Page 37 of Mountain Summons

“I met Beau and Lorenz outside. Lorenz’s wrist was in a cast, but he seems fine. Val’s here, too. She’s with Alex, trying to convince him that he should spend the night in the hospital.” She paused. “I guess that means he’s feeling okay?”

Tristan huffed a quiet, amused sound. “Alex doesn’t like hospitals.”

“You don’t either, do you?”

His gaze flickered to hers, something unreadable in his expression. “No. Not really.” Then, softly—so softly she barely heard him—he added, “Thank you for coming.”

Lena’s chest tightened.

She looked away, focusing on the heart monitor instead of him, because that was easier.Safer.

“I was home when my dad got the call.” She swallowed. “I couldn’t … I couldn’tnotcome.”

It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him how badly he’d scared her, how not ready she was for something like this … but this wasn’t the right moment.

Tristan was silent for a long time. Then, in a voice lower, more careful, he said, “I’m sorry I sent so many messages—before you told me you weren’t interested, I mean.”

She snapped her gaze back to him.

“I don’t want you to think I’m a stalker.” He exhaled sharply. “I just—there’s something about you that?—”

Lena’s heart pounded. She swallowed hard. “I know. I feel it, too.”

“Up there, after the crash, the first thing I could think about was how I might never have had the chance to say?—”

He stopped.

The silence stretched between them.

“I was wrong. I thought I could protect us from … from something, but now I realize it doesn’t work that way. I’d like to spend more time together,” she confessed, her fingers gripping the edge of the hospital bed. “When you’re out, I mean.”

“Right. I imagined that’s what you meant,” he said, a slow smile curving his lips. He dragged a slow, careful breath, then exhaled. “I want that too. And I’m glad you’re here.”

“Should I call someone for you? Your parents or?—”

“Not unless I’m dying, please,” he said. “They’re in Geneva right now, anyway.”

She didn’t know what to say to that. Her relationship with her father was not the best, but she definitely wouldn’t have wanted him in the dark when she got hurt.

“My parents are great,” he explained. “But my father’s a busy man. I don’t think he’d appreciate coming back early from his trip to find out I’m just fine.”

Just fineseemed a bit of an exaggeration, but she let it go.

Instead, she reached out—hesitantly at first—her fingers barely brushing against his.

Tristan turned his free hand over, catching her fingers in his, holding on.

And then, in a voice that was almost too quiet, he asked?—

“Will you stay? Just for a while?”

For the first time since she’d heard about the crash, Lena let herself breathe again.

“Yeah,” she whispered. “I’ll stay.”

15

Tristan

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