CHAPTER 22
Walker
I’ve come to the conclusion that, when it comes to Tally Darling, I’m screwed. She is everywhere. In my shower. In my fields. In my goddamn dreams.
It’s pointless to fight these feelings, so I have to embrace them.
That’s why I walked into Penny’s bookstore tonight. That and because I can’t let Eli hit on her. Seeing him interested in her bothered me. Bothers me. Even now, as he says something that makes her laugh while I wait by the door to take her home.
All night I’ve watched her, a small smile curling her lips every time the damn alien dildo thing swayed.
And then her loud laugh when it toppled over into the damn punch had me fucking grinning from ear to ear.
Despite the fact that Babs pulled it out and then licked each head clean while staring down Eli and me.
My whole body shudders again at the thought. I need to get out of here.
“Walker, are you ever going to reply to my text?” Rayna says, interrupting my attempt to overhear what the hell Eli is saying to make Tally smile.
I grunt as I turn to her. “No idea what you’re talking about.”
She pulls out her phone and pulls up the town chat that Tally showed me earlier. “Really, Walker, you’re going to pretend you haven’t seen any of these?”
“How did anyone even get my number?” The words slip out and she grins, knowing she has me.
Rosie snorts. “That’d be Eli.”
The man finally stops talking to give us his full attention. “I only gave it to Rayna while we were having lunch at the brewery. It’s not my fault that everyone else was listening when I gave it to her.”
“Over the microphone,” Rosie interrupts with a grin. “They all could hear because he gave it to her over the microphone,” she full explains, turning toward me.
Tally coughs out a laugh as I groan. “Can we go now?”
“Sure,” she says, before turning back to the group. “Thanks for tonight, ladies. I had the best time.”
As annoyed as I am about the phone number thing, seeing Tally smile has my lip itching to do the same. She seems much more at ease with her mother, and in general, since she arrived last week.. I’m not sure why I care so much, but I like that she’s becoming more comfortable in Hope Harbor.
The entire ride home I focus on the road ahead as Tally laughs with her mother over Eli’s antics.
Thank fuck Gail came back with us. If I’d been alone with Tally in the enclosed space of my truck, there’s no telling what I might have done.
Probably pulled over near the harbor and kissed her right beneath the crescent moon.
I shake my head and swipe a hand over my face, trying to clear these wistful thoughts from my mind as I pull the truck down the path near Gail’s cottage.
I haven’t had these types of thoughts in a long-ass time. When you suffer heartbreak after heartbreak, it’s easy to close off that part of your life. To stop dreaming. Hoping.
But Tally seems to be awakening a piece of me I thought Gina had buried years ago.
I’m on edge as I park outside the big house. It’s just the two of us now and I pause, not moving.
“Going inside?” Tally’s voice is raspy from laughing all night.
I swallow as I stare at her across the cab. She’s fucking gorgeous right now—her cheeks rosy, her eyes a little glassy from the wine. When the wind blows her golden hair in my direction, I catch another whiff of her sweet scent, and my cock awakens in my jeans.
Still, I don’t move and she goes to fill the silence. “Thanks for the ride.”
I nod, and the tension within the truck feels as though it becomes a living, breathing thing.
“Cowboy?”
“Hmm?”
“Keep staring at me like that, and a girl’s bound to get ideas.”
“Well, you shouldn’t.”
Her smile is rueful as her eyes dip down and she spots what we both know is my erection. It’s unmistakable, but still, I ignore it.
“If you say so.” Tally reaches for the door, but fuck, I don’t want her to go.
“What are you doing tomorrow?”
She glances back at me, her shoulder lifted in a shrug. “What do you need?”
You. I don’t say that, though. “I found some old Adirondack chairs that could use some sanding.”
She lights up. “Oh, out by the wildflowers would be a great spot for them. People could sit out there during the festival, listen to the music, stare at the water.”
“That’s a good idea.”
She bites down on her lip like she’s trying to hide how happy my praise makes her. It makes my chest swell.
“Then that’s what we’ll do. Night, Walker,” she mumbles, finally pushing the door open.
I take my time getting out of the truck and watch as she walks up the steps toward the big house. I know if I don’t stay here, my boots digging into the earth, I’ll follow her inside, push her against the door, and kiss the life out of her.
So I decide to go for a walk instead. Check on the flowers.
I’m laughing at the absurdity of this situation when Tally’s sweet voice breaks through the evening air. “Hey, Walker? Will you be around for dinner tomorrow?”
Tongue in my cheek, I nod. “Yeah. I’m around.”
“Okay, good. Make sure you’re here at, say, seven?”
I tug the brim of my hat down on my head to hide my smile. “Okay.”
The moment I turn toward the cottages, my lips curl completely and I feel an immense excitement that I know is nowhere close to innocent.
I walk for what feels like hours through the fields, trying to remind myself why I can’t go near her.
Why I need to stay outside, far away from the gorgeous woman who lies only a room away from me.
But when I finally go inside, I’m drawn up the steps by a sound I’ll never forget.
“Yes,” Tally’s voice hums from inside her room. It’s quiet and breathy, and I know why.
I should go inside my bedroom and lock the door. I should take a cold shower and forget what she’s doing.
But I don’t. Instead, I settle my head against her door and listen to her every whimper.
My cock grows impossibly hard, beating against my zipper, and I picture her every movement. How she’s probably got her legs spread wide on the bed, her pussy throbbing, her fingers glistening as she teases herself because she doesn’t have what she really needs to get her there: me.
I imagine how she’d react if I opened this door.
She’d try to stop what’s she doing, but I’d tell her to keep her fingers right the fuck there.
I’d talk her through it and watch as she teased her clit and fucked herself with her fingers.
I’d drop a knee to the bed, inhale her sweet scent, and swallow her moans as she came again and again.
I know I should walk away. I know I can’t have her. And yet that doesn’t stop me from keeping my ear to the door until I hear her cry out my goddamn name.