Page 18 of The Ones We Fight For

“Not for the water. For… being there.” Piper smiled.

“Anytime,” Walker choked, a tight pressure beginning to strangle his heart.

You weren’t there. You weren’t.

Being there would have meant knowing how badly Piper wasstruggling. It would have meant she could call him when she needed an out. None of those things had happened. Instead, the only reliable adult in Piper’s life seemed to be the one person he didn’t want it to be. Talia.

Walker shut the door behind him and escaped to his bedroom before anyone else in the house could find him in the state he was in. Collapsing against the wall of the room that never should have been his, he hiked his knees to his chest and covered his face with his hands, gasping for air.

“Piper’s okay. She’s okay. She’s fine.”

Nothing he told himself worked. The tears slid down his face, unencumbered by his desire to hold it together. He did not have time for mental breakdowns. He did not have time to allow his emotions to get the best of him.

“I’m sorry.” Walker’s voice was shakier than he would have liked it to be, so he set his jaw and body firmly before repeating it. “I’m sorry. I’ll do better, Cole. I promise.”

Stifling a sob, Walker decided that the tears that had just slid down his face would be his last. He rose from the ground on unsteady feet and pulled out his phone. Finding Talia’s number, he typed out a message and stared at it for a long while, worried it would come across wrong. In the end he huffed out a “fuck it” under his breath and sent the message.

Walker 6:52AM

Piper is okay, other than her newfound hatred for bright lights and loud sounds. She's a regular gremlin. Can I buy you a coffee as a thank you? - Walker

Chapter 6

Walker

Walker’s foot tapped nervously against the ground. He wasn’t sure why he was so anxious. The coffee arrangement was just to thank Talia for being there for Piper when he wasn’t. Yes, Talia was really hot, a fact that he was doing his best to ignore, but the meeting was purely to establish that his behavior the night prior was maybe not as grateful as it should have been. He owed her a coffee. If not for helping Piper, then at least to relieve his guilt for the dreams his brain had conjured up last night against his will.

When Talia walked in, she was wearing tight black leggings, sneakers, and a band T-shirt. A ball cap sat on her head, with her hair pulled through in a ponytail. Adjusting in his seat, Walker swallowed and looked down at his hands, trying to control the heat spreading through his body. She wasn’t even wearing her usual upper-class bullshit that was designed to make her body look like she fell out of a magazine dedicated to beautiful people, and yet something about her outfit made his mind launch into the gutter. He wanted a fistful of her hair in his palm and to mimic the tongue and lips Rolling Stones logo on her shirt all the way up her body.

At some point, Talia was going to notice that he was staring. Walker forced himself out of his seat and walked over to her, his muscles rigid. He came up behind her and tapped on her shoulder. His fingers retracted quickly, and he mentally kicked himself for touching her again.

“Hey,” Walker managed to get out. Talia turned around and gave him a once-over.

“Hey,” she replied. “Rough morning?”

“Do I look like I’ve had a rough morning?” Walker raked his hand through his hair and looked down at his outfit, self-consciously verifying that his shirt wasn't inside out and backwards.

“Oh, I didn’t mean that. I just meant dealing with teenage drama.”

Walker shifted his stance and brushed his sweaty palms against his thighs. “Right. It went better than I was expecting. Uh… do you know what you want?” He gestured toward the chalkboard menu. Talia bit her bottom lip in contemplation, a sight that was both oddly erotic and endearing. She looked so focused on her order that Walker almost laughed out loud.

“I don’t even know why I’m thinking about this,” Talia declared, as if she could hear his thoughts. “I always get the same thing.”

“Can I take a guess?” he asked, playfully grinning at her.

“You think you can read me? I doubt it,” Talia mused. “You probably drink plain old black coffee, though. No cream, no sugar, just straight-up so you can feel the caffeine shoot into your veins.”

“Damn.” Walker’s eyes widened, and Talia smirked, like she knew she had gotten it right. “All right...” He narrowed his eyes at her way longer than was necessary for effect. He already knew exactly what she drank because he overheard her ordering the first day she showed up at Roaster’s Republic. “You drink something hot… because I, uh, saw you drinking something hot the other day. I’m gonna guess a… vanilla latte?”

“Nope.” Talia smiled and turned toward the barista. “Chai latte, please.”

Walker blinked, biting back a response. If she got the same thing every time, she was flat-out lying. He wanted to demand answers, but it would reveal that he’d been paying attention to her order like a psychotic stalker. Instead, he stashed the knowledge that Talia was prone to fibbing in the back of his mind to deter any future thoughts about her naked and sprawled out on his bed.

“Black coffee, Mr. Hartrick?” The peppy redhead across the counter had Walker’s order down pat after he’d come in almost every day for the last three months. He gave her a nod, embarrassed that he could never remember her name. Taking a glance at her name tag in the most nonchalant way possible, he confirmed her name before replying.

“Thank you, Harper. You can just call me Walker.”

“Walker,” Harper repeated in a low, somewhat sultry voice. Walker wasn’t stupid; he had seen the way she looked at him, and she was definitely his usual type, but for whatever reason, he felt little to no attraction to her at all.

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