The Mighty Quinns: Rogan by Kate Hoffmann

Author:Kate Hoffmann
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2014-07-14T16:00:00+00:00

5

ROGAN’S MOBILE WOKE him from a deep sleep. Claudia stirred beside him, the pushed up on her elbow. “What is it? Is it Eddie?”

He stared at the screen, then dropped the phone on the floor beside the bed. “Nothing. Just my brother Mal.”

“Oh, good,” she murmured. “I thought it might be the group. Should we check up on them?”

“They should be in the midst of their movie marathon,” he said. “I’m sure they won’t want to be disturbed.”

“Perhaps we should join them. I feel a bit guilty spending the entire evening with you.”

“Truly?”

“No, not truly,” she said. “But I’m sure I’m supposed to feel that way.” She reached over him and picked up the phone. “Maybe you should ring your brother back.”

“I already know what he wants to talk about,” Rogan said, “and I’m not in the mood right now.”

“Are you and your brother at odds over something?”

“Someone,” Rogan said. “My father, specifically.”

She sat up, crossing her legs in front of her and pulling the sheet up beneath her naked breasts. “I’m going to use one of my questions. One of my sixty or seventy questions I’ve now accrued by kissing you so many times.”

“Hang on!” Rogan said. “I didn’t realize we were still counting.”

“We are. And I must say, I’ve held up my end of the bargain.” Claudia wiggled her arms. “I’m most definitely loose. And all due to you.”

“Well done me,” Rogan said. “All right, one question.”

“You said your father died when you were eight years old. What is there to talk about now?”

The last thing Rogan wanted to do was open up the can of worms that was his family history. With every fact he revealed to her, she would only have more questions. And Claudia had earned the right to ask plenty of those. “Yes, he died in a climbing accident on Everest. He was forced to spend the night near the summit and there’s really no way to survive that.”

“Oh, no.” She reached out and took Rogan’s hand, clutching it to her chest. “Then he died quite tragically.”

“He did. And he was well-known in the mountaineering community. And very successful for his young age. He was only thirty-six when he died.”

“And what is it that your brother wants?”

Rogan stared at her for a long moment, wondering at the wisdom of telling her the whole story. But then, what was the difference? It wasn’t anything she couldn’t read on the internet. And it was part of who he’d become, both as a man and a guide.

“Some climbers found his body in April and now there’s this big push for me and my brothers to mount an expedition to retrieve his effects and perform some sort of memorial to him. But it’s turned into this...production. Mal is all for it, I’m against it and, for now, Ryan is stuck in middle.”

“And your mother?”

“She seems to be warming to the idea, only because she thinks it would be good for us—or Mal has convinced her that it will.

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