After the Climb (River Rain #1) - Kristen Ashley Page 0,58
all over herself to do his bidding and he’s not a fan of that. He didn’t hike Machu Pichu to come home and find a woman who would fawn all over him.”
“He hiked Machu Pichu?”
“Twice.”
Oh boy.
“Chloe’s has an exceptional education, but there is a good possibility she doesn’t know what Machu Pichu is,” I shared.
“She’s gonna find out.”
Oh boy.
“Is she going to chew him up and spit him out?”
“He’ll hold his own.”
I got to the harder part.
“Puts a ring on it?”
“He’ll deny it but he’s probably right now trying to figure out where he can run into her again, if only to have another fight.”
“Oh my,” I murmured. “She will, of course, have dropped your name.”
“Which means we’re going out to dinner since he’s coming over tonight and I’m enjoying my day too much. I don’t want to have ‘the talk’ with a man I respect about how he better treat Chloe right or I’ll break his neck.”
And again…
I was giggling.
“Eat up, Gen,” he ordered, jerking his chin to my plate. “I wanna meet your cat.”
He was going to love Cookie.
So I obliged.
Chapter Eleven
The Cell
Imogen
The next morning, I lay on my side in bed, Cookie curved into the crook of my body, and although I had a view across the room to the charming square, I wasn’t looking at it.
Instead, I was scrolling up and down on my phone, reading the same thing over and over again.
Duncan: You up, baby?
Me: Yes.
Duncan: Morning.
Me: Good morning.
Duncan: You going riding with Coco?
Me: If she gives me my boots.
Duncan: [smiley face] You girls ride Caramel or Streak. Don’t get on Pistol. Gage’s stallion only likes Gage on his back. You gotta be strong to control him.
Me: OK
Duncan: See you at lunch.
Me: You bet.
And that was it.
When we were together before, cell phones had not yet been invented.
Why having a text string with Duncan meant so much to me, made me feel girlie and young and giddy, I didn’t know.
And I didn’t question it.
I just lay in bed, with what I knew had to be a silly grin on my face, going back and forth over the words.
There was a knock on the door and Cookie immediately moved to investigate.
I looked at the clock.
Apparently, I was so involved in that text string, I lost track of the time.
I had a standing order for breakfast delivery at nine o’clock.
And it was nine o’clock.
On the dot.
I pulled myself out of bed quickly, shrugged on my robe, tied it tight and went to the door.
“Good morning, Patrick,” I greeted.
“Ms. Swan,” the staffer replied. “Breakfast.”
I stepped aside to let him in. “Thank you.”
He rolled the food to the bistro table.
I went to my wallet.
I had his tip out before he was finished setting out my breakfast, and I took that moment, watching him, to remember that Duncan and I had spent the entire afternoon, and evening, in that room the day before.
In our Corey-free, ex-free, trouble-free zone, we still managed to talk about everything.
At least everything important.
His boys. What they were into. The girls they’d loved and left, and how much that had pained Duncan because he had liked them all (the man really needed a daughter…or two step ones). How River Rain came about. His work on his causes. The Kids and Trails program. My children. My work. The movies I was proud of. The ones that didn’t turn out all that great. My semi-retirement where I might take a meaningful, but small part in a film, or an amusing cameo.
With years to catch up on, we were not wanting for topics of conversation.
Though, this was mingled with lots of touching, cuddling and kissing on the couch, then after dinner, more of that, but hotter and heavier on the bed.
And, of course, in the midst of that, Duncan fell for Cookie.
Then again, Cookie was a flirt.
And we called for room service and ate dinner right there at that table.
Honestly, at the end of the evening, I didn’t want him to go home. I wanted him to spend the night with me.
But Duncan wouldn’t hear of it.
“I know it might not seem like it,” he said, “but this has happened fast. And I wanna leave like I wanna cut off a limb, but I think it’s smart, at least for a while, we take it slow.”
He was right, of course. Although it took twenty-eight years to get to that place, it had only taken a couple of days to get back to us.