After the Climb

by Kristen Ashley

  Duncan tipped up his chin. “That’s better.”

  Tom went to the drinks cart, asking, “Ice? Water?”

  “Straight.”

  Tom nodded and started to pour two fingers into two old fashioned glasses.

  “Nice place,” Duncan remarked.

  He didn’t look at the living room with the sunken seating area, the wall of windows that had a view to his lit pool, the stark but comfortable modern furniture.

  It was the house he’d bought, and paid to have decorated, not giving much of a shit because he didn’t think he’d be there very long.

  “Thanks. Hear yours is pretty spectacular.”

  “Work hard, reap the rewards.”

  He couldn’t argue that.

  Though, he’d learned some rewards were more important than others, and if you didn’t continue nurturing them, they slipped through your fingers.

  He handed Duncan a glass and inquired, “Sit outside?”

  “Sure.”

  Tom led him through the opened panel doors to the firepit right outside that had two chairs angled to it.

  Phoenix was Phoenix, but in the winter the nights got cold.

  He lit the firepit.

  When he was done, he saw Duncan was still standing.

  “Sit,” he invited, going to his own seat.

  They sat.

  Tom started it.

  “Decent of you to come here.”

  “Should be you and me first. Get over the awkward,” Duncan replied. “Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and it starts.”

  “Right, yeah, but you didn’t have to come all the way out here.”

  “You live in North Scottsdale, man, it wasn’t that far.”

  Tom nodded, took a sip, stared at the fire. No more had to be said about that. Both men knew it was more than decent that Duncan agreed to meet for the first time on Tom’s turf.

  Neither of them said anything for a long time.

  Too long.

  Even if Tom had played in his head how he wanted this to go so they could move on and have…whatever it was they had to have for Genny and his kids.

  Duncan broke the silence.

  “Listen, we need to get past this so they can be good.”

  Tom looked to him. “I feel I need to explain.”

  Duncan shook his head. “That’s not mine, that’s Genny’s.”

  “Not that,” Tom returned. And he ignored the taste in his mouth when he had to say, “But she was yours when I was an ass to her, and that I have to explain.”

  Duncan looked surprised.

  Tom kept talking.

  “I thought we still had a chance. She wasn’t dating, and to win her back, I wasn’t about to look at another woman.”

  He watched the man hiss in a breath.

  Quietly, Tom said, “I think you’ve proved she’s not a woman you can get over.”

  “Yeah,” he agreed.

  “But I love her, and I’ll always love her, and doing so, want what’s best for her. And you make her happy. My daughters adore you. My son…”

  He couldn’t finish that by stating the truth.

  His son liked Duncan Holloway, respected him and gave him his time.

  None of which he gave his father.

  “He’ll come around,” Duncan muttered.

  Tom looked to the fire. “I taught him too well not to let anyone harm his mother.”

  “That’s why he’ll come around. ’Cause while you were teachin’ him that, Genny was teaching him the importance of family.”

  Tom hoped he was right.

  He took another sip.

  “Your girls are amazing, your son is a good man,” Duncan began. “Any other instance, I’d wanna know you, Tom. What’s between us is big, but I figure I’m not wrong that we’re both the type of men who can get beyond it.”

  “Because Genny wants that,” Tom stated.

  “Because Genny needs that,” Duncan corrected.

  Yes.

  She did.

  And Tom needed it too. For Genny. And for his kids.

  “I went to one of your stores the other day,” Tom told the fire, then looked to Duncan. “They’re impressive. Interactive. The climbing wall. The mini-ski slope where you can test the skis. The dirt track you build around the perimeter where your customers can try out a mountain bike. It’s like a store and a nature amusement park rolled into one.”

  “Gotta have something to draw the crowds,” he said into his glass.

  “Your Kids and Trails program is essential.”

  Duncan turned and looked him in the eye. “I agree. And it’d be a boost to fundraising if me and Tom Pierce took a pack of kids out and did a video.”

