Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Today had been a day. Walker had received emails from a couple of different news outlets, most of them relatively local to Mustang River, all in the state of Oregon, asking for him to confirm whether or not he was dating the famous jilted bride.
He hadn’t responded, not today, because he felt like it was best to let it all stew for a few days, really let all the flavors of this weird situation marry, before he said anything to anybody.
Maybe that was a weird plan, but it was one that he thought would probably work best. He also got Addison moved out of the cabin and into the hotel—which, to be fair, wasn’t much of him doing anything.
She didn’t have her car, which they were going to have to solve.
It was still parked somewhere on ranch property, it was just that nobody had made a move to do anything with it, because she had gone to ground so deeply after the wedding dissolution.
Once he’d had that realization, he had her car moved over to the hotel, Pike being exceptionally helpful in getting that done. Which was funny, because Pike was rarely helpful, not for anything other than what he wanted to do.
Maybe that wasn’t fair. Pike was a generally cheerful person, but Walker found him to be entirely unserious.
Many people thought that Walker was unserious, but those people were wrong.
Walker was deadly serious about a few things. One of those things was the family business. And really, everything he was serious about connected to that. His desire to earn money, his need to prove himself.
He gritted his teeth together. He didn’t especially like that thought. That characterization of what he was doing.
The need to prove himself.
What the hell did that even mean?
He had proven himself. At least insofar as anyone could. They had inherited this ranch, so of course there would always be an idea that what they had gotten couldn’t have been theirs without a hand up—which would of course be seen as more of a handout.
There was nothing he could do about any of that. What he needed to deal with was the influx of interest in the ranch. Separate from the interest in himself and Addison. But it was difficult to wade through those things.
Anyway, what he actually needed was a break from Addison.
The way that he had teased her last night had pushed him to the edge, and it hadn’t been the best idea.
He should know better than to tease her like that. Because it only ended up charging up his own latent desire for her.
Latent? The whole time you were planning that wedding, the only thing you wanted to do more than strangle her was fuck her up against the nearest wall.
Fine. His annoying internal voice was correct about that.
But he was an adult. And he didn’t let his baser instincts control him. Something he bolstered himself with as he walked into his brother’s house.
Cody and Marlowe would be serving dinner for everyone tonight, and Walker was more than happy to take the free meal.
It was scorching hot outside, but they would still be eating in the backyard. Walker went inside for a bit, because he needed a break from the pounding sun.
He walked in and saw that no one was there. He pressed his palms on top of the kitchen island for just a moment, letting the cool from the stone countertop seep into his palms.
“There you are.”
He looked up to see his future sister-in-law, Marlowe, standing there, arms crossed.
“Ditto yourself,” he said.
“Everything has been a little bit crazy lately.”
“Yeah, no kidding.”
“And you went out with Addison last night.”
“I did,” he said, waiting to see what she would say.
“You’re up to something.”
“Marlowe, I am always up to something. At least this time it doesn’t involve peacocks.”
“You really don’t like them.”
“It’s more what they represent.” Though, if he were honest, he didn’t like them that much.
They were kind of an annoying bird. Very loud, and always interrupting things.
Something like his desire for Addison.
The peacock of sensations.
Everything was fine, and then suddenly there was a random burst of sound and sensation that went barreling through his body.
“The hotel is full. Really full. And it’s only going to be more so for the next couple of months.”
“Are you saying there’s not a spot for her?”
“She could stay in my place. I don’t go there very often, but it is full of all of my things.”
“No, that’s fine. We’ll figure something out.”
He already knew what he was thinking, foolish though it was.
He had a big house, and plenty enough space.
He could put Addison up in his place, and the two of them would never even see each other.
It would work out just fine. Yeah. That would work out just fine, except for the sensual torture that would be involved in such an arrangement.
Truthfully, she hadn’t been irritating since he had rescued her from the wedding.
Maybe it had taken her down enough notches, knocked her off her high horse, and now she wasn’t going to be such a...
He’d been about to characterize her as a diva. And maybe that was even fair.
But there was something about her...
He didn’t really know her. That was the thing. He knew a version of her. A facade that she chose to present to the world. It was an annoying facade, and he couldn’t say that he liked it.
But many people would say the same thing about him.
“If you’re sure.”
“I am. Particularly with... everything that’s to come.”
“What are you doing?”
“I’m saving the ranch.” He spread his arms wide and affected a small bow.
That was when Cody came in, giant spatula in hand, grease streaked up his forearms. “Do we have cheese?”
“I don’t know, Cody,” Marlowe said. “You’re the one that grocery shops.”
“I know,” he said. “But you remember things better than I do.”
The little scene of domesticity sat strangely in Walker’s stomach.
He was glad that his brother was happy. Really glad, in fact.
But it was also just... strange. Cody had never been the domestic sort, and yet in many ways he always had been.
Cody had taken care of Walker and their younger sister Lila, along with his friend Nolan from the time they were small.
He had gotten food for them when it had been scarce. He had made sure that they were fed and safe and in clothes that weren’t full of holes.
He deserved this. His own family, not just to care for their mom’s responsibilities.
Bitterness lodged itself in his gut. He didn’t like that. Didn’t like being so resentful of their mom, not when their fathers were the ones that deserved to have judgment heaped on them.
He studied his brother. His dark hair, dark eyes. They were both tall, similar build, but Walker was blonde. Blue-eyed. He had always suspected that his dad was somebody else, but his mom had never admitted to it.
