Chapter 3
Chapter Three
The whole bridal shower experience had left Walker twitchier than a cat’s tail. He was mad, mostly at himself, for how he had handled everything with Addison.
The better part of valor would be to act like absolutely nothing bothered him at all.
To have hidden the fact that he even remembered her from high school, much less that he was holding onto anything overly intense.
But he hadn’t done that.
In fact, he had done the opposite of that.
And echoing that moment at their high school graduation had been the height of stupidity.
Of course, she probably didn’t remember that. Probably had no idea what he was referencing.
Good.
His ego, and his libido, were being major pains in his ass.
Normally, both things served him quite well.
His ego had gotten him into a lot of rooms that a poor kid from Mustang River, Oregon, never should’ve been admitted to, and his libido had done the same, actually. Or maybe that was all his looks, but it didn’t really matter.
None of it really mattered.
No, he had money, so he didn’t really need any of the other things, but that was a whole different thing. Life was unfair, and money made it more unfair in more fun ways for the people who had it.
He could remember being a kid, and thinking that he would do anything to get rich.
Hell, anything had to be better than living like they did.
Anything had to be better than having hand-me-downs and charity that felt like a pitying pat on the head, a moment to make somebody else feel good about themselves, and more grateful for the things they did have as they looked around at the things he didn’t.
Yeah. He could live without that.
Getting rich was the one inevitability of his life. The one thing he’d always known he was going to figure out how to do.
His mom hadn’t done it because she had been tied to kids, tied to a man, and Walker had sworn that he would never be so tethered to anything that he let it hold him back.
He did feel connected to his siblings. A certain level of obligation, but that had never held him back.
When Cody had proven that making it in the rodeo was possible, that was what Walker had chosen to do.
And then he had set out to make sure that nothing would hold him back ever.
From the college degree to varied and curated investments, Walker made sure that he would never have to worry about money again.
Beauty faded. But the almighty dollar was forever. As for developing a personality? Overrated.
“You look like you want to kill somebody.” His brother’s girlfriend Marlowe tapped him on the shoulder. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing. The wedding is tomorrow, and I’m just celebrating my near freedom from the Addison Carey experience.”
“Well, that’s fair.”
“Were they wretched the whole rest of the bachelorette weekend?”
Marlowe shook her head and sat down at the dinner table with the rest of the family.
They were camped out in Cody’s backyard, as they did a few times a week, having a barbecue and discussing the family business.
That was the funny thing. He had vowed not to have too many connections, that was true.
But this connection, the family connection, had earned him a lot of his wealth, and it was going to continue to be lucrative for all of them.
Not having to worry about taking care of his family made them feel a whole lot less like a burden. That was a fact.
They were each self-sufficient at this point, and he couldn’t have asked for better than that.
They chose to stay together because it worked.
And that was pretty damn awesome.
“They were fine,” Marlowe said. “It’s all a little bit fussy, and they had the restaurant reserved for the bachelorette, where they invited a whole bunch of other women from town and it was a little bit wild. Not cowboy stripper wild, just lots of wine wild.”
“Right,” he said.
He couldn’t imagine wine-wild Addison. And, against his better judgment, he found himself curious about that.
He also wondered what she’d do if faced with a cowboy stripper. He tried to imagine that princess getting freaky in any capacity. Then he told himself to stop it.
“Addison didn’t drink much, did she?”
“I guess not, now that you mention it, but she managed to keep up with the energy.”
He had noticed that during the dinner, too. Her friends had more to drink than she did. She managed to make a glass of champagne last for a very long time.
If there was one thing he suspected about her, it was that she was a control freak. If he wanted to have a slightly kind perspective on the entire experience of planning the wedding with her, that was what he would say.
That she was obsessed with every last detail, that she constantly changed things, because she was trying to control every last aspect.
And to an extent, he could almost understand that.
Almost.
“We’re already pretty booked up,” Cody said, joining them at the table. “I imagine once everybody gets a look at Addison’s wedding, we’re going to be even busier.”
“That’s the idea,” Walker said. He wasn’t being accommodating of Addison just for his own amusement. Sure, there was something funny about pretending to accommodate her all while seething with rage; it was his own personal brand of martyrdom, if he was honest.
He liked it.
On some level.
Because it was like winning the unbothered Olympics.
While she, herself, persisted in being very bothered.
Unable to leave him alone.
And yeah, that wasn’t exactly what was going on here, but it was an old pattern, and if there was one thing humans loved, it was to go over an old pattern. God knew it, and so did he.
So maybe that was it. Maybe that was why this was… not fun. It was like torture, and in many ways, he couldn’t wait for it to be over, but also, it was like a shot of straight adrenaline every single day, and that was easy to get addicted to.
He knew that well.
He hadn’t had this much of it since he was in the rodeo.
Kind of strange that getting a phone call from Addison Carey was equal to getting thrown on the ground by a bucking bull and half trampled, but it was true.
And he enjoyed the rodeo too.
Maybe he was sick.
That wasn’t all that surprising.
“You’re going to need a vacation after this,” Cody said. “Just think, after this weekend, it’ll all be over.”
“Yep,” he said.
It was true. After this weekend, it would all be over, and there was something about that which was a relief.
Because having to deal with her every single day was annoying as hell.
He really was looking forward to all that being done.
Because after this weekend, Addison Carey would be married, and she would be out of his life again.
It might be like retiring from the rodeo, getting used to not having that adrenaline injected into your veins every single day, but it would be good for him to let that go.
It would be good for him to not be drowning in all this.
The truth was, Addison Carey was consuming his thoughts far too much.
He couldn’t wait until she wasn’t his problem anymore.