After the Climb (River Rain 0.50)

“You’re so right,” she agreed.

“But that’s beside the point.”

“Okay.”

“The point I need to make is, I did what I did to your mother, and the regret I feel for that is fierce. But you need to know, the thing I regret most in my life is that I had a choice that day. A possible beating for me, or the life of that deer. And I picked killing that deer. He’d never laid a hand on me, Chloe, and I still picked that deer. And every time he’d lose it and I’d think, ‘now’s the time, he’s gonna whale on me,’ and he didn’t, I remembered that deer. I remembered I took her vitality to save my own ass. And to this day, I prefer to be called Bowie to remind me never to be that person again.”

“I understand that,” she said.

“Make no mistake, I wish like hell I’d done things differently with your mom.”

“I understand that too.”

“But if I had one thing in my life I was allowed to go back and change, I would not have killed that deer. It says nothing about how I feel about your mom or the pain I caused her. It says something about the man my father was trying to force me to be that I had to overcome before I could really be with her. But the truth of it is, mostly, it’s about that deer.”

She nodded. “And that’s understood too. And it doesn’t make me feel badly toward you. In fact, I get it. I’ve never killed anything. But if I did, I probably would wish that too.”

“Okay, honey,” he said in his lovely gentle tone. “Now I need to understand why it means so much to you, me being with your mom.”

Sneak attack.

Yes.

She was pulling nothing over on Bowie Holloway.

“I want her happy.”

“It’s more than that. You’re sharp as a knife, and you’re lethally loving. But you do not strike me as a woman who focuses her formidable energy on a whim.”

“Dad and her are never going to get back together,” she blurted.

“Okay,” he said.

He was going to say more, but she spoke fast.

“I’ll let her explain why.”

“I’d appreciate that.”

“She needs someone strong to protect her.”

He shot straight on his stool and practically barked, “Why?”

Yes.

She was right.

Oh, hell yes, she was.

Shewasrightrightright.

It was him.

“She doesn’t have a stalker or anything,” she assured quickly. “She’s just…” she shook her head in short shakes, “She’s just Imogen Swan.”

“Your mom is strong and capable.”

“It isn’t about her.”

“What’s it about?”

She rolled her shoulders. “It’s about me.”

“What about you?”

“I just need to know she’s looked after.”

It dawned on him, what she wasn’t saying, and the man she was coming to know, she should have known it would.

“Divorce sucks,” he murmured.

“Yes, it does,” she said bitterly.

“She’s going to be okay, with or without me.”

“I’d rather her be okay with you.”

It took him a second, his hazel eyes concerned and warm on her.

And then he said, “Me too.”

Chloe relaxed.

Then she declared, “No offense, Bowie, but your dad’s a dick.”

“He’s dead.”

“No offense, Bowie, but I’m kinda glad.”

He grinned at her, shaking his head, and replied, “None taken, Coco.”

“Though, well done you for breaking the cycle.”

He kept grinning and shaking his head, but he said nothing.

“I’ll vamoose after Mom shows so you two can have some privacy.”

“That’d be appreciated.”

“But be forewarned, I’m not leaving because this is the best vacation I’ve ever had.”

He burst out laughing.

She watched.

Then she reached out and forced Tuck to endure the indignity of enjoying some chin scratches.

After that, she climbed off her stool to do some tidying.

Chapter 11

The Tour

Duncan

* * *

“Aren’t you nervous?”

Chloe was standing at his side on the porch, both of them watching the black Cayenne roll up the drive.

Since breakfast, she’d morphed from pretty girl in pajama bottoms, cami and Sully’s purloined flannel shirt to fashionista in jeans, slouchy sweater belted at the waist, and shoes he knew—and did not get why women did not find it funny and stop doing it—they called booties.

The heels again were high.

He was learning not to worry about it.

In fact, at this point, he’d probably be more concerned if she wore flats.

“With age, honey, you learn a lot of shit. One of the things you learn is that, in this world, there is absolutely nothing you can control, except your own actions and reactions.”

He looked down at her noting, not for the first time, she was visibly nervous.

And one of many things she made clear about her personality, Chloe Pierce was not a nervous person.

Maybe she was thinking her mom was going to be ticked at her.

Mostly, he suspected, it was wanting what was to come to work.

“Don’t get me wrong,” he continued. “I want with all I am to carry on the good work Gen and me started last night. But I got one job in this and all I can do is do it right. I fully intend to do that. What comes of that is beyond my control and the only thing I can do is react when it happens in a way that’s best for your mom.”