Page 53 of The Ones We Fight For

“A very merry unbirthday to you,” Colin griped at Walker, looking down in disgust at his sugar-coated clothes.

Chapter 19

Talia

The wind whipped around outside, making the trees bend, each limb pliable under its force. It was cold, and yet Talia felt warm from the top of her head down to the very tips of her toes. Walker had been relentlessly flirting with her the entire night, and it was enough to keep all of her extremities from getting frostbite as he walked her to her car. His arm brushed her shoulder, and she had to suck in a sharp breath.

Talia was reveling in the afterglow of an evening spent with her new family. They played a ridiculous round of charades that ended with Amala rolling with laughter and almost peeing herself when her husband had to act out skiing (fittingly, the majority of the guesses involved the use of the restroom). Colin eventually got it after Walker guessed "lift the toilet seat" and Roscoe took the opportunity to go the ski-lift route, constipated facial expressions and squatting abandoned.

Everyone was still covered in cake. Despite a thorough cleanup, Talia found there wasn't really a way to get the sticky film of frosting all the way off her skin without a shower, one of which Talia wouldn't mind taking with a certain tattooed man. His body heat was burning the right side of her body as they finished the trek to her Lexus.

"So..." Walker opened the car door after Talia hit the button on the key fob to unlock it. She moved in front of the opening, leaning against the side of her car.

"So." She gave him her best playful smile, head tipping to the side. He was so close, hanging on the door with his arm draped over the top of it, tapping the metal with his fingers. Was he nervous?

"Thank you," Walker said. He reached his other hand up and touched her shoulder. It felt intimate.

"Are you still going to pretend you didn't know about your surprise party beforehand?" Talia cocked an eyebrow, and Walker winced.

"Dammit, how do you do that?"

"Carter should never pursue a career in acting."

"Kid gave me away after giving me a whole song and dance about how he was scared of you and made me promise to not tell you?" His head shook slowly in feigned disappointment.

"You still had fun, though, right?"

"It was amazing. You're amazing."

Talia swallowed thickly, wondering if his comment meant what it made her feel. Her head filled with the consuming thought of what his lips would feel like against hers. There was no doubt in her mind that he would leave her breathless. Just his short glances and soft touches were enough to make her heart pound in her ribcage.

"You deserve even more than this," Talia gestured behind herself, back at the house.

"More..." Walker repeated, his voice husky as he dropped his eyes to her lips.

As it turned out, he could not only make her heart beat out of her chest, but he could also make it skip a beat or stop on a dime. Talia leaned forward a little as an invitation. There was no missing his body language. He was leaning forward, too, electricity charging the air between them. If they didn't touch soon, she thought gravity would snap them together like magnets. The pull was too strong to back away from. Walker's mouth parted slightly, and the tip of his tongue quickly dragged a line of moisture over his bottom lip. Talia could feel his breath mingling with the night breeze, replacing it with a warmth that she desperately wanted to absorb.

"Ponytail..." he murmured, eyes flicking to her pulled-back hair. The nickname he had adopted for her made her feel known. She wasn't just Talia, ex-lawyer, ex-daughter, and ex-fiancée. Her identity wasn't contingent on who she used to be, but on who she was becoming. It was one thing to fall in love with Walker, who was so easy to love, but it was another thing to be taught to love herself. He saw her lazy hairstyle and still found it beautiful. That was what it was—she felt beautiful around him. The best version of herself.

"Walker," Talia whispered, her breath hitching.

Their lips were only separated by an inch or two of unwelcome space, getting smaller, smaller, until they both tore out of the moment when a loud ringtone blared in Talia's pocket. Irritated at the interruption, she smacked her pocket aggressively as she yanked her phone free. Whatever breath Walker hadn't already stolen from her vacated her body on a last exhale when she saw the contact name and picture.

What did he want from her?

Avoiding the voicemail all day had done nothing to make the problem go away like she’d hoped it would, just like avoiding the three missed calls from him earlier that week had turned them into a voicemail. She could ignore it. Should ignore it. Why was he waiting until she was finally happy to rear his head again? She had moved clear across the country to avoid dealing with the aftermath, and he was still haunting her.

"Why do you look like you've seen a ghost? Who is it?" Concern crossed Walker's face, replacing the lust Talia wished would stay put. To reassure him that she was okay, or maybe to confirm that she wasn't, she flipped the phone around to show him. His eyes widened as the phone rang one last time before going to voicemail. "Clifford? What does he want?"

"To talk? I didn't answer him, so I don't know. His voicemail earlier said he needed to 'clear up a few things,' whatever that means."

"Are you going to call him back?"

"I... do you think I should?" Talia waited for his response warily. Some part of her knew that she should call Cliff back, but another, larger, vengeful part of her wanted him to be unnerved that she wasn't. She wished Walker would just tell her that Cliff could go to hell and that they could resume what they were doing before her past came back to bite her in the ass.

"Yeah. I think you should. So you can hear what he has to say, ya know?" His shoulders jerked up to his head in a shrug. "Maybe you can get some closure?"

"Right." Talia didn’t want or need closure, but she nodded anyway. The only thing she really wanted now was a future in Archwood. With Amala, Roscoe, the kids. With Walker. "I guess I'll call him when I get to my house, then."

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