He and Cody had skirted around the issue a few times, but never outright discussed it.
One thing that Walker knew for sure was that he didn’t really want to discuss it with anybody.
He knew who his father was.
Had known for a long time. It was one of those things he wished he could go back to not knowing.
It didn’t do him any good to know anything about the man that had donated genetic material to making him.
Didn’t do him any good to know about him or his rap sheet, the way that he treated women, the way that he took advantage of people.
He was a grifter. And the minute that Walker had seen a photo of him was the minute that he had understood exactly where he came from. Smiling, handsome, full of shit.
Yeah. Walker was cut from the cloth of a man that he hoped he never met.
He had done DNA testing on the off chance he might find the guy, and he was a little bit surprised that his father had submitted DNA to a genetics website, considering he did lead a life of crime. But then, Walker also figured the cops already had the man’s DNA.
So what difference did it make to put it out anywhere else? It didn’t really, he supposed.
He had lied to Cody. Recently. Had told him that he had no desire to get to know who his father was, acted like it was still an unknown. It wasn’t.
Timothy Coulter was Walker’s father, and the guy was just a bad person.
Walker didn’t think that the choices your parents made defined your whole life. He wasn’t really into that whole sins of the father thing. It was all a little bit too biblical for his taste.
But it was unnerving, to look at a mugshot and see his own eyes staring back at him. It was disturbing, to read the descriptions of the kinds of domestic violence situations that man with his eyes had been in. The way that he treated women. The way that he treated everybody.
And Walker knew for certain that he used his looks and his charm to get himself into those situations, and that was probably the most disturbing part of all.
Because Walker could be that guy. Walker was close enough to being that guy. It was just that he was entirely motivated by money, not getting another drug fix, or stealing somebody’s catalytic converter or copper wiring.
He had moved himself into a different position in life, which meant that he grifted on a different level. Did it professionally. Did it in a sanctioned way.
He found that ultimately disturbing.
Yeah. The whole thing was.
And not something he needed to be thinking about now.
“Walker is running a con,” Marlowe said, cheerfully.
He winced. Because that was exactly what he had just been thinking about. All the ways in which he was cut from the cloth of a man he would never call dad. A man that he would never meet.
But Walker chose not to show any of that discomfort. Instead, he smiled.
“Yeah. I am. A grift that is going to help the ranch, though.”
“He’s fake dating Addison Carey.”
Walker rolled his eyes. “Don’t go making it sound like a Hallmark movie.
We’re just... having a little business deal.
She needs a little bit of help, I need a little bit of help.
And people love a love story. So if we can ignite the more romantic nature of the public, then why not? It’s good for the both of us.”
“That’s very cynical,” Marlowe said.
He grinned. “Newsflash. I’m very cynical.”
“You are your brother’s brother,” she muttered.
He looked over at Cody. He didn’t think so. Cody, for all that he had a gruff exterior, was an exceptionally good man.
He was difficult in ways that Walker wasn’t, sure. But the thing was, Walker just put on a better facade than Cody did. And that did not make Walker a better man. That made him a more dangerous one.
“Need help with anything?” he asked.
“Cheese,” Cody said. “I really want some cheese.”
“I’ll find your cheese,” Marlowe said. “And Walker will bring it out to you.”
She shooed Cody away, and Walker waited for her to produce the cheese. Then he carried the package of sliced cheddar outside.
Lila was already there, lolling in a chair in the shade, while Marlowe’s former sister-in-law Cara and her boyfriend Zane were sitting together in one chair. Zane had his arms wrapped around Cara’s stomach, and she was leaning back against his chest.
A stranger sight Walker didn’t think he had ever seen before.
He would have never imagined that Zane would find somebody like that.
And Cara was sweet. Sunny, and a generally lovely person, while Zane—one of the strays that Cody had picked up from his rodeo days—was taciturn and borderline antisocial.
But they seemed to be happy together, and far be it from Walker to deny what worked.
Especially when it came to romance, because he didn’t have any idea about it. Nor did he want to.
“It’s hot,” Lila muttered. “It’s so hot,” she went on when nobody reacted to her.
“No shit, little mouse,” Walker said. “We’re all standing out here in the same heat.”
“Yes, but I have to lead a hike right before sunset, and I don’t think it’s going to cool off.”
“Okay. For that you have my sympathy. You really should get yourself off of this manual labor duty,” he said. “It’s beneath you.”
“Is it?” She smiled up at him, then pushed herself out of the chair. “I like being out on the ranch. It’s nice. I just don’t like it in this weather.”
“That’s when you should flex your management position,” Walker said. “Talk to your boss.”
“Cody isn’t my boss,” Lila said. “We’re all part owners in this.”
He arched a brow at his sister. She knew better than that.
Yeah, on paper they might all be part owners of this place.
But Cody was the boss. Cody was the one who had gotten them this place.
He was the one that had driven this endeavor forward.
And yeah, Walker and Lila were good at what they did, but this was all Cody. And what he said went.
Because that was the story of their life. Cody was the one who had taken care of them, and now they did what they could to help him with this place that he loved so much.
It was why he was doing this now. It was. Well, and also for his own ambition.
Because Cody and Lila had their demons, demons they had spent years trying to outrun.
But Walker had a set of his own.
Nobody else knew what they were, and nobody else needed to.
One thing Walker Grayson would always do was succeed.
There wasn’t another option.