After the Climb (River Rain #1) - Kristen Ashley Page 0,85
throat was closed.
His chest was burning.
His heart hurt.
Corey never once called him Bowie.
Not once.
Because his dad gave him that name.
And honest to Christ, sometimes Duncan didn’t know who hated his father more.
Him.
Or Corey.
A knock sounded at the door and his head came up with a jerk when he saw Sasha had hers around the door.
“Hey!” she called. “I’m—” She stopped, stared, and asked in a much less vivacious tone, “Are you all right?”
He tossed the letter to the desk. “What do you need, honey?”
She slipped in and closed the door behind her. “I’m taking Mom up a smoothie and Sul said something came for her and I was going to take that to her too. But that was then. Now, what I need to know is if you’re all right.”
Astute.
Thoughtful.
Loving.
Genny’s girl.
“We didn’t finish it when we got it, but I just finished reading your Uncle Corey’s letter.”
She came in farther and leaned against one of the chairs across from his desk, saying, “Oh, man, did he lay some heavy on you?”
“Your mom hasn’t seen it so I’d rather her see it before I share it with you.”
She nodded. “I dig.”
“I’ll take the package up to her.”
“Okay, wanna swing by the kitchen and get her smoothie?”
“Yup,” he replied, pushing out of his chair then nabbing the letter and the thick envelope on his desk.
“Duncan?” Sasha called.
He looked to her as he rounded the desk.
“Don’t take on Uncle Corey’s shit. The dude was messed up.”
At her simple, but profound advice, Duncan could not beat back his chuckle.
“I’ll try to do that, honey.”
She came to him and linked her arm in his, also shouldering some of her weight into his biceps to get even closer.
Yeah.
Genny’s girl.
“Anyway, you know, I mean, life’s weird,” she said as they walked to and through the door, “I’m all over throwing shade on Uncle Corey, ’cause he’s a dick. But if he hadn’t done what he did so long ago, Chloe and me and Sul and Gage wouldn’t be here. And if he didn’t do what he did recently, we wouldn’t have you guys. So, you know, fuck him, but at least he went out as not entirely a loser.”
He grinned down at her. “Yeah, Sash, at least he did that.”
She smiled brightly up at him and that, he was noticing, was all she had.
There were different nuances to the wattage, but they all blasted with the strength of the sun.
They went to the kitchen and then Duncan went upstairs.
He walked into his room to see Genny wearing her robe with her hair at the top of her head in a messy knot, standing in front of his window, staring down at her many suitcases.
When she caught sight of him, she declared, “I should have drunk fewer gimlets and unpacked.”
“So you’re movin’ in now?”
Her body jolted. “Oh God, Duncan, I—”
He smiled at her. “Don’t finish that, babe, and if this is shit you wanna leave up here,” he gestured to the suitcases with the envelope in his hand, “leave it. But I think we both get, not only is that empty closet yours, but in some part of my head, I actually built it for you.”
She giggled and said, “Did we just get through the difficult talk of what’s up for our future with me in Phoenix, you here?”
“Pretty much.”
She giggled more and shared, “Sorry, darling, but when Tom moved out, I gutted the condo and redid it entirely. I took the extra closet in the master to extend my own and add a steam shower. And Chloe was all in to fill my expanded closet and she got on that with all due haste.”
He was not surprised at that.
Though he was intrigued about this steam shower.
“This does not come as a surprise, but I don’t even own a suit, so you give me half a foot of hanging space and a drawer, I’ll be good.”
She was smiling, as bright as her daughter, when she said, “You mean the world to me and this is why I’m giving you a full week before I tell Chloe you don’t own a suit.”
As funny, and scary, as that was, all he could manage was forcing a tight smile back.
Because, fuck, he didn’t want to lay more shit on her.
He knew she was still fighting the hangover when she didn’t notice the state of his smile.
“Please tell me that’s a smoothie á la Sasha,” she begged.