Chapter Nineteen
Walker propped himself up on his elbow and watched Tina sleep for several moments the next morning.
Her red hair was spread out over the white cotton pillowcase like wildfire coming across snow.
Fire and ice all in one package, and he was in love with both.
He would like nothing better than to tell her, but they both needed time to be sure this was real and not just a by-product of a teenage crush.
He eased out of the bed, slipped into a pair of shorts, and tiptoed out to the firepit.
When he had a blaze going, he removed a cast-iron skillet from the bed of his truck and set it on the grill.
He fried several strips of bacon until they were crisp, moved them over to a paper towel to drain, and added two diced potatoes to the grease.
While they were cooking, he whipped up half a dozen eggs and crumbled the bacon into them.
When the potatoes were browned and soft, he poured the egg mixture over the top, added a fistful of grated cheese, and put a lid on the skillet.
The ringtone on his phone let him know his mother was calling. He answered with a cheery, “Good morning. How is your day starting?”
“Well, you sure sound happy. Have you broken the news to Tina yet?”
He picked a couple of wildflowers, stuck them in a pint jar, and added a little water while he talked. “We are spending the weekend together in Grandmother’s trailer. I have to wait for the right time.”
“You’ve loved that girl since you were barely old enough to know what the emotion was,” Natalie said. “Just be sure that you don’t only love her, but that you are in love with her, and that she feels the same. That’s what makes a good marriage.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He held the phone on his shoulder and scooted the skillet casserole out onto a platter. “My campfire breakfast is done, so I best get it inside the trailer before it gets cold.”
“Must have been a busy night,” Natalie chuckled.
“It was a fantastic night, Mama, and that’s all I’m saying about it,” Walker told her.
“A gentleman doesn’t kiss and tell, not even to his mother. Bye now, and tell Ally hello for me. I miss that old girl. And one more thing: When you propose to Tina, I expect a call, even if it’s at midnight.”
“I will do that if I ever do. Love you, Mama.” He ended the call and carried the breakfast into the house, slipped four pieces of his grandmother’s homemade bread into the toaster, and made two cups of coffee.
“Do I smell coffee?” Tina said from the bed.
“Yes, and breakfast is ready, but I planned to wake you with a kiss and breakfast in bed,” Walker answered.
“I’m awake, but I’ll gladly take kisses and breakfast in bed.”
He set the platter on the board, added two forks and the toast he had buttered, and carried it to the bed, then went back for the coffee. She smiled when he kissed her on the forehead and said, “Good morning, beautiful.”
She sat up in bed and pulled the sheet up over her naked body. “This looks amazing. I never knew that you could cook.”
He handed her a cup of coffee. “Bull couldn’t boil water without burning down the house, so Mama made me learn. Be glad that at least we have a coffeepot and toaster in the trailer, and I don’t have to make campfire coffee. I couldn’t drink what my Navajo grandfather made that way.”
“Why?” She took a sip from the cup and picked up a piece of toast in one hand and a fork in the other.
“It was so strong that it could melt a spoon,” he answered.
“Well, this vixen is glad to have a coffee machine in the house, and she is also starving,” Tina told him.
Walker grabbed the second fork. “Well, darlin’, she had a very busy night.”
“One that she would like to repeat, but . . .” She shrugged.
He finished the sentence for her. “We live in a house with two elderly ladies. But where there is a will, there is a way.”
“I’ve got the will,” she grinned. “This is one strange serving tray. Does it have something to do with your grandmother’s culture?”
“No, darlin’,” he answered. “That board was made special for this weekend. Lyle planed down the biggest log from the Tomorrow Tree, glued three boards together, and I added the glass doorknobs on ends to carry it with. You wanted a memento, and this is what we could do at short notice. The only thing I saved from the fire that took my house was those two knobs. I’m giving them to you so you will remember our third date always. ”
A lump formed in her throat. She had been ready to yell at him for not saving a sizable piece of the tree. She promised herself that she would never doubt him again. “Oh, Walker, it’s beautiful. I will cherish it forever.”
“When we get a house of our own, I will bring you breakfast in bed every weekend,” he promised, “in remembrance of this day.”
“As if I could ever forget,” she whispered. “This has been . . . perfect.”
He leaned over and whispered softly in her ear. “You deserve even more than this.”
“No, darlin’.” She laid her palm on his cheek. “Nothing could be better than this is.”
Heat from his warm breath sent shivers of desire all through Tina’s body.
She had never in her entire life or relationships known anyone who could make her body sing like Walker had done the night before.
She wanted more than just one night, and then they’d both face another bout of sexual starvation for a week.
“Are you cold?” Walker asked.
“No, I’m thinking about sex with you,” she answered honestly. “We can run away next weekend, but between now and then, I might not survive. When you look at me like you are doing right now, I want to own this trailer so we can spend time together every single day.”
“I’m glad to see that you are back to speaking your mind, but who says it has to be a bedroom?
