After the Climb (River Rain #1) - Kristen Ashley Page 0,65
do that, asking, “Is Cookie settling in okay?”
“Apparently, I can take her on my jet-set travels. She settled in swimmingly. But I’m not sure Tuck is a fan. I haven’t seen him since she claimed the great room.”
“He’ll get over it,” Duncan muttered, finishing with Shasta and Rocco, he straightened with Killer in his arms.
And Tuck would have to, since Gen was moving up there.
At least, she’d be there part time. When they weren’t in Phoenix.
And if he got his way, that would be most-of-the-time part time.
“Beer?” she asked, heading to the fridge.
He looked around, saw she had a glass of wine on the counter, so he answered, “Yeah.”
She ducked in the fridge.
He let Killer go, went in search of Cookie, and did this sharing, “Just to say, for the first time, Gage figured out a couple of days ago that his dad has sperm. He’s entirely grossed out by this concept, but he figured it out because he further figured out it’s been in you, it’s gonna be in you again, and he’s currently strategizing how he’s going to handle all of his friends knowing this same thing.”
By the time he found Cookie, who was curled up on the back of the couch (though she was a sweet kitty, and thus she uncurled to stretch and reach for some scratches from his hand), he turned and saw Gen was standing in his open fridge with a bottle of beer in her hand, staring at him in dismay.
“Further heads up on that my son has yet to clue into the basics of appropriate social discourse, and in some cases behavior, no matter how much his mother and I drilled it into him. So I take no responsibility for what comes out of his mouth, or noises from other orifices in his body,” he finished.
Her eyes crinkled before her smile came and she was shaking her head as she shut the door on the refrigerator and went right to the drawer that held his bottle opener.
She’d familiarized herself with his kitchen.
He fucking loved that.
Having given Cookie his stamp of approval, or more to the point, having received the message she was done with it and she was jumping away, he returned to the island and slid onto a stool just as Genny slid the beer across to him.
She nabbed her wine and asked, “How was your day?”
“Lowkey, which is good. I had a shit-ton to catch up on. Email is like tribbles.”
She laughed softly.
“Yours?” he queried.
“Well, um…” She turned from him and her wine to go to the stove and stir.
“Well, um, what?” he prompted, perplexed at her hesitancy.
They didn’t have a lot of time in with their reunion, but unless she was being bashful, an obstacle it appeared she’d leaped right over, she’d always seemed totally open.
“Okay, there are things I didn’t share at lunch,” she told the pot.
Lunch was good. Light. What they’d had the day before when it was about them and they didn’t let other shit drag on it.
He wasn’t big on there being something dragging on her that she didn’t share.
“Like what?” he asked, feeling a tenseness hit his neck, because they didn’t have a lot of time in with their reunion, and although it seemed to be going great, at this juncture, it was very new.
Anything could fuck it up.
And that was something he couldn’t let happen.
Not again.
She put the spoon on the rest, and returned to her wine, and him.
“Okay, well, the man who created Rita’s Way is developing another series and he wants me for it.”
The tension left and he smiled. “That’s awesome.”
She studied him. “Duncan, being a principle on a series is a lot of work.”
“So?”
“He says, if I’m interested, and it’s picked up, he’ll film in Phoenix.”
“Even better.”
She studied him closer. “You really have no issue with this?”
Duncan was feeling something creeping up in him, and he didn’t like it.
This being irritation.
“Why would I have an issue with it?”
“Well, depending on how long a season runs, I’d need to be down in Phoenix a lot of the time, and probably in LA on some occasions, to film it. And that doesn’t include the travel I’d need to do to market it.”
“Gen, I have seventy-five stores in fifty different cities and we’re in the planning stages to open up five more. I’m also the official spokesperson for two very active charities. I’m a hands-on CEO. And I give one hundred percent to any commitment I make. I don’t sit on my ass