  A surprise.

  Also good idea.

  And an olive branch that would work for them, their families and the public.

  He did not underestimate this man, considering his accomplishments.

  But he was impressed.

  “I’m in,” Tom replied.

  “We can do this.”

  He didn’t mean the Kids and Trails fundraising promo.

  “We can.”

  “He chose to stay with you for Thanksgiving, but as you know, Hale’s coming to the house for Christmas. I need to talk to him about his father. And I think it’d go easier on him if you were there.”

  “I’m already coming, Duncan.”

  “My friends call me Bowie.”

  They stared at each other again.

  “Right then, Bowie,” Tom said, “Chloe’s force feeding us a rich-food French brunch tomorrow at Genny’s. We all head up. I check into The Queen. Dinner at your house. And I’ll be back Christmas morning. Warning to you, Sasha still wakes up at four and turns on the Christmas music loud to get everyone up, like she’s still six years old. Gen loves her daughter, but she’ll hold out until she’s had at least some of her morning and can come down showered, her hair looking nice, and has applied a coat of powder and mascara. That’s not about stardom, it’s about vanity. She hates looking at pictures where she doesn’t look put together. Even family ones. I’ll aim to show around eight.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  He continued his warnings. “Matt will avoid me.”

  “My mom will be there. Hale. The girls. My boys. Genny. We’ll make sure it’s not awkward and you’re both looked after. But I cannot guarantee Genny won’t have a word with him. She’s losing patience with this.”

  “Matt knows his own mind. We got that when he pretty much potty trained himself starting at two years old.”

  Duncan chuckled.

  Because it was funny.

  And because this was what they were.

  Sharing stories.

  Sharing life.

  Family.

  “We can do this,” Tom said.

  Duncan took a sip of his whiskey.

  Then he looked at Tom.

  “We can. And we will.”

  Tom took a breath.

  Let it out.

  And sat by the fire on a Phoenix night next to a good man and drank some more whiskey.

  *****

  Imogen

  “Oh my God, kill me,” Matt groaned, head on the back of the sofa.

  “Why? This is radical!” Gage shouted.

  Matt looked to Gage and asked, “Did you hear the part about the sex scenes?”

  “Yeah, but Genny said she wouldn’t even show side boob,” Gage returned.

  Matt looked like he was going to throw up.

  Needless to say, I’d just made the announcement that The Next Life, my soon-to-be starring vehicle, was a go.

  And provided pertinent details therein.

  “Sorry, Genny, I’m out. I’m happy for you that you got this gig, but no way am I watching you have sex…with anyone, even fake sex,” Sully added.

  “It’s not all going to be sex scenes, Sully. You can close your eyes and chant lalalalalala and ask someone you’re watching it with to tell you when it’s done. That’s what I do when I
watch Mom do sex scenes,” Sasha advised.

  “I think this is all very exciting!” Duncan’s mom Ruthy exclaimed. “Can I come on set?”

  “Whenever you like,” I offered.

  “Oh my goodness. I’ve never been on a television set. This is unbelievable!” Ruthy cried.

  “I know, Gram,” Gage said to his grandmother, and then to me, “Can I come on set too?”

  “Of course,” I told him.

  “Well, all I can say is that I’m proud to have a mother who has the courage to be out and proud as a mature female sexual being in a world where, for centuries, mayhap millennia, well before their ovaries have ceased producing eggs, they were deemed non-essential. This simply because they might be forming a crow’s foot, had a single gray hair, or their tits were no longer perky,” Chloe stated grandly.

  “Rest assured, baby, your tits are still perky,” Duncan muttered in my ear.

  I elbowed him.

  “And I love the fact your daughter can use the word ‘mayhap’ and own it,” he kept going.

  He got no elbow for that.

  That made me smile.

  “Well done you, ma courageuse mère,” Chloe went on, lifting her champagne glass my way “Fight the power and all that.”

