Page 26 of Mountain Struggle

Damien breathed out. This wasn’t the way he and his father spoke with each other. They’d never had the conversation about the birds and the bees—John had just expected Damien to figure it out.

And yet, he couldn’t find it in himself to lie to his father, either.

“I won’t deny my feelings for her, dad. But rest assured, I’m not going to act on them,” he said, staring at the older man straight in the eyes.

His father leaned away from him. His lips tightened into a thin line.

“I don’t think you understand me.”

“Maybe I don’t,” Damien said slowly.

“Maybe you’ve come across something that only happens once in a lifetime, and maybe you’re letting it slip away from you. Do you think you’re the only one looking?”

Damien blinked rapidly.

He thinks I should act on it?

“But I thought you’d—”

“You thought I wouldn’t want you to be happy, Damien? Why wouldn’t I want for you what your mother and I had together …”

“I don’t—”

“You’re too old for me to tell you what to do—hell, Jamie is too old for me to tell him what to do—all I’m telling you is, I’m also too old to pick up the pieces of this family if you let this woman slip away.”

Damien stared open-mouthed at his father, well and truly out of words.

“I can’t risk Jamie getting hurt, Dad. Things have been good between us. A woman would—”

“You’re overthinking this, Damien.”

Damien bristled at his father’s tone.

“So, what would you do?”

“Jesus, Damien, do you really need me to spell it out? Ask her out to dinner. That’s how we used to do it in my day, anyway, and I can’t imagine things have changed that much. Jamie can come spend the night with me.”

And that was how he’d ended up meeting Tess outside as she was putting away the bikes after their bike ride. Her clothes were muddy, her cheeks red with exertion. He took her bike and lifted it easily onto the rack in the garage, then did the same thing with Jamie’s smaller one.

“You want to go out for dinner?” she repeated. “Sure. Can you change Jamie while I take a quick shower? I’m a bit—”

Imagining Tess in the shower wasn’t what he needed at the moment.

“No,” he said, grinding his teeth.

“No?” Her mouth curled into a small smile.

“No. I don’t want to take Jamie out to dinner. Just you.”

Her teeth tugged uncertainly on her lip. She probably had no idea how sexy it looked. “Just me?”

“And me. You and me. On a date.”

“You want to go on a date,” she repeated. “With me.”

I’ve lost my touch, if it’s taking her this long to understand.

For a dreadful moment, he thought she was going to say no. Then her face broke out into a shiny, beautiful smile. “Yes.”