Maybe it was the work he did with kids that were hard to reach.
Maybe it was just him.
“You guys don’t have rum,” he noted.
Genny made a face.
Hale started laughing.
Seeing that, truthfully, he wondered why neither Chloe nor Sasha had gone there.
Probably due to what had happened with his sons.
Hale was Matt, open to giving shit, taking it, teasing, cuddling, any and all brotherly duties, just without sharing the same blood.
When Hale quit laughing, he started to pay attention.
Mostly to the look on Gen’s face and then the line of Tom’s body.
Which made him ask, “What’s up?”
“Okay, honey, your dad gave Duncan and I—”
That was all Genny got out.
He let her go and stepped away, saying, “No.”
“Honey, let us—” she tried again.
“I got a box too, Gen,” he said, his words curt. “After that Insta pic hit with you and Duncan.”
Gen glanced at Duncan. He returned it and looked to Tom.
Tom caught it and sighed.
“Yeah, you all know his games,” Hale stated. “His attorneys were instructed not to give it to me until he’d set up Duncan to make his play.”
Okay, there it was.
Hale also got his father’s smarts.
“Hale—” Tom began.
“Fuck him, Tommy. I’m all right with him coming clean with Gen and Duncan because he owed them that. But he doesn’t get to try to be a dad to me after he blew the back of his head all over a priceless David Hockney.”
Genny winced.
“Hale,” Tom clipped warningly.
“Sorry, Gen,” Hale muttered tersely.
“We’ll give it time,” Duncan said.
“Respect, Duncan, but there’s not enough time in the world,” Hale replied.
“Yeah, I thought the same thing and almost burned the letter he wrote to Genny and me before we finished reading it. Then a few days passed, and his games meant I knew her daughters and she my sons and that led to what you had today, Hale. And I’ll share, even if his words affected me, I have not forgiven him. And I know myself enough, I won’t. Not ever. But that does not negate the fact I’m glad I read them, even as it’s upsetting that I read them knowing he felt compelled to write them before he took his own life.”
He got closer and both Gen and Tom took his cue and they moved in too.
Not pushy, just supportive.
“And it is upsetting,” Duncan went on quietly. “Because I don’t forgive him, but I miss him. I loved him. And I hate that he was living in so much pain, and swimming in so much guilt, that was the only way he saw to end it. But none of that gives back what he took from me. And I mean Genny. But I also mean Corey. He was the only brother I had and what he did meant I lived without Gen for twenty-eight years, but I will live without Corey forever.”
Hale swallowed.
Duncan didn’t like it, but he had to keep at it.
“What I’m saying is, this isn’t about forgiveness. This is about giving him the last things he wanted before he died. And at least for that, I’m glad I got the opportunity to give that to him.”
Hale stared into his eyes before he turned his attention to Gen.
“Do you forgive him?” he asked.
“Yes,” she answered.
“Of course you do,” he muttered, and looked toward the stables.
“So we’ll give it time,” Duncan repeated.
Hale looked back to him. “At this very instant, he’s very dead, and he’s still playing you.”
“Some games you don’t wanna play. But still, it’s important you play and do it to win,” Duncan returned.
“Christ, too bad I hadn’t heard that, or I’d have been in on the coffee mug gig.”
Everyone, but Hale and Tom, had a new coffee mug with some saying on it they’d spouted to Sully or Gage.
And Tom and Hale had mugs too. Tom’s said, I’M TOM PIERCE, AND I GOT A HELLA BACKSTROKE and Hale’s said, BE GOOD, OR I’M INVITING YOU TO CAMP.
Chloe was drinking her hot buttered rum right then from a red mug with black words on it that said I’M GOING TO HAVE TO GET YOU IN HAND.
The boys gave joint gifts, always had, and this didn’t have to do with the fact that the only money they had they got from their dad.
They were always in cahoots about “the perfect gift.”
And this year, even with more people to come up with ideas for, they hadn’t disappointed.
“Just not now, all right? It’s Christmas,” Hale gave in, somewhat.
“You leave tomorrow, darling,” Gen pointed out.
“Just not now, Genny, okay?” he asked.
She thought about it for a moment and nodded.
“I need more rum,” Hale muttered. “Excuse me.”
Duncan moved out of the way, and Hale went into the house.
Sasha fell on him almost instantly.
But sweet, savvy Coco…
Her eyes were narrowed out the window at them.
And then she started to make her way to Hale.
“That went as expected,” Tom said.
“I worry he thinks he can delay until we give up,” Genny noted.
“In the end, it’s his call if he wants it or not, honey,” Duncan replied.
They all fell into unhappy silence.
Tom broke it, saying, “I need more rum too.”
He touched Gen’s arm, gave Duncan a chin lift and went inside.
