For the record, I don’t mind you checking out my butt.”
Shelby poured herself a slightly larger glass and then dropped onto the other side of the couch. Morgan’s legs were stretched out and she tried to move them to make more room, but Shelby grabbed them and guided them onto her lap instead. Morgan held her breath as Shelby unwrapped the bandage, but when she exposed bare skin and used her fingertips to check for tenderness, Morgan tipped her glass back.
“How does it feel?”
Morgan’s face was still twisted into a slight grimace from downing her drink, and there was a rasp to her voice. “Better.”
Shelby paused to sip her whiskey and catch Morgan’s eye, then went back to examining her ankle. It was less swollen today, but the bruising was still a deep, angry purple and it was obviously difficult for her to put weight on it. Shelby was convinced there was no break, but she guessed the sprain was worse than she’d originally suspected. Still, there wasn’t anything to be done that they weren’t already doing.
When she’d wrapped the ankle back up, Morgan looked like she might take her feet away, so Shelby settled her hands on top of her shins to keep them in place.