  “Hear hear!” Sasha shouted.

  “Yes, hear hear!” Ruthy chorused.

  I looked to Duncan, wedged in beside me in what had become “our chair,” and saw he was now grinning ruefully and shaking his head.

  He was doing this to Tom, who was accompanied by Killer (it had to be said, Killer had good taste in men) and doing the same.

  Suffice it to say, Duncan had read the script.

  And in the pilot, the female lead had sex three times.

  I had signed on to be the female lead.

  And the entire first season had been greenlit by a streaming service, which was what Teddy wanted, so we could be more “real life” visually and with language.

  The first script was beyond exciting.

  Teddy’s ideas and the work he was sharing with me for the season even more so.

  But before I’d committed, I’d asked Duncan.

  His response was, “I don’t pass by you which hiking boots I stock.”

  “Darling, you need to read the script,” I replied.

  “I will, Gen, but the point will remain.”

  He read the script.

  It remained.

  I could not say he was down with potentially millions of viewers watching a vital, interesting and sexual woman played by me lead her life.

  But he was stalwartly supportive of me doing what I loved.

  Tom had been the same.

  Though sex scenes were never his favorite.

  And it seemed this was going to continue to be a theme in my life.

  A theme, but not an issue.

  “Can we please stop talking about this and eat trifle?” Matt begged.

  “Yes, let’s finish the Christmas Eve food fest so we can introduce Bowie and Sully and Gage and Ruthy to our next Christmas Eve tradition after trifle. Christmas song lip sync!” Sasha announced.

  “I’m in!” Gage said.

  “Totally out,” Sully said.

  “I don’t even sing in the shower, and I love you, honey,” Duncan started, gaze on Sasha, “but that is not happening.”

  “Phooey! You and Matt and Dad. Killjoys. Hale sings!” Sasha returned.

  “I was twelve lords a’ leaping in one rendition of that song and you girls sang all the other parts,” Hale reminded Sasha.

  “I cannot even begin to imagine why singing emasculates men,” Chloe drawled. “Mick Jagger sings, and my understanding is, he did not go wanting for pussy.”

  I dropped my head.

  “Chloe! For God’s sake,” Tom bit out.

  “Am I wrong?” Chloe asked her father.

  “No, but your language in this company is not right,” Tom returned.

  “If you mean me, I always liked a girl who spoke her mind,” Ruthy chimed in. “Should have done more of that myself in my time.”

  One could say that was the understatement of the year.

  “More to say, mon père?” Chloe asked.

  I looked to Tom to see him fuming, but not opening his mouth.

  “Pretty sure ole Mick didn’t sing ‘Deck the Halls,’” Sul remarked.

  “Whatever, Coco and I are starting it off with ‘Christmas Wrapping’ by the Waitresses,” Sasha declared, jumping to her feet with her head bent to her phone, likely cueing up music.

  Every family member was now hooked to Duncan’s Sonos system, something that was connected to built-in speakers around the house. So you never knew what you’d get depending on which room you were in.

  My favorite so far?

  Duncan played Native American flute music throughout his entire home on Sunday mornings.

  Peaceful.

  Perfect.

  Everyone loved that.

  Even Chloe.

  “I’m getting the trifle,” Matt said, getting up from Duncan’s couch. “The sooner this is over, the better. And for those uninitiated, eventually they get drunk and don’t hand over the fake microphone and forget anyone else is even in the room so we can go about the rest of our night however we want. Though, we have to do it over them wailing out Mariah Carey.”

  “I am so very glad I do not have a penis,” Chloe purred.

  “Me too!” Sasha stated.

  “Me too,” Ruthy said.

  “I’m glad you don’t have a penis,” Duncan whispered to me.

  I looked in his beautiful, laughing hazel eyes.

  And answered, “I am too.”

  *****

  Duncan

  “What’s on your mind?”

  Gen looked at him like he was crazy.

