With a Grain of Salt (Lindell Book 3)

Chapter 31

Walker

I can only imagine what it took for her to walk away from Nora this morning. The woman stepped out on the porch with so much disdain in her eyes, it makes me wonder just how often she looks at Claire that way.

It”s hard not to step over this invisible line she”s drawn. I know my opinions or solutions, of which I can”t think of many, wouldn”t be received well, and she may very well reject a good idea just because it”s coming from me.

I want to make her life easier. I want to see her smile and hear her laughter. I don”t want to see a river of tears rolling down her gorgeous face.

If it took me taking over every bill she has so she could stay home with Larkin if that”s what she wanted, I”d do it in a heartbeat with no expectations. I just don”t want to see her sad.

She”s inside Madison”s house for ten minutes before she comes back out and I hate the appearance of stress lines on her face. She smiled the second she opened the door for me, although I could tell she was tired, but that jovial mood is long gone even though she’s found a solution to her problem.

I climb out of the truck and open her door for her, nodding when she whispers a thank you.

I know better, but instead of closing the door and climbing back inside so I can take her to the vet”s office, I step up to her.

I fully expect her to pull away, to glare at the front of Madison”s house and remind me that she doesn”t want people to think we”re dating. Instead, she rests her head on my shoulder and presses her palm to my stomach when I wrap her in a hug.

There”s nothing sexual about the embrace, although that urge is always simmering right under the surface where she”s concerned.

It only lasts for a few seconds before she pulls back, but I find myself grateful to have had that time with her.

”You okay?” I ask, cupping her cheek after taking a step back.

She nods, but I don”t find any assurance in her eyes when she looks at me.

I step back further and close her door because I know there”s no point in arguing with her. She”s not the type to just open up and hand her problems to someone else, and for the most part, that”s commendable. She wants to handle her business on her own, and I imagine any help she”s gotten in the past has come with conditions. I know for a fact she doesn”t want to feel like she owes anyone anything, but she”s not quick to accept a favor even if it doesn”t come with strings.

”This is the absolute worst time for all of this shit,” she mutters once I”m on the road heading to her work.

”Did something more happen when you dropped Larkin off?”

She pulls in a deep breath. ”Madison has her Christmas tree up now, and that isn”t a big deal. I imagine a lot of people have had theirs up for a while with how close it is to the holidays, but I was planning on doing Christmas after the first of the year when I got my tax refund back.”

”Do you have a tree?”

”It”s in storage,” she mutters. ”There”s never enough hours in the damn day.”

I watch, my heart breaking, as she leans her head against her window, her eyes squeezing shut.

I open my mouth to offer to take care of it for her, but I know she isn”t telling me these things because it”s her way of asking for help. I think the woman would rather pull off her fingernails than open her mouth and admit she”s struggling.

”Damnit,” she mutters. ”Did I even pay that bill last month?”

I look over at her and watch her throat work on a swallow. I”ve seen people at their wit”s end. It didn”t take long for soldiers to go from being okay to being in crisis when I was in the military, and I think Claire has been hanging on by a thread for a very long time.

I decide before I make it to Corbin”s clinic that asking for forgiveness will be better than asking permission, so I keep my mouth shut even though my plans for the day have now just drastically changed.

”If you need the day off, I can take you back home,” I say when I pull up outside of the clinic.

”I need a month off,” she mutters. ”But it just can”t happen.”

She waits for me to climb out instead of popping out of the truck, and I count it as a victory that she isn”t in a huge rush to get away from me as she has been so many times before.

I want to tell her that things are going to work out, but the guilt for having a conversation about her with Barrett still swims inside of me. I know she”d walk away from me completely if she found out about that, and I”d never risk hinting that I know what”s coming her way soon. If it all works out the way it should, she”ll never know that I”m the one behind the trust Barrett is setting up for her.

I step into her space when I open her door before she can climb out, and as if the gods have ruled in my favor twice in one day, she doesn”t look annoyed when she shifts and I position myself between her legs.

”People are going to talk,” she says, but instead of pushing me away when she lifts her hands, she runs her fingers up and down the zipper on my jacket.

”Does that bother you?”

”A little,” she answers honestly. ”I”ve been the topic of way too many conversations since I came to town.”

”Something else will come along for them to chat about, Claire,” I assure her. ”They talk because they”re bored.”

She darts her eyes away, and I can tell she doesn”t fully believe me.

I cup her jaw, falling a little in love with the way her eyes flutter at the contact before she looks up at me.

Most days she wants to push me away and I think that has more to do with her desire to be cared for than anything else. She isn”t a hateful person. She”s kind to her daughter and you can tell she”s a loving mother by the way Larkin acts around her. Claire gives all she has to that little girl. I know she drinks in all the love Larkin gives back to her but there”s more than one type of love, and I can see now as she looks up at me that Claire has been missing out on it for a while.

”Walker,” she whispers when I lean in a little closer.

”It”ll all work out,” I promise, the word encompassing so much more than the daycare situation and the lack of a Christmas tree in her house.

If I have anything to say about it, by this time next year, we”ll be living under the same roof and we”ll decorate a ten-foot-tall tree together.

Her smile is soft, and I know she doesn”t believe me, but I”ll work every hour I have to make sure of it, starting with solving the problems I do have a little control over.

”Will you slap me in the face if I kiss you outside of your work?” I ask, playfulness in my tone.

”Would you not do it if I said yes?”

”I”m not really into pain, but I know it”ll be worth it,” I answer with a wide smile that she mirrors, and this one meets her eyes.

My heart skips several beats when she leans forward and presses her lips to mine. I feel the warmth of her tongue skate over my lower lip, begging for entry, and I swear this woman is giving me more than I ever even thought to ask for.

I groan into her mouth, pressing closer because the foot of distance between our bodies feels like the width of the Grand Canyon and it just won”t do

With my hand cupping her ass, I pull her entire body against mine, my tongue skating over hers. I feel her moan deep inside of me when it erupts from her lips.

”We”d use a bucket of cold water if we had dogs doing that in the parking lot.”

I want to twist my hands around Corbin”s throat when I hear his voice, but to my surprise, Claire doesn”t jerk away from me, although she does break the kiss and lift her hand to swipe at her lips.

”Good to see you, Walker,” Corbin says before heading toward the front walkway to his clinic.

”I have to go,” she whispers when I bend down to kiss her again.

I manage a brief kiss before stepping back and holding her hand as she climbs down out of my truck. I groan with need when she turns around, leaning back in to grab her purse. Her scrub bottoms tighten on that fine ass of hers, and I can”t recall a single other panty line I”ve seen in my life that makes me as stupid as hers is right now.

She chuckles when she turns back around and I find it hard to lift my eyes back to hers quickly.

”Down, Casanova,” she says, pressing her hand to my chest and giving me a little push so she can walk past me.

I don”t even bother to go back around to the driver”s side of my truck until she disappears inside, loving how she looks back over her shoulder before stepping inside and throwing me a little wave.

”Yep,” I say to myself. ”Right over the cliff, I go.”