Page 50 of The Ones We Fight For

“It’s called being responsible. None of my prior relationships have worked out as you’re well aware, and you all need her. Tal’s really good with Piper and Pearl. We all need someone stable like that in our lives right now. If I date her and we break up, then I’ll be ripping her away from everyone, not just me,” Walker explained.

“That makes sense.”

“It does.”

“It’s also bogus as hell, and you’re a wuss.” Carter lifted his chin stubbornly.

“Think what you want. We’re all still in the aftermath of everything, and it would be wrong of me to try to start up a relationship when I’m not… right.” Looking away to avoid eye contact, Walker cleared his throat awkwardly.

“You think it’s bad to be in a relationship when you aren’t right?” Carter was looking away too, the underlying question hanging in the air as Walker pondered if his nephew was experiencing some of the same things he was.

“Are you in one?” Walker started carefully.

“No,” Carter shook his head. “Was just thinking about it.”

“So… that brings me back to my original question, which you won’t deter me from. Are you being safe? I mean, I found condoms in your bedroom, but I still need to make sure. It’s not like I can stop you from—”

“Walker!” Carter cut him off, throwing his hands in the air. “I’m not having sex, okay? I mean… I have… done that. Once. But not currently. The condoms are from before Mom and Dad died, and I haven’t needed to replenish the one in my wallet, if you catch my drift?”

“That’s good. You’re too young.”

“No, I’m not. And stop snooping through my room!”

“I wasn’t snooping!” Walker argued. “I was putting your basketball shoes in your closet. If you put them away instead of leaving them on the floor downstairs, then we wouldn’t have had this problem.”

“The condoms were inside a bag in my closet. You were snooping.”

“The bag was partially open,” Walker shrugged. “If you didn’twant me to see it, then you should’ve hidden it better or put your damn shoes away. I was looking for foot spray or something because the inside of your shoes smells like rotting flesh. I did snoop after I found the condoms, but the only thing I found was a disturbing amount of dirty socks that I didn’t touch with a ten foot pole.”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t touch those,” Carter looked up at the ceiling of the car.

“Teenage boys are disgusting,” Walker grumbled, wrinkling his nose. “Wash your freaking laundry.”

“You’re starting to sound like Mom.”

An unexpected swell of pride hit Walker square in the chest. If someone had paid him the comment before everything happened that year, his rebellious personality would have taken it as an insult. Instead, he found himself grinning from ear to ear. Paisley Hartrick was a phenomenal mother, wife, sister-in-law, and everything in between. How the hell she did it all, he would never know, but if he even remotely resembled her, it was something to be proud of.

Talia was like Paisley: organized, down-to-Earth, caring, and attractive. The phrase “MILF” had been uttered in regard to his sister-in-law more than once by Walker’s high school friends when she was alive. It always made him want to gag or throw punches. He did hit Cole a few times for being too open about their sex life. His brother was always annoyingly chipper after a routine date night with his wife.

Walker couldn’t help but want the same thing for himself: a life filled with date nights and mornings after that made him float on cloud nine. No one had ever made him feel that way after sex, but Talia made him feel it after just one conversation. Touching her would be inspired. She did everything with an admirable fervor, and he was sure kissing her would be more of the same. Her lips would move with a purpose against his until both their mouths were raw from biting and licking and tasting everything. And he would die a thousand deaths to taste more than just her lips. If he could drag his tongue over every inch of her naked body and feel the essence of salt hitting his taste buds, he would sell his soul. To feel her soft skin as he explored the curves of her hips and the feel of her plump breasts resting in his hands. If she rocked against him in the middle of the night with that damned ponytail swaying against her bare spine, he would be lost to the world.

“Helloooo?” Carter’s voice pulled Walker from his daydream, and he blinked into awareness. “Are you gonna get out?”

Somehow, they ended up parked back at the house. It was one of those times where Walker’s body had gone into autopilot, making him wonder who had allowed him to get a license in the first place. He couldn’t remember the last five minutes of the drive past the point where they talked about Carter’s nonexistent sex life—yet another thing they had in common. It was a miracle they’d gotten home safely.

“Uh, yeah. Sorry.” Pressing down on the bright red button to release his seatbelt, Walker glanced back down the road. “When are we supposed to go to the surprise party?”

“Talia’s going to text you to pick up Piper at Amala’s instead, and then all of us are supposed to just… volunteer to come with,” Carter explained.

“And I wasn’t supposed to realize that all of you deciding to go on a random outing was weird?” It was ridiculous and wildly amusing that Talia thought that would work. If Carter hadn’t told him, he definitely would have thought something was up.

“That’s what I said! I suggested that Colin just drive us after you get there, but then Colin took his tutoring job, and he just texted me to tell me he’s going to be late. Will you just pretend like you don’t know?” His nephew laced his hands together, ready to drop to his knees and beg.

“Talia will never know.”

The second his hand touched the handle to exit the vehicle, Walker’s phone vibrated in his pocket. Raising his eyebrows, he stretched his legs out under the console and arched his back so he could pull it from his jeans. Unsurprisingly, there was a new notification from Talia. Her name displayed on the screen sent his heart hammering in his chest. Even her text messages consumed his body and had the ability to raise his blood pressure without a moment’s notice.

Talia 4:12 PM

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