Page 101 of The Ones We Fight For

“Not since a month or two after died, no.” Walker shook his head and coughed. “It smells like they fucking died in here!”

Whatever dumpster fire was inside had been making its home in the apartment for almost a year. It was so bad that Talia could almost taste it in her mouth, and she found herself in a fit of coughing.

“Did you clean out the fridge before you left?” she asked in a nasally voice, her nostrils firmly plugged. “I need a freaking hazmat suit.”

“Shit!” Walker groaned, shaking his head. “That’s probably what the rotting corpse smell is. Tal, I gotta deal with this. I’ll take you home really quick, and then—”

“No,” Talia interrupted, barging inside. “We’ll take care of it.”

Walker followed in after her, leaving the door wide open.

“You aren’t helping me clean my fridge!” He pointed back toward the door, indicating for her to leave. “It’s disgusting, and it’s not your fault I didn’t think to do that before moving out. I should have come back here at some point. Most of my clothes are still here. I haven’t cleared out anything, and I haven’t even tried that hard to get out of the lease.”

“I can get you out of the lease. Are you forgetting that I was alawyer? And I am going to help you clean it. We’re a team.” Pinching her nostrils harder, Talia walked over to Walker and reached for his free hand.

“God, why do you even like me? I’m a human disaster,” Walker said miserably. Talia let go of her nose and buried her face in his chest, wrapping her arms around him. She breathed in his scent.

“I love you,” she corrected. Walker blew out a breath, and she could feel his tense muscles relax a little. “And I love you because you’re more genuine than any other person I’ve ever met. You fiercely love your family, and you were even willing to work with me, the daughter of the man who ruined your life, to make sure they had what they needed. Despite everything that’s happened to you, you still find humor in everything. You make me laugh. You know most of the songs on my playlists. You’re strong and protective and sometimes overly jealous. You literally just threatened to beat up a pruney old man if he was ever mean to me. You’re going to therapy, not just for me, but for yourself and your family.”

“All of that?” he asked quietly, murmuring into her hair.

“All of that.” Talia nodded. “Plus, you’re also really hot.”

Walker kissed the top of her head and pulled back to look into her eyes, which Talia fixed on him with the sheer confidence of knowing exactly how she felt about him.

“I love you, too. You’re it for me,” he whispered. “And it helps that you look like sex personified.”

“Mmm, the words of a writer,” Talia cooed.

Walker leaned down to peck her lips, then pulled back.

“I want to hold you forever, but my apartment smells like gangrene.”

“Let’s take care of that, and then we can shower.” Grinning up at him, Talia cocked her head to the side, her thoughts heavy with innuendo. “Together.”

“Together as in the shower, or the cleaning of my fridge?” Walker’s eyebrows rose and he brushed his fingertips down her back, sending a shiver up her spine.

“Both.”

“I’m suddenly grateful that it smells like crusty feet in here.” He gave her a lopsided kiss on the corner of her mouth and pulled away, plugging his nose as he marched over to his old kitchen. A second later, he had a large plastic cup in hand, running under the faucet in his sink. Talia watched in stunned silence as he made his way back out to the front patio and carefully tipped the cup of water over the rim of the potted plant that seemed beyond help. She said nothing when she met him back out on the porch, and he looked up with a sheepish smile as if he knew what she was thinking, the cup still half full in his hand. “Paisley gave me this,” Walker offered as explanation, nodding toward the plant. “And I figure nothing is too far gone if I’m not.”

Without hesitation, Talia stooped down beside Walker and put her hand over his on the cup, guiding it to dump the rest of the water into the pot. He was right. If she wasn’t too far gone, either, then maybe nothing was.

Chapter 37

Talia

While her phone blasted Bowling for Soup, Talia held up her long, purple, rubber-gloved hands and gestured like Vanna White to the large trash bin in front of her. They had spent the last half hour at Lydia’s, grabbing all the things they would need to attack whatever demon from the Upside Down was living in Walker’s fridge. In addition to makeshift respirator masks complete with clothespins pinching the hell out of their noses over their N95 masks, they also wore snorkeling goggles. Walker had opted for the yellow version of the rubber gloves, which made him look like an evil scientist mixed with a Minion. They’d spent a good few minutes just laughing at how ridiculous the pair of them looked.

“Ready?” Walker spoke through his nose, gripping the fridge door handle.

Talia nodded, mentally preparing herself to be taken out by a radioactive substance the second he opened the door.

“One… two… three!” Walker flung open the door.

They both started gagging.

It became very clear that the smell was not just coming from one thing, but the combination of a dilapidated melon, sunken in where it was rotting from the top with liquidy mold seeping from its pores, and a leaky plastic-wrapped hunk that was barely recognizable as meat. Walker tossed the melon in the bin first, and Talia jumped backwards with a scream, fearing the juices would splash on her. After a brief pause to laugh at her reaction, Walker tossed the meat next, and Talia brandished the spray bottle of bleach cleaner like a weapon.

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