Stolen Dreams by Sue Brown

Author:Sue Brown [Brown, Sue]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2015-01-15T05:00:00+00:00

ELROY STARED at Morgan as if he had suddenly grown two heads.

“He has a kid?”

The two men were sitting in MC’s, the largest available cups of coffee in their hands. Elroy was flabbergasted, speechless to the point he couldn’t speak for all of a minute.

“An adopted daughter,” Morgan corrected.

Elroy waved away the distinction. “Whatever. He’s got a rug rat now.”

Morgan nodded. “She’s four years old and lives with Shae and Angela.”

“Where does Angela come into the situation?” Elroy asked, his curiosity getting the best of him as usual.

“He says ‘roommate only,’ but he leaves the kid with her when he comes up here. I guess she’s like a mother?” His statement definitely ended up as more of a question than anything else.

“She’s got dark hair and eyes, hasn’t she?”

“You’re thinking Angie’s the mother?” The thought had occurred to Morgan. “But if that’s the case, why isn’t she in any of the photos and why is she calling Shae for help when Teresa’s acting up? Fuck it, Elroy, you know as well as I do Shae’s gay. I mean really gay. One of those ‘guys who still think girls have cooties’ gay.”

“Drunken hookup, maybe? Who knows, man? After a few shots, anything—or anyone—is possible.” Elroy waved his cup at Marco. “Favor, chico, fill it up.”

“Do you ever consider just how much money you owe MC’s?” Morgan asked, after giving Marco an apologetic “what can you do?” look.

Marco rolled his eyes at Morgan but obediently headed for the machine.

“Take it out of my appearance fee, all that extra publicity you get for me drinking here.”

“Oh, you mean when you throw coffee over my customers and I have to pay for the dry cleaning?”

Morgan was impressed by how hurt Elroy managed to look. His acting skills had improved. Marginally.

“I said I’d pay you back for that.”

“By drinking more of my coffee? And Marco is not going to bring your drink over to you, so get off your butt.”

With a put-upon sigh, Elroy wandered over to the counter to accept a refill. “Everything evens out and stop changing the subject,” he said over his shoulder.

“There is no subject changing,” Morgan called after him. He was lying, of course, but he could try denial for as long as possible.

“Keep telling yourself that, sweetheart.” Elroy came back with a fresh drink.

Morgan told himself repeatedly what happened next wasn’t really Elroy’s fault. The incident could have been caused by Elroy’s flip-flops or Marco’s overfilling the cup or even Morgan’s fault for placing the sofa just there. Whichever way, the results were the same.

Hot coffee stings like a bitch, Morgan discovered as Elroy tripped over the leg of the sofa and his cup, full to the brim with milky coffee, did a graceful somersault, the contents landing squarely over Morgan. There was a shocked silence in MC’s as Morgan sat there dripping hot coffee, the wind knocked out of him. As he drew in a shaky breath, Marco came rushing over with a wet cloth.

“Are you okay, Morgan?”

Elroy rose shakily to his feet.

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