” He set the board on the floor. “I was thinking that we would tape a note to the front door of the store that says we are closed from twelve to one for lunch. But for now, we have a bed, and it’s two hours before the booths open. ”
“I’ve heard that it’s a sin to waste time,” she said.
He pulled the sheet up over their heads. “I sure wouldn’t want to have that laid to my charge.”
A long while later, she awoke to the sound of running water and rolled over in bed to grab on to nothing but air. She threw back the covers and padded barefoot into the tiny bathroom, pulled back the shower curtain, and stepped inside the small enclosure.
“Wasting water is an even bigger sin than wasting time,” she teased.
“I’m so glad that we know those things,” he said as he began to soap her up with his hands. “Are you a shower virgin?”
“Yep,” she answered.
“Me too. Shall we see what we can do about that?”
“I’m willing,” she whispered. “But remember, we have to leave paradise and go back to reality in a few minutes.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Half an hour later, they were in the truck headed back to the real world.
Tina felt like the whole time they had been together had been a dream.
How could they have let all the years go by without knowing that they were meant to be together?
She answered her own question by reminding herself that maybe they needed the time to grow up.
He pulled the trailer back into the same spot where it had been the day before. Tina waited for him to help her out of the truck, then wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Kiss me one more time before we have to go be nice to customers,” she said.
“With pleasure, but why stop at one?” he teased.
“Because any more than that, and I’ll want to go right back in that trailer for the rest of the day,” she shot back at him. “And your grandmother is waving at us.”
“I reckon she knows what we were doing, but this will show everyone that we are now a couple.” Walker kissed her, stepped to the side, and took her hand in his.
“We sure wasted a lot of years, didn’t we?”
“Bull would say that it’s all in how you look at it,” he answered.
Despite it being a hot day, Tina felt like someone had poured ice water down her backbone.
Everything was too perfect, which meant it could not last. The other shoe would drop.
She and Walker would have a major argument, and their relationship would end like a flash in the pan.
When that happened, one of them would have to move out of the house, because their friendship would be over.
She wasn’t so fortunate as to have something that would last through eternity—not Tina O’Grady, who always had bad luck as a bedfellow.
“Grandmother is waiting for us,” he whispered.
His warm breath on the tender part of her neck burned off the previous chill and shot a vision into her mind of the two of them in the shower. Her hormones whined for the real thing, but like he said, Grandmother was waiting for them.
“You look happy.” Ally met Walker at the doorway into the booth and gave him a hug.
“I am,” he told her.
“Chico has been asking about you. Maybe you should go help him at his booth,” she suggested.
He looked over at Tina with a question in his eyes. “Want to go with me?”
If whatever it was between them was doomed to come to an end, she wanted to spend every single minute with him making memories. She intended to say yes, but the words that came from her mouth surprised her.
“I’ll stay here and help Ally get set up,” she said.
“I’ll be back later and bring food with me,” Walker said, and disappeared.
Ally laid a hand on Tina’s shoulder. “My grandson is very happy. All these years I could see a sparkle in his eyes when he talked about you, and now it is brighter than ever. But you, my child, have a demon that you need to get rid of. What is it?”
“Fear,” Tina answered honestly.
“Love is more powerful than fear,” Ally told her.
“Walker and I are both passionate people. What if this is just a quick fire that burns out in a few days or weeks and then our friendship is ruined? I couldn’t bear to lose him as my best friend.”
Ally opened a box that contained a tray of rings, and another of pendants. “You can arrange those on the shelf.”
Is that all the old sage has to say? Tina wondered as she worked.
Was she not going to answer the question?
Maybe she hadn’t heard what Tina said? Or perhaps she intended for Tina to think about what she had already said.
Suddenly, she felt like she needed to be sitting under the Tomorrow Tree and seriously giving thought to that simple line about the power of love.
“You will argue, and sometimes you won’t like my grandson,” Ally finally said.
“In those times, you close your eyes and remember this weekend. Remember that sweet kiss he gave you before he went to help Chico. You are given the good times to help ease the pain of the tough ones. But any relationship is an exercise in give and take. Sometimes you will give more, sometimes Walker will, but love will even it all out in the end.”
“Thank you.” The heavy feeling in Tina’s heart seemed a little lighter, and the chill in her body was suddenly gone. “Did he really talk all that much about me?”
“Yes, he did. It wasn’t easy for me to watch him suffer when you left, and to think he would never see you again, but I knew whatever was happening was for the best. Someday you would be drawn back together, and when you were, nothing would ever separate you again.”
Tina simply nodded and hoped that Ally was right.
“Life will be easier for you than it was for his mother. She is coming back to stay with me and visit him in a few weeks. She is eager to see you again.”
“Does he know?”
“It’s a surprise, a secret between me and you,” Ally said. “I’m trusting you to keep it.”
“I can do that,” Tina promised. “Do you know when?”
“Yes, but if I tell you, it won’t be a surprise.”