Duncan moved to his woman.
“We shouldn’t have done it on Christmas,” she fretted.
“Stop worrying, baby. We had this window, and if he’d opened up, on Christmas, he’d have learned that his dad was more than he thought he was. He didn’t and now he’s in there with Sash and Coco and he’ll be fine. We’ll get another shot.”
“Yes,” she murmured, gazing into the house and slumping into his side.
Duncan pulled her close.
“Good call, building this huge log cabin,” she said.
He turned his attention through the windows into his house and studied the goings-on.
Tons of presents, unwrapped, sitting in individually designated piles under the big, real tree.
Real garlands that made the place smell like a forest were swagged everywhere, fit with red and silver baubles, pinecones and bright red velvet ribbons.
Dogs and cats and a rabbit snoozing or mixing.
Chloe, Sash, Tom, and Hale in the kitchen, talking about something.
Matt and Duncan’s mom playing some card game on the coffee table in the living room.
The fire was crackling.
Christmas music had been playing all day.
And his sons would be home soon.
Yeah, he’d rambled around that house alone whenever the boys were with their mom, and then after Gage went to school, and there were times, too many of them, that it wasn’t fun.
But now, Gen was with him more than they were in Phoenix.
The girls came up whenever they wanted, like they were going to the mall and it wasn’t a two-hour trek.
And every day he’d gone to work since she’d come back into his life, Genny had been home when he’d walked through the door.
Shooting for her new show started in February, so that would end soon.
But it didn’t matter.
His boys’ crystal ball may have broken, but his hadn’t.
He’d built that house for his family and for Genny.
And that was who was enjoying it.
And he knew that was the best present he’d ever get every day for the rest of his life.
“Have I told you I love you today?” Gen asked, and he looked down at her.
And another present.
“You told me after I had Christmas breakfast, before I had the Christmas breakfast that involved food,” he reminded her.
Her face
grew soft and sexy with memories of her orgasm before she said, “Well, it bears repeating. I love you, Duncan William Holloway.”
“And I love you too, Imogen Sarah Swan. And just so you know, that thing you opened this morning was a place keeper. Your real gift is up in our bedroom.”
Her chin shifted back.
And then she stated, “First, I do not consider a Van Cleef and Arpels Alhambra pendant a place keeper.”
He smiled.
She kept talking.
“Second, sex with you is a gift, but since your mom is in a room on our side of the house, like I explained, we’re refraining from the actual act, unless your mouth is engaged in some way, due to your gruntiness.”
“First, your rule means sex for the next three days pretty much revolves around me going down on you—” he started.
“Well, if you’d let me suck you off at the same time, it wouldn’t,” she cut him off to proclaim.
He made the instant decision they were doing that later that night.
He didn’t share that.
He got back to business
“But I’m not talking about sex, Genny, I’m talking about the engagement ring that’s upstairs that I’m giving you when we’re alone.”
Her eyes got huge.
Then they got wet.
Then she shoved him hard with both hands in his chest.
“Bowie, you’re not supposed to tell a girl you’re giving her a ring. You’re supposed to just give it to her while asking her to marry you.”
“Yeah, well, if I did that without warning, it’d lead to you making me grunty.”
At that, she started laughing hard, then harder, then she collapsed into his arms, and she was making noises, but he didn’t think she was laughing anymore.
“Baby?” he called into the top of her hair.
“We’re getting married.”
“Yeah, we are.”
“Genny and Bowie are finally getting married.”
He rested his cheek on the top of her head.
“Love you too, Gen.”
“I know, Bowie,” she squeezed him tight. “Boy, do I know.”
And that right there?
Best present of all.
*****
Chloe
Chloe watched her mom and Bowie out on the porch.
Her heart felt light.
Then she looked at her dad who was also watching them, until he realized he had his daughter’s attention.
Then he gave her his eyes, a fake smile that was still sweet, and turned his attention to Hale.
And her heart felt heavy.
Chloe did not do a heavy heart.
She felt her sister sidle closer.
“We’re gonna have to do something about that,” Sasha said, sotto voce.
Chloe glanced at Sasha to see her expression was sad and her gaze was aimed at their father.
Chloe always took the flack, but quite often, it was Sash who was the instigator.
All right, perhaps “quiet often” was overstating it.
“Operation Happiness Part One worked a treat. Now it was time for Operation Happiness Part Two,” Sasha decreed.
“Tout de suite, ma ravissante sœur, tout de suite,” Chloe replied.
And then she took a sip of her hot buttered rum, knowing the expression on her face was at rest.
But in her head…
She was plotting.
The End
The River Rain series will continue…
With the story of Chloe and Judge.
Table of Contents
Dedication
Shout Out
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Epilogue
After the Climb Page 28