What's His Passion 2 - Climbing the Savage Mountain (25 page)

Jensen rubbed his cheek over Toby’s head and murmured his agreement. Toby absorbed Jensen’s warmth, knowing that they would have to get back to work soon, but taking the time to hold his husband made the idea of the rest of the day brighter.

“Come on. We need to get things taken care of, so we can go start the rest of our life together.”

Toby grinned when Jensen said that. As he left Jensen’s office, he thought about everything that had gone on in their relationship. He understood that he would love Jensen, no matter where he traveled in the world and how many mountains he climbed because they were stronger with each other than any obstacle the world could throw at them.

Extra Scene

“Mom, do we have everything?” Toby called from where he stood in the middle of the backyard. He whirled around in a circle, trying to see if he had forgotten anything. “Balloons? Check. Cake? Check. Bouncy House? Check. Sprinkler? Check.”

“Yes, honey. You should sit before you pass out. Jensen will be back with Dante and it’s not going to be the awesome surprise you want it to be if you’re passed out in the middle of the yard because of stress.” His mom yanked on his hand, dragging him over to the picnic table then pressing down on his shoulders to get him to sit.

“Wendy and Kelly are keeping the kids occupied until Dante gets here. Bill and Shane are firing up the grill as we speak, so hot dogs and hamburgers will be ready whenever someone gets hungry.” Nancy brushed Toby’s hair off his forehead before kissing him there. “You’re so nervous. You’re going to make yourself sick.”

Toby wrung his hands together. “This is his first birthday since he became ours. I don’t want him to be disappointed. I want him to love it as much as we love him.”

Nancy settled her arm around his shoulder then tightened her grip for a second. “Toby, that boy adores you and Jensen. He wouldn’t care if you took him to McDonald’s for his birthday. As long as the two of you are there, he’d be over-the-moon happy.”

He couldn’t stop the smile from breaking across his face at the thought of his son. From the moment he’d first met Dante a year ago, Toby had loved the little boy. Jensen had fallen just as quickly. Lucky for them, Dante had been very comfortable with them and eventually had asked if Toby and Jensen were going to be his new dads.

After their boy asked that question, there was no doubt that they would be a family. Now wherever they went, people commented on how happy and beautiful Dante was, which Toby knew came from the boy’s knowledge that he was overwhelmingly loved—not just by his two dads, but by his grandparents, aunts, uncles and various cousins.

They had worked hard to be a family and Toby ended up turning his clients over to Jensen to become a stay-at-home dad. Surprisingly, he discovered he enjoyed being there when Dante came home from school and helping his son learn new and exciting things. Dante’s developmental delays had slowly begun correcting themselves. Toby knew it would only be a matter of time before he was on par with his peers—or above average, if Jensen had anything to say about it.

Toby shot his mom a wicked grin. “I bought him like ten new Lego sets.”

“Toby Schwartzel, that’s just evil. You know he’ll make Jensen help him put them together tonight. They’ll be up all evening.” Nancy giggled. “I guess that’s okay though, since Jensen likes building with them.”

“He does. They built Everest the other night out of all the blocks Dante has. Jensen told him all about climbing the mountain and what was involved with doing so. We just might have another budding climber in our midst.” Toby wasn’t worried about it.

When—and if—the time came where Dante wanted to learn how to climb, he had the perfect teacher in Jensen, along with Cat and Jigger. He glanced over to where Jensen’s best friends sat under the massive oak tree. Cat held their infant son in her arms while Jigger held Pammy.

“Jensen and I talked last night, Mom. We want to adopt another kid,” he told her and grunted when she hugged him hard enough that he thought his ribs would break.

“Oh, Toby, that’s great news. Dante will love having a younger brother—or sister. Plus I always believed it was better to have at least two children. That way there are more to spoil.” Nancy ruffled his hair before wandering off to talk to Toby’s dad.

A commotion started and he could hear Dante yelling. After standing, Toby watched as Dante emerged from the house in Jensen’s arms. He stared around at all the people who were there then glanced over at Toby. He pointed at him and Jensen brought him over.

“Who are all these?” Dante asked as he held out his arms for Toby to take him.

“They’re all here to wish you a happy birthday and have a party with you. Is that okay?” Toby placed a kiss on Dante’s plump cheek before giving Jensen one.

Dante nodded, awe in his warm sienna eyes as he saw the balloons and bouncy house. ‘’For me?” He pointed at the inflatable.

“Yes. But you can’t go on without an adult or one of your older cousins with you, okay?”

“Yes, Daddy.” Dante wiggled and Toby took that as a signal that he wanted down.

He motioned for Kelly’s oldest daughter to come over. “Jessie, would you be willing to watch Dante while he plays?”

“Sure, Uncle Toby.” She took Dante’s hand and they toddled off toward the giant castle.

“I knew that was going to be a hit,” Jensen murmured and Toby laughed as he leaned into Jensen’s side.

Toby stood there for a moment, observing the crowd of people in his backyard. It was going to be a wonderful day because they were celebrating their son’s birthday with family. Some related by blood, but all of them were related by love.

An interview with

T.A. Chase

1. What’s his Passion?
is an imprint about real, modern day men and their passions. What was your favorite part about your addition,
Climbing the Savage Mountain
?

What I like best about this book is how much Jensen and Toby truly love each other. Sure, they went through some rough times, but when they got a chance to try again, they took it because they weren’t happy without each other.

2. Climbing the Savage Mountain
follows on from your short story,
Mountains to Climb
. Did you enjoy the opportunity to follow up Toby and Jensen’s story?

It was fun to see where else the guys were headed. What choices they would make and whether Jensen would get his chance to climb Everest and K2.

