Page 45 of Mountain Struggle

For a moment she feared she’d spoken out loud but when neither Damien nor Sarah reacted, she relaxed.

She wasn’t in a position to think, let alone say, something like that. In fact, where he’d at first been so vocal that they should tell Jamie about their relationship, lately he’d stopped insisting. Tess wasn’t sure what to think about that—was he waiting for her to say something about it, or had he decided that whatever was between them wasn’t serious enough to share with Jamie?

The door to Damien’s room closed gently, bringing Tess back to the moment. This wasn’t the time to think about her and Damien—not when Sarah was standing right in front of her.

“What are you really doing here, Sarah? Is everything okay? Are mom and dad okay?”

Sarah waved a perfectly manicured hand in her direction. “They’re both fine. They don’t even know I’m here, actually. It was a bit of a last-minute decision.”

“So why are you here?”

“You want the truth, little sister? I was worried about you. I wanted to check that you were really okay.”

Tess’s eyes filled with tears again. She blinked at them desperately.

“I’m okay, Sarah,” she confirmed.

Sarah nodded, her lips curling into a knowing smile. “I can see that now.” Her eyes moved towards the door Damien had disappeared through. “He’s hot, your man.”

Tess felt herself blushing fiercely.

“He is.” She cocked her head—something in Sarah’s voice told her she was missing something. “He said you met in a bar. You tried to pick him up, didn’t you?” she asked.

Sarah shrugged, not even trying to deny it. They knew each other too well.

“I just wanted to see what he would do. I asked around town, looking for the bar police officers most often frequented, and saw him as he came in. I recognized him from the pictures you’d shared. So I approached him.”

“So? Was he tempted?”

Tess already knew from her sister’s expression that he hadn’t been. Not that she would have expected him to—Damien was honorable to the core, and whatever else might be going on between them, she knew they were exclusive.

“No, he didn’t,” Sarah confirmed. She paused dramatically. “I like him.”

That was high praise coming from Sarah. The last time she’d liked one of Tess’s boyfriends was … never.

“Do you really have to leave tomorrow?”

“I do. But you know I don’t need much sleep, we can stay up talking half the night, like we used to do,” Sarah said, laughing. “You’ll let me read what you’ve been working on?”

Coming from anybody else, the words would have raised Tess’s hackles immediately, but Sarah was the one person she’d always shared her work with—her harshest critic, and also the person who’d first convinced Tess of her talent.

“Come, I’ll show you were I live.”

They settled in her little studio, and Tess immediately put the kettle to boil. Even more so than the average English person, Sarah loved her tea.

“So … you really like him, huh,” Sarah began once they were sitting down, each with a steaming mug in front of them.

Tess nodded, then decided to be honest with her sister. “I think I’ve fallen in love with him, Sarah. I didn’t mean to, but—”

Sarah nodded and blew into her mug.

“Before meeting him, I might have worried. Now, not so much anymore.” She grinned. “And it’s not just because he’s so hot.”

Tess giggled.

“He is, isn’t he? He’s really amazing, Sarah. He’s great with his son, he’s brave and generous and—”

“Okay, okay, I get the point. He’s wonderful.”