After the Climb (River Rain 0.50)

“Me and Tom, you bitch,” I gritted at the TV.

The screen paused and Sully said quietly, “That was it about you guys.”

I started to look at Duncan but turned my attention to my daughter instead when she said, “Hale? Yes, it’s me! I’m with Mom and Duncan. What the fuck is wrong with your mother?” Pause then. “Right. Fine.” She took the phone from her ear and jabbed it. “You’re on speaker.”

“Genny?” Hale’s voice called.

Gage rushed into the room and handed me my phone while I replied, “I’m here, honey.”

“I had no idea,” he said. “I’ve called her ten times. She’s blocked me.”

“Why would she do this?” I asked.

“No clue. No fucking clue. Christ, I’m so sorry.”

“It wasn’t you, Hale,” I told him.

My phone in my hand rang.

I looked at it.

It was Mindi, my publicist.

I put it on silent and returned to Hale. “Don’t take this on.”

“Fortunately, I’m a billionaire now, thanks to Dad remembering he had a son and leaving me everything. Including his jet. I’m on my way to the airstrip now to go to her directly and find out what she’s playing at.”

“She called Mary,” I shared. “I…well, I got caught up in things and I didn’t call back. Maybe she intended to warn me.”

“Yeah, and maybe she actually shoulda warned you before she fucking sat on the couch across from that parasitic flea and shot her mouth off.”

I could not agree more.

Hale’s relationship with his bitter mother was not a lot healthier than the one he had with his absentee father.

And I’d had nearly thirty years of not only doing my best to give him what he didn’t have between the two of them, but also running interference for them both with their son.

So it was ingrained in me to do what I did next.

“How about you change your flight plan and come here, to Arizona?” I suggested.

My phone vibrated in my hand.

This time, it was Tom.

Damn.

“No, Gen, sorry, I want answers for this,” Hale decreed. “I don’t give a fuck she washes Dad’s laundry in public, but you and Tom?”

“I hear you, but I have to go. Tom’s calling.”

“Tell him I’m sorry and I’ll call after we take off.”

“Okay, honey, ’bye,” I said in a rush, glanced at Duncan, he jerked up his chin, face hard as stone, and I walked out of the room and took Tom’s call. “Hey, Tommy,” I greeted softly.

“So, I guess Corey wasn’t quite done fucking you over, leaving that bitter cow in his wake,” he ground out.

“Tom, I’m so sorry.”

“I fucked another woman not my wife, Genny. It really wasn’t anyone’s business but yours. But there are penalties to pay, and the lives we wanted that we worked to have, this is the price.”

“Tom, that doesn’t have to be true. Sam had no business doing what she did.”

“She made passes at me.”

Standing in the hall, I lifted my hand up to the wall and leaned into it.

“Numerous ones,” he bit out.

“Samantha did?”

“Yes.”

“Tom,” I whispered.

“So I guess she’s pretty pissed I turned her down but fucked someone else,” he deduced.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because she didn’t matter, and honest to God, a lot of women did that, Gen, and you knew it. It never mattered. But with her, we needed to see to Hale and his life was already messed up enough. I couldn’t avoid her and still be a part of his growing up, because she avoided you. So I just pretended it didn’t happen. She stopped, and swear to Christ, I thought she forgot she’d done it.”

I took the phone from my ear and squeezed it so hard, if it was made of anything else, it would have shattered in my hand.

Fucking Corey.

And fucking Samantha.

In one way or another, they both were constantly fucking me.

And worse.

Disappointing Hale.

I put the phone back to my ear. “We know what that was, and it was not about her. It was not about the woman you turned to. It was about us.”

“You know, I was a world-class athlete. Won millions in purses. Earned more millions in endorsements. Have goddamn black-and-white photos that freaking Henry Gagnon took of my face with my wrist held up, wearing fifty-thousand-dollar watches, hawking that shit. Got my medical degree. And the greatest thing I ever did was win you.”

I closed my eyes and my shoulder hit the wall.

I opened them and started, “Tom—”

“If you’re happy, I’ll eventually be happy. And I hate to ask this, I’ll miss you and I know you still count on me, but I need a break. It won’t be forever, honey. But I need to get used to a you with another man before I have you in my life when you’re with another man.”

“We need to be seen together,” I said urgently.

“There’s no spinning this,” he replied.

I pushed from the wall. “Yes, there is. We’ll lie.”