  “Outside what’s obviously on your mind,” he added.

  It was Christmas evening.

  Post the unwrapping frenzy.

  Post naptime (for Sasha and his mom), some board games and a communal watching of The Christmas Chronicles on Netflix.

  Pre-late dinner, that was late because they wanted Sul and Gage to be there, and the boys were having a late Christmas lunch with their mom.

  It was dark, they’d be home soon.

  Tom and Hale were on the back porch, drinking hot buttered rum that Sasha had made.

  And Gen and Duncan were heading out there with Corey’s letter.

  “Well, outside Christmas going well, and thank you for that, you just being you, and your mom being all grandmothery made it all seem really natural,” Genny began.

  He stopped them at the back door. “Grandmothery?”

  “You know what I mean. Ruthy acted like a grandmother even when she was a mom.”

  He grinned.

  “Corroborating evidence, she gave up her suite of rooms for the girls,” she told him something he knew.

  “Now, baby, you know no way my mom would take the good room when two kids not only could have it but wanted it.”

  “Yes, grandmothery.”

  He grinned at her.

  She showed openly she enjoyed it.

  Then she got serious. “Sullivan looked like he was headed to the execution chamber when he and Gage took off to spend some time with their mom.”

  With this comment, Duncan was thrown.

  “Sorry?”

  She studied him and asked, “You didn’t notice?”

  “They were having a good time here and didn’t want to leave. But more, they’re careful with their mom. She demonstrated for a long time she was fragile, and they handle her that way, even now, when she’s got her shit together. It’ll pass, the more time they have under their belt with her having her shit together.”

  “All right,” she said, not meaning it.

  “You think it’s more?” he pushed.

  “I think it’s just that with Gage, and I think it’s something else with Sully.”

  It was an understatement to say this did not make him h
appy.

  “I’ll talk to him,” he said.

  “I’m glad.”

  For now, they had something else they had to take care of.

  He looked out the window. “Let’s get this done.”

  She nodded, and she looked even less happy than he was about that news about Sully.

  Both men outside were wearing fleeces, Hale’s sportier and more casual than the smart one Tom was wearing.

  But standing on his porch, with the moon shining on the lake behind them, they looked like a marketing picture from his website.

  As they approached, Hale smiled at Genny.

  Tom looked right at Duncan, query then worry hitting his face when Duncan dipped his chin to share now was the time.

  Duncan turned his attention to Hale.

  He could see some Sam in him.

  But mostly, it was Corey.

  Built-up and filled-out Corey.

  Dusty brown hair. Pale green eyes. Features so fine, if his lifestyle out in the sun and weather and his personality didn’t reflect on them, he’d be pretty.

  That had been Corey’s problem.

  Corey was actually a good-looking guy.

  But he was tall and painfully thin, so he was called “The Stick.”

  He was also a nerd, addicted to videogames and Star Trek reruns. The only time he got out and did anything physical was when Duncan made him.

  So Corey was teased not only about being a nerd, but also about being gay or “a girl,” even if he wasn’t effeminate, kids were just assholes.

  Duncan had spent time thinking about it, and back in the day, it was easy to convince himself Corey had latched onto Duncan to be his protector, his shield, because that shit didn’t happen when Duncan was around.

  But when he was honest with himself, he knew that wasn’t true.

  Because whenever they could get away with it, his ass was in a beanbag next to Corey’s while they watched Kirk and Spock and Bones and the rest of them boldly go where no man had gone before.

  They were two kids with seriously shitty dads who made it clear they were disappointed in their sons, they shared common interests, they were only children…

  And they both really dug hanging out with that girl Imogen.

  When they arrived at the men, Hale claimed Genny with an arm around her shoulders, tucking her into his side, which was something Duncan noted he did with all the females. Even eventually, after getting to know her a little, Duncan’s mom.

  He was an affectionate guy. He communicated physically and nonverbally as well as with words.