3. The in-depth knowledge involved in the climbing scenes of K2 and Everest was extremely interesting, particularly the references to basecamp. Did a lot of research go into writing about such far-flung areas of the globe?

I read quite a few books written by climbers and articles about the mountains. It was important to help the reader get a feeling for the environment and how it might look if they were there.

4. Your cultural references to the Buddhist offerings for the mountains were particularly moving. Was it important for you to show how the locals approach living so close to the mountains?

Yes. To the Nepalese, Everest isn’t just a mountain strangers come to climb. It’s a sacred place for them. The climbers who summit the mountain get a feel for the grandeur of it, but the people who live in the shadow of Everest see it as so much more than just a pile of rocks.

5. Jensen’s passion helped to rescue him from a life of destruction. Was it important for you to show how there can be a way out of addiction?

Oh yes. Everyone should have hope that all the bad things going on in their lives can change. Even if those things are happening because of things they chose to do. Addiction can be a horrible experience, but people can grow stronger to get break the habit.

6. The fact that Jensen gives up climbing to be with Toby is very touching, did you enjoy showing how his love became more important than his passion?

I think his giving up his climbing for Toby shows just how much Toby means to him. He doesn’t want Toby to stay scared every time he travels somewhere to climb. Plus he’d found something to replace climbing and that was Toby and the life he built with him.

7. Dante’s adoption is a wonderful end to the story. Did you enjoy being able to give the story closure in the extra chapter?

Yes. I wanted to show how happy they were and I thought Dante would be a great closure to their story. It brought everything full circle for them.

8. What can readers expect from you next with Pride Publishing?

I’m working on the second book in
The Blood & Thorn Ranch
, plus a new series featuring a rock band.

Also available from Pride Publishing:

What’s his Passion?

Outcast Cowboys

Sarah Masters

Excerpt

Chapter One

I’ve come all this way just to get a fuck?

Ross stood at a weathered, waist-height wooden fence that surrounded a place he’d only ever seen the likes of in pictures. A ranch in the middle of nowhere—or so it seemed now that he’d got off the bus and his choice to go somewhere else had driven away. What was he playing at? What had possessed him to leave London, England, and travel across the so-called pond to what was, essentially, the American wilderness?

You know why, you just don’t want to face it.

He tried to convince himself regularly that he’d come so far to indulge in his passion—a long ago dream as a kid to ride and care for horses. But his real passion had been his job back home, something he’d almost died for.

Home. I can’t call it that now.

He dropped his black holdall onto the dusty track that pretended to be a road and sighed. His suitcase, propped against the fence, held the rest of his worldly goods, and he’d realized, when he’d packed, that he didn’t own much of anything at all. A few clothes, some books and a diary from when he’d been about ten.

As for the isolation, reality had kicked in the second the bus had left the nearest city, trundling him farther from humanity to an area where few people appeared to live. He’d loved London, the hustle and bustle, the streets filled with people, so many of them at once it could make anyone’s head spin. Here, lone houses sat as though abandoned, and there was an eeriness to the countryside that spoke of desolation. It kind of matched his mood—the mood he’d been in for the past year—so he should have felt at home. But he didn’t.

No, he fucking didn’t.

The ranch was set far back from the road. Huge fields flanked it, a flat expanse that bled into the gauzy, heat-infused horizon. Clusters of trees huddled together here and there, like him, outcasts from all that surrounded them. Present but probably ignored, left to grow by themselves without tender loving care. Horses grazed, their chestnut colors catching the midday sun. There had to be fifty of those animals at least, and so much livestock in one place had Ross nervous as to whether he could be among so many. He knew sod all about horses—
won’t they jump over the fence?
—and sod all about ranches and American life if he were honest.

Not for the first time he questioned his motives.

He knew the real reasons why he was here, he just wasn’t ready to acknowledge all of them yet. He told himself he’d traveled such a long way just for a fuck because it meant he didn’t have to think—to hurt, to admit that he wasn’t strong enough to cope with the life he’d had in England.

London wasn’t for him anymore. Things had gone…wrong, and he’d needed to get out. Right away from everything. Sometimes running was the only option when all others had been exhausted. There was only so much he could have done, so much he could have put up with before he crumbled and ended up in the nuthouse. Besides, no one he’d worked with gave much of a shit about him there, and being alone among people he knew had to be worse than being alone among people he didn’t. The latter was preferable. The former, well, it meant people were deliberately ignoring him, casting him out of the inner circle. And they had. That still stung—and all because of a lifestyle choice.

People are living in the fucking dark ages. Bastards.

He shrugged. Nothing he could do about them now. Nothing he
wanted
to do. They were gone, even if only in person. That their ghosts and their words still lingered in his mind was another matter.

You think you can leave them all behind but you take them with you just the same
.

He picked up his holdall. Slung the handle over his shoulder. Stared at the ranch a bit more. The building looked small from where he was, a smudge standing behind the haze of intense heat. It had a farmhouse feel except, from what he could work out, it was made of wood and not stone. He’d been promised a single room in a bunkhouse, but there was no evidence of one. Just the house, forlorn in the middle of those fields, and a few trucks parked out the front.

Nerves jangled, setting his belly churning. Had the boss of this place lied to him? Brought him out here on false pretenses? Would he have to sleep in the main building? Did it bloody matter if he did? It wasn’t like he hadn’t slept among strangers before.

It was too late now to do anything but walk up that long drive and see what was what. He gripped the handle of his suitcase and dragged it behind him, the wheels bumping on the uneven ground. At the gate, he unlatched it then pushed it wide enough so he could slip through the gap. He took a deep breath, closed the gate, told himself what would be would be, then set off up the drive.