the greatest idea?” she asked.
“Yes.” He couldn’t believe how something so simple was so cleansing. He wasn’t really in shape for rowing, but the slight ache in his shoulders felt great. While he worked up a mild sweat and listened to the rhythm of the oars clunking against the oarlocks, he enjoyed the lush green of the trees surrounding the lake, the familiar dank scent of the water, the white clouds scudding across the sky and the sun warming his back. “It makes you feel glad to be a—” He brought the sentence to a screeching halt and stared at Mary Jane in horror at what he’d been about to say.
She leaned forward and put a hand on each of his knees. “We are alive,” she said, looking hard at him as she gripped his knees. “And, Morgan, that’s not our fault. We shouldn’t feel guilty about that.”
“I guess not.” But he had plenty of other things to feel guilty about, and topping the list was the selfish, wild pleasure he felt whenever she touched him. They’d rowed into a fairly secluded inlet, and nobody seemed to be around on this week day. If he had no conscience… But he did have a conscience, and fortunately it still worked. “You can have the oars now,” he said.
CHAPTER FIVE
IN SPITE OF what she’d told Morgan, Mary Jane found herself battling feelings of guilt as the afternoon continued to be more fun than two grieving people should be having. After the rowboat ride, she’d driven him outside the city, cruising past Garrett Lord’s place because she remembered Lana telling her that the bluebonnets were still looking good on her brother’s property. Sure enough, the wildflowers were doing their thing in an open meadow.
Morgan insisted on stopping the car so he could get out and look at a bluebonnet up close. The spot he chose was not too far from the turnoff to Garrett’s place. If Lana’s brother happened to be out riding and caught a glimpse of Mary Jane with a man, word would be all over in no time.
Crossing the road with Morgan to look at the field of wildflowers, Mary Jane hoped they wouldn’t be seen. She still felt very protective of their privacy.
“I’ve heard of these things for ages,” Morgan said. “Thanks for humoring me. I’m a scientist. I want to examine one up close.”
“Just don’t pick one,” she warned as he started into a field. “Or we’ll be arrested.”
“Seriously?” He turned to her in surprise. “Arrested for picking wildflowers? Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do with them?”
“Not these. These are our state treasure. And they reseed themselves every year. If people went around gathering bouquets, they wouldn’t reseed and we wouldn’t have this.” She spread her arm to encompass the lavender-blue carpet of flowers.
“Okay. Gotcha. No picking.” He crouched next to a single plant and touched the delicate cluster of small blue flowers that covered the slender stalk. “I like to see the detail that goes into the big picture.”
She stood by the edge of the road and watched him, fascinated by the way he could focus his attention like a laser. Although she’d been in his office, she’d never seen him dealing with one of his small patients. If he devoted this much careful attention to them, he must be one hell of a doctor. And one hell of a lover. She pushed the thought away.
“Incredible. I love the color.” At the gentle brush of his fingers, one small bloom dropped from the stalk. “Oops.” He drew his hand back. “What’s the penalty for that? Fifty lashes?”
“You’re out west now, pardner. We string up varmints like you from the nearest tree.”
He stood and walked toward her. “Gonna turn me in?”
“Depends.” She could swear he’d developed an amble in his walk now that he wore jeans and boots. And that hat was a killer. She wondered if he’d have the nerve to wear it in New York. “You being from back east and all, you might have strange customs, like thinking pizza should have anchovies on it. If you’re going to make me eat anchovies on my pizza, I might have to report that bluebonnet crime of yours.”
He grinned. “No anchovies.”
“Then I’ll cover for you on this deal.” She glanced around. “Sun’s going down. We’d better head on back before the video store rents out all the decent movies. I have a specific one in mind.”
“Such as?” He fell into step with her as they crossed the road to the car.
“I was thinking Toy Story.”
“But isn’t that a kids’—”
“I knew it! You’ve never seen it, have you? No point in asking if you’ve seen Toy Story 2.” She shook a finger at him. “And you call yourself a father-to-be. We are going to remedy this serious gap in your education right away. Climb in. We’re making tracks for the video store.” She started to get in the car.
“Wait!”
She paused with one foot in the car. “What?”
“Look at the hills. They’re…they’re purple.”
“Oh, yeah. They do that a lot when the sun goes down.”
Morgan turned in a slow circle and took a deep breath. “Wow. A lot?”
“Yep. In fact, Austin is known as the City of the Violet Crown for that very reason.” She got out of the car and stood looking at the hills that surrounded Austin like the rim of a bowl. Sure enough, the hills were putting on a show tonight. She was glad Morgan was able to see them at their best. “I guess I’ve started taking it for granted, which isn’t a good thing.”
“Arielle must have, too,” he said. “She never told me about this.”
Mary Jane noticed that the mention of Arielle’s name was now possible without both of them getting weepy. “I don’t think she would have made a very good member of the Chamber of Commerce. She once told me that after seeing New York City, she had no interest whatsoever in coming back to Austin to live.”
“Well, New York has lots of things to recommend it, but the hills definitely don’t turn purple at sunset.” He stood with his hands shoved in the back pockets of his jeans as he continued to gaze at the color washing the hillsides. “I’m beginning to understand why you turned down the job of being the baby’s nanny.”
She took a deep breath. Rejecting Arielle’s plea that she move to New York and be a nanny to the baby had been the most difficult decision she’d ever made. “I know Arielle was upset about that.”
“Yeah, she was, but I guess she had a tough time understanding why you wouldn’t want to move there. She probably figured if she loved it so much, you would, too.”
“I would have loved being close to Arielle, because I missed her. But I know myself, and when I tried to picture being cooped up in your high-rise with all those artificial plants…oops.” She gave him an apologetic glance. “Sorry. It’s a gorgeous apartment.”
“But sterile.”
“Different strokes,” she said. “And it’s not only the living arrangements. I have a lot of good friends here, and I like my job at Austin Eats. Besides, I would miss…” She paused and smiled. “The Violet Crown, I guess, and the sunshine, and the wide-open sky, and the moonlight towers.”
“Moonlight towers?” He glanced at her expectantly.
“Gigantic streetlights.” She was glad to move away from an uncomfortable topic. Arielle’s reaction to her refusal of the nanny position had caused an argument between them, and at first Mary Jane had been afraid her grand gesture of having the baby for Arielle would be ruined because she hadn’t been willing to be a nanny, too. In fact, Mary Jane had figured that the topic had been set aside, not closed.
“Tell me about the moonlight towers,” Morgan said.
“I’ll show you one on the way to