Page 27 of Mountain Struggle

“Yes?”

“I’d like that. I need a shower first, though.”

There we go with the shower again.

“Thirty minutes. My dad will come for Jamie.”

Damien stood there for a moment as Tess walked away towards her studio. Whatever she chose to wear, her butt couldn’t look any finer than it did in those tight leggings she’d worn to go cycling.

Chapter 10

Tess

You think you know someone … and then you realize you don’t know them at all.

Tess knew Damien was good-looking. Hell, she’d need to be blind not to admire the way his black polo shirt hugged his wide shoulders or the way those jeans fit around his butt.

And when those blue eyes zoom in on me—call me a goner.

She knew he was brave, and that was before he jumped off a waterfall with her.

She knew he was patient. She’d seen him around Jamie, teaching the boy everything from how to tie his shoelaces to how to build complex Lego structures.

What she hadn’t known, was that he could be funny as well. She realized now they’d never, until now, been in a situation where they got to share a drink together and just talk. He’d shared his memories of growing up in a tourist destination—how it’d shocked him to learn that some kids only got to ski one week a year.

“So you were one of those kids who learned to ski before he could walk?” she asked.

Damien smiled confidently. “I’m a Chamonard through and through. My friends and I were about sixteen when we first heard someone talk about Chamonix’s world-famous steep skiing—we’d been skiing our whole lives and had no idea what that was. For us, runs came at many different angles, but it was always just skiing.” He shrugged. “Of course, that was a while ago. They probably don’t even call it that anymore.”

Somehow, they’d started talking about the most embarrassing moments of their life. She’d shared—and she’d blame this one on the wine—that time when she’d bragged to everyone she knew about having a secret admirer, before realizing it was her sister who had a secret admirer. What’d made things even worse was when her sister had tried to cover it up.

Even now, over twelve years later, Tess blushed in mortification when she thought about it.

“So … fair’s fair. What’s the most embarrassing thing that’s ever happened to you?”

His eyes crinkled at the corners.

He’s probably never been embarrassed a day in his life.

“I’m not easily embarrassed, to tell you the truth. Like a lot of kids, I was caught masturbating by my mother—that was quite embarrassing, though she was quite cool about it.” He paused for a moment. “I wish she’d lived long enough to meet Jamie.”

“When did she die?” Tess asked, sobering up.

“Ten years ago. She was too young. I don’t think my father has really recovered. What about you? What’s your family like? You mentioned a sister.”

Tess shrugged. “I have a sister who’s two years older than me, and a brother who’s two years younger. We’re just your average English family—the kind who spends every summer together in the south of Spain, competing over whose skin would go redder.”

“So, now that you’ve lived in Chamonix for a while, tell me, is there anything you miss?”

“About the UK, you mean?”

He nodded.

“Well, other than my family, I’d have to say Chamonix has everything I need … except for proper cheddar. French cheese doesn’t hold a candle to mature cheddar.”

“You do know we have over a thousand cheeses in France?”

She wrinkled her nose. “Sorry, Damien—none of them compare.”