Chapter 6
Addison
Walker had been back home for about a week, and we quickly settled into a nice routine of riding the horses together in the morning and then meeting up for an afternoon workout in his home gym.
I loved having my big brother back. I didn’t see him much when I lived up in Boston, so I was trying to take full advantage of these next few months that he was home during the offseason.
As we were finishing one of our afternoon workouts, I glanced over at him. “So any special lady in your life, Walk?”
His head fell back in laughter. “You lasted longer than I thought before asking that question. Nope, you know I like to gift my body to all the ladies across the nation as I travel from city to city.” He waved his hand down his body.
“Gross.” I threw a towel at his head, but he caught it immediately.
“I’m just kidding. I don’t have time for a relationship when I’m trying to win my first World Series before I retire in the next year or so.
Plus, I’m no good at relationships, that became evident with how royally I fucked everything up with Farrah,” he said while putting away the rest of the free weights.
Farrah King was the eldest daughter of my mom’s best friend, Liz, and she was one of my close friends. We grew up riding horses together. She also happened to be Walker’s ex-girlfriend, and the rest of us James siblings still believe she is the love of his life.
They started officially dating when Walker was seventeen and she was sixteen, but they had always seemed to have a thing for each other long before that.
They attended the University of Texas together, where Walker played baseball and studied business and she studied interior design and architecture.
No one knew the why behind the breakup, as neither of them would talk about it.
All we knew was that when Walker was drafted with a massive contract to play baseball professionally, their relationship didn’t survive.
Farrah ended up marrying another man and had a daughter, and Walker played the field literally and figuratively.
I decided to change the subject. I could tell that now was not the time to dive deeper into the Farrah situation.
“So, I’m meeting Caroline today in a couple of hours to check out this property that just came on the market.
Would you want to go with me?” I had seen several properties over the past couple of days, but none were quite right.
I was also probably being impossibly picky for someone on a budget.
Walker wiped a towel down his face. “Yeah, for sure. Let me grab a shower, and then let’s leave a little early so I can grab a coffee on the way. I’m dragging today.”
I smiled. “Sounds good. I’ll meet you at your house in an hour.” I grabbed my phone, which I had left on the weight bench, and headed out toward the guesthouse. I had several text messages I’d missed.
Harper:
Hey girl! I just booked my flight. I’ll see your fine ass in 1 week!
Noah:
I went by our favorite bakery today. Ms. Robertson asked about you. I miss you. Please text me back.
Dean:
Hey. Been a while since I’ve seen or spoken to you. Seems weird with how much you know about me now.
After deleting Noah’s message, I replied to Harper.
Hey! Just like you to wait until the last minute to book. I am SO excited to see you. Send me your flight info.
Harper sent me all her flight details, and we talked about some of the things we planned to do while she was in town. Then I sent a reply to Dean.
Lol, that’s true. We’re basically besties now. Sorry, things have been crazy with Walker back home and looking at horse properties. How’s everything going?
Being friends was safe. Yup, I could be friends with Dean—no risk in being besties.
Dean:
That’s right. I’m sure your family is happy to have him home. Things are good, ya know, the usual craziness of being a small-town vet. I had a farm call this week out at Richard Hopkins’s place, and he has a couple of horses that I think you might be interested in as lesson horses.
Oh, really? I’ll have to give him a call and see what he has. Thanks for the heads-up! I gotta run. Walker and I are checking out a horse property that I’m hoping is the one. I’ll text you later!
Dean:
Hmm, you’ve said that before…
LOL, I swear this time I will remember.
Dean:
I’m holding you to it, James.
I put my phone down and turned the shower on. I glanced toward the mirror and noticed the large goofy-ass grin on my face. I quickly schooled my features. Just friends, Addison, you are just friends. All you can be is friends.
We took Walker’s truck to meet up with Caroline, but first stopped off at PrimCup so he could grab his caffeine fix. Mrs. Williams looked up from the register and saw Walker. She immediately came around the counter, arms opened wide, and swallowed him in a hug.
