Page 94 of Mountain Target

Beau sighed. He was pretty sure he and Ren did not have the same idea of what simple was.

Valentina

Valentina walked out of the staff bathroom to find Beau and Ren waiting for her.

“What are you two doing here?” she asked suspiciously. It didn’t look like either of them was hurt, at least.

“We thought we’d pick you up and go have dinner out together,” Ren said.

“Really? We have some leftover chicken casserole in the fridge.”

“We can eat that tomorrow,” Beau said.

Two months earlier, he’d moved his boxes upstairs and given up his lease. The real estate agent had been disappointed, but it didn’t make sense to keep paying rent on two places when they were all but living together, anyway.

Of course, the apartment was too small for the three of them, even if Beau didn’t own many things.

Things had been busy the last few months, the entire valley in a state of upheaval, brought on by the earthquake, but as soon as things settled down, Val planned to get started on searching for a bigger place.

Maybe a house.

She shook her head. Ren had been campaigning for a puppy, and it looked like she might get her way.

She looked at the sign they’d just passed.

“Megève? We’re going to Megève?” she asked, surprised.

She and Ren hadn’t been back since the earthquake, and it seemed strange to be back tonight.

Or maybe not so strange. The entire valley had come together after the earthquake, everybody wanting to do their part to help get Megève back to where it used to be, from the Chamonix bakery who’d driven up with one of their own ovens, lending it at no cost to a bakery whose oven had been destroyed in the earthquake, through to famous personalities and sports people who were raising funds to help rebuild.

Val looked around her now as they drove into the center of town. Although at first sight everything had been cleaned and tidied, that only brought attention to the areas that showed life wasn’t back to normal—the rough black nets protecting the taller overhangs, the buildings that still had police tape in front of them.

“One of the local restaurants just reopened this week. I thought we would try it,” Beau said in a low voice.

“That’s … that’s a good idea, isn’t it, Ren?”

Ren bobbed up and down in the back seat, looking like an excited toddler.

What’s up with that?

And then they were sitting down at a beautiful table overlooking the main square, and it didn’t take Val long to realize this wasn’t just a local restaurant, but one of the few Michelin-star rated restaurants in the valley.

Val held her tongue until they’d ordered the food.

“What’s going on? Did the two of you break something at home, or something?”

Ren shook her head quickly.

“No. No, nothing like that. Come on, Beau,” she prodded.

Beau hemmed and hawed through clenched teeth, then finally nodded. Except he still didn’t say anything.

He went looking in his pocket and came up with a small object, trapped inside his clenched hand. He opened the fingers slowly, letting her see what it was.

And there, nestled in the middle of his large palm, was a beautiful diamond pendant.

Val’s mouth went dry.