After the Climb (River Rain 0.50)

And without them making a statement, they were now “official.”

And through this time, in her pale-yellow convertible Beetle, Sasha tended to wander back and forth between the cabin and the condo.

Though, she made a point to be at the cabin on poker night.

Duncan headed to where her mother made a point to be on poker night.

The bathtub.

When he got there, he felt the humidity in the air, and you could still smell the scent of the candles she burned, but she wasn’t there.

So he turned around and retraced his steps.

He then went to her third favorite place in his home, outside his bathroom and his bed.

The den.

She hadn’t had an army of designers come in and fill it with chintz and florals, or what he’d discovered was her aesthetic when he first saw her condo: glamour and wealth.

Genny liked it just as it was.

Big stone fireplace with an arch fashioned in the rocks and a deep hearth. Comfortable, deep-seated, leather chairs, throws over the back. Several thin but colorful rugs overlaid on each other on the wood floors. Small, unobtrusive standing lamps that didn’t give off light so much as warm glows. And rough-hewn tables close at hand to put down drinks.

Gen loved that room and had claimed it. She said it was small and cozy and it didn’t have a TV, which was something he’d found she wasn’t big on. A surprise, considering her profession. But she definitely preferred to read.

Or what he was seeing her doing now when he entered the room and saw her curled up in a chair with Cookie in her lap, the dogs around her chair jumping up to come greet him, and Tuck snoozing on a folded blanket on the hearth.

She was playing that game on her phone.

She glanced up at him, looking guilty.

“I need to clear the cursed forest,” she told him.

He chuckled as he made his way to her with the dogs accompanying him.

She was not a morning person.

He was. Up early to face the day at least an hour before she cracked open her eyes. It would be an hour after that before she got out of bed.

Which meant she was a night person.

Duncan tended to hit the sack at around ten.

Gen hit it at around midnight.

They made this work sexually, because she woke him up when she got in bed, and with her there, he was all in to have a quick, or not so quick, fuck before passing out again.

And in the mornings, if she was going to be in bed for an hour anyway, he figured he might as well return to it and keep her busy.

So he did.

This meant he was usually in the office an hour later than his norm.

But he’d worked hard all his life.

He deserved this.

They deserved this.

So he was taking it.

And giving it to her.

“They’ve left,” she said as he sat on the hearth by her knee and reached out to give Tuck some love.

“Yeah.”

“Did you all let Sasha win again?” she asked.

He grinned. “Yeah.”

She shook her head but did it also grinning.

She stopped doing that and asked worriedly, “They don’t think it’s rude I don’t say goodbye?”

“Babe, you came in, said hi. Came back, checked in, refreshed the food. And came back again to say goodnight. Now, it’s after midnight. It’d be rude for them to expect you to be at the door, waving at them as they drove away. I don’t even do that shit.”

This made her relax. “You have good friends, Bowie.”

“Yeah.”

“Harvey especially. I adore him.”

“Adoration wouldn’t be how I’d describe it, but he’s the best friend I’ve ever had.”

It was the wrong thing to say.

A shadow stole over her face.

“I’m glad you have that,” she whispered.

“I am too. And I have it, Genny. And I’ve had Harv and Beth and their girls a long time. So it’s all good.”

Either that chased the shadow away, or the thought behind her next words did.

And a certain light hit her eyes before she said them. “You ready for bed?”

With her sleeping at his side, and other things they did there, always.

That said…

“We gotta talk about something first.”

She instantly settled in, ready for that if he needed it, and that was always too.

She’d reminded him he’d given her that.

But she gave it back.

Then.

And now.

“What?” she asked.

“Sasha,” he told her.

He had to say no more. She knew what he was thinking.

He told her anyway. “Honey, I now get what you were saying about direction. I’m of a mind too much pressure is put on kids to make decisions about the rest of their lives when they’re seventeen, eighteen, about to graduate and go to college or find another vocation. They’ve no idea who they are and are clueless how the world works, so they’re not at a place where they can make a decision about what they want to do with their life. If it was up to me, they’d all take time like Sash is taking, learn a little about the world and your place in it before you take it on. But I sense this is not what she’s doing. She’s…”