After the Climb (River Rain 0.50)
“I really should have let him tell you,” Sasha said urgently.
“Yes, you should have, but now it’s out so there’s no going back and…where’s my goddamn phone?” Gen was digging irately through her bag.
“Is this it?” Gage asked helpfully, and glancing at him, Duncan saw he was holding up a phone.
Shit.
“Yes, darling, thank you.” Genny headed to his boy.
When she got close, Duncan stepped in her way. “Babe, take a beat and get a lock on it.”
“Yeah, Mom, chill,” Sasha encouraged.
Gen didn’t take her eyes from Duncan.
“My son is throwing away five years of education,” she retorted.
“Right, this is why you need to get a lock on it.”
“It’s no biggie anyway, Momma. He’s quitting so he can go to vet school.”
Gen’s body twitched and then she turned to her daughter.
“Sorry?”
“He got in at Purdue,” Sasha shared.
“No shit? Righteous,” Sully said.
“I know,” Sasha replied. “I’m super proud of him. It’s a really good school.”
“I know,” Sul told her. “I go there.”
“Really?” she cried.
“Yeah,” Sul confirmed.
Sasha turned to her mother. “Momma! Awesome! He’ll know somebody!”
“They actually haven’t met yet, Sash,” Gen, visibly calmer, noted.
“So? We’re all gonna be family, right?” Sasha returned.
The air in the great room went static.
But Gen looked to Duncan with an expression of I’m worried this is too soon.
And Duncan had to admit his expression was probably the same.
“God, stop being dorks,” Gage broke it. “It’s not like we’re two and we don’t know what’s going on. She’s cooking in your kitchen, Dad. And when we showed, you didn’t hike our asses to the den to have ‘a talk’ about how we shouldn’t read anything into this and to be nice to her. Genny cooking dinner was just happening and you started making the salad. And I don’t know that cat,” he pointed at Cookie, “but I do know it isn’t ours and you didn’t get another cat because you were being hardass about getting another pet, so it’s obviously Genny’s. And so there’s the cat and you already know this Chloe chick and gave her the Bowie story so the mingling of families has happened. We’re with the program so you can relax. Yeesh.”
“Yeah, you can relax, yeesh,” Sasha agreed and then, “Cookie!” and off she went to Cookie.
“Okay, I don’t know about you all, but if I don’t eat this food soon, I’m gonna die,” Sul declared.
“Totally, there’s, like, a hundred meatballs here and I feel like I could eat a hundred and five of them,” Gage said.
Sully had the garlic bread out.
He also was intent to get control of the situation.
Which was what he did.
“Gage, get that meat off the heat. And Sasha, when you’re done greeting Cookie, can you check the pasta?”
“I’m all over it,” Sasha agreed.
Gage was already yanking off paper towel to put on a plate to drain the meatballs.
“Did I see stables?” Sasha asked, approaching the kitchen.
“Yeah,” Sully answered, putting the bread in a basket Gen had ready.
“You have horses?” Sasha sounded excited, or more excited than what was apparently her resting state.
“Three of them,” Gage answered.
“Rad!” Sasha cried.
“You ride?” Sul asked.
He felt a touch at his waist and looked down to see Genny closing in.
She moved in farther, her arm around him.
He slid his around her shoulders.
She dropped her cheek to his chest.
“Totes!” Sasha chirped.
“Take you out tomorrow. You can ride Streak. He’s Dad’s. Great horse,” Sully told her.
“Cool!” Sasha exclaimed, fishing out a thread of pasta to test.
“Ready to eat?” Duncan murmured to Genny.
She tipped her head back.
He sucked in breath at the happy radiating from her face.
“Yes, darling,” she replied.
With that happy, he couldn’t stop himself
He bent and touched his mouth to hers.
When they made to get a move on, Sasha peeped, “You guys are so cute!”
“Gag,” Gage muttered.
Sully started chuckling.
“Pasta’s done!” Sasha announced.
And all was well in the world.
Chapter 16
The Nightmare
Corey
* * *
One year earlier…
* * *
Corey sat in Genny’s couch, watching her as she stood at the windows, staring at north Phoenix.
“So it’s over,” she told the window.
Her voice was flat.
Dead.
As her eyes had been when, not half an hour before, she’d greeted him at her door.
In his seat on the couch, Corey didn’t move, kept himself perfectly still.
He did this in an effort not to excuse himself, find some privacy, and then pull out his phone.
This was because, with a few well-placed calls, he could destroy Tom Pierce’s life.
Obliterate it.
No more courtside commentary at Wimbledon.
Medical license revoked.
Publicly humiliated.
Financially decimated.
And he wanted to do just that.
Badly.
What was wrong with the man?
There she was, the most perfect female on the planet, Tom had his ring on her finger, planted his children in her womb, slept beside her at night, and he’d fucked someone else?
Lunacy.
Sheer lunacy.
“We’ve filed for divorce.” She was still talking to the window. “A preemptive strike, doing it now, before our friendship ends as well as the marriage.”