“Walker! You’re home! We are all so proud of the season you had. We missed seeing you around here.” She stepped back, smiling up at him.
Walker laughed. “Thanks. I missed being here. Nice to be home.”
“So, what can I get you? Your usual?” Mrs. Williams asked.
“Yeah, the usual black coffee.” Walker chuckled.
A few other locals who knew Walker growing up stopped and chatted with us, all singing his praises and complimenting his great pitching this season. The town was proud of him.
After we got our drinks and a blueberry scone for me because they were the best, we walked out of PrimCup and headed toward the truck.
Walker came to an abrupt stop. I stopped next to him and followed his gaze to what caught his attention.
Shit. I totally forgot to tell him. There across the street and down about three storefronts was Wildflower Interiors, Farrah’s interior design office space.
She originally planned to find a place in her hometown of Forest Park, but when the office space off of Main Street opened up here in Primrose Hill, she couldn’t resist. It was prime real estate, and the building was full of charm.
I cleared my throat to break the silence. “Uh, sorry, Walk. I forgot to mention that Farrah’s office was over here.”
He shook his head, and the corners of his mouth curved up slightly. “She finally did it,” he said quietly to himself. I could hear the pride in his voice.
“Yeah, she started her own business a year or so ago, but was working out of her house. She just got her own office space a couple of months ago.”
I looked up at him. He was still staring at the building.
“All right, we’ve got to get going or we’re going to be late for our appointment,” I said, tugging on Walker’s arm and directing him toward his truck.
“Yeah, uh, sorry. Let’s go.” He looked at the building one last time before following me to his truck.
Walker pulled up to a large steel black gate and typed in the code that Caroline gave us to enter the property.
As we eased our way through the gate and down the drive, I surveyed the property, completely in awe.
The driveway stretched ahead, white fencing tracing pastures that seemed to roll on forever.
A few smaller paddocks sat closer to the barn, but it was the barn itself that took my breath away.
It was beautiful. White walls, the lower half faced in pale stone, topped with a black metal roof that caught the light like polished steel.
Each stall had its own window with neat black shutters, practical but charming, and flower beds bloomed all along the base, softening the lines with a splash of color.
Off to one side was a large riding arena, and on the other, a round pen completed the picture.
Everything about it was thoughtful, purposeful.
It was everything I’d dreamed of—beautiful, functional, and exactly the kind of place that I could see myself building a future in.
Walker’s low whistle broke my trance. “Nice place, Adds. This looks perfect for what you need.”
I nodded and smiled, quickly making my way out of the truck to meet Caroline, who was standing at the entrance to the barn. “Hey, Caroline! This is beautiful. How is it even available?”
Caroline waved at us and handed us each a pamphlet detailing the features of the property as well as the price.
“Hey! I know, right? Nasty divorce.” She began leading us toward the barn.
“So, I walked the property earlier, and it is perfect. Exactly what you wanted. It has a fifteen-stall barn with two wash stalls, a round pen, two massive pastures each containing a small pond, and four smaller pastures. There’s one large riding arena, and the tack room has both air-conditioning and heating.
There’s a bathroom / laundry room combo off the tack room.
There is also a large one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment with a small kitchen and living space over the tack room for your future barn manager.
Off to the right, near the hills, there’s quite a bit of land where you could eventually build a house if you wanted to live on the property in the future.
” I nodded, listening intently as Caroline listed everything this place had to offer.
I walked down the aisle of the barn, peeking into all the stalls and then the tack room before we made our way up the stairs to check out the apartment.
This place was everything and more, but also a good deal outside my budget and what I had been approved for from the bank. I turned toward Caroline. “I love it here. This place is perfect, but I don’t know how I can make it work. It is quite a bit outside of my budget.” I sighed heavily.
Before Caroline could answer, Walker cut in.
“This place is it. It’s exactly what you were looking for.
Your business will thrive here. Don’t worry about the price, I’ll cover it.
I need an investment property anyway.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets and shrugged as if we were arguing over who was going to pay for dinner.
All I could do was just stare at him. “Walk, no, it’s too much.”