Page 38 of Mountain Shadow

“I’m glad, Sarah,” Jens said, his voice gentle.

“Is Damien gone?”

“He just left.”

“And you’re not bruised or bleeding, so I guess everything’s okay between the two of you?”

“Everything’s fine, Sarah. I’m glad he knows how I feel about you.”

Sarah looked down at the wooden balcony floor. They hadn’t actually spoken about how they felt about each other.

Jens’s fingers cupped her chin, gently raising her face until they were looking into each other’s eyes. “You do know how I feel about you, don’t you, Sarah?”

And suddenly, she realized she did. It was exactly the same way she felt about him.

When you know, you know.

She hugged him, burrowing her head as close as she could to his beating heart. Suddenly, she remembered something.

“I can’t even make you the curry dinner I’d promised. We dropped all our groceries on the floor.”

“You remember when I left you in the car for a second? I went back to grab the bags. I wasn’t about to miss out on a curry dinner.”

“You did?” she said, brightening up.

“I did,” he confirmed. “But I wanted to show you something first. Something I do when I need to clear my head.”

If anybody ever needed to clear their head, that’s me right now.

“Show me,” she said.

He led her by the hand to the side of the wrap-around balcony—an area she only just realized she’d never been to before.

“What are we—”

Her mouth opened in surprise as he pointed to an enormous black bag hanging from a chain off the side of the house.

Are you kidding me?

A heavy bag?

She looked to see if he was joking, but his expression was nothing if not earnest.

“This is what you do when you need to clear your head? You hit things?”

“Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it,” he said lightly.

She wanted to knock him on the head, but then thought better of it.

“Okay … I’ll play. What do I do?” she asked.

Jens took off his sweatshirt and shook off his arms. Sarah looked appreciatively at his bulging muscles.

“Have you ever done any kick-boxing?” Jens asked.

“Does a kid like candy?” she retorted. “I’m the queen of kick-boxing at my local gym. But we don’t hit anyone.”

His eyes were on her butt as he picked up a pair of leather gloves and put them on. She felt herself getting hot, and it had nothing to do with exercise.