Page 21 of Mountain Void

“I remembered,” he said, then wished he hadn’t said the words.

Charlie’s gaze lifted, her expression curious, but she let it go.

“How was your day?” she asked.

“Uneventful,” he said. Technically true if you defined uneventful as nobody dying.

She raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

He shrugged. “There was an icefall release and two climbers were injured, but they’re both going to be fine. Other than that, it was just a lot of twisted ankles.”

That earned him a small smile.

“And yours?” he asked.

Charlie hesitated for an instant. When she spoke, her words came faster, as if she could make up for the moment of silence. “Busy. The usual.”

Teacher busy. Twenty plus children. Thousands of worries, every single day.

“Is the boy okay?”

“Théo? I haven’t spoken to his mother yet. She delayed our meeting. But I know something’s bothering him. I know it.” She frowned slightly, eyes unfocused now. “I hope he’ll share it with me, eventually.”

“I’m sure he will.”

Charlie picked up her fork again, but didn’t eat.

“You’re hurt,” she said quietly.

“It’s nothing.” Trust her to notice the slight discoloration around his temple. The helmet had caught the brunt of the ice block, but his head had been right behind it.

“That’s what you always used to say.”

You’re so beautiful.

That was something else he used to say, but he didn’t have the right to say it now.

“I’m glad you came,” he said quietly.

Charlie seemed to undress him with her eyes for a moment. She set her fork down.

“We’re not very good at half-way things, are we?”

He shrugged his agreement.

It was warm. Much too warm in this restaurant. But then, Charlie had always made him feel this way. Hot. Too hot.

Charlie finished her salmon, and he did the same with the risotto he’d barely tasted.

He waited for her to ask him what it was he wanted to talk about. That would be his chance to apologize, to explain the inexplicable. But she surprised him once again.

Her gaze didn’t waver.

“You called me out here to talk. But what if I don’t want to talk tonight, Lorenz?”

He felt the room tilt. Heat rushed through him, sharp and disoriented.

“I … what do you want, Charlie?”