Lifelong Affair by Carole Mortimer Page B

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